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| Hiking | 1.56 Miles |
164 AEG |
| | Hiking | 1.56 Miles | 1 Hour 5 Mns | | 1.44 mph |
| 164 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This was a delightful little hike! I did not do a long distance. My main goal today was to get a Virtual geocache on the Encinas Trail, "Surveying the Desert", GC27BF. True geocaches are not allowed in Saguaro National Park and so this virtual, requiring information from a benchmark, works instead.
I approached from Tucson by way of Golden Gate Road. The road was in great shape, recently graded, and fine for passenger cars. While I usually always cache with my dog, they are also not allowed in Saguaro National Park so today, I hiked alone. I parked at the Ezkiminzin Picnic area. Not finding a real trailhead in the picnic area, I may have missed it, I just dropped down the hill to the wash and headed generally west until I figured out that the trail was basically a mostly level, open wash, quite sandy, which made the journey a bit more work.
The views were nice, the trail empty, and the smaller wildflowers were starting to bloom. Again, I only did about .8 miles in and then returned. The climb back out was a bit of a workout for me, but if I can do it, anyone can!  I took an hour, but that was with lots of stops for taking pictures, gathering the needed info at the benchmark, and just goofing off.
Lastly, originally I was going to do this as a night hike with a friend. Last minute, I got lucky and found that there is a sign at Golden Gate Road and Picture Rocks prohibiting entrance on Golden Gate after sunset. I am glad I didn't waste a trip! |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
Small wildflowers in bloom as well as the Creosote. Lupine are growing in the wash and will likely be blooming in a couple weeks. |
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