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| Arriving at the trailhead, which sits at the north end of Alvernon Road. |
After two days of rain, the area was a bit sodden, and the canyon was enveloped in shade and a fog moved in after a bit masking the sun. This kept the trail from drying out before the ascent, and it was quite slick in places, especially on the exposed bedrock sections. Couple that with precipitous drop-offs in spots, and this short out-and-back was a bit innervating at times.
The trail started out with gentle undulations and an occasional boulder to scramble over. After about a mile, however, things quickly elevated. Miles two and three are each about a thousand feet of elevation gain, for a total of 2,500 feet in three miles. That'll get the old heart pumping and the lungs engaged—especially if one isn't yet acclimated.
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| A little closer look at Finger Rock. Those puffs of cloud would metastasize into full blown fog bank as we neared the summit. |
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| Here's a little forced closeup of Finger Rock. The fog that rolled in later prevented any actual closeups. |
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| What I thought were gunshots echoing off the canyon walls turned out to be falling rocks, maybe caused by the noisy rock climbers belaying down the opposing cliffside. |
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| Beautiful look down at the saguaro-strewn canyon floor. |
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| A section of exposed bedrock that proved to be treacherously slick. At least it was adjacent to a precipitous drop-off and certain death. I used my hiking poles as best I could in these sections. |
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| Looking south back toward Tucson. |
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| Low clouds and fog moved in as we neared the top. |
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What would ordinarily be a nice shot of Finger Rock. Because of the obscured views, we decided not to push up to the rock itself, another mile-and-a-half or so of hiking, first down into the canyon, and then a scramble up the other side.
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| The clouds finally parted on the descent. |
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| Tucson. |
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