Mica Mountain 8,666′, Spud Rock 8,613′, Happy Valley Lookout 7,320′ and Rincon Peak 8,482′
Arizona Alpine
Saguaro National Park
Total Time: 3 days
Distance: 31.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 10,550′
Crux: Class 1
Trailheads: Miller Creek and Turkey Creek, high clearance, no services
Companions: Holly, Cara and Steve Whittingham
Saguaro National Park is divided into two units, flanking the east and west sides of Tucson, AZ. The western district is centered around the 4,688′ Wasson Peak, and features classic Sonoran Desert hiking and the parks namesake Saguaro. While the eastern district does sport many of the giant cacti, the terrain dramatically rises from the hot desert to nearly 9,000′, the desert scrub and cacti replaced by healthy pine trees fed by year round springs. The highest point in the park is Mica Mountain, nearly as tall as nearby Mount Lemmon at 8,666′. Not only the park high point, Mica is also an Arizona P2K, ticking off boxes on two lists at once. Just south of Mica Mountain is Rincon Peak, another Arizona P2K summit falling within the same mountain range. Tagging them both would make for a solid three day backpack, with the trailheads for each only 2.5 miles apart allowing for a loop hike. Despite the two summits towering over Tucson, the drive to the trailhead on the east side of the range took over 1.5 hours thanks to some rough roads and a few questionable river crossings. We decided to hike Mica first via the Turkey Creek TH, allowing us to Camp at Manning Camp with reliable water in case we needed to haul it to Happy Valley Camp for the next night. The last mile of road to Turkey Creek is fairly rough, and rather than force Steve’s truck up the road we would need to walk one way or another to complete the loop, we dropped the girls here to wait with our packs and drove the truck back to the Miller Creek trailhead where we would finish. I had expected the trailhead to have a bit more pine and shade, already at 4,500′. But the entire area was sweeping grasslands, and we walked the last mile of hot and dusty road to reach the Turkey Creek TH proper.
There was a group of ranchers on horseback working on some fencing, but otherwise the trailhead was empty. The trail continued along a ridgeline, slowly gaining elevation with Mica Mountain and Reef Rock high above. We reached the park boundary 3 miles into our hike, the high grasses slowly replaced by manzanita and larger brush. We were all quite impressed by how well maintained the trail was despite its’ remoteness, steps cut into the rocks and minimal brush encroaching on the path. As we neared 6,000′, we entered tall pine trees and encountered our first spring of the trip. It looked like it was normally dry, so the very presence of water was encouraging that we would find ample water the rest of the trip.
We lost our views as we climbed up through the pine forests, hitting the first of several junctions near Deer Head Spring. Our route hooked north, and we reached a small grove of Aspens, no leaves yet despite the warm spring. There was a camping area near the grove at Spud Rock Spring, but it would have poorly situated us for the rest of the trip.
We pressed on, climbing up and over a ridge and breaking 8,000′ below the rocky spires of Man’s Head and Duckbill before dropping back down to just below 8,000′ into Manning Camp. Manning Camp was the previous summer home of former Tucson Mayor Levi Manning, and features a large cabin (now ranger station), horse corral, helipad and year round spring. The sites even had fire rings and a nearby pit toilet. Although I don’t go out of my way for such backcountry amenities, it was certainly nice to have after a long and hot hike in.
Although we planned to tag Mica Mountain packless, the group was too tired to go for it before sunset, and we settled in for dinner and a fire before heading in to sleep.
The second day of the trip was slated to be our easiest. After eating breakfast and partially breaking camp, we start up Mica Mountain, only 600′ above us. Even without heavy packs, we were all feeling the elevation, the highest any of us had been all year.
It took under an hour to reach the summit of Mica, and we sat down near a summit benchmark and remnants of an old fire lookout. A summit register indicated that the peak saw one or two visitors per day this time of year, many making the short detour off the Arizona Trail.
With no views and high winds, there was little incentive to linger, and we continued on to nearby Spud Rock, only a quarter mile away but rocky enough to provide excellent views. We followed the marked turn off up a steep and loose trail to the exposed granite summit, and immediately tucked behind some boulders out of the wind. The forecast was calling for gusts over 40mph, and our views were limited to Mount Graham and summits to the east to keep out of the relentless wind.
After an early lunch, we dropped off the summit of Spud Rock and headed back to camp to finish packing up. The plan was continue south along the Arizona Trail before heading back east to the Devils Bathtub Trail, ultimately bringing us over to Heartbreak Ridge. The trail dropped several hundred feet as we followed the stream formed by the powerful spring out of Manning Camp.
As the trail traversed the southern slopes of Mica, we began to lose the pine trees for scrub and small oaks, with larger healthy groves near some of the other springs. It was still early when we reached the junction for Heartbreak Ridge, only 1:30, and it was looking like we would reach camp quite early. We dropped several hundred feet more to a saddle between Mica Mountain and Happy Valley Lookout before climbing up and down the undulating ridgeline to the lookout itself. The girls were uninterested in the additional quarter mile of hiking required to visit the lookout, but I found it to be very worthwhile. Not only did it offer outstanding views of both Mica Mountain and Rincon Peak, the lookout itself was not in use, the inside filled with old cast iron pans, ancient signs and emergency water supplies.
From the summit of Happy Valley Lookout, it was a monster descent of over 1,200′ to Happy Valley Saddle, the exposed south facing slopes pummeled by high winds as we descended. Although there was some relief from the wind in the valley, the closeness to the saddle between Rincon and Happy Valley Lookout meant the winds didn’t really settle until after dark. We were lucky to find the spring flowing albeit a bit scuzzy, nothing a Sawyer filter couldn’t handle.
After another fire we headed to bed with plans for an early start to tag Rincon the next morning.
Despite the lower elevation, the night at Happy Valley seemed to be a colder than the night before, the cold area sinking off the mountain into the valley. After a quick breakfast we started off on the Rincon Peak trail. Rincon has a reputation as a leg burner, and after some early up and downs through low washes, it did not disappoint.
The grade only seemed to increase as we climbed back into pine trees, probably close to 45 degrees several hundred feet below the summit. A trail register just below the summit indicated we were close, and we scrambled up the last bit of trail to the airy and exposed summit.
The views across Tucson were tremendous, and we were lucky that the winds from the day before had settled down to make the summit much more enjoyable. We had the summit to ourselves (aside from some big horny toads) and enjoyed an early lunch and views to the southwest of Mount Wrightson, Keystone Peak, Baboquivari Peak, Coyote Mountain and Kitt Peak.
Once we finished out lunch, we headed back down the trail the way we came. Steve and I went ahead to break down the rest of camp, the girls joining us just as we were finishing filtering water. Although getting back to the trailhead was less than 5 miles away, the going was slow as the trail steeply dropped into the desert completely exposed to the hot sun with little shade.
The boulders scattered across the mountainside reminded me of Cochise Stronghold to the southeast. The last half mile was a pleasant stroll along Miller Creek, flowing with warm water from the springs above. We reached the car and headed south back to I-10 to find some cold beer and hot food to reward ourselves for 3 days on the trail.
Another memorable trip down memory lane!!
In the summer of 1957, I got my first seasonal job with the NPS, due to the advice of my hiking/baclpacking mentor, Eber Glendenning, who had worked previously on the fire crew stationed at Manning Camp, then quite isolated. I spent many days in the now vanished fire tower on Moca, scanning for fires at least every fifteen minutes and also doing mounted patrols on the loop trail around Mica on Becky, our fire mule. Responded to five fires that summer, all caused by lightning, and all relatively small.
There was no formal campground at Manning Camp then, and we did not see a single hiker the entire summer. Most trails in the Tucson area, dating from the CCC days were unused and overgrown’
The cabin at Manning Camp was a lot smaller then!! We were supplied by a pack train about once a week and we each got about one weekend in town during the summer. I remember I rode down the mountain with a paycheck, returning on Monday with groceries, no money and a hangover. That was the start of my forty year NPS career, but I think things are a lot better on Mica now…..
Wow times certainly have changed! With the helicopter pad in camp I think getting in and out of town is quite a bit faster, especially with a hangover 😅
We did have aerial support, after a fashion. At the beginning of the summer a cargo plane kicked out bales of hay to feed our stoock. We ducked while they thundered down and then collected them. Good feed for the critters…..