A few weeks ago Beth came across a well-written description of Wasson Peak of the Saguaro National Park area west of Tucson - and that was all we needed to get us excited about a visit and a hike. All reports we read about it couldn't say enough kind words about the area, the trails and the peak itself. Wasson Peak is a classic Sonoran Desert peak - thick with cactus from ground huggers up to the stately saguaro, beautiful views, good trail, everything! Wasson Peak is the highpoint of the west unit of Saguaro National Park, which also has an eastern unit east of Tucson, which is topped by mighty Mica Mountain. Mica Mountain gives one proper claim to the highpoint of the National Park, but Wasson Peak grants one a little extra credit since the two "units" of the park are not one contiguous region. Planning this for a weekend getaway, we left Phoenix on Friday afternoon and beat the traffic, taking a back route via Florence and Oracle Junction, with the intent of camping at the Catalina State Park north of Tucson. When we arrived, however, the grounds were full, so we drove on to the Gilbert Ray campground located in the Tucson Mountains Park, a county-run park adjoining the National Park on its south. We arrived well after dark and found a good spot and set up camp, sleeping out of the back of Beth's trusty Subaru Outback. The coyotes howled all night, including one feller who let forth a howl right in front of our vehicle. They are loud up close!

The next morning we got our act together but the lure of coffee at a Circle-K was too strong so we drove out a few miles along Kinney Road to get one, plus some snacks for the trail, and drove back to the trailhead. There are a handful of options to get to the peak, the most well-known being the Hugh Norris Trail which starts from the west and runs along the entire spine of the range. Other options include the Sendero Esperanza Trail and the King Canyon Trail. We chose King Canyon since it was close and allowed for a possible loop hike. The King Canyon trailhead is a dirt parking lot directly across from the Sonoran Desert Museum. However, it's not well marked and we zoomed right past it the first time before coming back to the entrance. There's room for about 20 cars, and most spots were filled when we rolled in, attesting to the trail's popularity with the locals. It is a well-known day hike for local Tucsonians, but we saw cars with out-of-state license plates including one from Ontario, Canada. We took our time to get ready. The sky was sort of dingy overcast, but the weather was stable and we weren't concerned about being out after dark like our last hike (see our Bassett Peak page for that epic). We started the hike about 10:30 a.m.

Immediately there's a choice: follow a creekbed in the canyon bottom up for about a mile to a ramada and picnic area called Mam-a-Gah (named for a well-known Tohono O'odham Chief), or follow an old road paralleling the canyon to the same ramada. We tried the creekbed first and it was nice, wide, easy and open, but it was pretty sandy too. After maybe five minutes in the creek bed sand, we gave up this option and scampered up a faint path up the slope to the road, meeting it near the National Park entry gate. The hike up the road to Mam-a-Gah went quickly and without event and we arrived at Mam-a-Gah in about 30 minutes. The Mam-a-gah Ramada is a popular hiking destination and we saw a lot of people hiking just to this point, and apparently going no further. The ramada sits atop a little hill, has wonderful views and a picnic area, so it's not surprising this is a popular, if short, hiking destination for a lot of people. Signs here point to the right trail for Wasson Peak, which (according to the sign) is still 2.6 miles distant. We couldn't actually see Wasson yet, it being hidden for the time being behind its principal sub-summit, Amole Peak. The temperatures were cool but when the sun did peek out, it warmed up pretty quickly.

The trail after Mam-a-Gah was very well maintained and passed through many stands of saguaro as well as every other popular cactus in these parts, including cholla, ocotillo, teddy-bear, prickly-pear, chainfruit and the colorful staghorn. The route went generally up but occasionally dipped in and out of some washes. After 1.4 miles the trail came up to a junction with the Sweetwater Trail high on a ridge directly southeast of Amole Peak (we still couldn't see Wasson yet). From here the trail steepens a bit and switchbacks up the ridge. After one such turn we could finally see Wasson Peak emanating off of a high ridge from nearby Amole Peak. The trail simply climbed high on the slopes south and east of Amole, where it connected with the Hugh Norris Trail just below Amole Peak. And another 0.3 mile later and we were on top of Wasson. There were about 6 people already there, lazing on the somewhat broad summit area. We found a nice spot a few feet down on its west side and sat for a spell, having a lunch and relaxing. The views were outstanding! And, to our luck, the cloud cover began to diminish and the sun came out in full force, allowing for much better lighting for our photos. We took plenty going up, but the ones you see on this page are (mostly) all on the descent. We spent some time picking out mountaintops we could see, and whether we've done them or not. To our east, mighty Mount Lemmon stood high - we've done that one. Mica and Rincon Peaks farther east - not yet. Looking southeast we could see the pointed top of Mount Wrightson. Affirmative on that one. Due south were the Sierritas and Keystone Peak, which we did a few months later. The distinct pillar of Baboquivari Peak was to the south, slightly west. Not yet, and probably not for awhile, although I am interested in it. Kitt Peak and its observatories were visible to the southwest. Looking due west, Gu Achi Peak and the other peaks of the Tohono O'odham Nation stood high, while the distinct flat-top of Table Top Peak was way off to our northwest. Newman and Picacho Peaks were visible not far to our north, while the numerous subpeaks and foothills of the Tucson Mountains laid out all below us in the immediate vicinity. We stayed on top for about a half-hour, and chatted with a family from Washington state who were kind enough to take our photo (we did the same for them). Then, it was time to descend.

We had thought about following other trails down and making a loop hike back to our car, but we both opted to go with what we knew and go back the way we came up. Because the sun was now out, I took a lot more photos on the descent, most of which are on this page. The hike down took about 2 hours, arriving back to our car about 5 p.m. We drove back to the Circle-K for well-deserved cold drinks, then on to our hotel in Tucson where we had ourselves a good night's sleep. The next day we toured the Pima Air Museum, located on the city's south end near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. There was an air show going on, with vintage planes flying around as well as some of the state-of-the-art planes. The museum is spread over 80 acres and has many hangars with fully-intact planes and lots of displays, while outside there are more planes, including the actual Air Force 1 plane used by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, which you can actually walk through. There were also examples of all planes from all eras - I don't know my plane names by heart but I can safely say that there were lots of them! Well worth the money and a place we highly recommend.