Desert trails often wander into wild terrain with no signs of human habitation. Here's a different kind of route — one that takes you to the remains of what must have been a pretty fancy foothills home seven decades ago.
The David Yetman Trail, a 5.4-mile route winding through the Tucson Mountains, passes a site known as the Stone House.
Now roofless and showing other signs of wear, the large stone structure — with two fireplaces and big picture windows — must have been a pretty palatial place in its day.
Author Betty Leavengood, in a book called the "Tucson Hiking Guide," relates that the house was built in the 1930s by a man named Sherry Bowen, a onetime city editor at the Arizona Daily Star.
Leavengood writes that Bowen's wife, Ruby, kept a diary describing lots of wildlife and even some wild horses roaming the area in those days.
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The house site and the trail — named for author, social scientist and former Pima County Supervisor Yetman, who hosts "The Desert Speaks" public television show — are now part of Tucson Mountain Park.
Other sights along the route include dense stands of saguaro cacti and rugged rock ridges.
Get to the Stone House
Two trailheads provide access to the Yetman Trail. For a short hike of a little over a mile to the house site, start at the Camino de Oeste trailhead. Take West Speedway past the Speedway-Anklam Road intersection to Camino de Oeste. Turn left (south) on Camino de Oeste and drive 0.6 of a mile to a parking area at the trailhead.
Alternate trailhead
Go west on Speedway, which becomes Gates Pass Road. Cross the pass and drive nearly to the bottom of the mountain, where you'll find a parking lot and trailhead on the left.
The trail is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Dogs prohibited.