From Catalina State Park (link here) we drove to Picacho Peak State Park. On a clear day, its 3,374 ft spire can be seen from downtown Tucson which is nearly 45 miles away.
Most people that have heard of Picacho Peak know three things about it
-
- It has a vast array of wildflowers in the spring
- It was the site of the second westernmost battle of the Civil War
- It’s the site of the largest Arizona Civil War battle
We didn’t go to Picacho for any of those reasons. We went because my mom said it was one of my stepdad’s favorite places to climb and he completed the climb well into his 60s. Gauntlet thrown.
I was nervous in the days prior to the hike because I’d read that it was not only steep and rated as difficult, but that portions of the trail were describe as “precarious”, requiring hikers to use catwalks as well as cables in certain sections. Gloves are highly recommended.
As I’ve said before, I’m a follow-all-the-rules kinda girl that made my living doing risk reward analysis and advising against high risk for medical device companies. I’ve never played a sport I excelled at and if faced with a zombie apocalypse, I’d grab my coffee mug and a martini shaker first. This all boils down to being pretty risk adverse, a bit uncoordinated, and at times, a little too city…so Picacho Peak is not a hike I was looking forward to.
So how’d it go? Well…I’m here to write the blog so I guess fantastic!
We started Pichacho Peak’s Hunter Trail early in the morning because it was already April in Arizona and the base of the trail has very little, if any, shade. It’s not obvious from a distance but Picacho climbs, has a center saddle, and then climbs again to its apex. As we hiked higher and higher towards the saddle, I could see some of the large wire cables that are needed later but just keep chanting “don’t freak out” as I continued to place one foot in front of the other.
Reaching the saddle felt like a huge milestone…and it was. It’s also a great place to turn around if you aren’t fully committed to the remainder of the hike. I grabbed my courage and shook its little neck, bitch slapped it twice to calm it down, and then we began the hike’s next phase…the descent before continuing to climb. (NOTE: Doug who’s athletic and also fearless, hiked all of this like we were out for a leisurely dog walk. He can’t help that it’s more than just a little infuriating to me.)
The descent is steep, fairly narrow and the rock “stairs” down are slick compared to that of the hike up to the saddle. Cabled chains are along one side to assist and good gloves (which mine were not) would have helped a lot. Some of that hard-earned elevation gain at the base of the hike is lost, but crying over it was not an option as I needed clear vision and both hands for navigating this portion of the trail. Fear (of summersaulting down) overrode tears.
Like a spiral staircase, at the bottom of the decent, we’d also rotated around the mountain and the trail leveled out just long enough for a quick breath before we met up with the second trail, Sunrise Trail. Ascent begins and anyone who didn’t need cables before, will need them now!
At one point on the way up, we lost the trail and like Michelle Obama, I went high, while Doug went low. Unfortunately, low was the correct answer. Hanging off the edge of the mountain, I knew I needed to go down, so like a dog with worms I scooted down towards my ever-calm husband’s location
Surviving that little detour, we continued to gain elevation and teeter along the mountain’s edge, but progress to the top seemed slow. Then we rounded the corner and I saw it. The toughest and steepest part of the trail…a series of rocks lined on both sides by metal cables to pull yourself up. For better or worse, from here it looks like conquering this section puts you at the peak. The last hurrah.
It’s about a 30ft near-vertical climb with very little purchase for your feet so for someone who asks for help getting the peanut butter jar open on a regular basis, a quick pep talk with my scrawny arms was warranted. This resulted in me doing a series of weird low fist pumps like a ‘roid crazed weight lifter flexing just before the championship lift. My self induced rage helping to override the fear.
I’m short and maybe a little wider than most, so positioning my leg far enough into the rock’s crack to reach a nub with my toes was no easy feat. Plus, my short arms barely reached the cabled chains above my head so I was pretty frickin’ focused at this stage when I heard Doug below shouting out, “hey babe, how about a smile?” with his camera phone raised. Needed all my fingers, including the middle one so I managed to push out a grin without sliding down the rock wall on my face (only to find out later the lighting for a picture was impossible). The climb wasn’t as physically strenuous as I thought it would be, but the idea of falling had me sweating like an iced tea in an Alabama summer which wasn’t helping my grip. However, before I knew it, I’d reached the top. OK…well not the top of the peak. There was still a precarious metal crosswalk to white-knuckle-it across and more climbing to do before basking in the 360-degree views at the top.
As with most destination hikes, we high-fived, grabbed a selfie cuz in our Instagram life everything is breezy, and ate a granola bar, but this time I also remove my favorite picture of my step-dad, Darrel, from the backpack and dropped a tear or two of joy.
Would I do it again? Not sure.
Would I recommend it to a friend? ABSOLUTELY, because you’ll learn a lot like…
- It really IS the journey, not the destination. By the way, the hike back down was much more difficult in places. Going backwards down that 30ft straight-up arm-stretcher meant I couldn’t see how far down to step or where to grab the chains, but going forward meant the places where I initially got a toe hold were gone as my heel didn’t fit there. Also, that slick rock spiral staircase was a bun burner all the way to the peak’s saddle.
- Rock, scissors, paper is for weenies. Fear overrides tears, ‘roid rage beats fear, and tears wash away rage.
- You’re stronger than you think, love always helps, and your uber calm husband is the greatest.
