Oracle State Park entrance It feels really good to help a state park, especially considering all of the funding cuts and closures they’ve had to work around in the past years. Oracle State Park was closed for two years after the state legislature cut the park system’s operating budget. There has been much effort being…
Category: Activities
Paradise Found
This is how much I love Paradise Forks, a climbing area at the upper reaches of Sycamore Canyon about an hour outside Flagstaff: when friends and I were driving the four hours from Tucson to get there, we didn’t even turn on the radio; we just bounced up and down on the car seats yelling,…
Incinerator Ridge Trail, Kellogg Trail, Mount Bigelow
In 2012 an extension to the Incinerator Ridge Trail was completed that connects the existing trail to the San Pedro Vista. This extension is a short – but important – addition to the trail system in the Santa Catalina Mountains. It provides a useful link between trails outside of the Pusch Ridge Wilderness lower on…
Lizard Rock
Lizard Rock in the Santa Catalina Mountains – picture taken near the Bug Spring Trail above Bear Canyon ‘Big’ adventures/plans are everywhere at the Summit Hut – just today I heard from my friends at the Summit Hut about: the Grand to Grand Ultra, training for the Javelina Jundred, two different upcoming trips to Mount…
Hiking Report: February
February in Tucson and in Southern Arizona tend to be a great time to get outdoors to play in your favorite venue. Whether it is hiking, biking, trail running or simply just getting outside to enjoy the weather and awesome landscape to relieve the stresses of our everyday lives. One of the things that we…
Sycamore Reservoir Trail
Have you hiked on the Arizona Trail? If not you might be surprised to learn that there are great opportunities to experience a day hike on the AZT that are only a short drive from Tucson! One of my favorite sections of the AZT is the Sycamore Reservoir Trail. Looking down into the Sycamore Reservoir…
2012 Cave Creek Thriller and McDowell Mountain Frenzy
30k Start at the 2012 Cave Creek Thriller October 2012: 3:12:57 and 12.4 miles into the Cave Creek Thriller I reached the Start/Finish line aid station – my first 30k race was not going exactly as I imagined. My stomach rebelled during the first lap, I was tired and hot and I thought about dropping…
8000M Challenge & Big City Mountaineers
Each year, a team from Summit Hut joins about 150 of our closest outdoor friends for a heart-pounding, 38-mile day hike! The goal is to summit 3 of the tallest peaks in Southern California in under 24 hours. It’s an incredible physical challenge, but it’s also an amazing experience. The camaraderie between stores that are…
Mt Humphrey’s Sunrise Summit
We left Tucson around 3pm headed for Flagstaff. We had two options for our hike. We could either find a campsite, get a good night’s sleep and start early in the morning OR we were considering having dinner, getting a few hours of sleep and starting around midnight, putting us at the summit around sunrise….
Pusch Peak
The trail to Pusch Peak from the west (the Northwest Side Route) is nicely documented in this blog post by Dave Baker – but, like most destinations, there is more than one route to the top! One other option is the ‘Southeast Ridge Route’ described in “The Santa Catalina Mountains: A Guide to the Trails…