When we first got to Tucson, I felt like we’d landed on the moon. Everything is different here. The people, birds, plants, animals, fast food restaurants, grocery store names, TV schedules. The list goes on. To say I had a difficult time adjusting is an understatement.
I didn’t really start embracing the place until I started hiking. One thing Tucson definitely has in abundance is places to hike. Sometimes I go alone and sometimes I hike with a partner or even a few people. More often than not my friend, Michelle, joins me. She’s become my adventure partner. Or maybe “partner in adventure” is a better phrase. We try to get out and hike every week on what we call Wilderness Wednesday. Sometimes, life gets in the way, so we reschedule. Other times, it’s just too darn hot.
From around the end of May through early to mid-September, it can feel pretty brutal here, temperature-wise. The rule of thumb is to be back at the trailhead no later than 10:00 a.m. When it’s too hot to hike, we switch to Walkabout Wednesday, which just means we find other stuff to do.
This past Wednesday, December 10, we chose to hike Seven Falls via Bear Canyon Road. It’s located in the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area within the Coronado National Forest. We opted to hike from the Bear Canyon Trailhead instead of the parking lot at Sabino Canyon. It’s shorter AND less-crowded, but it’s still a really popular hike.
Before just about every hike, or at least once during every hike, I say to myself, “You have enough photos of cactuses. Really. You don’t need any more.” Then I crest a hill or walk around a big-ass boulder or giant saguaro cactus and see the landscape before me. And I can’t help myself. It’s not that I just take pictures of cactuses, but since cactuses are very common around here, they do feature prominently in many of my images.
Anyway, I think the Sonoran Desert is a beautiful, fascinating place. And I’m really happy and grateful that I’m able to get out there and roam amongst the cactuses. I hope you enjoy seeing the images I chose to share here.
The last time we hiked up to Seven Falls, there was a lot more water. During that hike, I’m pretty sure our feet got wet on just about every crossing in both directions. Hiking with dry feet is so much nicer.
The trail parallels the streambed and crosses the water multiple times.
Gneiss is a prominent rock in the Tucson area, especially in canyons like Sabino Canyon, and it’s also found in Bear Canyon, forming the banded cliffs and streambeds of the Santa Catalina Mountains. Pronounced “nice,” this striped metamorphic rock is a key geological feature, with its distinctive layers telling a story of ancient volcanic activity and tectonic forces.
The images in this post are a mix of pictures captured by both of us. The ones of me alone are usually captured by Michelle and vice versa.
According to AllTrails, the hiking app I use, we covered 7.6 miles with a 988-foot elevation gain. That’s not as much as we sometimes climb, so I wasn’t nearly as tired as I sometimes am after more-strenuous adventures.
Between the two of us, we captured around 70 photos. We both know the photos rarely do the place justice, but we take them anyway. It’s just so beautiful out there, NOT taking pictures just feels wrong somehow.
Hubby, Mike, and I are off on a little camping trip tomorrow, so Michelle and I will miss Wilderness Wednesday this week. Hopefully we will get a chance to make up for it the following week after I get back.