Heidi and Bob live pretty close to Madera Canyon in Arizona’s Santa Rita Mountains. So after saying good-bye to them, we headed back up into the canyon to do a loop to Josephine Saddle, passing Rogers Rock along the way. I’d learned about the Rock from an AllTrails post and making a detour to it sounded like a nice way to add a viewpoint to our loop.
We went up the Super Trail #134 to Josephine Saddle, diverting to the Rock along the way. This feature is a massive boulder (or rock ledge) that protrudes out into the unnamed canyon just east of the trailhead. It’s big enough to stand-out on satellite imagery and made a great place to stop for a snack. 🙂 After reaching the Boy Scout Memorial at the saddle, we returned to the Mount Wrightson Trailhead on the Old Baldy #372 Trail. It was a perfect winter-in-the-desert day for a hike – clear, cool, bug-free, and sunny. Some snow still lingered higher up on Mount Wrightson but there were only short patches of it on the trails. We’d hoped to spot a trogon along the trail but had to settle for a colorful Pyrrhuloxia (a type of desert cardinal) instead.
After finishing the loop, we headed to the north side of Tucson to do some hikes there and also climb Picacho Peak.
