View south from near mile 11
Written: May 19, 2023
I set out back in 2021 to stray a bit from my countless and endless hikes up Mt. Wrightson via the Old Baldy and Super trails. These are fantastic hikes and among my all time favorites, but I knew there were other trails in the Santa Ritas and wanted to vary my diet. I recommend this to anyone, especially if you enjoy solitude. Virtually nobody hikes these other trails, and especially if you hike on a weekday, there is about a one in a million chance you will meet anyone else.
So I left home (in Tucson) around 2 PM. I ended up running into an old friend in Sonoita and talked with him for over an hour, so it was around 6 PM when I got to my campsite. There are countless nice places to camp along Temporal Canyon. There are even more campsites if you like camping with cows. I drove past the Temporal Canyon trailhead and camped part way to Walker Basin. I had a nice night sleeping in the bed of my truck, even with an hour of rain around 3 AM. I had my tent fly to cover myself and was reasonably snug.
After fixing (and eating) breakfast, fooling around a bit, and then driving back down the road to the trailhead, I was on the trail by 9:30 AM. The trail is excellent and easy to follow. There was plenty of water in the streambed as nice pools. The water wasn't running (that would be nice), but the pools were still clear with flow of water, and various water creatures (such as the amazing water striders).
The vegetation steadily changes with less catclaw and more pine as the trail steadily climbs from 5000 to 7000 feet in about 4 miles. Somewhat before the 4 mile point is the Wildcat Mine. You could easily miss it. It is an odd shaped somewhat yellow colored dump on the left side covered with Apache pine needles. Behind the dump is tell-tale shape of a mine adit that caved long ago.
Not far past the mine, the trail bears right, climbs a ravine, then crosses over a ridge to offer views west of Josephine Canyon and Mount Hopkins. From here the trail pretty much contours for 3 miles until it reaches McBeth Spring and shortly thereafter, Josephine Saddle.
I made it to Josephine Saddle by 2 PM. This 70 year old man is no speed hiker. For me though, I was making good time with a moving average (according to my fancy new GPS) of 1.9 miles per hour. It was a nice day to be hiking with temperatures of 75 degrees and only about an hour of sun. The rest of the time I was under clouds with occasional raindrops. I would never say it was even a "sprinkle" and I never bothered to pull my rain shell out of the pack. I actually decided to do this hike (rather than waiting until the fall) because we were having some strange "monsoon in May" weather with nice temperatures predicted.
On the return hike, I disturbed a beautiful sonoran mountain kingsnake right alongside the trail. At first he was in a panic trying to move every direction at once, then he got his wits together and zoomed off downhill and into some place of hiding. I would have loved to have gotten a picture but it was not to be.
I also heard (but never saw) Trogons from several places along the trail. One in Temporal Gulch itself, and another in Josephine Canyon, fairly close to Josephine Saddle. This year I seem to hear trogons wherever I hike in the Santa Ritas.
At about 5:30, I was back at my truck, just as a real rain shower got going. I never saw anyone all day (even in Josephine Saddle). I never saw anyone on the road. In fact, from the time I left highway 82 until I returned to it, I was completely alone. I like this, but it is important to have a reliable vehicle and tell people where you are going when you visit places like this.
If I was to do this hike again, I would probably just hike four miles up Temporal Gulch, then turn around and hike back. The three miles of nearly level hiking to Josephine Saddle get somewhat tedious and mostly offer views of the observatory facilities on Mt. Hopkins. You could hike the four miles I recommend to get the view to the west and south and be satisfied.
Temporal Canyon is nice all along with sycamores and big oaks and pines, but the upper mile might be the nicest. You could certainly do a backpack and camp up there, especially if water was running. There was plenty of water that could be filtered when I did the hike, but we had a very wet winter.
If you could puzzle out the logistics somehow, it would be a great hike to start where I did and exit via Madera Canyon (or vice versa). I you know someone with a 4x4 vehicle and could figure out a suitable way to bribe them, that would be one option.
Tom's hiking pages / [email protected]