Bear Canyon and 7 Falls Hike

Each year, while in Tucson, we have visited Sabino Canyon in the Santa Catalina over in NE section of town.  It is not a park, rather part of the Coronado National Forest.  Thousands flock here each year and it gets real busy with a lot of walkers and hikers in the main part of the canyon where you can see amazing flora and sometimes fauna.

Click on any of the photos to expand and enjoy.

Gazing west into Downtown Tucson at the 2+ mile marker

What really brings us back each year is the smaller canyon to the east of Sabino.  Bear Creek Canyon offers a more rigorous hike of about 700 ft elevation gain over 6 miles round trip from shuttle stop or even further (9+ miles) if you begin and end at Visitor center.  Today we took the shuttle both ways.

Turning around from previous photo you look up the canyon towards our destination

Her:  "gorgeous, simply gorgeous!!"
Him: "Yup"
Her:  "Gorgeous, simply gorgeous!"
Me:   "Yep"
Her: .......... you get the picture.

The destination is 7 falls at upper end of this canyon.  As we approached the canyon end, we could see over to the falls area. Yikes.  Must've been 75 hikers over there.  Talk about a crowd.  Not to worry, I say,  I think they are hiking club and have been there a while which means they will depart soon.

Looking out over 7 Falls

 Sure enough, by the time we arrived at the pools, the clubs were beginning to pack up after their lunch.

Gazing back at the trail in distance.  Resting the feet.
Some people (you know who) took off their shoes and soaked.

 We found a rock near the main pool, leaned back, and snacked on nuts and dried berries (like a bear).

Resting at the Pools

 We actually found someone to take our photo also.

Click on this iPhone Pano of the 7 Falls area to see it in its glory.

I climbed up above our lunch spot to see this falls.

one of the upper falls

 Then looked down on the pools  That is Sraddha in the red next to pool down there.

Can you see Sraddha down there?

A "broom" flower

A few little wildflowers begin to bloom along trail

Narrow trail and geology of the canyon

 As we returned down the canyon we finally realized that, if we really press, we can make it back to the shuttle which runs only once per hour.  So a forced march back was great cardio as we pressed hard.

Stopped briefly to catch this little scene along Bear creek.

Yes we did make the shuttle.  Felt real good.