Thursday, March 15, 2012

ONE FINAL HIKE…SABINO CANYON…WOW!

Monday, March 12 – We went to Sabino Canyon in the Santa Catalina Mountains today for a hike. We've heard many good comments about this area and we agree....This place is AWESOME!!!

15-valley

We rode the trolley about 4 miles to the top of the canyon where we found the trail head to Phoneline Trail.

Crossing the stream on the tram.2-stream

There is even a sandy beach area in the Canyon.
3-sand-area

This is a six mile hike of moderate difficulty. The first mile may be a little tougher than the “moderate” rating. You have a pretty steep climb on a very narrow trail.

4-paull-on-path

At times we had to place a hand on the mountain wall to feel safe.

marsha-on-wall

Looking way down.
6-looking-down

Once that first stretch of trail was out of the way, the trail leveled out and became very enjoyable.

One word…Beauty!
2a-wall-up-close

We were on a high trail about half way up the face of the mountain and continued along the height for about 4.5 miles.

Can you see Marsha on the other side of the valley?
10-marsha-from-afar

What about now?
11-marsha-closer

Now?
12-marsha

Our trail is somewhere over there.
16-path-from-afar

Of course, the last half mile was mostly down hill.

20-down-the-hill

We were pretty tired once we reach the Canyon floor. It was going to be good to get back to the car. But we had another mile to walk from the end of the trail back to the car.....JEESH! Sure wish that trail ended at the parking lot....kind of a mental let down.

Most of the last mile was UPHILL!21-end-of-hike

Our only wildlife.
8-little-lizard

5-bird

We really enjoyed this hike and look forward to returning some day to explore several of the other trails in Sabino Canyon.

paul-and-me

 

Several bloggers from yesterday's post had the same question. Here is one from Jeff and Barbie, Boldts RV Castle, OK, you've enlightened us that Barrel Cactus always lean to the south. Now the million $ question.... WHY? Inquiring minds want to know :-)

ANSWER: The Barrel Cactus leans toward the South, casting shade on its side to prevent sunburn. Inquiring minds now know!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

 

15 comments:

  1. That's quite the hike; especially the trail along the edge of the mountain with Marsha steadying herself against the mountain wall.

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  2. I'm not sure I could have hiked that trail. I DON'T like narrow trails with long dropoffs. Looks like a really neat place other than that. If you want to take the mine tour we went on let me know when you will able to. You have call for a reservation, I can do that.

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  3. I got tired just reading about your hike. Bet it was fun anyway.

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  4. I certainly wouldn't like the hike if I had to hold on or fall off!!

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  5. Good job, guys! I like our hiking poles for hikes like that. When the trail gets really narrow, it's a more secure feeling to have that pole digging in on the drop off side. We haven't had any places like that to hike for some time. We hiked the Canyon two years ago. Hope we can get back to the trails one of these days!

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  6. We had heard this was a great trail. Thanks for sharing. The scenery is breathtaking.

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  7. I liked the 'tram' part of the hike! Wow! You guys did great to do that trail, it was quite a grind from the looks of it. Great pics!

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  8. Oh sure I could do this hike...NOT!! I would have stopped at the sandy beach. Kudos to you both for hanging in there. At least you can say you saw wildlife.

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  9. Had to go back and look at your picture of the cactus to get it straight in my head. :)

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  10. Forgot about Sabino Canyon. We hiked there last year for the first time. The Tucson area really has a lot to offer!

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  11. Looks like quit the hike. Love the wildlife, we never see any good critters either. If you get to Utah you need to do the slot canyons, really awesome place.
    Happy Trails!

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  12. Now that is definitely our kind of hike. We will have to remember that for whenever we are in that area. Love your pictures, what a beautiful place.

    Kevin and Ruth
    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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  13. Wow! You guys are so brave to take the hike on the hillside. I would have been so scared. Glad you enjoyed the hike and hope you get to go again another time.

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