Prominent Point route parking?

[Jeffshadows]

In the old Rainbow publications trail guide for the Catalinas it lists a route leaving the north end of Campbell and hiking in to Prominent Point (near Finger Rock). It also says there's a parking area at the north end of Campbell, as does the Pima County Parks & Rec website. Has anyone been up there lately? Is the lot still accessible? Thanks for any info...

Jeff

[azbackpackr]

Just to let you know, since no one has already responded, I'm working on getting you an answer. I emailed a peakbagger in Tucson, (a former prez of SAHC.) He is going up to the end of Campbell today to look and see if there is still access, but thinks it is a gated community. He says otherwise best access is via Pima Canyon.

Quote:
"As for Prominent Point I have done it from a personal friend's house there near the end of Campbell (locked gate community) but also did it twice from the Pima Canyon side. Park at Pima Trailhead and hook a right up toward the saddle just east of Rosewood Point and follow the ridge all the way to Prominent Point from there. Good route but a little brushy."

Will try to get you the rest of the info later today or tomorrow.

[Jeffshadows]

Thanks, I appreciate that. Until this weather closed in down here I was planning on making a foray up there this afternoon, might still go and see what's up...

Jeff

[azbackpackr]

Looks like you can park there, but there are only about 15 spaces. Get there very early! Parking is on the west side of the street only, and there is no overnight parking allowed without the Pima County permit.

[Jeffshadows]

Sounds good. The weather dissuaded me last Friday since I've never been up that route, but I think I'll go have a look tomorrow. Supposedly, there are two routes back through there that head in to Prominent Point so I'll try to make the loop and document it for posterity. I've heard it's a pretty nice place to get away from the crowds usually encountered in the Front Range of the Catalinas...Thanks again for the heads-up!

Jeff

[Jeffshadows]

Well, it's definitely still there. I'll post some details later, but it was the first (and, hopefully, last) time I've ever had to cross over sewer manholes on a trail in the Front Range of the Catalinas...

[azbackpackr]

That's good information. I never knew it was there and I lived near Limberlost and Campbell for 10 years! I guess I thought at the time that it was closed off, but never went to check. If I wanted a very close-to-home hike I always went either to Pima or Finger Rock trailhead.

Tried in vain to talk my husband into moving back to Tucson. I like it very much up here "on the mountain" but also miss my friends and family in Tucson. Plus there is just a slightly better job market there! :roll:

[Jeffshadows]

Yea, it was a neat little find. Rare around here, to be sure. I started writing a description for it but it was sounding like a treatise against urban sprawl, so, I'll have to make another attempt later...

[azbackpackr]

Yeah I remember when all that was just open desert up on that hillside around the entrance to Pima Canyon, Finger Rock trailhead, etc. Sorry to see it was not protected. There was an effort years ago to try to get Don Diamond to donate a lot of his property up there to the county parks or other agency, but he just wouldn't do it. Everyone kept saying, "He's an old man, and he's very rich, why does he need more money?" He could have gained a lot of general favor and admiration in the Tucson community by donating that land. People would have said, well, yeah, he's a developer, but look what he donated. But he refused. He will go down in history as one of the bad guys, in my opinion.

[Jeffshadows]

I couldn't agree more. He and a couple of others responsible for the mini-dorm phenomenon are on my permanent poop list. Since you mentioned Pima, they are now building a gaudy stick-n-stucco monstrosity directly northwest of the trail right near the trailhead, blocking the view of the canyon for the first few hundred meters. As if that dumb bridge and rerouting the trail wasn't enough! Don't even get me started on the dog that incessantly barks at me from on high on the patio of his owner's ugly Mediterranean-esque villa above and to the west of the Finger Rock trailhead parking. As if that eyesore and the water-wasting fountain at the gate of the "community" right near the trailhead weren't insult enough.

One thing I can say is that my experience at Prominent Point last weekend has given me a new pet project to add to my list. I make a point of visiting these 'endangered' trails on a regular basis regardless of what obstacles the sprawl mongers who have inhabited the area might try to construct in my path. Case-and-point: La Milagrosa canyon on the northeast side. The people who moved out there and built their "homes" went to ridiculous lengths to stop the "annoying hippies" and "mountain-bike punks" who were destroying their idyllic existence (Those terms are direct quotes from one of the nastier homeowners who tried to run me over with his machismo F-450 one afternoon over there). No regard was given to the fact that that canyon had been occupied and traveled for literally hundreds of years by the Hohokam and later the O'odham, and that Tucson outdoor enthusiasts had been visiting the petroglyphs, climbing routes, and vistas back in there for as long as this has been a city (No doubt). Nope, instead they decide that, since they've now moved in there, people like us are a nuisance and they put an illegal gate up blocking a county road to the trailhead.

What makes this story even more appalling is that the county, when informed, didn't rush to jump on the side of righteousness. They were apparently afraid of being sued if they forcibly removed the gate and it took months and repeated visits by a Sheriff deputy to get those responsible to remove the gate. Actually, it's still there, but now they have to leave it open and unlocked. Their next act of eco-fascism was to try to hide the trailhead and obscure its path into the wash where it starts. The put one of those metal gates used at cattle crossings up across the two posts that used to mark the trailhead and shoveled sand across the trail path to hide in in the wash. Once again the county floundered and gave some lame excuse, something on the order of: "We don't officially maintain that trailhead." Every time I go out there now I make a point of kicking that gate down if someone else hasn't already done it (Warning to those reading - there's another legitimate gate further down in the wash that should be left alone). I was headed out one afternoon and a group of mountain bikers were leaving with the gate in the back of their truck...unfortunately a new one sprang up in its place.

What does this have to do with Prominent point? The same is happening there. You have to walk about 1/2km caged in between two fences about 6' apart and adorned with barbed wire (Which our tax dollars no doubt payed for because we have to protect the homes that were new to the area from the outdoor enthusiasts who were not). The whole scene reminds me of the DMZ in Korea, and it's really sad. When you finally do get to the wash, you have to follow another such fence for almost a mile to get clear of the property belonging to a looming testimonial to sprawl, the design of which would make Frank Lloyd Wright vomit and go into convulsions. These are public places that belong to all of us, that need to be there for our future generations. They don't belong to anyone and no one has a right to claim them for his\herself. Unfortunately people are finding ways to do so and I think our pal Diamond is behind a good portion of it...

[azbackpackr]

All this just makes me feel kind of sick.

I used to literally get nightmares when I was a kid about developers building houses in my favorite places. I grew up in San Diego. I used to worry about it a lot, even when I was in my early teens. I left there 30 years ago. That place is just ruined.

Now I live in a place that isn't growing very fast, but where public land is being trashed by ATVers.

The disrespect for nature and the land just never seems to end--there are so many people who don't get it.

[Jeffshadows]

Yea, they are another big problem, for sure. The backside of the Catalinas and areas down in the Border Ranges are now awash with whining exhaust noise and helmet less, sandal and tank top-clad aspiring ER patients. One thing I've noticed is that you can now buy a junk-o ATV on the cheap at the parts store or Wally World, which is frightening. Sheer economics used to keep those things out of the hands of some of the most frightening potential possessors. The sadder fact seems to be that the few responsible riders are far outnumbered by numb-skulls and 40 year-old adolescents...

You're right again about the San Diego thing. We've got the same slippery slope here. I ran into a guy in Pima canyon once that put it rather eloquently. As we were looking over the Tucson valley, surrounded by our various mountain ranges, he said: "The ring on the tub keeps rising." What an excellent analogy, I co-opt it all the time...

[fricknaley]

Working in the medical profession, all I can say is that along with cigarettes, ATV's are about the dumbest thing a person can do these days. What a disaster these things are.

[Jeffshadows]

There was an article about this in the Tucson Weekly this week: "Congress and the Bureau of Land Management need to ban off-roading" by Tuttle in the 'Opinion' section...