February 7, 2022 hike: Esperero Canyon to the Esperero-Cathedral Rock Trails intersection (near the top of Esperero Canyon).
It was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the low-mid 60s at the base, perfect hiking weather. The only issue was strong gusts, especially on the low desert and at the top.
Photo 1 looks northeast toward the peaks from maybe a half mile up from the Sabino Canyon road. This is spectacular saguaro country.
Photo 2 was taken fairly soon after photo 1, looking up a magnificent saguaro-studded hill.
Photo 3 looks down from the top of the lower canyon (at the top of the aptly-named Cardiac Gap). Most hikers stop here and the real back-country starts on the other side of the hill. This is about half way up the trail.
Photo 4 shows the forest in Geronimo Meadow, a lovely treed section a mile or so long.
Photo 5 looks at the dramatic east canyon wall from Geronimo Meadow.
Photo 6 looks at the twin-spire peaks on the east wall of the canyon. These peaks are above the rock structures shown in photo 5. You can see the snow-capped Rincon mountains to the southeast in the left side of the picture.
Photo 7 is a video of the huge bowl that makes up the upper part of Esperero Canyon. The climbing is quite steep here - definitely an awesome cardio workout!
Photo 8 is a video of the large bowl just above Cardiac Gap. You can see Tucson beyond the mountains and the Santa Rita mountains in the distance beyond Tucson.
Photo 9 looks out at the ridge of the Tanque Verde mountains in the late afternoon sun. The Tanque Verde Ridge Trail starts at the bottom of the Tanque Verde mountains just beyond the right edge of the photo and makes it way along the ridge to Tanque Verde peak, which is the highest point on the range (a little way from the left edge of the photo). The Tanque Verde Ridge Trail is beautiful but very long to the peak (about 9 miles).
Photos 10-13 show some of the few wildflowers out. There were a fair number of the purple verbena flowers along the trail (photos 10 and 11).
All-in-all, it was a great hike. Esperero is a really good workout, given its length and significant vertical.
Hiking stats: about 14 miles with about 3,400 vertical feet to a peak of 6,130 feet. Long and good vertical.
