A fin of rock below Wolcott Peak in Ironwood Forest National Monument. May 2017.
Ironwood Forest National Monument preserves a beautiful piece of the Sonoran desert north west of the Santa Catalina Mountains. This site is focused on the Santa Catalina Mountains, which is already more than I could hope to cover and experience in my lifetime, but everything is connected…
I am not enough of a dreamer to visualize a map of Arizona with more than modest additions to our public lands, but in what what was clearly a bit of laughable optimism, I also never even considered a map where our public lands receive less protection.
Ironwood flowers against a clear blue sky – from a hike around Wolcott Peak. May 2017.
Ironwood Forest National Monument is included in the Department of the Interior’s Review of Certain National Monuments Established Since 1996. I am disappointed with the government’s decision to conduct this review at all – but the inclusion of Ironwood National Monument is especially exasperating – the area is just so beautiful and important.
More convincing than any words I could write is a visit to the area – the Friends of Ironwood Forest National Monument have a ‘Visit’ section on their website that has useful information – it is a tough time of year for hiking in the desert but even just a drive into the area is a very very very worthwhile activity.
Sun and blooming Saguaro in Ironwood Forest National Monument. May 2017.
Comments on the review are open until 7/10/2017, please consider commenting – some links you might find interesting/helpful:
Sun, Ragged Top and a blooming Ironwood – near the parking for Ragged Top in Ironwood Forest National Monument. May 2017.
PS – The comment period closes 6/2/2017 on Proposed I-11 routes – I-11 could potentially put a major highway between Saguaro National Park and Ironwood Forest National Monument significantly, and I believe, negatively impacting the Avra Valley area – this short post from the Friends of Ironwood Forest National Monument is a very concise summary of the issues with links to more information.
Fire damage along the Mount Lemmon Trail – probably from the Shovel Fire. May 2017.
With two trips last month on the Red Ridge Trail/Catalina Camp/Oracle Ridge Trails (probably the best sub-10 mile trail loop on the mountain) it seemed like it was time for the longer Canada del Oro/Red Ridge Trail loop, probably the best 10+ mile trail loop on the mountain!
We left a car at the Red Ridge Trailhead and drove to the Summit Trailhead – Lemmon, Sutherland, Samaniego Ridge, CDO Shortcut Trails – 3.7 miles and 2,700′ of elevation loss take us to the start of the Canada del Oro Trail.
Raspberry flowers along the Canada del Oro. May 2017.
As the Canada del Oro Trail descends the views of towns and distant mountains disappear – the upper part of the canyon is surrounded by the Santa Catalina’s northern ridges – Samaniego, Reef of Rock and Oracle Ridge. The feeling of remoteness in the upper section of the canyon is great, but the real magic here is the water – the upper Canada del Oro seems to have remarkably good (perhaps even year-round?) flow – spending miles rambling in a wooded canyon beside a flowing stream is a unique experience in the Santa Catalina Mountains!
The CDO Trail. May 2017.
Seeing water in the CDO might be a surprise if you are used to the dry sandy wash that leaves the mountains and heads southwest thru Saddlebrooke, Catalina, Oro Valley and Tucson to the Rillito River. In Canyon of Gold, Tales of Santa Catalina Pioneers Barbara Marriott asserts that the (at least seasonal) water in the CDO and grass along waterway during the 1800s was part of the reason why ranches were located near the CDO and that in the first quarter of the 1900s the CDO became much drier.
Flowing water in the Canada del Oro. May 2017.
The 2003 Aspen Fire reduced the CDO trail to an off-trail bushwhack. For years I would occasionally hear or read about epic hikes thru the area – you can get a hint of the dense obstacles that hikers found in some of Sirena’s pictures from 2011. But over the years both Forest Service crews and volunteers have worked on the trail and it has once again been tamed – not a wide perfectly groomed path by any means, but very reasonable – maybe even ‘easy’ – to find and follow!
The Reef of Rock from the Red Ridge Trail – the large formations on the right side are referred to as the ‘Sea Gods’. May 2017.
From the CDO we take the Red Ridge Trail – it follows the East Fork of the CDO to the base of Red Ridge where we rest before climbing thousands of feet up back to the Red Ridge Trailhead.
A view of the Santa Catalina Mountains from FR4407 Brush Corral Road. April 2017.
Back to the Brush Corral area! Unlike my last trip into the area the goal wasn’t a long hike on the Brush Corral Trail – but instead just a chance to explore a little.
There are some great views from Brush Corral Road (FR4407) – the edge to edge view (above) of the Santa Catalina Mountains is amazing – familiar peaks are labeled below in a reference image from PeakFinder.org (note that this is showing the USGS Guthrie Mountain rather than the peak at the end of the Brush Corral - Cedar Spring, Georges Spring, Pearsons Spring - 4/30/2017).
Hopeful curiosity and extreme skepticism and his a fair description of how I feel about blue marks on the maps of Southern Arizona. The area south of Evans Mountain down to Buehman Canyon has 11 springs marked on the map – an interesting concentration, I wonder how many of them still flow…
The area between Evans Mountain and Buehman Canyon has 11 marked springs. May 2017.
From a ridge-top camp west of Brush Corral Road I drop down into a a dry wash, crawl under barbed wire fence at the forest boundary and quickly find a dry tank where Cedar Springs is marked on the map. Pipes run up canyon from the tank, but there is no sign of water where they seem to end.
Cedar Spring Tank – dry… April 2017.Mesquite Flat, North of the Brush Corral Trailhead. April 2017.
Around Mesquite Flat and over to the Georges Spring area – after finding Cedar Spring dry the number of pools of water in the area surprised me!
A beautiful pool in the Georges Spring area. April 2017.
From Georges Spring it was a short walk to Pearsons Spring – in its small side canyon the only sign of water was a single, small depression with damp sand at the bottom. Returning to the canyon just west of the Brush Corral Trailhead I don’t have to walk very far before both cows and small pools of water appeared in the canyon bottom. It looks like there was quite a bit more water in the canyon earlier in the year. The canyon merges seamlessly into Buehman Canyon a short distance above the Brush Corral Trailhead – from there it doesn’t take long to loop back to the start of my hike.
Water and cow manure in the canyon just west of the Brush Corral Trailhead. April 2017.
Oracle Ridge and Rice Peak from the Red Ridge Trail – the Catalina Camp Trail can be seen descending from Oracle Ridge towards its junction with the Red Ridge Trail. April 2017.
The Red Ridge Trail, Catalina Camp and Oracle Ridge Trail loop is one of my favorite hikes – and one of my favorites to recommend. I was lucky this month to be able to do the loop twice – once in each direction – and lucky to do it with many different friends who, I think, enjoyed seeing this area of the mountains.
1924, June 29, p. 13 – from the Arizona Daily Star:
The forest service is at present working on the construction of two very interesting trails … Red Ridge trail begins near the main ridge of the Catalinas that the highway crosses, and goes, as the name implies, over the ridges toward Oracle.
I wonder what the trail would have been like then – the stunning views of the Reef of Rock would be the same and with fewer visitors to the mountain in those days the trail was probably, like today, not heavily used. In the 1920s the top of the trail must have been covered in trees and it may have been impressively quiet – today the top of the ridge is largely open, cleared by the 2003 Aspen Fire, and noise from the General Hitchcock Highway is notable (the General Hitchcock Highway, not yet built in the 1920s, is larger, busier and faster than the ‘highway’ referred to in the quote above).
A Mariposa Lilly along the Red Ridge Trail – I wonder if they would have bloomed here when the trail was first constructed? April 2017.
A steep descent – past the edge of the Aspen Fire and into the oaks – takes you to the East Fork of the Canada del Oro. Water flows in this drainage most of the year, always a great spot to stop and enjoy.
A spider hunting over the water in the East Fork of the Canada del Oro. April 2017.
The Red Ridge Trail crosses the East Fork of the CDO and quickly reaches a junction with the Catalina Camp Trail. The Red Ridge Trail continues west, chasing the East Fork down to the Canada del Oro – but this loop turns east onto the Catalina Camp Trail. The Catalina Camp Trail used to be the route of the Arizona Trail as it climbed out of the CDO and up to Oracle Ridge – today the AZT takes a kinder and more practical route straight onto the Oracle Ridge Trail from Summerhaven.
The reason I love this loop is the variety. Red Ridge is a wild place, violently burned in the Aspen Fire, with just a hint of the remoteness that some of the more distant sky islands offer. The Catalina Camp Trail is something altogether different – a few minutes from the junction buildings come into view – the address above one of the doors reads ‘One Park Place’.
A moon on the old outhouse near 1 Park Place. April 2017.
These buildings seem out of place, but they are part of the long history of mining in the Santa Catalina Mountains that predates the construction of the Red Ridge Trail by many years – if you know where to look you can see old equipment rusting back into the earth, disappearing remains of old mining operations.
At Dan Saddle the Catalina Camp and Oracle Ridge Trails meet and this loop joins the current route of the Arizona Trail. The Oracle Ridge Trail between Dan Saddle and the Oracle Ridge Trailhead routes you on and off an old road with views of Marble Peak (a long-time mining area). This area has none of the wildness of Red Ridge – but what it adds to this loop is views of east side of the Santa Catalina Mountains and the San Pedro River Valley – a surprisingly remote area when you consider how close it seems on a map. If you travel out to the east side of the Santa Catalina Mountains it is rare to see other hikers these days – with good reason I suppose, it is an hour (or more) drive from Tucson to reach the start of the long 4wd roads that access the few existing trailheads. The area probably saw more use before the 2003 Bullock fire when the Davis Spring and Brush Corral Trails could still be followed down into the area – now those trails are just off-trail routes…
Dana and Traci taking a break and enjoying the view on the Oracle Ridge Trail. April 2017.
The Oracle Ridge Trailhead and Red Ridge Trailhead are close enough together that you can walk between them to start, or complete, the loop. Perhaps under-emphasized in the description above is that in addition to being about 9 miles long the loop has around 2800′ of elevation loss and gain, definitely worth considering before committing to this loop!
Thru San Manuel, a sharp left then the familiar right turn at the San Pedro – but today the last turn takes me into unfamiliar territory – a strange, freshly paved, night black road parallel to the river – it takes me a minute to reconcile this new thing with my memory of Redington Road.
It makes me sad and uncomfortable to see more pavement encircling the Santa Catalina Mountains – there is nothing encouraging about its current end at the Pinal County line. Maybe the pavement really isn’t that important one way or another – inconsequential compared to the destruction that the SunZia power transmission lines will likely bring to this part of the San Pedro River Valley in the coming years.
The mountain no longer seems like a thing that can stop a city in its tracks; it seems more like a cornered beast. When I hike the Catalinas now and stare down at the valleys, I feel I am on an island, one that is being constantly eroded by the fierce waves of energy sweeping across the desert floor. When I leave the city for the mountain, I walk past bulldozers on my way to the trailhead.
Looking back on the pavement starting at the Pinal County line. April 2017.
