Alright, Let's Practice Living In This Thing......

Saguaro National Park & Prescott, AZ

As previously reported, we’ve been on a few “long weekend” trips so far this year. Since we are getting ready to take off in May for 4+ months, we decided that we had better get a longer trip in. We headed for Tucson, AZ ready to explore Saguaro NP and any other interesting things that might present themselves. Since it’s a 7-8 hour drive from Mesquite to Tucson, we elected to spread it over two days and make use of our Harvest Hosts membership at the same time. Harvest Hosts is a subscription service that allows self contained (kitchen, toilet) RV’ers to stay at participating venues (breweries, wineries, farms, ranches, museums, etc.) for free. They suggest spending a nominal amount at the venue to make it a “win-win” for everyone. We arrived at Dillon’s at Western Trails Ranch in Morristown, AZ just in time for the bull riding. It actually turned out to be steer riding for teenagers but was entertaining nonetheless. The showstopper was little kids riding sheep, or “mutton busting,” as they called it. Watching 5-10 year old kids hanging on for dear life and occasionally receiving a mouthful of dirt while having a cold one was great fun.

The ranch is also a music venue and happened to have live country music all day as an added bonus. The BBQ restaurant on site was great as well. As it happened, the owner of the ranch was camped next us that night. George was nice enough to give me the history of the ranch as well as his plans for future expansion. Great people!

Saguaro NP has two locations; the Rincon Mountain District on the east side of Tucson and the Tucson Mountain District on the west side of town. National park visitors centers are great places to pick up maps, fill water bottles and get rangers recommendations on the best trails to hike. After hitting the east side visitors center, we headed for the Hope Camp/Coyote Wash/Ruiz Trail Loop.

Another night, another free campsite!

I was able to enjoy the Ridge View Trail in solitude while Amy mountain biked the Hope Camp Trail. We then drove up to the Douglas Springs trailhead and hiked the Douglas Springs/Bridal Wreath Falls Trail to an actual flowing waterfall in the desert!

On the recommendation of Jamison Lake, we drove up to Coronado National Forest to hike the Tanque Verde Falls trail. A short round trip into a canyon with a flowing river with many swimming holes. Lots of people running up and down the trail in flip flops and bathing suits.

Today's added bonus; free dispersed camping 100 yards from the trailhead! The streak continues!

Continuing to follow the Jamison Lake Travel Guide, we took a ride up Mt. Lemmon in search of some good hiking. 28 degrees and a fair amount of snow on the ground wasn’t conducive to getting Amy out of the van, so we headed back down the mountain in search of a trail with a better climate. Hiked the Soldier Trail with a monster ascent at the beginning relaxing to a steady climb up to yet another flowing waterfall.

Time to head to the Tucson Mountain District on the west side of town. We kept the streak alive by settling down at the Snyder Hill BLM. We ended up staying there for three nights…more on that later. We hit the visitors center the next morning for constitutionals, water and advice and then proceeded to the Hugh Norris Trail, followed by the Ironwood Forest/Picture Rocks Wash/Ringtail Loop Trail.

Went for a niced sized loop hike on Thursday on the Wasson Peak vis Kings Canyon/Hugh Norris. Lots of wildflowers!

At this point, I was getting the feeling that we had seen enough cactus. A planning session ensued at Tiny’s Saloon and Steakhouse regarding next steps. While talking with a guy at the bar about dispersed camping and where we were staying, he responded, “Oh, my wife says thats where all the meth heads live!” :) After a quick follow up planning session at Barrio Brewing, we decided to head up to Prescott, AZ.

Arriving in Prescott, we checked out Whiskey Row, stuck our heads in the local bike and hiking shops for some advice and then headed for Thumb Butte a few miles out of town. Huge network of great trails for both hiking and mountain biking. Awesome free dispersed camping with some really friendly people to hang out with as well.

Headed up to Utah next week. Stay tuned!