After Meeting the Saguaro at Saguaro National Park, we returned a few more times for additional hikes. The park is divided into a west area and east area (with Tucson in the middle). The west side is the Tucson Mountain District, and the east side is the Rincon Mountain District. Lisa and I can attest to the fact that they are both outstanding for either a slow drive through or stopping for a hike or two. We made a couple of trips to each section and did some easy hikes and some more difficult ones.

Tucson Mountain District Hikes

Lisa previously posted about our first couple of hikes in the west area of Saguaro National Park — the easy Signal Hill trail with its petroglyphs and the strenuous Hugh Norris trail that goes nearly straight up with stone steps built into the side of a mountain. After 2 1/2 miles of stair stepping up on that one, we were happy to call it quits and began our descent after reaching one of the lower peaks (3,520 feet). Coming down is easier on the heart, but harder on the knees.

Lisa captured some cool plant pictures from this area:

On another occasion, we started on the King Canyon Trail with the goal of reaching the top of Wesson Peak (4,687 feet). It was another beautiful day for a hike and the 360-degree view from the peak was well worth the effort. We took an alternative route for our descent from this mountain and came across an abandoned mine. The opening had been covered with a steel grating and there was a strong smell of sulfur wafting out it.

Rincon Mountain District Hikes

For our first hike on the east side of Saguaro National Park, we parked at Mica View. We started down the trail located here and found it to be a fairly flat and easy one that took us out amongst the desert cacti. The saguaros are a lot less dense in this district than the west side, but they are still plentiful. We saw our first crested saguaro here which is a fairly rare thing saguaros may do with unknown (genetic, frost, infection?) causes.

This hike took us on a long loop that traversed multiple trails going various directions. This is one of the best parts about the trails here. You can hop on different trails to make your total hike longer or shorter as needed.

For our next outing to the east side, we wanted a trail with more elevation than our previous hike here. For this hike, we bypassed the visitor center and drove city streets around to the northern side of the park and started at the Douglas Spring trailhead. We had planned to hike to the Bridal Wreath Falls (even though they are dry this time of year), but ran out of steam 1/3 mile from our goal (the rising elevation near the mountains meant lots and lots of stone steps) and turned around to head back to the van.

For our final Saguaro National Park hike we rode with Paul and Roxann out to the east side again. We took an easy hike through the Cactus Forest where we saw various lime kilns. According to the signage, the lime kilns here “were probably built during the last quarter of the 19th century and provided quicklime for construction activities in Tucson.” We also made a stop at the Javelina Rocks and enjoyed climbing over, on, and around these unique rock formations.