About an hour south of Tucson are the Santa Rita Mountains, one of Southern Arizona’s Sky Islands. Madera Canyon on the north side of this small mountain range is a popular starting point for some high altitude hiking adventures.
An eleven mile long paved road brings you from Green Valley, an exurb of Tucson, to Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains unit of Coronado National Forest.
At the entrance to the canyon you can purchase a day pass for $8 or a week pass for $10. Or you can like me use your America the Beautiful Pass. On weekends the entrance is staffed by folks from the Friends of Madera Canyon, a non-profit that helps maintain and improve the area for recreational use.
Most of the Santa Rita Mountains are above five thousand feet in elevation with the highest peak at almost nine and a half thousand feet allowing the area to support a temperate forest surrounded by desert basins.
I began my hike at the Mount Wrightson Trailhead at the end of the road. As soon as I got out of my rig I encountered a raft of wild turkeys.
My plan was to hike a little over six miles with 2100 feet of elevation gain by completing a loop using the Vault Mine Trail, the Aqua Caliente Trail and the Old Baldy Trail. Almost as soon as I started, I ran into a Forest Service Ranger who asked about my plans. He warned me that the Vault Mine Trail was really steep and that it would hurt. He also wanted to make sure I had enough water and some heavier cloths in case it got cold. I appreciated the concern.
He was right. The trail soon climbed steeply out of the dried creek bed on a series of switchbacks. It wasn’t the the hardest hike I’ve done in the last year, but it did get my attention.
As I climbed out of the canyon, I was treated to views of the high points to the east including the summit of Mount Wrightson.
The trail climbed through a forest dominated by hardwood trees with scattered stands of junipers and pines. It looked a lot different than most of Arizona.
A lot of it looked more like something from the East Coast. Except for the topography, I could have pictured this as some scrubby oak forest from Central Florida.
The vegetation was so thick that when I came to openings with views of the nearby peaks, the scene looked almost tropical.
The going was slow but eventually I came across the site of Vault Mine. It looked like they gave up looking for treasure pretty quickly. The tunnel only went in twenty feet or so.
The view looking back out was pretty impressive.
I ended up gaining almost all of the 2100 feet in elevation on the first mile and a half of the hike. I took my time and it took almost two hours to reach this point. The rest of the trip was level or down hill.
Although most of the vegetation on this hike didn’t have thorns, they’re were some exceptions. I was able to grab branches to assist my climb if I was careful and I only got poked in the ankle once by a hostile.
Looking back down the canyon from the junction with the Aqua Caliente Trail, I could see the basin Tucson is in thirty or forty miles to the north. The distant ridges are the Santa Catalina Mountains and Tanque Verde Ridge which is more to the right side of this photo.
The next two miles of the trail followed the north face of a ridge through mostly hardwood forest that had already dropped its leaves. It was actually very chilly up here and even through I didn’t use it, I was glad I brought a light jacket in case it got any worse.
This part of my hike could easily pass for Appalachia during the brief period between the trees shedding their leaves and the snow hitting the ground.
As the trail headed east along the north side of the ridge that divided the Santa Rita Mountains, the big mountains on the east side became much closer. The top of the ridge seemed only a few feet above the trail, but there was no view looking south.
Finally I found an unofficial trail that lead to the top of the ridge. Sure enough in just a hundred feet or so I crested the ridge and had this amazing view looking towards Mexico.
As soon as I crossed over, the temperature was at least fifteen degrees warmer. It would have been comfortable to sunbath in. Back on the northside I had goose bumps on my bare arms.
I continued towards Josephine Saddle and was treated to better and better views of Mount Wrightson. At my highest point on the hike I was still over two thousand feet below the summit.
Looking back towards the northwest I could see one of the large open pit mines near Green Valley. It would have been kind of pretty if you didn’t know just how toxic the waste water from these sites is.
Just before I got to the saddle I caught this image of a high flying jet over the mountain.
At the saddle I took a quick detour down the Josephine Canyon Trail to see if the views to the south opened up. That’s when I saw the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on one of the peaks to the west.
I made it down a few hundred feet and got a couple of fleeting views looking south but turned back to avoid getting sidetracked. I still had a long way to go to get back to the trailhead.
When I got back to Josephine Saddle I came across a memorial sign for a tragic incident from over half a century ago. When I got back I did a little research and would recommend others do so as well. Six Boy Scouts attempted to summit what was called Mount Baldy back then on a clear November day. A freak blizzard struck the area and three of them never made it home.
After the saddle I headed back down towards the trailhead on the Old Baldy Trail. It wasn’t as steep as the Vault Mine Trail but it did lose a couple thousand feet over a little more than two miles.
Not too far down I ran across this little fella. Coatimundi’s are native to Southern Arizona. This was the first one I’ve seen and this was the best shot I could get of him. They’re a little shy.
I enjoyed walking down hill through the hardwood forest. By now I was in for over five hours. I know that’s a long time for a six and a half mile hike, but I took my time, after all what’s the hurry.
Looking back towards the mountains I was treated to a view of a half moon rising above them. Not a bad way to finish up a long hike.
Just before I made it back to the trailhead I passed by this sign that let me know I had been in a wilderness area. That wasn’t really a surprise.
Near the trailhead I was back down in the bed of the dry creek with it’s variety of trees. Also I ran across all those darn turkeys again.
It was one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve been on and I only scratched the surface as far as exploring this gem of a hiking place.
If I get a chance I will go back. There is a trail called the Super Loop that’s a little longer with more elevation gain. If I feel frisky, I’d like to try and make it to Baldy Saddle at 8700 feet.
