Arrived in Tucson safe and sound after the last connecting flight, a little boy kicked my seat for 2 hours....At any rate, got here without a hitch. The hotel I'm staying at is awesome! It's got shops and restaurants, pool(s) and is adjacent to the
Tucson Mountain Park. Since I am here for a meeting this week, and today is my travel day, I decided to make the most of it and explore the area a bit.
In all, I hiked about 3 miles in rolling scree terrain in 90+ degree heat. You know what the locals say, "But, it's a dry heat!" *rolls eyes*
First, I took the Bowen Trail...had to back-track 1/2 a mile of it from the intersection with the Yetman Trail. I saw and heard a variety of wildlife including a
Desert Cottontail, Burrowing Owl and I heard several
Gambel's Quail! I worked a summer in South Dakota monitoring burrowing owls so it was nice to see them again. Check out the dens made in the
Saguaro cactus that dominates the overstory of this ecosytem in some of my pictures below.
The second trail I took was the Lorraine Lee Hidden Canyon Trail which lived up to it's name and provided some nice landscape vistas as well as a heavenly breeze once I crested the ridge after a series of switchbacks to climb the face of the slope.
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| JW Marriott - Starr Pass |
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| Hotel again |
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| Ocotillo in the foreground with saguaro behind |
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| Hotel Parking lot |
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| A considerable amount of the trail looked like this, not too bad! |
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| Where I turned around to double-back on a 1/2 mile of the Bowen Trail |
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| And then the ascent in the heat with no wind! |
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| Tucson in the distance |
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| A little rockier now! |
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| Taking a break in the shade of a Jajoba (or something like that) |
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| Cresting the ridge, there was a heavenly breeze... |
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| Hidden Canyon |
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| The hotel at the end of my loop |
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| Water water everywhere? Anywhere? |
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