Hill and Dale: Douglas Spring and Bridal Wreath Trails

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Douglas Spring and Bridal Wreath Trails

Today we were supposed to hike the 19-miles to Cow Head Saddle and back, but since Misty had a conflict, and for safety reasons, I decided to lop off the last five miles as nary a soul usually goes that far and lord knows this would be the day I had a fall or worse. So I hiked only to the Douglas Spring Campground, which I have hiked to many times, and even backpacked to almost three years ago, with my brother. I also added a mile side trip to Bridal Wreath Falls for lunch as I made it to the campground by 10:15, way too early to eat, but would easily make it to the falls for lunch by noon.

Cool temps in the mid-thirties at the trailhead at 7:45, climbing to sixty degrees by hike's end. No crazy mountain lion stories or eroded trails like the rather scary hike up to the Window from a couple weeks past. Just a little ice to contend with—and not nearly enough to require micro spikes.

Snow-capped Mount Lemmon in the background center.

Trail marker for Bridal Wreath Falls (to the right), or Ernie Falls (to the left). I would be going straight ahead and come back to the Bridal Wreath trail for lunch after the eight-mile round trip up and back from the campground.

Lots of water coming down from Douglas Springs. The trails were saturated in sections, with ice at higher elevations. We've had a lot of rain the past month, primarily second-hand weather from the so-called atmospheric river in California.

6.6 miles in. Cow Head Saddle is another 5 miles round-trip, and I have done that hike at least twice. Misty and I also hiked to the Tanque Verde Trailhead in December of 2019—an epic 20 mile hike with about 5,000 feet of elevation gain—not for the timid.

Tanque Verde Ridge on the horizon. The trail follows the ridge line up to Tanque Verde Peak, and then on to the other main campground in Saguaro National Park East, Juniper Basin.