peak_bgr
New member
It's day two for us here in Arizona and we decided to do a little afternoon hike. We spent the morning at the Sonora Desert Museum looking at all kinds of animals and plant life-even had a pretty darn good lunch there. Accross the road are some really cool looking mountains so we decided to check out our hiking guide for the Tuscon area and we found a network of trails up Wasson Peak.
We decided to go for it, it was a 7 mile RT and it was only 1:30 in the afternoon. A 2400 foot climb to what's been said is a view as good as Rainier-well I had to see about that. We started along the King Canyon Trail following the high water route which is very rocky along what is an old jeep road. Within a very short time we were in a mile at the Mam-A-Gah picnic area. We continued along the King Canyon Trail through a ton of switchbacks all the way to the Hugh Norris Trail which follows along the high ridge. From there is was a very easy 0.3 mile hike along a narrow ridge to Wasson Peak at around 4700 feet. The views are 360 degree of course, no trees at this elevation on cactus. It's just the opposite here. The higher up you get the more trees there are, the cactus leave and there pines and hardwoods start to appear. The views are possibely some of the best I have ever seen, we even watched a sand storm that was going on down below.
Back at the intersection we now had the choice to return our route up or make a loop along the Hugh Norris Trail to the Sendero Esperanza Trail. We chose the latter, mainly because I wanted to climb Amole Peak along the way. It's a steep descent to the col between the two and a short cactuswhack of 0.15 to the top. Bushwhacking through cactus is quite a challenge in shorts I must tell you. Not only that the constant though of rattlesnakes under the rocks was also on our mind. The top was again killer views and only big enough for one person at a time. It's a large rock jumble cone with get this a canister under the top rocks. See we're not the only ones who enjoy seeing a canister on the summit of some obscure peak. Not sure why there's a canister there, but I would bet they don't get to many New Yorkers signing it. Most everyone signed it with a SAHC after there name. Does anyone know of this? Southern Arizona Hiking Club maybe? Do they have a list of 4000 footers like we do. Amole is around 4250 feet in Elevation. We bushwhacked down and finished out hike to the other trail along an amazing ridge, and returned to the picnic area. We followed the NO water route right down King Canyon on the way out to check out some really cool petroglyphs that were dated around 1000 years old. No not dated by the artist by the guide book we hike. We were back to the car in roughly 4.5 hours for a 8.25 mile hike. Not telling you that because time means little to me, but just in case you're in the Tuscon area and want a nice afternoon hike-highly recommend this one.
We decided to go for it, it was a 7 mile RT and it was only 1:30 in the afternoon. A 2400 foot climb to what's been said is a view as good as Rainier-well I had to see about that. We started along the King Canyon Trail following the high water route which is very rocky along what is an old jeep road. Within a very short time we were in a mile at the Mam-A-Gah picnic area. We continued along the King Canyon Trail through a ton of switchbacks all the way to the Hugh Norris Trail which follows along the high ridge. From there is was a very easy 0.3 mile hike along a narrow ridge to Wasson Peak at around 4700 feet. The views are 360 degree of course, no trees at this elevation on cactus. It's just the opposite here. The higher up you get the more trees there are, the cactus leave and there pines and hardwoods start to appear. The views are possibely some of the best I have ever seen, we even watched a sand storm that was going on down below.
Back at the intersection we now had the choice to return our route up or make a loop along the Hugh Norris Trail to the Sendero Esperanza Trail. We chose the latter, mainly because I wanted to climb Amole Peak along the way. It's a steep descent to the col between the two and a short cactuswhack of 0.15 to the top. Bushwhacking through cactus is quite a challenge in shorts I must tell you. Not only that the constant though of rattlesnakes under the rocks was also on our mind. The top was again killer views and only big enough for one person at a time. It's a large rock jumble cone with get this a canister under the top rocks. See we're not the only ones who enjoy seeing a canister on the summit of some obscure peak. Not sure why there's a canister there, but I would bet they don't get to many New Yorkers signing it. Most everyone signed it with a SAHC after there name. Does anyone know of this? Southern Arizona Hiking Club maybe? Do they have a list of 4000 footers like we do. Amole is around 4250 feet in Elevation. We bushwhacked down and finished out hike to the other trail along an amazing ridge, and returned to the picnic area. We followed the NO water route right down King Canyon on the way out to check out some really cool petroglyphs that were dated around 1000 years old. No not dated by the artist by the guide book we hike. We were back to the car in roughly 4.5 hours for a 8.25 mile hike. Not telling you that because time means little to me, but just in case you're in the Tuscon area and want a nice afternoon hike-highly recommend this one.
