Wednesday’s hike took the hiking group south of Tucson to Green Valley where we headed up into the Coronado National Forest in some mountains. The main road takes you up into a canyon to a camping and picnic area at the end and then back out again, so there are no scenic loop drives in this canyon. There are several parking areas at several trail heads. The trails can range in elevation but one group chose the 650’ elevation, and the other chose the 850’ elevation trail. You can hike much higher but these were the hikes the group chose for this week.
What a beautiful area! It was 10 degrees cooler so the hike was just very easy and pleasant. We were up out of the desert, so the landscape was totally different. We thought we were in the mountains of Yellowstone! So drastically different from the desert! There were mostly tress and rock formations plus openings along the trail as we went up that gave us fantastic views of the valley below. Everything was so nice and green.
Of course we stopped half way on the hike and had our break, then we hiked the road back down to the parking lot. I think that was the hard part! Constantly going down an incline for 1 1/2 miles is rough on the backs of the legs and the knees. The path on our first part of the hike was along the side of the mountains in the picture below.
Along the road down are a few bed and breakfast places plus cabins and areas for birding. We even saw a deer down in a gully. One of the birding areas is set up by the local Audubon Society with lots of feeders and even a covered shaded area where people can sit and watch the birds. Fun to watch! So I got a few pictures of hummingbirds, finches, woodpecker, and even a squirrel (he was picking up the fallen bird seed!) We all had a good time on such a nice hike in such a pretty area near Tucson. Only one more hike left for the season…..
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