"Wilderness of Rocks"

Having booked up each and every weekend during the month of May, John and I were desperate to find time to go camping and do a day hike. We had tried to go camping on the Mogollon Rim during the first weekend of the month, but our attempt failed miserably when Mary showed signs that she was getting sick (her nose was running and she had developed a fever). Unwilling to risk a serious illness, John and I packed up our campsite and went home. It turns out that she was not sick after all – instead, she was teething – but why take the chance? Two weeks later, our busy schedules took us to a birthday party for John’s friend Star, who lives in Tucson. Her party yielded us a window of opportunity to go on our much-needed camping trip: on Mount Lemmon, in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. “We’ll be in Tucson anyway,” John said. “We might as well camp there! Then, we can wake up in the morning and go hiking, without having to drive all that way.” It sounded like a good idea to me, so we began to lay out our plans for our camping adventure. As they began to evolve, though, they began to become more and more difficult, though it was not something that we couldn’t handle. We were used to adventures… The plan would go as follows: on Saturday morning, May 18, John and Mary and I would drive, with our Jeep fully loaded with camping gear, to Eloy, where John would spent the morning and early afternoon jumping. Meanwhile, Mary and I would go to Tucson to visit my mother – and later, we would drive up to Mount Lemmon to pay for our permits and stake out a campsite at the General Hitchcock campground, at milepost 12 on the Catalina Highway. Then, I would return to Eloy to pick up John around 4:00 p.m., and at 5:00 p.m., we would arrive at Star’s house, just in time for her party. After the party, we would return to Mount Lemmon and crawl into our tent – all ready for us – and go to sleep. Finally, the next morning, we would hike the Marshall Gulch Trail #3 to the Wilderness of Rocks Trail, in the Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area atop the Santa Catalina Mountains. It was a trail that both of us had always wanted to hike, and this was our perfect chance to do so. The plan looked good on paper; in reality, though, it was much more complicated. The easiest part of this trip would be packing the Jeep. Since we were not planning to cook or eat dinner on Mount Lemmon, we did not need to pack our camp stove, nor did we pack a food box. Instead, we carried a small amount of food, enough for breakfast and lunch, in grocery bags. We finished all of the packing in just a few minutes on Friday night. The next morning, we slept in until 6:30 a.m. – a late start for us. We left the house around 8:00 a.m. and arrived in Eloy around 9:00. Instead of spending my usual few minutes socializing at the Drop Zone, I dropped John off at the parking lot and completed my drive to Tucson, arriving there around 10:00 a.m. My first stop was at my mother’s house. Mary and I spent a few hours visiting with my mother and Ed before we announced that we had to go; otherwise, we would not have enough time to set up the tent on Mount Lemmon. It was roughly 12:30 p.m. when I left her house to begin my long drive up the Catalina Highway. To get there, I turned onto Grant Road and traveled east until Grant became Kolb Road South. I then turned left onto Tanque Verde Road and continued going east for many more miles, until I came to the Catalina Highway. There, I turned left and proceeded up the mountain. At milepost five, I stopped at the fee booth to pay my day-use fees. I explained to the ranger that we were planning to camp overnight at the General Hitchcock Campground, to which he replied that we would not be allowed to have any fires at all, not even to cook our food. “I understand,” I told him. “We’re not planning to cook at all.” He repeated his warning to me anyway – he was serious about it. Over the past four years, Arizona has seen very little rain and snow, and as a result, we have found ourselves in the midst of a severe drought. All throughout the state, everything is dry as a bone. The lakes are at their lowest level ever, the rivers are low, and the creeks are completely dry. All of the trees and shrubs are dry and brittle – the perfect kindling for a wildfire. The slightest spark from the ash of a cigarette or a piece of charcoal is all it would take to set the whole forest ablaze. I drove on towards the General Hitchcock Campground, located at milepost 12. When I arrived, I was happy to see that only two other campsites were occupied. After paying the campsite fee, I quickly began to set up the tent, while Mary "helped"…specifically, she played nearby and managed to fall many times. In just a few minutes, she was completely filthy from head to toe, and she came running to me for comfort each and every time that she fell. As a result, I was soon filthy, too. It took me about a half an hour to set up the tent, fill up the self-inflating air mattress, lay out the sleeping bags, and clean Mary up. Once I had accomplished all of that, I put Mary back into the Jeep and drove back down the Catalina Highway, towards Tucson. On the way back to Eloy, I suddenly remembered that I needed to stop and buy Star a birthday present and card, so I stopped at a grocery store to pick up a nice gift for her. By the time I was finished, it was almost 3:30 p.m., so I drove like mad to get back to the Drop Zone… …only to find that John was not ready to go! Instead, he was about to take part in an 84-way! He landed around 5:00 p.m. Once his parachute was packed, it was time for us to drive back to Tucson for the birthday party. On the way there, we got stuck in traffic at a construction zone off of Sunset Road, so we didn't arrive until 6:45 p.m. Although it was a nice party, we were only able to stay for about two hours, because Mary soon began to rub her eyes and become cranky - that was our cue to leave. Needless to say, Mary fell asleep on the way to our campsite, which was about an hour from Star's home in West Tucson. As soon as we arrived at the campground, we quickly changed Mary into a sleeper and tucked her into her sleeping bag; then, a few minutes later, John and I followed. The next morning, we awoke bright and early to a beautiful, cool morning on Mount Lemmon - a perfect day for hiking! We took our time getting ready and tearing down camp that morning. While Mary played in a pile of dry leaves, John and I took turns getting dressed and packing up the Jeep. Around 7:30 a.m., once the last of the camping equipment had been loaded and the tailgate was closed, we all climbed into the Jeep and drove away. Our destination was the Marshall Gulch Picnic Area, located at the end of the Catalina Highway, near the town of Summerhaven. It was there that we would find the trailhead, where we would begin hiking the Marshall Gulch Trail #3 and the Wilderness of Rocks Trail, both of which were located in the Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area. Although we had hiked Marshall Gulch before (in October 1999), the Wilderness of Rocks Trail would be a new one for us, one that we had been wanting to do for some time. The drive to Summerhaven was uneventful and took us only about twenty minutes - it was still quite early in the morning, so traffic was minimal. When we got there, we found that the parking lot at the picnic area was only half full, which meant that we were able to find a good place to park. We also hoped that meant that we would not see very many people on the trail that morning. Mount Lemmon is extremely popular among Tucsonans and tourists alike, so it is rare to find a little solitude when hiking up there. Our hike began at 8:40 that morning. With Mary in her backpack, riding quite comfortably, the three of us stepped onto the alternate Marshall Gulch Trail, which starts behind the restrooms. Instead of climbing immediately, the alternate trail winds back and forth across the creek, heading upstream for a half-mile until it soon connects to the Marshall Gulch Trail. Almost immediately after we began hiking, Mary fell fast asleep in a manner that actually worried me. She had started out the day babbling and chatting; then suddenly, her head began to bob up and down and her eyes grew very heavy. At one point, I asked her, "Mary, are you okay?" She responded by opening her eyes then closing them again as her head flopped to the side. It was obvious that the high elevation was causing her sleepiness, and, being a mother, I worried that perhaps she wasn't getting enough oxygen. "She's fine," John insisted. "She'll sleep it off." That's precisely what she did, too, and when she awoke, an hour or so later, she was full of energy again. As we made our way upstream, we found that, for the most part, the creek - and the banks surrounding it - were bone dry. We discovered a few shallow pools of water along the way - pools that would have sustained us if we were backpacking there - but it was far from being the babbling creek that usually runs through there during the spring. The reason for the dry conditions was that Mount Lemmon simply did not get enough snow during the winter. When that snow melts, it provides the water needed for the seasonal creeks to flow. Without the snow cover and the necessary run-off, the mountain and its creeks were incredibly dry. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our day hike. Without all of the crowds that usually flock to the area, the trail was quite peaceful - and with temperatures in the 60's, it made for a very pleasant day. We reached Marshall Saddle - 1.2 miles from the trailhead - around 9:15. There, we found several trail signs, pointing to the trails that intersect there, such as the Aspen Trail #93 and the Wilderness of Rocks Trail #44. We stopped there for a moment to catch our breath; then, when we were ready, we began to hike trail #44. Almost immediately after leaving the trail junction, the Wilderness of Rocks Trail began to descend - though not steeply - through an exposed area that was filled with gigantic boulders, on the south side of the mountain. A half-mile later, the trail leveled out as it re-entered the cool ponderosa pine forest again, on the north side. Around the same time, clouds were beginning to gather overhead, keeping the temperatures cool enough for us to have a pleasant hike through the woods, without threatening to rain on us. When Mary woke up, it was time for us to take our first break, so that we could take her out of the backpack and let her run around for a while. Refreshed from her hour-long nap, she soon became a wild-child and began playing with everything in sight: hiking sticks, twigs, dried pine needles, rocks…everything fascinated her. Then, when she was bored with the things on the ground, she wanted to climb up on a log and sit down. We helped her up, and soon she began to pose for pictures (being the camera-hog that she is). We took several pictures of her - and some family pictures, too - before we decided that it was time to go. As we geared up to continue our hike, a pair of bird-watchers hiked past us and stopped to tell us that we had a beautiful child. They explained to us that they were out looking for a type of warbler with a unique song, which they pointed out to us. They explained to us that it was mating season for the warblers, so they were out in abundance that day. Once the birdwatchers went on their way, it was time for us to do the same. We studied our map and determined that we had less than a mile to go before we reached the next trail junction (for the Lemmon Lookout Trail). The next 0.7 miles of the trail was a very pleasant walk through the forest, through terrain that was scattered with dry pine needles and oak leaves. That portion of the trail took us about twenty minutes to complete, as it was quite easy, with only the slightest change in elevation. At the trail junction, we stopped to take a long break. The three of us sat down on a large, flat rock and snacked on celery sticks while we decided whether or not we should continue hiking. It was yet another 2.4 miles to the junction with the Sutherland Trail (our original destination), but by that time, we were just as content to turn around and hike back to the trailhead. After all, it was already 10:45; if we turned around now, we would be back at the car by 2:00 p.m. (thus getting in a full day of hiking). Ultimately, we decided to make that our turn-around point. After a twenty-minute break, we began our return hike. En route, we stopped for lunch at the site of our first break and enjoyed the last little bit of solitude that we would find that day; for as we continued our hike, we were met by throngs of day-hikers, getting a late start on the trail. We reached Marshall Saddle around 1:00 p.m. - a little bit sooner than we had planned, because we had expected a more difficult climb to the top. (The trail was not as steep - nor as long - as we had thought.) It helped that it wasn't as hot as it could have been; the skies were still overcast, creating very pleasant temperatures for hiking along the more exposed parts of the trail. We stopped very briefly on the saddle to catch our breath then continued hiking on the Marshall Gulch Trail. This time, we actually stayed on the Marshall Gulch Trail, instead of taking the alternate route, so that we could see something different and avoid all of the fallen trees that we had encountered while hiking in. Both trails, however, were equally crowded, so there wasn't an opportunity for solitude either way. We could see - and even hear - hikers on the alternate trail below us, meaning that the wilderness area was becoming just a bit overpopulated. We reached the Jeep at 1:30 p.m., just in time to see more and more groups of hikers preparing for their adventures. Our adventure on Mount Lemmon, however, was over, for it was time to go home… Little did we know that this would be our last camping adventure for awhile. Two days later, the Bullock Fire was ignited around the area of Reddington Pass, near Tucson, and it burned over 30,000 acres before it was finally contained, several weeks later. Hundreds of Mount Lemmon residents were forced to evacuate from their homes, and the Catalina Highway was closed. In response to the severe drought and the potential risk for more wildfires, the Forest Service decided to close most of the National Forests in Arizona prior to Memorial Day weekend. Although a good number of the paid campgrounds remained open, most of the trails were closed to hikers, backpackers, equestrians, and bicyclists. All of the forest service roads were closed and only residents possessing a permit could travel on them. With all that was going on Memorial Day weekend (the Arizona Challenge and my best friend’s baby shower), we didn’t feel the impact of the closures until the following weekend, when we tried to make plans to go camping and hiking. The only forest that had remained open – the Kaibab National Forest – was forced to close on May 28; the only portion that remained open was the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Needless to say, this has put quite the strain on our lifestyle, and we are aching for the rain to fall to end the drought that is behind the forest closures.

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