By Katy Roberts | The Arizona Republic
The Maricopa Trail, a hiking route that will ring the Valley and connect the county’s 10 regional parks, is growing in the Southwest Valley in an area popular with hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians. David Madrid/The Republic
Rocks stacked 3 feet high mark the remains of an ancient Native American marketplace on a dirt road in northern Peoria. Past saguaro cactus and spiky shrubs, cars zoom by on the freeway headed toward suburban neighborhoods that blur the landscape to the south.
“We’re at a crossroads now,” said Peoria Mayor Cathy Carlat as she walked past the ruins. “We are at the situation where growth is about to boom again. We have a lot of areas that have beautiful land at stake right now, so if we don’t do something to preserve and conserve those spaces, it will be lost to us forever.”
