January 4, 2023 hike: Esperero Canyon to near the end of Geronimo Meadows (5.5 miles from the Sabino Canyon Visitor Center parking lot).
It was a beautiful sunny day with minimal breeze and temps in the low 60s at the base, perfect hiking weather. I hiked the trail with a fellow hiking enthusiast. Good weather and company made for a great day!
Photo 1 looks northeast up Rattlesnake Canyon toward McFall Crag (the large mountain peak dominating the center of the photo) from maybe a half mile up from the Sabino Canyon road. This is spectacular saguaro country.
Photo 2 is a video panning across the steep lower section of Esperero Canyon, taken from the top of Cardiac Gap. The video starts looking at the "meadows" and rocky ridges of the eastern flank of the canyon, then looks straight south down the canyon itself and finally follows the grassy hillside and rocky ridges of the western side of the canyon. You can see Tucson to the south through much of the video and in the distance the Santa Rita mountains to the south of Tucson. Note that Cardiac Gap is an aptly-named steep hill that gives a good workout to a great viewpoint at the top of the lower section of Esperero Canyon. Most hikers do not go beyond Cardiac Gap.
For photo 3, I turned around from my photo 2 viewpoint and looked north into the high country of upper Esperero Canyon. As noted above, most hikers do not go into this area, although it is highly worth it. There are beautiful woods, dramatic rockfaces and spectacular bowls in the upper part of the canyon. The mountain in the center of the picture is Cathedral Rock, the highest point on the front side of the Catalinas facing Tucson. Cathedral Rock rises to 7,952 feet.
Photos 4 to 6 show a dramatic rock face on the east canyon wall. The shots were taken in Geronimo Meadow, a lovely treed section a mile or so long in the middle of the high country part of Esperero Canyon. Photo 4 shows the whole rock face. Photo 5 highlights a rock that looks like Dino from the Flintstones cartoon of the 1960s. Photo 6 shows another hoodoo rock that looks like a crusty old man.
Photo 7 looks south down the broad bowl of Esperero Canyon, just above Cardiac Gap. You can see the Cardiac Gap saddle on the ridgeline at the far left of the photo; you can see a faint trail line leading to the Cardiac Gap saddle on the hillside at the extreme left of the photo. Again, you can see Tucson to the south of the mountains and the Santa Rita mountains in the far distance on the left side of the photo and the Quinlan (Kitt Peak) and Baboquivari mountain chains in the distance in the right-center of the photo.
Photos 8 and 9 show Esperero creek tumbling down a steep slope, with some nice waterfalls. This part of the creek is located on the western side (right side) of the broad bowl shown in photo 7.
Photo 10 looks at the southern ridge of Sabino Canyon from near the bottom of the Esperero Canyon trail. You can see the Phoneline trail, traversing the side of the southern ridge of Sabino Canyon. The Blackett's Ridge trail traverses the top of the sourthern ridge of Sabino Canyon to the point just to the left of the center of the photo. You can see this is beautiful saguaro country.
All-in-all, it was a great hike. There is nothing better than a great trail, great weather and great company!
Hiking stats: 10.9 miles with 2,864 vertical feet in 6 hours 23 minutes (5 hours 19 minutes excluding photo taking and lunch time).
