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Tucson Mountains: King Canyon to Wasson PeakTucson Mountains: King Canyon to Wasson Peak

Tucson Mountains: King Canyon to Wasson Peak

Return to Saguaro National Park & Petroglyphs of the Tucson Area
Arizona Winter Loop | Wednesday – Thursday, February 1-2, 2023

After leaving the Sky Islands late on Wednesday afternoon we headed northwest into the Sonoran Desert near Tucson so we could spend the next day hiking in the Tucson Mountain District of Saguaro National Park, which we had not been back to since our Honeymoon Adventure in 2017. During that previous visit we really only had time to tour the park roads and go on a short hike to the petroglyphs of Signal Hill, so I was looking forward to hiking a little deeper into the park this time. After grabbing dinner in Tucson, we drove around the southern end of the Tucson Mountains in the late evening as we made our way over to the Gilbert Ray Campground in the Tucson Mountain Park. We arrived just in time to get our tent setup before it got dark out.

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Back to the Mojave: The Pahranagat ValleyBack to the Mojave: The Pahranagat Valley

Back to the Mojave: The Pahranagat Valley

Rock Art of the Basin and Range National Monument II
Thursday – Monday, January 15-18, 2021

Even though my heart belongs to the Colorado Plateau, I do occasionally like to get out to the Mojave Desert at least once each year, especially during the colder months at home! Back at the beginning of last year I had started making plans to return to Death Valley National Park this holiday weekend, but since COVID is hitting California hard right now and they are asking for out-of-state visitors to stay away, I honored their request and decided to visit the Pahranagat Valley in Nevada instead. I got my first taste of the Pahranagat Valley on my way home from the White Mountains in September, but it was much too hot out for me at the time, so I vowed to return in cooler temperatures. I didn’t think I would be coming back so soon, but I was looking forward to returning again so I could explore this large valley where the northern Mojave Desert and the Great Basin intersect!

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Saguaro National ParkSaguaro National Park

Saguaro National Park

Tour of the Deserts | Honeymoon Adventure
Tuesday, March 14, 2017

While we were in Phoenix I had hoped that we would’ve had enough time to visit the Superstition Mountains, but unfortunately that was just not in the cards this time. We will definitely have to come back on a future trip and make sure we have enough time to spend there. Since we decided to skip the Superstitions, we slept in a little later than usual on Tuesday morning and then left for Tucson later in the morning. After the two hour drive we would be spending the remainder of the day at Saguaro National Park. I’m not going to lie, I was pretty excited about finally seeing a saguaro cactus in real life! Since I spend most of my ‘desert time’ on the Colorado Plateau, I had never been down to the Sonoran Desert where they are found. I was not disappointed!

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