Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, located in the Santa Catalina Mountains and the Coronado National Forest north of Tucson, Arizona, is a true gem. With tons of hiking options, we have been here before. In fact, Seven Falls was one of my favorites! This time we did a shorter hike to see the creek, dam, and lake. Yes, water! Our hike was almost 4 miles with only 300′ of climbing.
During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration and Emergency Relief Administration built Sabino Dam and nine bridges over Sabino Creek in an attempt to build a road to the top of Mount Lemmon. The road travels about 4.5 miles into the canyon, but was not completed due to the steep terrain at the end of the canyon. One of the things I really like about this park is it’s car free. If you don’t or can’t hike far enough, you can take a shuttle (for a $12 fee) that has 9 or so different stops along the way. Actual entry fees Sabino Canyon fees are covered under our annual National Park Pass so there was no extra charge for us to park and hike.
We started by hiking out the Sabino Canyon Walkway which parallels the road and then we split off onto Esperero Trail for a short climb up a rocky slab. After gaining a little elevation we wrapped around and descended down into a wash on Rattlesnake Trail. The trail follows along above the wash and eventually drops down to Sabino Creek. There was a decent snowfall up at Mt Lemmon a couple weeks ago and Sabino Creek was still flowing when we hiked. Our route faltered a bit here as we found the best place to wade across the creek/river.
After hiking down along the creek on appropriately named Creek Trail, we were delighted to get to the dam. With water flowing it’s a spectacular site in the desert. Check out how dramatic the sky is in the dam picture. (hehehehe). After hiking down to a few different vantage points, we continued on Sabino Lake Trail and then met up with Bear Canyon Trail to get back to the parking lot.
I’d call this an easy hike since there isn’t much elevation change and it’s only 4 miles but you can easily add on more if you wanted a longer day. Also, these aren’t all smooth hiking trails so it could be a challenge if that’s all you’re used to. There are sections with lots of rocks to negotiate. Also, lots of great views!
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