Tucson Mtns - Hugh Norris Trail

March 11, 2022 hike: Hugh Norris trail to Wasson Peak. This was done in conjunction with hiking the King Canyon Loop trail, which partially overlaps in the high mountain part of the trails.

The weather was beautifully sunny with temps in the mid-60s, but there was a moderate cool wind that kept it fresh all day. Nice weather for hiking!

The trail is a lot easier than the Catalina trails. It is much smoother, better marked, shorter and less steep. It is rated moderate by most trail apps, which seems about right.

Photo 1 is a photo looking up the mini-canyon near the Hugh Norris trailhead, with the moon rising in the beautiful blue sky above the left notch in the canyon peak.

Photo 2 is a video looking at the trailhead area of Hugh Norris trail. It is fairly steep here with a beautiful mini-canyon and extensive stands of Saguaro.

Photo 3 shows a rounded boulder and desert scene along Hugh Norris trail, along with some of the many stairs in the lower part of this trail.

Photo 4 is an attempt at coming up with an iconic shot of the region: Saguaro, peak and the moon in an azure sky. I shot this with my iPhone's Vivid Cool setting, which gives the Saguaro and rocks a white effect and deepens the sky color. The shot was taken along the lower part of the Hugh Norris trail.

Photo 5 shows a beautiful rock outcropping and incredible blue sky along the mid-section of the Hugh Norris trail.

Photo 6 looks at some of the beautiful ridges on the mid-section of the Hugh Norris trail.

Photo 7 looks northwest from the mid-point of the Hugh Norris trail. The photo shows typical low desert vegetation on the desert floor and the small mountain outcroppings typical of this area. The slightly higher mountain range in the distance is the Tortolita range, which is the northern boundary of the Tucson exurb, Oro Valley.

Photo 8 looks southwest down King Canyon from near the top of the Hugh Norris trail.

Photo 9 looks south down the spine of the Tucson mountains from Wasson Peak. The Santa Rita mountains are in the distance.

Photo 10 is a video from Wasson Peak. It starts looking north up Oro Valley, pans across the Catalina's and then the Rincons in the east, continuing south to the Santa Ritas in the distance and the Tucson mountains in the foreground, then toward the west looking across the valley to the west of Tucson and the mountain ranges beyond it.

Photos 11-17 show some of the wildflowers along the trail. The wildflower season is really starting to get underway, but I think we are probably 2-4 weeks from the peak.

It was a beautiful day. The great views were excellent and the weather made the hiking quite nice. The only downside was that it was very busy - more than 10 people on Wasson Peak at lunch.

Hike stats: 8.9 miles with 2,398 feet of vertical to a peak of 4,688 feet in about 4 hours. As with many of my other hikes in 2021/22, extensive photo and video taking added significant time to the hike.