Aravaipa Canyon is one of the best kept secrets in Southern Arizona. With its towering canyon walls, lush vegetation, abundance of wildlife, and the ever flowing Aravaipa Creek, it is a wonderland waiting to be explored. Aravaipa Canyon is a protected Wilderness Area. Only 50 people a day are allowed to enter the 12 mile…
Category: Activities
Campfire Cookin’
Spending time around a campfire with friends and family is a great way to spend a relaxing weekend. It’s made even better when there is delicious food to share! Cooking on a campfire may seem intimidating at first, but planning well can make it feel just as easy as cooking at home. Our Summit Hut…
The Best Places to See the Desert in Bloom
Picacho Peak State Park Happy Spring! If you haven’t already noticed, the wildflowers are out in full force in the Sonoran Desert. Driving around Tucson, you can see Mexican gold poppies, desert marigolds, brittlebush, desertbells, and scorpionweed, all bursting with color. Picacho Peak State Park There are many accessible parks and open space to view…
Kathy Simko’s Arizona Trail Trek – Entry 7 – The Last Leg
The last leg of my AZT adventure – Flagstaff to Utah- was both eventful and spectacular. On the morning of May 13th (Day 53), my two travelling companions and I, met up at the corner of Ponderosa Pkwy and Route 66 in Flagstaff and headed northward, stocked to the gills as our provisions needed to…
Kathy Simko’s Arizona Trail Trek – Entry 6 – Cold & Wet In The North
As we began the second half of the Mazatzal’s, the weather turned wet and cold. Cutting wind, rain and hail became part of the normal routine and we all started to feel and look ragged and trail-weary. Furthermore, we hadn’t had a shower or clean clothes for fifteen days…”EW!” Swimming in a lake sure does…
Kathy Simko’s Arizona Trail Trek – Entry 5 – The Irony of the Black Hills & Even More Good People
The Hobo Trio continued northward from American Flag Trailhead. We learned from Marney that we were EFI’ers (Every freakin’ inch). We were extremely aware and diligent to walk every inch of the AZT, making sure not to cut corners and to go back and start exactly where we left off. Late in the day on…
Kathy Simko’s Arizona Trail Trek – Entry 4 – More Good People
On the morning of April 2nd, Dave Baker drove us back to the exact spot we exited the trail two days earlier. Dave Boyd joined us as we cruised through the Rincon Mountains, camping at the beautiful Grass Shack site, which was equipped with a babbling brook. The next day, we split off from Dave…
Kathy Simko’s Arizona Trail Trek – Entry 3 – Good People Along the Way
Now that the “Gurus of Trail Angelism,” Dave & Dave, were totally onboard, things started to smooth out a bit for me. Campsite outside Patagonia with Mt. Wrightson in the background I woke up the morning after the Patagonia resupply just in time to meet two other thru-hikers ambling up Temporal Gulch Rd. David Kurneta…
Kathy Simko’s Arizona Trail Trek – Entry 2 – A Shaky Start
Almost everybody has many demands on their time; I am in this group. Long story short, I started the AZT exhausted. Because I was exhausted, I needed some rest and therefore got a late start leaving Tucson for the trailhead in Mexico. Thankfully, I was well organized ahead of time, so it could have been…
Kathy Simko’s Arizona Trail Trek – Entry 1 – The Journey Begins
Hi there! This is Kathy Simko and I am employed full-time by the Summit Hut. I am usually fitting feet in the footwear department, but currently I am thru-hiking the Arizona Trail, which traverses Arizona 800 miles from the border of Mexico to the border of Utah, and my trail name is Utah Zuke. I…