| Thursday night - Saturday morning: Madera Canyon | ||
| After I got my rental car, a Ford Escape, I drove about an hour south to Madera Canyon. It is located in the Coronado National Forest. The campgrounds at Bog Springs were very nice. On Friday, I hiked up to the top of Mt. Wrightson, the highest peak around at 9453 feet. The hike was 14.9 miles. On Saturday, I tried to climb Mt. Hopkins on the Vault Mine trail. There were several pieces of old mining equipment strewn along the trail, including the large boiler in the pictures. The trail was poorly maintained, though, and I lost track of it a few miles up. I ended up cutting across the canyon back to where I had been on Friday. The hike was 10.3 miles. I saw fewer than ten people on the trails both days I was there, combined. | ||
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| Sunday night - Monday morning: Mt. Lemmon | ||
| My knee started to hurt by the end of the Wasson Peak hike, so I decided to drive up Mt. Lemmon on Monday. I spent the night at the Molino Basin campground around 5000 feet up. It got very cold that night. Once you get up to the top, above 9000 feet, there is (occasionally) enough snow to go skiing. I also saw the site of a wildfire from last summer. Lunch at the Iron Door Restaurant was entertaining - I think my waiter was having a very slow day. | ||
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| Monday night - Tuesday: Tucson | ||
| For my last night in Arizona, I got a room at the Ramada Inn. The big selling point for me, after 36.6 miles, was the hot tub. I ate dinner next door at a place called Fuego!; the ostrich, crepe bananas foster dessert and Silkwood Syrah were excellent. My flight out was on Tuesday morning. |
