Hike up Romero canyon to the first peak - part 1

Romero Canyon is one of the best canyons on a magical mountain. To get to Romero Canyon, one drives up Oracle road (hwy 77) into Oro Valley, and you come to Catalina state park on the mountain side of the road.

The trailhead is at the end of where you can drive in the state park. The trail starts out as the canyon loop trail, and then continues on east from near the top of the canyon loop.

The trail starts at about 3,000 feet, and continues on up to about 3,700 feet before it goes back down to the Romero pools at a slightly lower elevation a little further up the trail.

I was hiking on this day with my wifes' nephew, who was visiting, and I was suffering with severe anemia on that day, otherwise I probably would have pushed on up to the Romero Pools, which is an interesting place to visit, and not very much further up the trail.

That having been said, it was a nice hike, and lasted about 4 hours, which is respectable, and enough to get a little exercise anyway.

When we reached the peak of the trail before the trail descended down to the Romero pools, we hiked up a nearby peak, and took some pictures.

It was a slightly cloudy day, but overall, it was a very nice day for a hike

We saw several people along the way who were hiking, as this is a very popular trail for most of the year.

This hike is about 4.0 miles round trip, and it's all uphill and it's about 1,000 feet up from the trailhead, where we turned around, but if you hike up to the saddle, you will gain another 3,000 feet.

It's a nice hike, but it's a typical Santa Catalina trail level of ruggedness, so it takes a bit of work to get the trail hiked. Well worth the effort.

I took a sandwitch with my and ate it sitting on a rock up where I turned around, and it was a very pleasant lunch and view.

The hike is about a full day hike if you have lunch, and take pictures and look around.

The 360 degree view should be savored up at the summit.