Tucson Hiking (Winter Season 2017-2018)

November 1^st, 2017, we arrived in Tucson for our Winter stay, marking our third season in this part of Arizona. After ten winters on the road that have included stays in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, the Gulf Coast side of Florida, Sacramento, California, and Phoenix, Yuma, and Tucson, Arizona, we’ve finally decided we prefer what Tucson has to offer this time of year. One of those things is hiking. While I wouldn’t dream of hiking in this desert setting in the summer months, late fall through early spring offers perfect conditions with cool mornings and comfortable afternoons, very important when hiking in environments that offer very little shade or shelter.

Tucson is in close proximity to hundreds of miles of hiking trails and parks (regional, state, and National Parks), and most of the hikes follow a similar pattern – hike up into the mountains for as far as you want, then come back down. What amazes me about this environment is the variety of plants, animals, and even geography in what appears from a distance to be a vast sea of desert monotony. During our 2017 – 2018 hikes, we saw colorful birds high in the trees, got a great picture of the elusive roadrunner, saw many cactus wren perching on top of the spiny desert cacti, a big yellow-eyed owl staring us down from a low branch of a bare tree; we came across a spiny lizard that seemed to be taking its final breaths, grazing cattle, and a coati digging up someone’s yard. We enjoyed plant life ranging from single tiny wildflower blooms, to towering cactus, some beginning their Spring blooms, to groves of evergreens. The weather was usually bright and sunny, but one morning at Sabino Canyon there were low clouds nestled in the hills. Water is not in abundance in this environment, but a few of our hikes took us past rushing creeks and cascading waterfalls.  And always the reward was getting to the top of whatever peak we were climbing that day and taking in the panoramic view of Tucson far below.

Below is a montage of pictures from our various hikes during our 2007-2018 winter stay. These pictures include, in no particular order, our hikes at Madera Canyon, Wilderness of Rocks, Patagonia Lake, Tucson Mountain Park, Picacho Peak, Saguaro National Park, Pima Canyon, Sabino Canyon, Pontatoc Ridge, and Romero Pools.

Hiking in Tucson

It’s been three months since I last posted an update on this blog (December 2016) and that entry summed up the last of our summer travels from September 2016. We arrived in Tucson October 1^st after a busy summer, and settled into a less hectic routine, in some ways doing many of the same things we did in Tucson last winter. Since I already made several posts last year covering the same ground, I have been less interested in creating new blog entries this year. But, as our time here comes to a close (we leave Tucson April 1 for a while), I decided to make one or two new entries to record what we’ve been up to and keep up the continuity of the blog, this first one on our hiking adventures.

One of the very nice things about Tucson, and the primary reason we are here, is the winters are moderate, allowing us to participate in outdoor activities throughout our five to six month stay with very little disruption due to weather. I really appreciate the freedom to get outdoors on a regular basis over the winter while much of the country waits for temperatures to come up above the freezing point. Tucson is surrounded by notable mountain ranges on all sides with the Tucson Mountains in the west, the Santa Catalina Mountains northeast, the Rincon Mountains east, and the Santa Rita Mountains lying to the south. There is no end to the hiking possibilities here!

This post is a compilation of photographs from the hikes we’ve taken this fall and winter. We started right off in October and were able to hike each month we were here. Our first hikes captured the peak of the fall colors, which may not be as dramatic as some places, but the uncommonness of it makes it all the more appreciated. As we worked our way through the weeks and months, we saw the loss of foliage, snow on some of the higher elevations, creeks and waterfalls filling up from rain and snow melt, and finally, in the spring, the reemergence of wildflowers and new growth on the cacti. These pictures are taken on our hikes to Bridal Wreath Falls, Hutches Pools, Mt. Lemmon, Madera Canyon, Sabino Canyon, Seven Falls, and Ventana Canyon.