Day 5 – May 23, 2024 – Tucson, AZ

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Day 5 – May 23, 2024 – Tucson, AZ

We got an early start today and was out the door by 7:30 and we did some hiking at Sabino Canyon Recreational Area in the Coronado National Forest. We started off doing the Bajada Loop (0.3 miles), which was a barrier-free, flat trail with vegetation identification. We picked up part of the Bear Canyon trail until it crossed the Phoneline Trail, and we went up from there. The elevation going up was not as high as it was on Tuesday’s hike, but we still climbed up over 550 ft and the views were gorgeous! As the previous hike did have some rocks in places, this hike was more like we find in the mountains in NC, where it’s rocky and narrow on steep slopes. Round trip we did over 5 miles. The air was much cooler than expected, but it felt nice with the sun. Again, we made sure we had plenty of water and sunscreen, as well as the electrolytes to add to our water.

We then headed up to Summerhaven up in the Santa Catalina Mountains (elevation of 8000 ft). The drive is breathtaking as it is a winding road about 29 miles (North of Tucson) long that runs from the Sabino Canyon Rec Area straight up to Summerhaven and Mt. Lemmon. After arriving in Summerhaven, we grabbed a bite to eat The Sawmill Run, got a big ass cookie from the Pizza and Cookie Cabin and finished it with an espresso at But First, Coffee. We walked around a little as there is not much to the town, and then headed back down the mountain towards Tucson.

We went to Whole Foods and grabbed some chicken kabobs and will have those with some leftovers. It’s clothes washing night and we head out tomorrow for Sedona. All in all, this has been a great first leg of our trip! We would definitely come back to Tucson again. We will head out about 11 a.m. and have about a 3 ½ drive to Sedona.

Until tomorrow!

Cristate Seguaro cactus
This one’s lower arm was growing up through the bench!
A Seguaro cactus growing amidst a mesquite tree. They do this to get shade from the heat.
Already climbing up as you can tell from the road below where the tram takes you to different stops and to some of the trail heads.
Was strange to see a dead Seguaro cactus.
These little purple flowers were everywhere.
On our way back down.
The woodpeckers or something really like this one!
This little guy didn’t even move and we stepped right over him.
We saw this little fellow as we were heading out of the park. There were quite a few of them running down into their burrows.
On our way up to Summerhaven.
The Sawmill Run – we had a drink and a burger/soup/chicken sandwich with the BEST onion rings I’ve ever had. Sorry, no pic 🙁
We got the sampler, which consisted of: chocolate chip, white macadamia nut, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, the Rachel (sugar based with oats, coconut and butterscotch chips) and a brownie in the middle. We headed down to the coffee place and sampled a little of each while we drank our espresso!
On our way back down the mountain!
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