Hugh Norris Trail to Wasson Peak 26

Today, we hiked the 10-mile Hugh Norris Trail to Wasson Peak, which also has around 2,400 feet of elevation gain. 

I hiked extra hard today to rinse my mind of the rancid offal oozing out of Dear Leader's diseased brain and becoming policy. But I digress...

We find ourselves at the end of yet another hiking season—my twelfth here in Arizona. How do I know it's the final hike? Because it's March and it's Wasson Peak, and for some reason, it is now a tradition to start and end the season with some hike or other up Wasson. 

The Hugh Norris approach to Wasson is a bit like spending an hour on a stair-stepping machine, at least for the first two-plus miles, where it settles down into something more like a trail. While I do appreciate the trail builders skill in constructing these incredible trails, the stairs are right up there with sand as two of my least favorite trail beds on which to hike. But I also know that these stairs are a great way to control erosion on such a well-trafficked trail, and so I abide them, and obviously, return each year.

We ran into a fellow hiker today, Kurt, who said the steps were a relatively new addition to these much older trails. He's been hiking here for 40 years after wending his way down from Minnesota and lacking the desire to give it up and leave. He also lives close by and hikes the Hugh Norris regularly as a training hike up to the saddle, where other trails converge for the ascent to the summit. The saddle is about 5.5 miles round trip from the Hugh Norris Trailhead, and we would leave him at the saddle while we continued on up to the peak for another 2 miles.

I was originally going to hike this tomorrow, but weather changes meant it would be warmer and clearer today and it was. Around 60º at the start at 9:30 or so, rising to 75º by hike's end three+ hours later. Lots of other hikers taking various routes to the peak, or just to the saddle. 

Kurt. He said he always stops by these three Saguaros

on his hikes up the Hugh Norris, and refers to them as 

his amigos. The sun was in a blinding spot, so I took the

pic from the other side, somewhat obscuring Martin Short.

Kurt's Three Amigos, more visible on the return.

Clockwise from the rear: Chevy, Steve, and Martin.

Misty setting a great pace.

I think the summit is, well, less than overwhelming, so I didn't take any photos this trip. This one is from a couple visits ago, in 2024. #truthinadvertising

Nature, Sutherland, Link, 50-Year, and Bridle Trail Loop

We chose this little 10-mile loop in the Catalinas for our penultimate hike of the season; my Wasson bookend hike will be the final act next Tuesday.

The parking lot was packed with cars, most of which with out-of-state plates. No doubt a lot of folks escaping into the outdoors to distract from the Republican fascism rising in this once-great country. A bumpersticker on a Tesla in the lot says tomes.

Ravishing weather today, perfect really except for a little wind in parts. Clear and sunny with a high of 65º, and we managed 63º of that by hike's end around 12:50. 

After the first couple of miles, we saw no other people on the final three trails. And none of the mountain bikers and horsey types one often sees on the Bridle and 50-Year trails.  

The afore-mentioned bumper sticker. One needs these to avoid being called a MAGA dick.

The April poppies have been out for two months, an ominous 

harbinger of this and future summers’ intense heat I fear.

The Bridle Trail is, well, what one would expect. Luckily, we were only on it for about a mile-and-a-half. But nice views of the Catalinas.

Silver Peak Trail

Drove three hours to hike this morning. Stopped for gas in Benson on the I-10: $2.89/gal. Stopped again on the way back, same station: $3.09/gal. Operation Epstein Distraction/Religious War as predicted in the BuyBull® is working as unplanned and already raising prices. But I digress.

I've been wanting to get back to this little piece of Eden since Ira and I last hiked it in 2018, as training for our Grand Canyon hike later that same month. Prior to that, I first hiked it in December of 2015, and again in February of 2016, not just once, but twice.

We chose a hike starting at higher elevation and earlier in the morning as we now have April weather in February, and the temps were expected to top 90 degrees in Tucson today. So we rose early and started the three-hour drive at 5:00 am and hit the trail by 8:15. Temps were a little chilly at the start despite the sun, but would quickly rise. Fortunately, after the first two miles, the trail enters a canyon and would remain mostly shaded to the summit. We finished before 1:00 and were glad we did, as the temp was nearly 80º, even at 4,800 feet.

The trail is longer now than when I last hiked it in 2018, by about a mile-and-a-half (and also GPS is arguably more accurate now). The Park Service developed the lower first mile into a horse trail and apparently has their own horses available to use. They also put a little money and effort into fixing up those trails which were previously rather sketchy. But other than that, the trails in pretty decent shape, eroded in parts further up the mountain, and also a little slippery with the scree, especially on the descent. The Park Service has been putting money into the area, primarily for the horsey set from what I can tell. Unfortunately, this effort is increasing  the number of visitors to this sleepy stretch of park real estate once devoted to bird watchers and the occasional hiker. Today, we actually ran into two disparate hikers summiting the peak—something that never happened on previous hikes.

Ira and I hiked this in a blistering 3 hours in 2018, but that was a

shorter hike, and we were on a schedule. I think I practically ran

down then, but there is so much scree on the trail now, I wasn't 

about to risk a fall, and Misty needed to reduce the pounding of

running because she still recovering from recent eye surgery. Still

our time was pretty blazing for a hike that's supposed to take 6-7 

hours.

I stopped to take similar approach photos previously, but wasn't sure what I was looking at. Enter the Peak Finder app, which I discovered about five years ago. Wonderful tool.

Some of the Park Service's new rental units.

I have never previously hiked to the actual Silver Peak summit, 

content to treat the fire tower remains as a summit, and never

really knowing there was a separate trail to the nondescript 

tippy-top. There is a little trail forking off from the trail to the tower,

near the storage shed below, that roughly adds two-tenths of a mile

through overgrown brush. Not really recommended, but we had to 

do it.

View from the actual Silver Peak summit.

First surveyed in 1957, when I was one.

Looking back at the fire tower.

Steps up to the tower.

Cistern, now defunct. (Photo by Misty Atkins)

Both of my hiking partners have way more guts than I do.

Ira, top, in 2015; Misty, below, today in 2026.

Sleeping accommodations were rather primitive.

Looking west toward the rest of the Chiricahuas.

Imagine building these steps at 8,000 feet.

Genderless john.

Scree-strewn but easy-on-the-feet trail bed.

The man in the mountain pic I take every time.

I think I'm invisible.  (Photo by Misty Atkins)