Rincons - Tanque Verde Ridge

Jan 20, 2022 hike: Tanque Verde Ridge Trial to Tanque Verde Peak.

Tanque Verde Ridge Trial is in the south end of the Eastern section of Saguaro National Park.

The Tanque Verde Ridge is an east-west mountain range that intersects the north-south Rincon Mountains roughly in the middle of the Rincons. The fact that the two ranges intersect at roughly a right angle gives the Rincons their name ("Corner" in Spanish).

The trail is long (9 miles to Tanque Verde Peak, with much more hiking possible beyond that) and quite high (3,900 vertical feet to the 7,051 foot top of Tanque Verde Peak). Thankfully, the trail is reasonably smooth, so it is possible to cover a lot of distance in a reasonably short time, especially if one takes advantage of the significant trail-running opportunities. I did the full 18 mile round trip in roughly the same time it took me to do the 10 miles of the Finger Rock to Mount Kimball trail a couple of weeks ago, thanks to the much smoother trail at Tanque Verde.

The day was good for hiking with mid-60s weather, a lot of sun and calm winds. Unfortunately, there were some clouds anchored to the peaks, which blocked the sun in the vicinity of Tanque Verde Peak (about 2 hours of my hiking).

Photos 1 and 2 show the very nice low-desert vegetation and rock structures. This part of Saguaro Park East is nicer than the low desert section in the north part of Saguaro Park East near the Douglas Spring trail.

Photo 3 looks across the mid-altitude grass and low tree section of the trail. The large mountain in the background in Rincon Peak, the highest mountain in the south Rincons at nearly 8,500 feet and the second highest peak in the whole Rincon/Tanque Verde range.

Photo 4 looks northwest from Tanque Verde Peak. You can see most of the Catalina range with northeast and north Tucson in the foreground.

Photo 5 looks southeast from Tanque Verde Peak. This provides a closeup of Rincon Peak, which is heavily forested in its upper elevations.

Photo 6 shows the Catalinas in the glorious afternoon sun from a mid-elevation vantage point on the return trip.

Photo 7 looks down at the lower steep section of the trail, near the end of the day.

My final verdict is this is a great new trail to add to my repertoire. It has significant distance and vertical, making for a great workout. And, it is smooth enough to enable a hiker to cover the distance and vertical relatively quickly. The views of the city and mountains are excellent from most of the trail. The only issue was the cloud anchored over the mountains, which made for a shady and cool peak climb - I suspect this is often the case in the Rincon-Tanque Verde ranges, based on my hiking in this area.

Hike stats: 18 miles with about 3,900 feet of vertical to a peak of 7,040 feet in 6 hours 11 minutes.