Catalinas - Esperero

December 4, 2020 hike: Esperero Canyon in the northwest of the Sabino recreational area.

This is a really long (14 miles), vertical (almost 3,400 feet to the Cathedral Rock Trail intersection) and tough hike. I felt crippled after the hike, in a good way.

There was great hiking weather (mid-60s, sunny and relatively calm) and no one on the high mountains, which start about half way up the trail.

As with other trails, there is some fire damage and this contributes to making it very challenging to find the trail at times.

I had a couple animal sightings including a couple of young male deer and per the last photo, a hog nose skunk. I was trail running and rounded a curve and there was the skunk. I stopped and jumped back. The skunk seemed unconcerned and wasn't about to stop its digging by the trail. It obviously knew it held all the aces and was ready to go all in. I bushwhacked around the skunk, who was last sighted contentedly digging.

Photo 1 was taken about half way up the trail. To get here, hikers ramble through the western side of the Sabino Canyon Recreational Area, up and down several rocky hills. This continues for about a quarter of the trail, until one crosses lower Esperero creek and then the ascent really begins up the steep lower Esperero Canyon. This picture was taken just before the "Cardiac Gap", which zig zags up a steep wall separating the lower canyon from the high country.

Photo 2 shows the view from the top of "Cardiac Gap". Few hikers go much beyond this point. You can see the Santa Rita mountains, which flank the south side of Tucson in the far distance.

Photo 3 shows the massive rock face of the east wall of the canyon beside Geronimo Meadows. This is a beautifully forested section with relatively flat trails.

Photo 4 shows the twin pillar peaks that top the rock wall in photo 3. These pillars are focal points from most of the top half of the canyon. Note also the very tall Ponderosa pine in the shade in the lower center of the picture. These can be towering and have long fine needles. It is hard to believe that these tree giants are just a couple hours up a trail from the generally-low vegetation of the low desert.

Photo 5 shows the hog nose skunk - a very stylish skunk!

Another great day!

Hiking stats: about 14 miles with roughly 3,400 feet of vertical to a peak of 6,130 feet. Long and a fair bit of vertical.