SW Trip 2014 - Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, Arizona – Catalina State Park
April 25 – 30

Picasa web album link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/107097369989809012646/SWTrip2014Part3?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOTYr5r5xMKHyQE&feat=directlink

I have three words for Tucson, WE LOVE IT!

As we drove into the Tucson area, we were impressed by the many mountain ranges around the area. We had no idea that there were so many mountains; we had expected more of a flat desert environment. It is so beautiful; the city and surrounding areas seemed clean and modern. Catalina State Park is in the Sonoran desert area, with the Santa Catalina Mountains as the backdrop. The campsites are spacious with great views of the mountains. Even though we were in a remote desert area, there was shopping and restaurants within a mile of the park entrance. After getting setup, we relaxed and enjoyed the evening, even though it was windy.

The next morning, the wind was getting stronger as forecast. Debbie and I decided to use this time to get some laundry done. The guys decided to mountain bike a trail that originated right in the park. Later in the day it rained for awhile and then the weather became nice again. We took Kody on a hike on one of the trails inside the park. We were only able to go about 1 mile up the trail, as beyond that point no dogs were allowed, due to the reintroduction of bighorn sheep into the mountain area. We all decided to do the full trail the next day.

In the morning, we made our plans to go mountain biking in one of the local area trails. We found a great trail called Fantasy Island on the southeast side of Tucson. We had to drive across town to the site, but it was worth it. Some of the trails were more difficult, so Debbie and I decided to ride some of the easier ones. The guys had a great time riding the challenging trails of Fantasy Island. Located near the trail area is Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and miles of “airplane boneyard”. It was amazing how many planes were being stored there as far as you could see; wrapped up in protective materials and ready for whatever purpose. Looking at Google Maps satellite view of the Tucson area, it’s quite apparent how many planes are there! After bike riding, we headed back to camp and a cookout for dinner.

The next morning, we set out in the park to hike the Romero Canyon Trail. This was a steep and rocky great trail up the Catalina Mountains. It was challenging at many times, with many switchbacks and steep cliffs. The views of the canyon and valley below were amazing, with Saguaro cactus along the mountain sides. We hiked back in to an area called Romero pools, where there was standing water in rocky creek bed below. The hike back down was a little easier, but was still a challenge. We were never fortunate enough to see a bighorn sheep; as there were only about 14 sheep at this time. The round trip hike took us about 2.5 hours. Heading back to our campsites, we were very glad we went on this amazing hike.

Our challenge for the next day was to mountain bike a trail just north of the park. This desert trail called 50 Year Trail started out as an intermediate level biking. We were able to ride most of the trail, but attempted to find another more challenging part called “the chutes”. We rode around trying to follow a trail map and were never able to find the chutes. After a couple of hours, we headed back to camp. Our next event for the day was to drive a scenic road up to Mt. Lemmon, called Sky Islands Scenic Byway. The 25 miles followed hairpin and blind turns, climbing more than 6300 feet to the peak of Mt. Lemmon (9157 ft). The drive begins in the Sonoran Desert, passing through five distinct life zones, ending in a cool mixed conifer forest (Coronado National Forest) that looked more like Canada than Arizona. It was a beautiful drive with amazing views, well worth about three hours of driving and overlook time.

The next morning, we all decided to go back to mountain bike the 50 Year Trail. Debbie and I rode mostly on that trail, while the guys were able to find the path back to “the chutes”. We all had a great ride that morning and it was so much fun. We later headed back into town for some shopping and preparations to leave the next morning. We all were sad to go, as this was one of our most favorite places we have been so far on this trip! We could have stayed a few more days, Kurt and I vowed that we will return someday and stay at least a month.

On to Phoenix Arizona for our next adventure!

SW Trip 2014 - Deming, New Mexico

Deming, New Mexico – Rockhound State Park
April 23 - 24

Rockhound State Park is located a few miles east of the town of Deming. This is a beautiful park with awesome campsites. Our campsite was very large with nice landscaping of cactus and rocks. The park is surrounded by the Florida Mountains. The weather was cool and sunny, but the wind was kicking up to 35mph. The first night the trailer was rocking with the wind howling most of the night. By the next morning the wind died down and we went on a short hike on some trails around the park. This park is known for semi-precious stones and rocks. The main activity here is to look for these rocks. Later in the day, we were trying to determine where we could go hiking in the area where it might be more challenging. There was also no mountain biking within 30 miles, so Kurt and I decided to do a hike in Spring Canyon, which is on the south side of Rockhound Park. This was a nice hike back in a canyon to Lovers Leap. It was steep with a small elevation gain, and we enjoyed the scenery and the exercise.

After getting back to camp, we had discovered that a wind storm was heading our way and may affect our travel in 2 days to our next location. We were told that if the winds go over 50 mph, they could shut down I-10, which could be a problem for us. So we all decided to leave the next day and arrive in Tucson a day earlier.

That evening, the wind had died down and we were able to have a nice campfire. We sat up until late looking at the amazing stars and searching for meteors. We saw a couple of meteors, but it was getting really late and we wanted to get an earlier start on the road in the morning.

We were ready to head to Tucson and see what that area has to offer.