Part 23 - Douglas Springs Trail.
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| A giant Saguaro guarding the slopes on the upper section of Douglas Springs Trail. |
Since we had left Tucson in May of 2018, we had been craving our favorite Mom and Pop restaurant. Poco and Mom's is a great little Cantina, serving New Mexican food, and is only open for Brunch hours at the location closest to us. So we made this our first stop in the morning. I filled up on chile relleno breakfast burritos and Jenny had her usual Silver City Breakfast.
This is a very cozy building with outside seating. There is a 2nd location on Tanque Verde Road, which has more seating and is open longer hours. Look 'em up if you are in town:
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| Poco and Mom's original location on Kolb Rd. |
We decided that the Douglas Springs Trail would be a great place for our first hike since returning to Tucson. The trail head is located at the East end of Speedway Blvd and takes you into the Saguaro National Park. There are several trails that spiderweb through the area, as you can see from the map below.
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| Map posted at the Douglas Springs Trail Head. |
Saguaro National Park East is home to this network of trails, and many others. You can find more details on the NPS website:
Most of these trails run through the flat, Bajada-style terrain at the base of the mountains. These trails would have been mostly flat, however, Douglas Springs provides access to the Rincon Highlands. As such, we were treated to a quick ascent that pushed our lungs to the limit. It felt good to be hiking in the mountains again, but it would have felt better to be hiking DOWNHILL.
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| It was an uphill battle...literally. |
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| Break stop. Tanque Verde Ridge can be seen creeping out in front of a cloudy Mt Lemmon. |
The trail levels off at 1.5 miles at an intersection with Carillo Trail before descending slightly to cross Douglas Springs Canyon. The trail really begins to climb here, and some of the rocks on the trail ended up being knee-high stairs for us to climb. Bring hiking poles!
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| Give me a sign. |
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| Ascending Douglas Springs. Turned around, facing West towards Tucson. |
The trail levels off again soon, and the canyon that was below you is now level with you. At this point you can walk out to the rocky canyon for a good break spot that has seasonal water to filter for drinking or cooking.
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| Douglas Springs Canyon, at higher elevations, can have water present. |
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| The first good access to water on Douglas Springs Trail. |
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| A sycamore tree that has made this little water hole its home. |
By the time you make it up to this elevation, you can really feel the change in climate as the temps drop and the wind speed increases. Cactus were less and less frequent and wildflowers like these were able to survive up here.
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| Wildflowers on Douglas Springs Trail. |
Our destination on this hike was Bridal Wreath Falls, but as we got closer, we could hear people back in the canyon. Our general reason for hiking is to get away from other humans, so we snuck off the trail and found this pool just downstream from the falls.
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| A secluded pool, off-trail, and downstream of the falls. |
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| Pool party! |
After waiting for the people to leave, we made our way over to the "falls". Big disappointment. Nothing but a small trickle of water. We will have to come back again for a better experience after some rains.
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| A very dry Bridal Wreath Falls. |
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| Beetle buddy |
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| Clouds can move in fast in the mountains. |
We found this sign right by the trail head. This, among other reasons, is why we almost always carry a firearm when hiking in the mountains.
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| Thankfully, no one caught the rabies. |
Reminds me of a song by Joe Strummer's pre-Clash project, the 101er's. Here ya go:
That's it for now, stay tuned for our next adventure posting Tuesday, September 3rd.
Until then, here's the last entry:
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