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Tucson, Arizona 2016

Blacketts ridge Trail Hike - part 5

Our Crazy Post Retirement Wanderings Hiking and Triking


Blacketts ridge Trail Hike - part 5

All though every trail is a little different, which makes each one specialin it's own way, Blacketts ridge is special in several ways. It's a ridge, so you can look down in every direction and see a different panorama. Blacketts looks down on two beautiful canyons, both Sabino and Bear canyon. It's a steep trail, and it goes up about 1800 feet in about 2 miles, and is very easy to follow. For no good reason dogs are banned from this trail, a perfect example of how Arizona fish and wildlife does not serve the public good, and the board of advisors is a corrupt and spineless group of evil men who have no redeeming value, and will go straight to hell when they die.

We found some information about this trail on hikearizona.com, It's the Arizona trails website, and it's a great resource for people who are looking for a hiking trail, especially near Tucson, Az.

hikearizona.com often provides lots of very useful information, including distance, elevation, AEG, elevation gain, average duration time of hike, pictures along the trail and a write up of what to expect.

The main idea of hiking always is to get fresh air, good exercise and interesting pictures, and that constitutes a good experience and is good for my health, and is a pleasant pastime.

Blacketts ridge starts out on the Sabino canyon walkway going towards Bear canyon and the phoneline trail. Blacketts ridge trail branches off of the phoneline trail shortly after the phoneline trail branches off the trail from the Sabino canyon vistor center heading east to Bear canyon trail. The weather on that day was nearly perfect, but a little bit on the warm side with the exposed nature of the trail. Cloudy most of the day, and about 60F at the upper elevations. There was a nice breeze, and the canyon wall shielded us from the morning sun for the short periods when the sun did come out from behind the clouds. I brought along 2 liters, and it was about the perfect amount. This trail is very exposed, so in the summer when it's hot, take extreme measures in terms of protection from the sun's heating effects, but it's short enough that not much water was needed.

The hiking in Arizona in the fall and winter and spring. Only risk in winter is that you can have rainstorms, which translate to snowstorms in the mountains from December- March. All of the hike was below about 4,000 feet and very exposed(no shade), so generally speaking, it's extremely rare to see snow or ice on this trail, and it always melts off in a few days or sooner.

On the day when we hiked the Blacketts ridge trail, we got a start on hiking at about 9:30AM. The hike gains about 1,800 feet going up the south end of this ridge trail. This trail can be hiked in about 4 hours. There were some good panoramas looking up Sabino canyon, and points west toward Pusch Ridge, as well as point east, including the Rincons, and furhter south to the Santa Ritas.

When on reaches the north end of the trail (where the sign says "the end of the trail"), you have a very nice view of Thimble peak and the ridge before Thimble peak. One can also see Mount Gibbon to the northeast, and to the northwest, one can see Cathedral rock, and further to the north you can see the top of Mount Lemmon.

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    Last Update: March 15, 2016

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