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| Hiking | 2.30 Miles |
370 AEG |
| | Hiking | 2.30 Miles | | | |
| 370 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | | Tanque Verde Falls is located on the east side of Tucson in the area known as Reddington Pass. I chose this hike for today primarily because it was relatively short and had good reviews from other hikers. I was hiking with a few others who I’m not sure had ever been hiking really before this and I thought it would be pretty straight forward. To get to the trail head is really not difficult. You basically take Tanque Verde east until it turns into Reddington. Eventually the pavement will end and you’ll be on dirt road for what couldn’t have been more than a mile. There’s signs clearly pointing the way to a parking area and the trailhead is directly south from there. The trail down into the canyon is very well defined and not difficult. Right away you’ll be greeted by huge metal signs explaining in a very long winded way that this area is very dangerous due to slippery rock, flash floods and of course the biggest danger humans being humans. Mosey on past the signs for a short steady decline to the stream bed. Once you’re at the bottom your destination is east by northeast up the stream bed. This is where this hike gets some points from me as it’s different than most Tucson area hikes. Rather than hiking along any kind of trail you’re literally hiking along the stream bed. This might conjure terrible images in your mind of trudging through big sandy washes which is what stream bed means everywhere else in the desert but this isn’t the case. Instead you’ll be navigating slick rock slabs and boulders most of the way. Using your hands for climbing and figuring out exactly which boulders to go over or around or between is really kind of fun. I wasn’t sure what the water situation would be since it hasn’t rained in quite a while and my understanding is that these waterfalls are fueled by mountain runoff. There wasn’t a lot is the short story. There were sporadic pools of water here and there the whole way up the canyon. Some of them seemed quite deep considering how small they were meaning water up to at least chest level if I were to actually go in them. The pools themselves seemed old and most of them had a fair amount of algae and so I avoided them. It might not be possible to avoid them however during wetter times. A short distance, but fair amount of time with the boulder navigation ,up the canyon you’ll get to the lower Tanque Verde Falls. This narrow rock canyon is pretty pleasant to rest at even without the falls actually running. The falls themselves were dried up but the pools that are notorious for cliff jumping are still there. They seemed fairly deep though the water is dark and murky and it’s hard to tell exactly how deep. Not exactly inviting for swimming and with soot on the rocks showing previous water levels definitely not for jumping off a cliff into. My friends stayed at the lower falls but I had to see what was up at the upper falls. To get between the two there’s no way up but to climb. Ordinarily the kind of climbing you do to get up there wouldn’t be a big deal but in this instance the rock is so smooth from the running water (when it is running) it’s really quite precarious and I would give my feeling of safety a 6 on a scale of 1 being “I’m going to die what am I doing up here?” to 10 being “oh this is easy”. I can only imagine what climbing this next to a running waterfall would be like. Probably not too bad since when the waterfall is actually running the pools probably inspire a much greater sense of a safety net. These pools, while they looked deep, inspired no such feelings. I did not want to go in there. After the short climb which was probably 30ft you get to the real deal. I imagine this upper area is really fantastic when that waterfall is going. This pool was much larger and deeper than the previous pools. I imagine there’s far less evaporation happening up there as the pool is surrounded by steep rock canyon on three sides. I still don’t know if would venture a swim. Something about still, dark, murky water gives me the willies and this water was still. I was afraid to touch it lest I awaken something lurking underneath or set off some kind of chain reaction. I’ll leave the swimming to the drunk college kids. Which brings me to the only real negative, aside from the water not running at all, about the hike. TRASH. It’s all over the place. It’s clear this hike is not for hikers so much as for younger ‘daredevils’. Don’t get me wrong the canyon is very pretty and the hiking bit is fun, but between the tagging on the rocks, the obvious remnants of party camping, and the trash I think I’ll be staying on hikes that are maybe a little more out of the way. The advantage to trail hiking is that for the most part the trails are established, maintained and used by people who love nature and have a strong desire to keep nature natural. This area is obviously used more for parties and drunken exhibitions of bravery. Which is fine, if that’s your thing I’m not going to tell you to not have a good time, but to see all the trash was just a huge turn off. I still count this as a good hike and I’m glad I saw Tanque Verde Falls. I don’t know that I’ll make my way out there any time soon again, at least not without the promise that a good rainstorm might bring. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
Falls are running well with deep pools throughout the canyon. 
