Saguaro NP / Colossal Cave

January 28, 2024

Yesterday’s outing worked well for both of us, so last night we decided on a similar approach for today. We’ll drive out to Saguaro National park, and while she takes a hike in the park I’ll go for a bike ride and we’ll meet up afterwards. She maps out and loads her hiking route as well as the route I’ve drawn up for myself - a familiar one she and I have taken a few times together in the past: the nine mile paved loop through the park, which must be the best nine miles of pavement near Tucson if you’re a road biker, followed by an out and back down the Old Spanish Trail to Colossal Caves. This is one of my favorite rides in the region, and I’m glad to be able to fit it in before we leave even if Rachael can’t join me this time.

In one of those weird coincidences, it’s not long after we’ve made this plan that we get an email from Janice inviting us to join her and Barry on the ride they’re planning for today - and it’s virtually the identical ride I’ve just mapped out. Eerie! Such an exceptional coincidence has to be honored of course, so I quickly accept and propose that we meet at the park at 9 - an early hour, but right for the warm, sunny day that’s in the forecast.

It’s a half hour drive to the park for us and closer to an hour for the Branhams, but we both ace the timing and arrive within a few minutes of each other. She and Barry are just unloading the bikes when we drive up at 8:58. A few minutes of ride prep and chit chat later, and we all make our way to the admissions booth - the Branhams riding their recumbents and me walking the Rodriguez beside Rachael. We’re going in together so she can get her free admission covered under my lifetime national park senior pass.

As soon as we’re all through the gate the quartet breaks up. Rachael holds back from the start of her hike for a minute so she can get some video of the rest of us biking away, and then she’s gone herself. We’re separating with the plan that we’ll all meet back at the visitor’s center somewhere around one or one thirty, but that’s just a swag. One or the other of us is apt to get back first and have to wait awhile, but that’s fine.

Let’s start by looking at the slideshow Rachael’s compiled from her outing, and then get on to the bikes.

Rachael’s walk, just the twelve miler you’d expect for someone needing a tooth extraction.

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We’re all glad that I encouraged us to get an early start because the loop through the park this morning is magical, with us having the one way paved loop virtually to ourselves. Rachael and I have taken this loop three or four times in the past but I think this must be the quietest it’s ever been. If the weather is conducive, riding first thing on a weekday morning must really be the best plan. It’s warm enough today that we probably could have started an hour earlier than this even.

The first four miles are especially delightful, weaving their way gradually downhill.

Great views north to Mount Lemmon, still holding on to its new snow from several days ago.

A pause on the way back up. The next mile is probably the stiffest climb of the day, rising about 300 feet and stiffly in spots.

I’m really glad that Janice stopped for this shot of the morning sun highlighting the ocotillo. I’d been wishing I’d stopped for it myself.

Near the top. It’s about at this point that I reached for my water bottle and found it missing. It’s a good thing we’ll be passing the car again on our way out of the park.

Over the top, looking southwest toward the Santa Rita Mountains. The horizontal white smear is the Boneyard. If I’d zoomed in to get more resolution you’d see that the smear is a blurring of thousands of aircraft.

After topping out by Javelina Rocks we gradually descended for the remaining three miles of the loop and back to the visitor center, where we made use of the facilities and I picked up my water bottle. Then, leaving the park, we turned south on Old Spanish Trail and continued dropping for the next three miles before beginning the long eight mile climb to the high point of the ride on the shoulder of Pistol Hill.

Old Spanish Trail has a good shoulder and is a decent cycling road but today at least carries a little more traffic for the first few miles than we’d prefer. Once we’re past the junction with Valencia Road and turn to the southeast though we lose nearly all of our traffic. In its place though now we bike into an increasingly strong headwind for the next five miles, a force strong enough that we stop every mile or so to allow the group to reassemble. Toward the end the wind is probably somewhere around 15 mph, definitely enough to slow us down and keep our attention.

On Old Spanish Trail. The first three miles continue downhill, and the faster-descending recumbents quickly pull away.

Uphill and into the wind for the next too many miles. This is an odd shot that Rachael and I both did a double take on. Janice looks like she’s biking the other direction for some reason, but it’s an illusion.

At one of our breaks I look to the west to Mount Wrightson and the Santa Rita range and am startled to realize I’m looking past a crested saguaro, one I’ve never noticed before. We must have biked past this spot a half dozen times - I was just here on my birthday ride a few weeks ago, in fact - but unless you’re looking rightward at just the right spot you’d miss it.

So of course I have to get a closer look, and make a quick detour on a dirt road that fortuitously passes just feet from it.

I don’t have to bike far down this dirt road. You can see where the pavement is from the utility pole in the background.

Another one for the crested saguaro gallery. I should collect them all into a mosaic one of these rainy days.

There’s a decision to be made when we come to the junction of Pistol Hill Road, because the next several miles are a loop that circumnavigates Pistol Hill. We can circle the hill either direction, but we decide to take it counterclockwise and continue climbing for another mile, putting most of the pain behind us. It’s the right decision, because almost immediately we have the wind at our backs and get a welcome shove up the rest of the way to the summit.

Over the top, we drop off the other side, make a left turn on Colossal Caves Road, and immediately find ourselves pushing into the wind again. The next two miles are maybe the best part of the ride though as we bike a delightful roller coaster on a completely empty road. Partway into it I catch up with Janice, who’s stopped to wait for us after pulling ahead on the downhill. She’s concerned by the signs warning that the road is closed ahead, but I reassure her. It’s the back entrance into the park and barricaded to cars but not pedestrians and bikers. Lucky us!

One of my favorite stretches of road around.

No hunters, no cars, what more could we ask for?

Once in the park we look up at the cars parked on the ridge above it and have a quick vote on whether anyone thinks it’s worth the 10% climb to get up there just for the view and to use the bathroom. It’s instantly unanimous, and we’re quickly biking north again on our way back to the car. The next eight miles are a screamer, downhill with a big tailwind, and the recumbents disappear from sight within the first mile. I’m keeping a reasonably fast pace myself, but Janice and Barry must be bombing away at 30+ mph.

They’re gone. Barry’s already around the bend and out of sight.

I never lag too far behind them apparently though, because it looks like they haven’t been there long when I pull up to the car - perhaps I made up some ground on the last three miles of uphill. I’ve been more interested in Rachael’s position though - I’ve started tracking her on the Garmin and it looks like she’s on track to arrive right when we do. And she is - she’s just arrived at the car when the Branhams pull up also.

So that’s the ride. Thanks for inviting us long, Branhams! Hopefully we’ll see you down here again next winter.

We head straight home, and then a couple of hours later we’re back in the car and driving up into the foothills of North Italian, Rachael’s choice again for one of her last meals before she’s restricted to a few days of yogurt, mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs and the like. She makes the most of it by ordering the seasonal vegetable salad with chicken, butternut squash, brussels sprout, cauliflower, kale, radicchio, pecorino, fregola, pistachio, date, and white balsamic vinaigrette. It looks great, but I’m quite happy with my roasted porcetta too.

Afterwards, as soon as we've paid the bill Rachael immediately dashes out the door and to the parking lot - a move that bemuses me, because I dropped her off at the restaurant when we arrived so she has no idea where the car is. I’m expecting to catch up with her soon and find her sheepishly looking around for the car, but that’s not her mission - she’s trying to get to a clearing for a shot of another amazing Tucson sunset.

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Today's ride: 35 miles (56 km)
Total: 1,468 miles (2,363 km)

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Janice BranhamIt was a spectacular ride. Your photos really capture it!
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