A new section of the Arizona Trail! If you’ve been following our blog over the years you have seen all our posts about the Arizona Trail. While camping for a couple weeks down by Sonoita, it was perfect to have this new section by Patagonia open. After years of hard work and determination, the Arizona Trail Association received approval to proceed with the Temporal Gulch Passage Reroute Project in late March 2020 and Derek rode it the other day while I hiked. (My back is angry again so I’m off the bike).
Looking at Trailforks, it appears most folks do this as a climb on the singletrack and then a descent on the dirt road. Weird. Derek rode it the opposite way, so a warm up along Patagonia Train Track Trail, a climb up Temporal Gulch Road and then all along the singletrack back to the trailhead.
The annoying thing about parts of the Arizona Trail is all the gates. Some sections have a ton of gates you have to hop off and open and close, while some have ride overs. This day it was all gates. Temporal Gulch Road is a well graded dirt road that basically is just a means to and end. The first part of the singletrack is a hefty steep climb that busts your legs and lungs. Once up there on the ridge though, the views of Mt Wrightson and surrounding land is stellar.
The new singletrack is bench cut into the the side of the hill and is a series of winding turns forever. It’s not a technical trail at all, in fact, it’s pretty smooth. I’d characterize the trail as having a lot of little punchy climbs. The total climbing for the loop is 2136′ with almost equal climbing and descending on the singletrack.
As you can see from the pictures, it’s mostly grasslands with oak and scrub for miles. No rattlesnake sightings yet! We did see a handful of hikers and a few other cyclists.
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