Sunday, May 3, 2015

April 10, 2015 Hiking Bear Canyon at Sabino Canyon Recreation Area

Chrissy's bear conference ended yesterday so the three of us planned on hiking somewhere in the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area in the Coronado National Forest. We decided to hike in Bear Canyon on the Bear Canyon Trail to Seven Falls. This was a beautiful hike with outstanding scenery throughout the canyon...and the natural pools at Seven Falls were a perfect place to cool off and relax on a beautiful spring day.

As you can see Tucson has sprawled right up to the Sabino Canyon Rec Area. You can only access the trails from the visitor center by foot or shuttle bus...we took the shuttle bus to the trailhead.

A saguaro cactus flowering...

...and a local resident saying hello.



Here's a sign you don't see often...I hope we see one..."here kitty kitty".

The view into Bear Canyon

The Saguaro grow tall here.

Some old fat guy falling behind already.

This might be a white winged dove...I am not sure...where is Stevie Nicks when you need her?


It's the photobomber.

This hike keeps getting better and better.

Posing for photos


The amazing resourcefulness of nature always impresses me when hiking.

We crossed this creek several times on this hike.








This hike had everything...water...rocks...

...desert...trees...

...cactus...mountains...

...and wildlife. We saw lizards everywhere.














We decided to relax here and have lunch...

...surrounded by scenery like this...

...and this...

...Kennedy searching for aquatic wildlife...

...while his aunt soaks up the sun and soothes her feet in the cool water.

As usual on these hikes Kennedy spotted the camouflaged wildlife first...in this case it was a frog/toad on the rocks.
Chrissy's colorful artistic shot of the flowing water.

Moving on...deeper into Bear Canyon.

We started climbing higher along the canyon wall.

Amazing scenery...

...colorful flowers...

...and friendly lizards just added to the wow factor on our hike.


And now for something completely different...I am not the one falling behind.








Our destination from across the canyon...

...the swimming holes at Seven Falls...



So down and across the canyon we go.


Looking up the Seven Falls from a lower pool.


This is one of the coolest places we have hiked to...

...Chrissy taking it all in...the sunshine...the beauty...the mountains are calling and she must go.

We climbed up to the third pool which looked like it had the biggest waterfall...

...I decided to go in...the water was refreshingly cold...



...Chrissy relaxed on the rocks.


Kennedy climbed higher up the falls...


...then he joined us.

Dangerous looking dragon fly type insect

Looking down to the next pool

About this time, I was on the rocks putting my boots back on and Kennedy was crab walking down the rocks above this pool. The incline got too steep and he slid into the pool feet first up to his chest with his boots on . I was laughing so hard I was crying. Chrissy didn't see it but was laughing uncontrollably because I couldn't stop while trying to tell her what he did.


Kennedy was a trooper...he hiked back with wet feet and never complained.

We soaked our shirts, two of us on purpose...one of us accidentally, to keep cool on the hike back. We were totally dry thirty minutes later. 


An amazing place especially since we are in the Sonoran Desert.



The lowest pool and 7th waterfall down to the bottom of the canyon.


Funky Cactus

Hiking back on a ridge high above the canyon floor.












Back at the trailhead...

I thought Chrissy & Kennedy were going to take the shuttle back to the visitor center, so I hiked backed by myself. Then they decided to hike too. We got back together at the visitor center.





It was a beautiful day for this amazing hike. I can't put into words how much I enjoyed this hike. The pictures can't capture how incredible it feels to stand here and be completely blown away by what you see. Hikes like this make me appreciate the hard work that conservationists did in the past to protect areas like this one...so I could enjoy it today. That is why I will fight the thick skulled, mouth-breathing morons who want destroy the few remaining wild places in our country. Why should a few people earn short term profits from extracting resources at places like this when millions can enjoy them if we continue to protect them. I assume if you made it this far into this long blog post that you agree with me...so please support your local, state and national parks whenever you can.

No comments:

Post a Comment