Rosewood Saddle, AZ

Background
Rosewood Point and Rosewood Saddle are yet another set of distinctive landmarks in Pusch Ridge. Like many others, they can be reached from the ubiquitous Pima Canyon Trail #62. Rosewood Point is the first prominent spire guarding the east wall and entry of Pima Canyon. Rosewood Saddle is a nice little divide just to its north which looks west over Pima and east over its nameless neighbor. The gulley you must bushwhack to reach the saddle is one of the more (relatively) tame ones in Pima...so why not check it out?


Hike
Take off from the popular Pima Canyon trail and head across the desert foothills to the mouth of the grand old Pima. This is a well-known, well-traveled trail here in Tucson, and I won't drag on with the already well-documented (multiple times here on HAZ) details. Enter Pima Canyon and make the multiple wash crossings. You are heading for the nice shaded area on Pima where the Cottonwoods grow. The takeoff for Rosewood on this hike will be up the gulley north of Rosewood Point, so you must hike completely past the Point.When you get to the shaded section with the Cottonwoods you are getting close. Hike until you are even with the Cleaver up and to your left, which reveals itself in this same area. You will be on the east or right side of the wash and the trail will start to head quite east as it continues north up canyon. When you get about 1.9 miles up the trail from the parking lot you will be even with the gulley heading east or right up to Rosewood. You can see the saddle from the trail. At 1.8-1.9 miles there is a light-use path that breaks right off the main Pima Canyon trail and heads towards the wash of the draining gulley. Take this path and enter the draining wash. The path dies out very soon.

As you look up you can see that all you need to do is head up, up, up to the saddle. Take the gulley as long as you can. I crossed over back and forth multiple times, just picking the route that seemed to work best. There is no trail, but it's not quite as steep or overgrown as the routes up to the Cleaver or Table Mountain. Occasionally you'll pick up some faint route or game path. Take it if it works for you.

As you near the top, the gulley will swing hard left and go north, you'll need to break out here and continue straight up/east to the grassy saddle. The saddle is about 0.7 miles from the trail and 1210 feet of gain from the trail. At the saddle, an old wire fence randomly divides the canyons, but it is not intact or a true barrier. Rosewood Point lies up and to your right. To the left are a couple of nice outcroppings you can climb up to acquire fantastic views over the west wall of Pima Canyon with a spectacular panorama of Pusch Peak, the Cleaver, Bighorn, and Table Mountain all visible. Looking east provides views over the nameless steep canyon west of Finger Rock Canyon, which you cannot see. Looking north you see the continuation of the gulley you climbed up as it ascends further north up to the nameless summit north of Rosewood Saddle, Peak 5173. Return the way you came after taking it all in.

2008-06-05 fricknaley