Tanque Verde Ridge Trail (Part One)

Tomorrow I have my first hike with the Tucson Hiking Meetup Group, a little 9 mile roundtrip up the Agua Caliente Hill Trail and back, a short hike but listed as difficult with almost 3,000 feet of elevation gain. So yesterday I thought I’d do a little training hike to prepare my Des Moines lungs for the elevation—a hike that turned out to eclipse the hike I was training for, at least in distance (10.1 miles). That I feel okay today is a good sign for tomorrow.

Another stat: the temperature at the trailhead was 71º.

The Tanque Verde Ridge Trail is in the Saguaro National Park, so to avoid the ten dollar entrance fee, like any taker boomer I purchased my lifetime senior national park pass; I qualified for it a year ago but still had time on a yearly pass I’d purchased (also $80). $80 for a life time of park entrances. If I live at least two more years, I’ll be ahead of the game—knock wood.

I can remember a few years back when the Park Service raised the price of the lifetime pass from 20 dollars to 80 dollars. There was a hue and cry from the senior boomer community—you know, the folks with the money, who destroyed the planet for their children and grandchildren, and who like their centrist political hacks neoliberal. We should be giving these passes to millennials and subsidize them with higher rates on the old.

The Tanque Verde Ridge Trail in the Rincon Range is actually twenty miles round trip, and I'll be hiking the entirety later this month or after the new year when I can get an earlier start.

The Rincon Range in the foreground and the Santa Catalinas in the background. Next week's hike will be in the Santa Catalinas.

A rare flat, sandy stretch on a trail that is generally rocky and anything but flat.

An eerie reminder of the horrific fire that swept through the area in the 90s.

I intended to hike for two hours then turn around, but at the two-hour mark, my distance registered 4.4 miles so I had no choice but to forge on to the 5-mile+ mark, another 20 minutes. So, 2:20 up; 1:30 return.

A lunch spot out of the cool breeze. I got a little chilly 3,000 feet up.

Tucson sprawl.