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We weren’t very hungry this morning, so breakfast was a quick snack in our motel room: just a banana and two leftover pieces of pizza from last night. Even unheated, the pizza was excellent!
While we ate, we tossed around a few thoughts about what to do today, and we ultimately decided on an easy hike to Seven Falls at Sabino Canyon. (Just so we keep them in mind for our next visit, the ideas that didn’t quite make the cut for today were hiking at Signal Hill and exploring the northwest corner of the eastern section of Saguaro National Park.)
By the time we arrived at the parking area, there weren’t many spots left. It’s Saturday morning, remember (of course, we didn’t remember that until we arrived there) and Sabino Canyon is a very popular spot. Fortunately on 100-degree days in Arizona many people start their days even earlier than we do, so plenty of people were already leaving the park as we and many others entered.
A hikers’ shuttle runs to the trailhead every hour on the hour. By the time we purchased our tickets and made our way to the shuttle stop, it was a few minutes after 9:00, so we had almost an hour to wait for the next shuttle. That gave us a chance to explore the visitors center and hike the Bajada Loop Nature Trail around the center, where we found our first crested saguaro! We had lots of time to photograph the unusual desert plants here.
The creaky shuttle offered a cool but bone-jarring ride of about two miles to the Seven Falls trailhead along the Bear Canyon trail. The Bear Canyon trail actually originates near the visitors center, but we weren’t prepared to walk that far today, so we took the shuttle.
From the Seven Falls trailhead, the route ascends for a short stretch and then descends through a few small switchbacks in a dense cactus forest and ultimately leads down to the canyon floor where the stream flows, when it flows. There was water today forming pools rather than a flowing stream. There are several stream crossings, no challenge today due to water, but still somewhat challenging to find and to cross on the rocks. We took our time on the way out, stopping many times to take photos and enjoy the scenery. We even spotted another crested saguaro on a hill above us!
The trail was so busy it was like an interstate highway—probably since it was a Saturday morning—but this trail is supposedly always busy anyway. Most of the other “hikers” were teens and 20-somethings running along the trail at full speed, some carrying gallon jugs of water (or what I assume was water). It was a little ridiculous at times but we tried our best to ignore them and just enjoy our own hike and what we were seeing at our own pace.
Approaching the falls the trail becomes rockier and more rugged and enters an area of several switchbacks, then traverses a long straight ledge just as the falls come into view. They weren’t spectacular today due to the low water levels, but there was still some water flowing down the granite cliffs if you looked hard enough, and cool clear pools where many of the kids were swimming and playing. The area is so vast that even the loud people and music weren’t much of a problem. The only real problem here was the wind, which had been building all day and reached its peak while we rested at the falls. It was some of the strongest wind I’ve ever experienced, but at least it wasn’t (too) cold.
After filling up on Kind bars, prickly pear licorice, and water we began our return trek. Trying to make the 3:00 shuttle we didn’t want to mess around too much and walked pretty quickly back to the shuttle stop. We made it by a few minutes. Great hike! We both thought it was definitely more strenuous than the “easy” rating given in the 50 Hikes in Arizona book (keep in mind, though, that most of our experience is with East Coast hiking—wholly different from western hiking!), and it took more time than we expected. We met a nice woman from New York on the way back who also found it harder than expected. She decided to turn back before reaching the falls.
Supper at a really weird place! Kind of Mexican fast food, reminded me of a KFC or something but Sonoran hot dogs and beef taco, mangoyada and HUGE burritos with juicy marinated grilled chicken inside. We couldn’t resist also trying a burrito with cabbage and beans inside. That was a delicious and unusual combination! But after all the other food, we were too stuffed to finish it.
