2017

Updated May 26, 2019 - Posted February 25, 2017 - Charles Miles

A phainopepla near the Tram Road in Sabino Canyon. February 2017.

The Tram Road in Sabino Canyon is not always my favorite – but today… Clouds and beautiful colors in the sky – Phainopepla in the trees – easy walking.

Good light makes it easy to see the grey color of the female Phainolpepla and the shiny black of the males – sometimes perched, calling, at the top of the trees, sometimes flying, flashing the light patches under their wings. The Phainopepla are here for the Mistletoe berries – they eat the outer layers and expel the the sticky seed giving the parasitic Mistletoe a chance to spread.

The easy walking on the tram road is appreciated today – with limited time I tried, and failed, to get to Bridal Veil Falls and after turning around under a just-out-of-reach deflated balloon stuck in a tree in Esperero Canyon (the first trash I had seen in miles) I was exhausted and happy to reach the tram road…

Window Rock – 3/26/2016

Updated May 26, 2019 - Posted April 5, 2016 - Charles Miles

The Window from the Ventana Trail. March 2016. — The Window in Window Rock – from the Ventana Trail. March 2016.

The bottom section of the Ventana Trail is hot and at Maiden Pools I think about a long stop to enjoy the water, canyon and flowers – but the stiff up-canyon breeze keeps me moving up the canyon towards the Window.

I chat with friendly hikers coming down who encourage me upwards with smiles and promises of great views – and give me an excuse to take short breaks on the steep climb up to the hillside junction where the Ventana Trail ends as it meets the Esperero and Finger Rock Trails.

The Esperero Trail continues climbing, eventually reaching the ridge that leads to Window Rock – the views from this ridge are the highlight of the hike. After a few more short climbs the Window comes into view – just off the trail and easy to find – the other hikers have gone and I sit in silence.

I want to wait for sunset at the Window – my schedule today won’t allow it – but it is impossible to be disappointed by the dark shadows moving across the canyon and sunset lit east ridge on the hike down.

A view from Mount Lemmon on the right to the Biosphere on the left - from the Esperero Trail between The Window and the junction with the Finger Rock and Ventana Trails. March 2016. — Mount Lemmon on the right – Biosphere on the left. Taken on the Esperero Trail between Window Rock and the junction with the Finger Rock and Ventana Trails. March 2016.

Descending back into Ventana Canyon. March 2016.

Ventana Canyon in Shadow, below Maiden pools just before sunset. March 2016. — Ventana Canyon in Shadow just before sunset – on the Ventana Trail below Maiden pools. March 2016.

New Book, Splendors, Bighorn Pictures and Death

Posted December 28, 2014 - Charles Miles

Treasures of the Catalina Mountains: Book tells tales – Douglas Kreutz – Arizona Daily Star: A new book about the Santa Catalina Mountains!! Treasures of the Santa Catalina Mountains: Unraveling the Legends and History of the Santa Catalina Mountains by Robert Zucker is now available on Amazon in Paperback and Kindle formats – this page provides more information about the book. I have just started reading the book – so far I am enjoying it and have already learned new things about the range – I have also been very interested/impressed by the number of references the book provides (in some cases seeing where the information comes from has been almost as fascinating as the story itself!). (Note that the current Kindle version is completely readable and enjoyable, but does have some odd formatting (at least on my device) – I have not seen the paperback yet but I suspect it has a more polished layout at this point.)

Game and Fish: Mountain lion kills second bighorn – Arizona Daily Star, AZ Game and Fish confirms death of another bighorn sheep – Brent Corrado – KGUN9, Bighorn sheep found dead in Catalina Mountains – Scott Oathout – KVOA.com: A 2nd Bighorn from the group released late this year has been confirmed to be dead – the current assumption, because of the location of the kill, is that the ewe was killed by the same Mountain Lion that recently killed another Bighorn from this group. This death occurred earlier in the month and has only recently been confirmed – initially the Bighorn’s collar was assumed to be malfunctioning and the carcass and collar were difficult to locate.

New Bighorn Pictures – The Friends of Catalina Bighorn Sheep recently shared several great/recent pictures of Bighorn Sheep in the Santa Catalina Mountains on their Facebook page – these have been used in at least one recent news article about the Bighorn.

Hike leads to splendors of the Sonoran Desert – Douglas Kreutz – Arizona Daily Star: Some great advice on and ideas of a great tour of the desert, especially for visitors to Tucson, starting from Sabino Canyon and using the Esperero Trail, Rattlesnake Trail and road.

Mount Miguel – 2014/3/9

Updated May 26, 2019 - Posted March 9, 2014 - Charles Miles

1403 Ridge out to Mount Miguel — Ridge out to Mount Miguel. March 2014.

Years ago our friend Alex told us about Mount Miguel – I was surprised we had not heard about it since the name appears on the USGS map and it is relatively close to Tucson and the Esperero Trail – but it wasn’t until seeing Mount Miguel last week from the Esperero Trail that we really thought about it again…

We started the day in overflow parking for Music in the Canyon (held by the Friends of Sabino Canyon) – there seemed to be quite a few people attending the event! After walking back to Sabino Canyon we headed up the Esperero Trail. Alex told us that he had left the Esperero Trail at the first obvious slope that heads up to Mount Miguel – but recommended instead to stay on the trail longer – so we took the trail up to Cardiac Gap and then hiked south along the ridge to Mount Miguel.

Strong wind at the Gap and on the ridge was a pleasant surprise – we may not have found the best path along the ridge, but the route we took was beautiful (and not too brushy!) – and before long we were at the top! We enjoyed the views into Sabino Canyon and Tucson and watched the light change and shadows grow as the end of the day crept closer. Soon it was it was time to head down – we left San Miguel alone on the top looking over Tucson.

We took a fairly obvious/short line east down to the Esperero Trail – this route looked a little steep at first but was actually quite reasonable. On the Esperero Trail we lost the light and happily put on our headlamps to finish out our hike under the moon and stars.

Map via Gmap4 with GPX

Elevation Profile for Mount Miguel via Esperero – Cardiac Gap

flickr – 2014 March Mount Miguel

Esperero Trail – 2014/3/2

Updated July 25, 2014 - Posted March 3, 2014 - Charles Miles

1403 Sunset Panorama — Sunset. March 2014.

Clouds in the sky – but no real hint of yesterday’s storm (that dropped the first rain in the Tucson area since a small amount fell on February 3! See Drenching rains follow unusually warm Tucson February for more details.) – we had time to hike about 3 miles up the trail and then just barely caught the beautiful sunset!

flickr – 2014 March Esperero Trail