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.
BOOTS on the TRAIL 