It's hard to miss Picacho Peak as you are driving between Phoenix and Tucson, AZ. This odd shaped peak draws visitors from all over AZ for a variety of reasons including the Civil War Reenactment held in March, also hiking trails and the viewing of desert wildflowers in the Spring. Paul and I have hiked this trail before and decided we were again up for the challenge. The trail is 3 miles RT and very steep in parts with cables, handrails and bridges to assist you. The elevation gain is 1,401 in 1 1/2 miles.
Zigzag Canyon is a fun rappel near Fish Creek in the Superstition Wilderness. We were able to hitch a ride to the trail head so we could leave our vehicle at the bottom. The one mile hike to the 550' wall is an easy hike but the drop from there is intimidating at first. The rappel can be divided into 4 sections. The first being 90' to an alcove where there is plenty of room to set up for the next rappel which is 200'. We then rappelled another 60' and 200' to reach the bottom and to our car. Very fun!
Headdress is a short but fun canyon with 3 rapels in the Superstition Wilderness rated 3BII. Finding the drop in place took a considerable amount of route finding at first but we were soon on our way. The first rapel was approx. 36' down rapelling from a chock stone into a pool of water, followed by a 15' rapel, followed by a final 65' rapel that goes down a chute into an alcove. Our total time was approx. 3 hours with 3 people. After this canyon, our leader Jeff took us to Zig Zag which was amazing and not far away.
Every year over President's Day weekend, Apache Junction, AZ is host to the Lost Dutchman Half Marathon, 10K and 8K Trail Run. As I was still healing from a hamstring injury, I decided to run the 10K. The rest of my team; Paul Pastore, Bob Doyle, Jeff Mosler and Steve Weber all ran the Half Marathon. This is a great course with great views of the Superstition Mountains.
Ramsey Canyon has been on my bucket list for several years mostly because I had heard all about the hummingbirds. Paul and I headed to Sierra Vista on a week day in early March. When we arrived at the trail head we discovered the small parking area already full with no options but to come back another time. That wasn't an option for us after driving from Phoenix, so we drove around and finally landed a spot in a very nice gentlemen's driveway. We were encouraged to ask him for permission to park and he kindly accepted. We didn't realize that the hummingbird season didn't start for 2 more weeks so unfortunately we did not see any hummingbirds. The Nature Conservancy Preserve is fantastic and we enjoyed following the self-guided hike which included the largest Sycamore tree I have ever seen. The Hamburg Trail is approx. 5 miles RT. It parallels a spring fed stream in the Coronado National Forest. We criss-crossed the stream several times which was delightful. The views of Ramsey Canyon and the San Pedro Valley were quite picturesque and well worth the drive from Phoenix/Chandler. Once we arrived at the abandoned mine, we turned back the way we came.
