Backyard and Backcountry: Santa Catalinas

Situated in the middle of the Sonoran Desert just outside of Tucscon sits the "sky island", a unique ecosystem of upland forest surrounded on all sides by cactus and hot desert air. Gaining more than 6,000 ft of elevation, the Sky Island Scenic Byway passes through a variety of ecological zones over its 27.2 mile route to Summerhaven at the top of Mount Lemmon (Elevation 9,159 ft.) making it easy to forget the desert landscape you drove through only an hour prior. The view from the top is absolutely incredible, with days of good visibility showing the neighboring mountain ranges including the Rincons and Chiracahuas. Mt. Lemmon is located within the Coronado National Forest, providing many wonderful opportunities for hiking through the Santa Catalinas and even including a small ski area at the top.

This weekend I spent a better part of Saturday enjoying a drive up the Sky Island Scenic Byway, where we stopped to enjoy the views from Windy Point Vista.

However, our destination was the Oracle Trailhead, located just outside of Summerhaven, where we would be hiking the Oracle Ridge-Red Ridge Loop. The trail took us 2.5 miles along the Oracle Ridge Trail to the junction with the Arizona National Scenic Trail, which runs 800 miles from Mexico up into Utah. Not feeling nearly that ambitious we followed the trail for 1.7 miles down into a valley where the trail joined the Red Ridge Trail. Along the way we passed Catalina Camp, an old abandoned settlement featuring a few old cabins and sheds. The Catalina Camp Trail (as the Arizona Trail is known in this stretch) was very overgrown with tall grass, making it feel as if we were paving the way through uncharted territory.

As we reached the Red Ridge Trail we passed a group of hunters who had backpacked into the valley in search of Whitetail Deer. As we chatted about the area they warned us that the trail ahead of us would feature a steep climb, 3.5 miles in length with over 3,000 ft. elevation gain. With the sun beginning to set we powered through the tough climb, reaching the Red Ridge Trailhead as darkness set in 2 hours later. The lightning of the sunset was absolutely beautiful and the final half mile of the hike through an aspen grove at twilight was something I never expected to find so close to Tucson. We hiked along the Byway approximately a mile with a full moon and stars shining overhead to reach our car at the Oracle Trailhead, passing signs warning of bear crossings the whole way. Another great Arizona hike in the books.