Soldier's Trail Redux 2024

Aside from leaving my phone at home and driving the half hour back to retrieve it, and the half hour back to the trailhead, today’s hike went off with nary a hitch (well, the AllTrails app paused for half a mile mid-hike, but to no import). Temps in the 50’s at 9:30 (one benefit of starting late), rising to 70° when we finished, but thank the weather gods they didn’t top out at today’s high of 77°.

Today's hike, on the Soldier Trail, will really test your mettle and your lung capacity, starting out as it does climbing over 1,500 feet in just a tad more than a mile, forcing hikers to clamber over rocks and boulders and talus. Then as a reward, the path levels out a bit, skirts a striking canyon, the eponymously named Soldier Gorge, and wends it's way down to the creek bed we will follow to the stunning falls that fill a swimming hole that must beckon hot weather hikers (scroll down to see a video of this beautiful resting spot). We saw but two other hikers today, a guy walking his free-range beagle (which we heard but never saw); and a solo female hiker who was turning around after the worst of the climbing (but maybe the workout was the point).

I have hiked this trail at least twice previously: two years ago in January of 2022, and in December of 2019. These links will help explain the nature of the WWII prison camp who's remnants (footings, etc.) are at the trail's end.

This photo cannot nearly capture the steepness of this trail, a steepness that begins almost immediately.

Jack looking down into Soldier Gorge.

Remnants of the WWII prison work camp. The prisoners were tasked with building roads on Mount Lemmon.

Closeup of a concrete footing from a prison building (next to the creek).

The creek disappears into the rocky hillside through which it has cut, with the help of freeze-thaw, over the millennia. We had to hike up and over to find a waterfall and a secret pool of water for drinking or more likely, swimming and cooling off.

 

Waterfall and swimming hole video.