La Ventana (The Window)

Starting today's hike at 8:00, we had no idea we would be on the trail nine hours, and we were lucky we got in before dark. One odd thing is that the parking lot at the trailhead—usually nearly full, even on a weekday—was completely empty of cars; in fact, we would see no other hikers that day, until we met a hiker at the end, doing a short hike on the lower reaches of Esperero Trail in Sabino Canyon. 

This wasn't my first trip to the Window. I did a solo hike up Ventana and back in January of 2020, a trip to The Window that surprised me in the extreme when I discovered what happened to The Window.  And a year earlier, I also did this point-to-point hike, joined by Misty Atkins, whom I'd just met, and my regular hiking partner, Jack Simard of Quebec. Even though we had a slower guest hiker with us whom we met the previous week at a Meetup hike, we finished in under eight hours. What had changed since then is the Big Horn fire of 2020, which burned 120,000 acres of these Santa Catalina Mountains. That fire rendered our return route, the already sketchy Esperero Trail in Sabino Canyon, almost unnavigable and even hazardous in sections. The trail had been closed for two years but was recently reopened. I think it should have remained closed until the forest service had time to repair the fire- and erosion-damaged trails. Or perhaps better yet, closed permanently. Another thing that made the trails hard to follow, especially above 7,000 feet, was the new snow that had fallen the day before. It also made these narrow, slope-clinging trails quite treacherous. I had some micro-spikes that I shared with Misty, each donning one on our left foot to staunch the slipping over the edge and into the canyon. At one point, we followed a mountain lion's fresh tracks through the snow; the lion apparently knew the route. We also spent a fair bit of time darting glances at the surrounding rocks overhead in wary anticipation of a cougar sighting.

This hike is almost 16 miles and over 4,500 feet of elevation gain. That gain is a little deceptive, however, crammed as it is into the first five or six miles. And the ascent had another feature, lots of scrambling over rocks—sometimes on all fours.

The trip down was more gradual, but again, hard to follow and quite eroded and dangerous in places. Suffice to say, we were glad to finally catch sight of the parking lot at Sabino Canyon before sunset.

Lots of boulder skipping on the creek crossings.

Quite a lot of water flowing today.

Just a hop, skip, and a jump.

We saw several waterfalls, providing lots of water to the Maiden Pools three miles in below.

Yet another waterfall.

Misty.

Finally, the trail tops out at a ridge that would guide us to the Window.

One last little push up, through the slippery new-fallen snow, which proved that no one had proceeded us, save a mountain lion, whose tracks we followed.

The Window (La Ventana)

A composite of four photos to show the condition of the sketchy trails.

Almost a bushwhack for large stretches of the route back.

A waterfall at a campsite on the Esperero.

This view of civilization brought mixed feelings. Hate the sapiens sprawl, but relieved to be close to the end of this arduous hike.