Car Camp & Hike near Sonoita AZ

[NautBrad]

Hi,

I am looking to tie in a hike (maybe mtn bike ) with the Southeast AZ Wine Growers Festival near Sonoita / Elgin April 14th / 15th at Kief-Joshua Vinyards (http://www.kj-vineyards.com) .

I see a few sections of the AZ Trail as possibilities. Mt. Wrightson looks too far to back over to Sonoita.

The plan would be go down to the area get in a good hike on Saturday, car camp some where, then attend the wine festival on Sunday.

Recommendations on places to Car camp or hiking trails welcome.

If others are interested in joining up that would be great too.

Thanks,


Nate

[chumley]

I did a Sonoita wine tour a couple of years ago with a similar plan. Depends how far you want to drive though. We camped down south just past Parker Canyon Lake. There are a few dirt roads with dispersed camping options. Didn't do any major hike though, just a stroll around the lake, which is pretty nice. I find the Canelo Hills to be a beautiful area. But if you think Wrightson is too far away, then this is definitely not in your ballpark.

[azbackpackr]

Is the Gardner Canyon trail to Mt. Wrightson still open since the fire? That was a great way to hike Wrightson, and very close to Sonoita.

[NautBrad]

Parker Canyon Lake and Patagonia Lake State park have been on my short list of places to visit for some time now. I don't know why but they have been beckoning me to check them out. But they look well developed and potentially very busy.


Thanks for the tip on Gardner Canyon. Based on the trip reports from last year it appears open.

I hope to camp within an hour of Sonoita if possible.

[NautBrad]

Thanks for the Gardner Canyon Trail tip. You can see my triplog here.

http://hikearizona.com/x.php?x=74038

[azbackpackr]

Yay! Glad you enjoyed it! I have only hiked that trail once, and we saw no other hikers, same as you, until we got up there to Baldy Saddle area. I have camped and wandered around in Gardner Canyon quite a few times, however. It can get busy with campers on spring weekends and during the hunt season. Kind of hot in summer.