March 31, 2023 hike: Romero Canyon to Romero Pass and a bit up Mt Lemmon trail.
It was a beautiful day with bright sun all day, temps around 70 degrees and light to no wind.
The trail is very good now, with good trail surface (except near the Pass and even there it is a lot better), much recovered forest from the June 2020 Big Horn fire and very nice waterfalls from the wet winter.
A stunning mountain peak in the front-side of Pusch Ridge in the morning sun. This area has dramatic mountain views. This particular peak is on the south side of where Montrose Canyon and Romero Canyon come close together, about 2 miles from the trailhead. There is a lot of climbing on Pusch Ridge, which begins about a mile from the trailhead and climbs steeply for about a mile (700 vertical feet). The spectacular views make it worthwhile.
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 and 6 looks southeast from above 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. I met a fellow hiker from Canada at the Pass, who was hiking the Arizona Trail, which goes from the Mexican border to Utah and passes through this area. We agreed that it was much better to be in the sun and warmth at Romero Pass than back in Canada!
Photos 7-10 are some of the many waterfalls I came across during the day. Photo 7 shows a waterfall in lower Romero Canyon, not far from the photo 1 location. Photo 2 was taken at the upper Romero Pools. Photos 3 and 4 are videos that were taken on Romero creek in the forested section about 1-1.5 miles from Romero Pass.
Photo 11 shows a Mexican Jay near upper Romero Pools. These are the most frustrating birds. They are common in the mountains. You can hear their raucous calls, but they always fly out of photographing range. I caught this one on the extreme zoom setting of my new super-zoom camera.
Photo 12 is a later afternoon shot as I descended the Pusch Ridge mountains. You can see the incredible yellow blooming of the brittlebush going on currently and the lush lower elevation desert vegetation including the magnificent tall saguaro cacti.
Photos 13 and 14 show two of the many colorful wildflowers on display at this time of the year on this trail.
This hike was a great one thanks to the beautiful weather and the excellent trail. The scenery was spectacular, as always.
Hike stats: 14.5 miles round trip and 4,009 feet of elevation gain to a peak of 6,080 feet at Romero Pass in 7 hours 27 minutes of hiking/trail running (6 hours 4 minutes excluding lunch and photo taking time).
