I got a chance to return to the Bug Springs Trailhead off of the General Hitchcock Highway to explore a little further as I ran out of time when I hiked this spot a month ago. I didn’t know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised at how awesome the hike turned out to be.
The first part of the hike was a repeat of my trip before, but the scenery was still just as pretty. Open grasslands with desert plants and rock outcroppings along a well defined ridge made for a great walk.
Once past my turn around point from my last trip here, I soaked in the views towards Bear Canyon and Thimble Peak to the southwest.
As I gained elevation from 5000′ to about 6000′, I enjoyed the commanding views back in to the Tucson Basin behind me.
The first part of the hike passed through an area with a lot of burned over small trees. The area must have been the site of a wildfire a few years back. That’s Tanque Verde Ridge in the distance.
The further I got, the more interesting the rock formations became. I guess you would call these stacks “hoodoos”, tall, thin spire of rock formed by erosion. .
Up a couple of switchbacks and around a corner, I came to this wilderness of rocks. The hike kept getting better and better.
I didn’t ignore the small views either. This striking plant with reddish smooth bark is desert mahogany.
And these are agaves. Agave plants are used in the production of tequila and are found through out the desert southwest as well as in the Caribbean.
After rounding one more bend, I came to an exposed ridge with the most amazing rock formations.
I got to see these hoodoos up close with their typical cap stones and fantastic shapes.
The ridge ended at this pile of rocks and from there the trail descended in to a ravine not too far from where I had turned around when I hiked out of the Lower Green Mountain Trailhead back in November.
I made this my turn around point but stopped to enjoy the views for a half hour of so. From this exposed ridge I could see the Santa Rita Mountains and Mount Wrightson maybe forty miles to the south.
As always, the views on the way back are a little different. I didn’t pay too much attention to this impressive wall of rock on the way in.
This massive hoodoo looked like it belonged on Easter Island.
As high as I got, there’s still three thousand feet of mountain above me. Mount Lemmon an impressive natural feature that dominated the north side of metro Tucson.
This turned out to be one of the best hikes I took during my stay in the Tucson area. The trail was really made for mountain bikers, but supports hiking nicely. You just need to be aware of the possibility of bikes coming down the grade. They are concentrating on the trail and since we can hear and see them first, it would be considerate to step a few paces off of the trail to make things a little easier on them.
My hike turned out to be about six or seven miles long with a thousand feet of elevation gain. Not too strenuous and not to easy, like Goldilocks porridge it was just right.
