Going for a hike before the SaddleBrooke Hiking Club’s Spring Picnic at Catalina State Park is very popular! Twenty-three hikers explored the Ridgeline/50 Year Loop from the Equestrian Center in the park. Along the four mile trail hikers had fun discovering 29 different wildflowers including anemones, blue dicks, bladderpods, California suncups, white Easter bonnets and…
Elisabeth Wheeler Twenty members of the SaddleBrooke Hiking Club completed significant trail maintenance on the Oracle Passage of the Arizona Trail on March 15. Catclaw and dead tree branches were removed from the trail. The trail was widened next to natural drainages and water barriers were developed to prevent trail erosion. After three hours of…
Elisabeth Wheeler The SaddleBrooke Hiking Club participated in six trail work events on the Arizona National Scenic Trail in 2016 totaling 511 volunteer hours. Trail co-stewards of the Oracle Passage of the Arizona Trail are Elisabeth Wheeler and Mary Croft. Elisabeth Wheeler was a recipient of a Volunteer of the Year award for promoting the…
On February 14 SaddleBrooke Hiking Club members did a key exchange hike in the Superstition Mountains. One group started at the First Water Trailhead and the other group started at the Peralta Trailhead. The hike offers fabulous views of Weaver’s Needle. The Peralta Trail intersects with the Dutchman’s Trail to the First Water Trailhead.
Elisabeth Wheeler Volunteers from SaddleBrooke Hiking Club are hearty. Twenty-one hikers joined forces with Zach McDonald and Shawn Redfield of the Arizona Trail Association and Gary Faulkenberry of Oracle State Park to improve almost two miles of the Arizona Trail north of American Flag Ranch TH. It took determined effort to hack out catclaw and…
Karen Gray Eight hikers, watching a very cloudy sky, left the MountainView parking lot headed for Catalina State Park on December 29. We were all a bit worried about the rain coming in earlier than predicted. As the morning went on, the sky was still overcast but not threatening. The air temperature and the light…
Aaron Schoenberg Chiricahua National Monument is a land of Standing up Rocks, pinnacles also known as hoodoos. This is an amazing place with the most unusual rock formations. We visited Balanced Rock, Duck on a Rock, Punch and Judy and Kissing Rock. These incredible rock formations were all on a circular hiking trail called the…
Randy Park If you are new to hiking in Arizona or have not hiked recently, you may want to learn about hiking in the Sonoran Desert from experienced SaddleBrooke Hiking Club guides. If so, you are invited to attend a hiking orientation presentation at 3:30 p.m. on February 2 in the MountainView West Ballroom. Among…
Elisabeth Wheeler For hikers, Big Bend National Park in Texas is the state’s number one destination. The park is one of the best examples of a Sky Island of rugged mountains in the midst of the Chihuahaun Desert and deep canyons of the Rio Grande. Some of the most spectacular scenery in Texas is here.…
Ken Wong Over 90 members of the SaddleBrooke Hiking Club (SBHC) attended the fall picnic held at Catalina State Park on October 14. Prior to a business meeting, many members hiked either the Geology Walk guided by Karen Gray or the Dripping Springs hike guided by Tim Butler. The business meeting conducted by club President…