My legs are SORE and my poor feet are blistered to shreds!
Ryan and I spent this past weekend hiking around the Coronado National Forest’s Sabino Canyon Recreation Area at the base of the Santa Catalina mountains outside of Tucson, Ariz!
We put in 19 miles and 3,200 feet of elevation gain (hence the sore legs!) to see Bear Canyon and Sabino Canyon, with a few stops (and an overnight campsite!) in between.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous the whole time! It was in the mid-60s-to-mid-70s for our entire hike in. It was still warm when we went to sleep, and while it was a little chilly in the late night/early morning hours, it warmed up pretty quickly to the point where I was able to hike in shorts and a sun shirt the entire time.
Ryan picked Sabino Canyon, and I think he picked a fantastic hike.
We parked in the overflow parking lot since we didn’t get down to the trailhead until about 10 a.m. since we had to drive down from Flagstaff. (We woke up at 4 a.m. to pack up and make the drive.)
We decided to take the Bear Canyon Trail to Phoneline Trail loop counter-clockwise, so we started on Bear Canyon Trail. This is the trail that leads to Seven Falls, so it was pretty packed.
Most of the traffic was hiking in to see Seven Falls, which were flowing spectacularly!
We got a few comments from day hikers on our packs and a few people stopped to ask us if we were camping.
A quick note: Overnight camping is NOT allowed in Sabino Canyon proper. However, we hiked through the canyon and out to the Arizona Trail (AZT) where overnight camping IS allowed.
The first lady to stop and ask us about our packs gave us THE BIGGEST death glare I’ve ever seen, and asked if we were planning on camping. Ryan said yes, we were hiking through the canyon to camp on the AZT and she looked FURIOUS that she couldn’t tell us off because we knew the rules and weren’t doing what she expected us to do.
Also, there’s literally nowhere to camp in Bear Canyon. Not a single flat surface anywhere.
Everyone else who stopped us after that was actually really nice and told us the weather was great and to have fun.
There were a few creek crossings on our way to Seven Falls. Some of them were close to knee-deep, so I’m glad I brought my Tevas to switch in and out of to keep my hiking boots dry.
The first stop of our trip was to see Seven Falls, which was gorgeous!
We didn’t hike down to the falls because there was so much foot traffic and we had about 12 miles total to get to the point where we planned to camp overnight. So, we just admired them from above.
Once we went past the falls, the foot traffic died down considerably.
We hiked up canyon walls and over ridges, admiring all the saguaros and sparkly rocks along the way.
Finally, we hiked down to a little spot by East Fork creek, which is where we decided to set up camp for the night.
Because Ryan is Ryan, he decided to hike in frozen salmon, pre-prepared vegetable skewers and a grill to cook both on.
Normal wildland firefighter things.
Ryan made us both salmon and skewers, and I had a Good-To Go dehydrated Pad Thai pouch.
We were both so tired — both from the hike, and from waking up at 4 a.m. to start the day — that we both fell asleep at 8 p.m., as soon as our tent was set up and we were settled.
There wasn’t anyone else around and the sound of the creek was so peaceful. I slept SO hard.
The next morning, we ate breakfast, packed up all our shit, and continued our hike.
The second day of our hike was pretty… rough. My outer hip started aching a bit the night before, and at about a mile into day 2, it was killing me.
I’ve never had hip problems before, which was incredibly annoying! I have exercise-induced asthma, and I have a nagging old spinal injury, and I know ALL about the quirks and pains my body suffers from and how to deal with them, so the fact that a BRAND NEW pain, of some kind, decided to present itself at THE most inopportune time? AWFUL.
I didn’t take too many photos on the second day of the hike.
(Except of my blisters. I have six photos of my blisters.)
But, regardless, I still had SO much fun! It was really awesome to explore a new National Forest, see a new pocket of the incredible state I get to live in, and to spend a lot of quality time off-grid with Ryan.
