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| Hiking | 6.62 Miles |
2,251 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.62 Miles | 3 Hrs 10 Mns | | 2.21 mph |
| 2,251 ft AEG | 10 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | It's been a lot of years since I climbed Picacho, and I had never done the Sunset Vista Trail, so we decided to hit it up.
Since being here last, a visitor center has been installed and a $20/vehicle entrance fee.
I assumed that most folks would be hiking the more popular Hunter Trail, but I was surprised how many vehicles were at the SV trailhead. Not a full parking lot, but quite a few vehicles.
I had relatively low expectations of the trail, as my assumption was just a continuation of the dustbowl desert that surrounds the peak and is famous for causing major pile ups on I-10 during haboob season.
The experience definitely beat these low expectations. The trail starts out by going up a reasonably interesting ravine. After that, the trail rolls up and down and reminds me of the south side of the Pass Mountain loop. Some pretty solid saguaro forest stands along the route.
The climb up to join the Hunter trail is steep and fun. A long cabled section just before the junction provides some spice, but is easy to navigate with lots of good footholds to complement the cables.
From there, the traffic naturally increased, along with some bottlenecks at the narrow, semi-technical sections. But we didn't have to wait too long.
The views from the top were nice, despite one woman issuing a few blood-curdling screams when a bee landed on her. 
Last time I came, we wandered across the saddle to the other point, above the crossover area on the Hunter trail. This time it was closed off due to an apparent nesting area for a protected bird species.
We stopped briefly at the Visitors Center on the way out. Basically a small gift shop with bathrooms.
Enjoyed the hike, but probably won't be back for another few years. |
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