Tucson Mountain Park
52 Hikes in 2025 - Hike #1
We decided a couple of weeks ago that we are going to do the 52 hike challenge in 2025. Kelly did it in 2022, and it was a lot of fun to document. Most of our hikes are probably going to be close to home in the Huachuca mountains. But we also intend to get up to Sedona and Flagstaff again, as well as complete a few hikes in Phoenix and Tucson (especially if we’re already in town for another reason). In addition, Kelly wants to start the Arizona Trail this year. We’ll be doing it in smallish segments, and not necessarily in order.
Hiking in the Sonoran Desert
The best time to get down to the lower desert is between October and April. It’s just too hot to be enjoyable during the summer months.
So of course when we had the opportunity to be in Tucson the day after New Year’s, it just made sense to book a hotel room for the night and plan a desert hike the next day.
Since this was a mini vacation, we slept in, then lounged around eating breakfast before heading out to the trails just before noon. (afternoon hikes are something we like to take advantage of in the winter).
First Stop: Gates Pass
Kelly decided that instead of taking a direct route to the trail we’d chosen to hike (Camino de Oeste to the Bowen Stone House), it would be fun to drive through the park on South Kinney Road, then stop at the Gates Pass trail head.
About halfway up Gates Pass Road, there is a turnoff on the left to a parking lot near the Gates Pass trail head. This was a nice little parking lot, with plenty of spaces and even a bathroom (be aware, it is one of the hole in the ground type toilets found at many trail heads).
There was a colorful little building up the hill directly in front of the parking lot, but Kelly had been there before, so we instead decided to explore the steeper outcropping that was just left of the start of the Gates Pass trail.
There was sort of a path around the “mountain”, and the views were outstanding from all directions.
But it was a bit of a rock scramble to get to the very top, and in the end only Kelly actually went all the way to the “peak”.
We did take more little detour before we got back in the car to head to our ultimate destination. There is another little abandoned stone house about 150 yards or so from the parking lot. We again enjoyed the views, and goofed around a little bit.
Camino de Oeste Trailhead
To get to this trail head you have to drive through a sparsely populated neighborhood, with the last part of the road turning into a non-paved (but still flat and smooth) dirt/gravel surface. The parking area on the right only had about a dozen spaces, so I’d imagine finding an open spot could be a little dicey if you arrived too late on a weekend. Fortunately for us it was a Thursday afternoon, so we were able to pull right into one of the 3 or 4 open spots.
The David Yetman trail is fairly flat and well marked with yellow arrows.
It’s a pleasant little hike through a canyon with lots of saguaro cactus on both sides.
About a half mile in, there is a fork, and if you go to the left you can take the Bowen trail to the Starr Pass Resort, and it also connects to the hidden canyon trail (which Kelly and I had been on before when we stayed at Starr Pass this past summer). We had a brief moment of hesitation, as our destination was the Bowen Stone House (so it wasn’t a stretch to think the Bowen trail might be the way to get there). Fortunately, the signs are pretty informative, so we continued down the Yetman trail towards the stone house.
The Bowen Stone House
About a mile and a quarter up the trail we arrived at our destination. This was a fun little place to explore and take a few pictures.
In addition, there is some neat history behind it. It turns out that a mere hundred years ago (if you were rich enough), you could move to Tucson and establish a homestead in one of these mountain canyons.
More information about Tucson Mountain Park and the Bowen House:
Rock Cairns
When ever we’re out on the hiking trail and Kelly sees some rock cairns, she always accepts the challenge to build one of her own. Of course we needed a video:
And with that, hike #1 of 2025 was in the books!
Til next time,
Todd
p.s. we will very likely post more pictures on our Facebook Page