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Round and Round You Go by markthurman53
Colossal Cave Mountain Park is located east of Tucson on the Southern end of the Rincon Mountains. The park has a system of short trails that connect the Colossal Cave Campground to the La Posta Quemada Ranch and surrounding areas. Some of the trails are informative with information about the Hohokam Indians that once inhabited the area or the ranching that occurred here later in the last 100 years. The trails are used by hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders. The Arizona Trail passes through this park also and crosscuts many of the trails. None of the trails are strenuous and trail signs with a map label the maze of trails through the park. Trails The system of trails in the park are made up of short trails, the longest loop, the Path of the Ancients, being 1.5 miles. The named trails are: Posta Quemada Ranch Link Trail - 0.7 miles Path of the Ancients Loop – 1.4 miles Flying Dutchman Trail - 0.8 miles There are a couple other spur trails that are less than 0.2 miles. For trails with a little more of a challenge (and I mean just a little more), there are some decommissioned trails that are still in prime condition that extend out from the Posta Quemada Ranch area. These trails appear to be used by horseback riders, hikers mountain bikers and wildlife. While they are not named I gave them my own kind of descriptive name. North Perimeter Trail – 1.8 miles This trail follows along the northern perimeter of the park trail system and heads east to the Coyote Well area. Agua Verde Creek Trail – 1.5 miles This is a trail along Agua Verde Creek from the eastern end of the North Perimeter Trail to Posta Quemada Ranch. Arizona Trail to North Perimeter Crossover - 0.5 miles Connects the Arizona Trail to the midway point on the North Perimeter Trail. Spur Trails - 0.5 miles Connect the North Perimeter crossover trail to the western end of the North Perimeter Trail There are a few more minor spur trails not mentioned here. For the GPS route for these trails I have included the route I took that connects all these trails. The Arizona Trail is not shown on this route. I thought the most enjoyable part of this hike was planning how to walk all the trails keeping the repeating or back tracking of trails to a minimum. This meandering loop is about 10 miles long with an AEG of about 800 feet. Trail maps are available in the Cave gift shop. Check out the Official Route and Triplogs. Leave No Trace and +Add a Triplog after your hike to support this local community.
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