Catalinas - Romero Canyon

December 22, 2022 hike: Romero Canyon to Romero Pass and a half mile down West Fork Trail.

I hadn't been out on Romero for eight months. Would it be better than my experiences over the past couple of years? The trail was badly marred by the aftermath of the Big Horn Fire. Specifically, the upper part of the trail had turned into a mess of brambles and fallen trees and the trail was incredibly difficult to follow. It felt like I'd spent the day as a participant in the gladiator pits of ancient Rome after hikes in the past couple of years, although they were still fun because the trail is so fundamentally satisfying.

Anyway, I was in for a huge positive surprise. The Rangers and volunteers have done a great job! The brambles and fallen trees are gone and the trail is fairly easy to follow. It is still difficult at the very top, due to steepness and erosion, but the trail experience is much improved.

And, I got very lucky on the day, especially considering it was the second shortest day of the year. The weather was perfect: temps in the low 60s, sunshine all day and very light winds. Perfect for hiking in light running gear, even at Romero Pass (which can be very windy and cold). I was able to run a lot of the trail. One downside was that the sun was so low that a lot of the best views were in the shade. I think this trail is best done in Febrary-April, but the sights were still pretty amazing per the pictures.

I'm a sucker for this view. Every time I see it, it stuns me! Photo 1 shows a rugged peak in the front-side of Pusch Ridge in the morning sun. This area has dramatic mountain views.

Photo 2 is a video taken after climbing over the Pusch Ridge mountains and just before one begins to descend to Romero Pools. This is about 2.8 miles from the trailhead. The video pans from the north to the south, first looking at Sutherland Ridge, then Romero Canyon, followed by a beautiful conical mountain that marks the start of the south side wall of Romero Canyon, then Montrose Canyon and finally one of the peaks of Pusch Ridge. As you can see, the mountains are very rugged and dramatic in this area.

Photo 3 looks at the dramatic gorge about 4 miles from the tailhead. This is a reward for climbing a fairly steep section in the middle of Romero Canyon.

Photo 4 was taken a short distance up Romero Canyon from photo 3. It looks south up a canyon that leads to Window Peak (the high mountains in the right of the photo) and Cathedral Rock (the tallest mountain on the left side of the photo). Cathedral Rock is the highest on the south side of the Catalina mountains that face Tucson, reaching 7,957 feet, while Window Peak is the second highest point, reaching 7,468 feet. The small saddle just slightly to the right of center of the photo (low point in the ridge) is the top of Esperero Canyon trail, while Window Peak is on the Esperero Canyon trail just to the east of where it joins the Ventana Canyon trail.

Photo 5 shows one of the strange hoodoo rock formations found throughout the Southwest. I liken this one to T-Rex climbing the mountain. This is located close to the final ascent to Romero Pass.

Photo 6 looks southeast from Romero Pass. The canyon is the West Fork of the Sabino Recreational Area (a very back country area of Sabino that rarely sees visitors as it is well over 10 miles from the visitor center of Sabino). The mountains in the right foreground are part of the ridge of the high peaks of the east end of the front side of the Catalinas (Cathedral Rock area). The mountains in the far background are the Rincons.

Photo 7 is a video that pans across the West Fork canyon. You can see the snow-capped Rincon mountains in the distance at the start of the video and later Mount Rincon in the distance and the Tanque Verde range in the near backgound. After panning across the West Fork canyon, the camera follows the west side of the canyon, which has some snow and leads to the rocky peaks near the Cathedral Rock area.

Photo 8 is a late afternoon shot of the gorge area in the central part of Romero Canyon.

Photo 9 is a later afternoon shot looking back on the Pusch Ridge mountains as I descended.

Photo 10 shows how steep the trail can be in the Pusch Ridge part of the trail. The flat area at the left side of the picture leads to the trailhead.

This hike was a great one thanks to the beautiful weather and the much improved trail. The scenery was spectacular, as always.

Hike stats: 15.0 miles round trip and 4,009 feet of total climbing including all the ups and downs on the trail (3,300 foot elevation gain to a peak of 6,080 feet at Romero Pass) in 7 hours 1 minutes of hiking/trail running (5 hours 55 minutes excluding lunch and photo taking time).