Saturday, May 23, 2020

Madera Canyon Springs

Weather:  79ยบ, sunny

About this Hike:  Lockdown is over and Arizonians are like bats out of hell.  Memorial Weekend is always a stampede up to the high country, but this year more so than ever.  All the valley rats are headed north to trash the forests and then incinerate their trash with illegal campfires.  Can you tell I feel a little cynical? 

Anyway, we headed south to Tucson for the weekend.  After all, who wants to go south where it's still nearly as hot as Phoenix?  This was a theory that proved correct.

Tucson has easy respites within 30 or so miles.  We spent the afternoon in town at a museum and then decided to do a late-day hike at Madera Canyon.  We parked at Bog Springs and made it up to Sylvester Spring before turning around.  Back at the parking area, I saw my first ever coatimundi up close.  He was raiding a picnic site that picnickers had left unsupervised.

The big takeaway here is that while I've been to Madera before, I never appreciated it so much as I did today.  There are a lot of trails with lush forest and flowing springs in that area.  It's a nice alternative to Mt. Lemmon when you want to get out of the Tucson heat.  

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