Another Day at Sabino Canyon

You can hike a new trail around Tucson everyday if you want to.  We had been to Sabino Canyon a last time we were in here three years ago and wanted to see it again.  There are lots of trails over there and it was another perfect day for a hike.

We packed a lunch and got there late morning.

We checked out the trail map board and decided we needed one of our own.

Inside we spoke with a volunteer at the desk and before we left with our map, Pam asked, "Do you know Judy who is a volunteer here?".   This place is so big and there are lots and lots of volunteers so it was a little bit of a long shot.  But she said, "Judy just walked into the presentation on the Mountain Lion about two minutes ago."

So we found the room and took a back seat and listened to the presentation.  We probably would have never done so otherwise.

We learned a lot about the mountain lion and found Judy too.  She was there and works as a volunteer there at the National Park Service.  We hadn't seen her in since our last time in Tucson three years ago.

One of her responsibilities here is to walk the trails and she had flexibility to join us for a little while.

She helped us pick out a hike along a few trails that joined and did a loop into the desert up the mountain and back.

And off we went!

The desert is beautiful!

After a while, Judy had to go and we continued on up the mountain.  Along the way, we found a good place for a picnic lunch and we took a rest stop before hitting the trail again.

 The trails were pretty well marked.  Though we saw lots of people at the Visitor Center, we didn't run into to too many people along the trail which was nice.  Out there in the great wide open spaces...

 We were glad we brought out little map because it would be easy to tack on an extra couple of miles if we didn't pay attention.  Lots of options out there.

There were a number of different views and scenery along the way.  We went through canyon arroyos, up the side of the mountain, over and along the river (small creek) of Sabino Canyon and near the small dam.

Can you pick out the cacti growing out of the rock canyon wall?  And another unexpected sight -

Ducks!  In the desert? - yep, not far from Sabino Dam.

And we finished up the hike joining up with another trail taking us back to the Visitor Center and parking lot.

It was a great day in the Arizona desert.  And makes us want to go on another hike.  And we made plans to see Judy again.

That is it for this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Until next time...