Tag Archives: catalina state park

It was such a gorgeous morning – flawless blue sky, light breeze (that later became fierce wind), and bright sunshine (temps rising past 80) – that I just had to go hiking, which meant hiking solo since my dad wasn’t up for it. I’ve never hiked on my own but I’ve hiked many many times at Catalina State Park, about a mile north of my father’s house in Oro Valley. It turned out to be just fine – more than fine, actually fun. I walked on the very easy Canyon Loop Trail for about 2.5 miles on a mostly level dirt trail through a valley surrounded by jagged mountains and fields of cactus, saguaro, barrel, agave, scrub bushes and purple and yellow wildflowers. There were plenty of other hikers around, several of them solo, so I felt not at all out there all alone. I ended up backtracking to do short section of the Romero Canyon Trail  – the first flat mile to the lovely Montrose Pools and back. Sitting on a bench overlooking the pools – a small puddle of water at the bottom of a shallow ravine bordered by saguaros – I met a fellow hiker who I ended up walking back to the trailhead with. Nice woman, retired, used to live in Decatur, Illinois now lives in Mesa with her husband, who – it turns out, is a retired ag journalist. (My husband is a not-retired ag journalist – how small a world is that?) Anyway, my rule of thumb when hiking alone – beyond the obvious of bringing water and trail mix – is to not do anything too challenging (I like to have someone near by when I fall….) and to have my cellphone handy in case of emergency. I also made sure to text my dad to A few other hiking suggestions from my brother who was here recently:  At Catalina, the Sutherland trail is pretty nice and not very difficult. Romero is nice too – more difficult. the 50 year trail has some nice views but a little one note. Beyond Catalina, he also did the Magee trail – and if you go a bit further than he usually goes – about 45minutes out then back – it gets really beautiful.

We ate lunch at the new (or new since I was last here three years ago) Beyond Bread on Ina and Oracle which is as fantastic as the original one on Campbell (and much closer to my dad’s house.) Sadly, it’s in the shadow of the Safeway where Gabrielle Giffords and many others were shot a year ago.