Wilderness of Rocks Trail #44 Photoset • 00blackout • 2025-07-27 • HikeArizona.COM

Wilderness of Rocks Trail #44, AZ

	2025-07-27
	25 by 00blackout

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Wilderness of Rocks Trail #44

Tucson, AZ

Wilderness of Rocks Trail #44

Tucson, AZ

Hiking	8.70 Miles	1,569 AEG

Hiking	8.70 Miles
	1,569 ft AEG

no routes

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Mint Spring Trail #20

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DesertNymph

Headed south to Mt. Lemmon to hike the Wilderness of Rocks trail and to hit up the Lemmon Canyon pools. Parked at the Mint Spring TH near Summerhaven, where 4 cars were already parked, with it already 74 degrees out. The Mint Spring trail climbs for a couple of hundred feet, then winds around a saddle before reaching Marshall Saddle. The Mint Spring trail is pretty sun-exposed, as most of the pine burned in past fires, so it was already pretty warm. We reached Marshall Saddle and started down the Wilderness of Rocks trail, which was much more shaded with Pine and Aspen, and we were surrounded by huge boulders. The scenery was stunning as we sat upon a boulder looking out for a bit, taking it in. The next few miles were all downhill, losing a thousand feet of elevation before we made a small off-trail detour to the pools, with the final descent being pretty steep. There were four ladies and a dog (separate groups) at the bottom when we arrived. After a quick snack, we took off our shoes and got in the water. I got up to my waist as the water felt freezing cold, but Stephanie jumped right in, swimming out to the waterfall. After a few minutes of peer pressure from Stephanie and the others who were there, I took the plunge, swimming out to the middle

. It was cold and deep, as I could not feel the bottom. After a little bit of swimming, we dried off and started the steep climb up, making a stop at the other two pools first. I was not looking forward to the thousand-foot climb out, and with temps in the mid-80s, it was pretty miserable. My heat tolerance is pretty low, so it was a slow struggle up. When we got to the saddle, we made a mutual decision for Stephanie to hike down Mint Spring to get the car, and I would hike down Marshall Gulch (since it was shaded) with her picking me up there. We also noticed a couple of climbers who were using a power drill and a generator to cut anchor points into rocks, which is a big no-no in the wilderness area

. Stephanie mentioned this to him, and he did not care; there was no ranger around to let them know. Marshall Gulch was a beautiful riparian area with water flowing almost the entire way down (sorry Stephanie). There were hordes of people at the th/picnic area, so it felt like a long wait to get picked up, even though it wasn't. Even though it was warm, the views from this area are absolutely worth it, and the swim was a nice bonus.

	Lemmon Creek @ WOR #44	Medium flow	Medium flow
	Nice pools and flow.

	Lemmon Pools	51-75% full	51-75% full
	Deep enough that I could not feel the bottom by the waterfall in the bottom pool. Pools 1 & 2 also had pools.

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Hiking is just walking where it’s okay to pee.

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