Best Hiking Shoes of 2024: Unveiling Our Top 5 Favorites for Men and Women

What’s more thrilling than scaling the summit of a skyscraping mountain and catching picturesque scenery in front of your eyes? That’s the beauty of hiking. However, whether it’s a simple, one-day hike or a complex multi-day hike, there are some requisites you mustn’t forget if you want to have a safe excursion. Besides a water…

Planning and Prepping for the Sky Islands Traverse

Planning and Prepping for the Sky Islands Traverse Those of us who dwell in southern Arizona are familiar with Sky Islands – the forested archipelago at the tops of the mountains, isolated from one another by a surrounding sea of desert. The Rincons, Catalinas, and Santa Ritas are known to Tucsonans, but there are actually…

West Fork Backpacking

I sometimes wander back to the maps area at Summit Hut and stare at all the amazing trails around Tucson that I haven’t yet explored. For months, I’ve had my eye on the West Fork trail between Sabino Canyon and Romero Pass. The trail traverses the massive and remote Sabino Basin, flanked by the Catalina…

Gates into the Green

This is part 3 in a series of posts on the Sky Island Traverse – previous post: A Windmill to the West. The Curtis Windmill is now a familiar landmark along Highway 80, but not a place to linger – after parking I gather my gear enter the sea of Creosote thru the western gate….

A Windmill to the West

This is part 2 in a series of posts on the Sky Island Traverse – previous post: Sky Island Dreaming, next post: Gates into the Green. From Cochise Stronghold the Sky Island Traverse travels west to Highway 80 and then on to the San Pedro – for this section we departed from the published route…

Sky Island Dreaming

The Sky Island Traverse is one of the most inspirational hiking routes that I have ever come across – Brett Tucker, the author of the route, described it this way in March of 2011: “A route of my own making along ten of the region’s standout ranges and across the adjoining valleys, with an eye…

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…

Hiking Report: January

As I write this, December 31, 2012; Tucson and the surrounding mountain ranges are being pelted with rain and snow. as I look from the Summit Hut door to the North, The Catalinas are being blanketed with snow to about 4000 feet. What a spectacular place we live and know that conditions can change on…

Hiking Report: December

Editor’s Note: The Summit Hut Hiking Report is a new feature to the Summit Hut blog. Along with our typical great content (gear reviews, trail descriptions, travel stories, etc.) we will be publishing a monthly Hiking Report with a quick look at some of the key tips, gear and destinations for the season. Let’s face…