After taking a day to travel and visit friends (and give The LovedOne’s knee a rest), we selected as our fourth hike this year in Arizona a short loop (4 miles round-trip; 900 feet of elevation gain) in the Pusch Ridge Wilderness in the Santa Catalina Mountains immediately east of Tucson. Starting from the Marshall Gulch Trailhead near Summerhaven and Mount Lemmon, we ascended the Marshall Gulch Trail #3 and returned via the Aspen Trail #93, all at an altitude over 7,500 feet. The Marshall Gulch Trail is a small part of the 800-mile Arizona National Scenic Trail which traverses the state from Utah to Mexico. This pleasant hike gave us a change of pace from the saguaros of the Sonoran Desert below and a chance to experience Canadian Zone riparian areas and Ponderosa pine forests. It also didn’t put too much strain on The LovedOne’s fragile knee. This is apparently a very popular area, so we were lucky to be able to hike it on a weekday (yet the parking lot was almost full when we got back!).
BOOTS on the TRAIL 
Around Tucson, you can have cactus in the morning and pines in the afternoon! Lots of hiking to be had there.
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Looks a little more like Oregon than the other hikes. Trees are good!
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