At first glance, the 80-acre swath of undeveloped desert just north of Continental Ranch appears to have no purpose other than to serve as a buffer between Marana's largest residential community and the nearby Santa Cruz River.
But tucked in among the dirt mounds and desert plants are the first signs of a collaborative effort between Marana and a local sport club to turn the land into the town's newest recreational facility.
Since February the area has been slowly transformed into the Marana Rock Disc Golf Course.
The Marana Parks and Recreation Department will officially dedicate the course at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
Marana Rock is one of four courses in the Tucson area catering to disc golfers, who throw Frisbee-like discs toward "baskets" that are mounted to posts and raised a few feet off the ground.
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What makes Marana Rock stand out from the rest, disc golfers say, is they were able to create the course on previously unused property.
"It was a blank slate," notes Mike Anderson, a member of the Tucson Chain Lightning disc golf club who helped persuade Marana parks and recreation officials to develop the Marana Rock course.
"It's really useful to be on a piece of land like this rather than in (an established park)," Anderson said. "That way we don't have to worry about getting in the way of other people."
Illegal activities prevailed
Before Marana Rock was established, the only activity on the land was of the illegal variety, Marana Parks and Recreation Director Tom Ellis said.
"We were having problems with dumping, and with people riding quads and motorbikes," Ellis said of the land, which is owned by the town's utilities department which plans to use it someday as a water recharge reservoir. "The place was getting degraded."
The land serves as an unofficial stormwater runoff basin for Continental Ranch, and Ellis says during the monsoon season a good portion of the middle of the property will turn into a pond.
"That piece of property pretty much drains the whole north end of Continental Ranch," Ellis said, adding that the course has been set up to avoid the areas where much of the stormwater drains.
Evidence of past flooding can be seen in the form of lush groves of trees — and countless weeds — which serve as a natural habitat for birds and other animals.
"People have said they've seen javelina out here," disc golfer Trevor Chilcote said.
Town and club worked together
The prospect of turning open space into a disc golf park wasn't new to Ellis, who said he was involved in the development of some courses on city-owned wildlands while working for Albuquerque's parks and recreation department.
He said Marana found a strong partner for the project in the Tucson Chain Lightning, which has been in existence since the early 1990s.
"Those guys and ladies are fantastic to help us get this off the ground," Ellis said.
Together, the town and the club has set up nine baskets and 18 tee pads for disc golfers to launch their throws from.
Otherwise, the land remains mostly undisturbed.
"Really all we've done is had the weeds mowed, because it's hard to find your disc in three-foot weeds," Anderson said.
Plans call for nine more baskets to go in, possibly by the end of the year, along with concrete tee pads as well as some benches and possibly bathroom facilities.
Ellis estimates the town has spent about $6,000 on equipment and labor at Marana Rock, much less than if the town had to buy property to build the course.
"The land was free, and with the club participating it saved us a lot of money on labor," Ellis said. "Starting from scratch, it probably would have cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars."
A work in progress
As disc golf courses go, Marana Rock is still a work in progress, longtime disc golfer Jeff Homburg says.
The current holes range in length from 228 feet to 445 feet, though the future holes could include one as long as 800 feet.
"It's only going to get better," Homburg said of Marana Rock. "What you really want is the most variety possible. There's not that much land when you get into Tucson. Here we have plenty of land."
Though on the rugged side in terms of terrain, Tucson Chain Lightning President Ben Vosper said Marana Rock pales in comparison to the temporary course the club put together earlier this month for its Lemmon Drop tournament.
"We just finished a tournament on Mount Lemmon on the ski slopes, and that was pretty caustic," Vosper said. "This one's pretty casual."
Tucson Chain Lightning holds a weekly league at Marana Rock at 8 a.m. on Saturdays. Anderson says right now it draws about eight to 12 players. Those numbers should increase, disc golfer Kristin Cherry says, because anyone can play the sport.
"I've taken my 80-year-old grandfather out," Cherry said.
Because the course is on utility department property, Ellis said he won't list Marana Rock as an official park in the town's inventory.
Though no timetable has been set for turning the land into a reservoir, whenever that does happen Ellis said his department will work with Tucson Chain Lightning to alter the disc golf course to avoid the flooded areas.
"When the pond is created, it will still be a very natural parklike setting," Ellis said. "We'll simply reroute the course around the pond. It's a great riparian area. We want to improve that habitat, keep it a wild, natural area. We're going to be adding trees and pathways and rough areas for all the different species that are down there."
With the town showing as much interest as it has in developing the course, Anderson said Tucson Chain Lightning will do all it can to promote and maintain it.
"They're willing to spend a few thousand dollars, which to them isn't much," Anderson said of Marana. "But to us it's like, wow, if you're willing to buy us a course, we'll take care of it."
If you go
• What: Marana Rock Disc Golf Course grand opening.
• Where: El Rio Neighborhood Park, 10160 N. Blue Crossing Way.
• When: 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
Local disc golf courses
• Groves Park, 7400 E. Juniper Drive (southeast of South Kolb and East Escalante roads).
• Marana Rock Disc Golf Course (at El Rio Neighborhood Park), 10160 N. Blue Crossing Way.
• Sam Lena Disc Golf Course (at Kino Sports Complex), 3400 S. Country Club Road.
• Santa Cruz River Park, along the Santa Cruz River between West Grant Road and West Speedway Boulevard.
