Coronado National Forest - Mt. Lemmon - Box Camp Trail

Pools, streams, wildflowers, and awesome viewpoints abound on the Box Camp Trail, a moderate hike down the southwestern side of the Catalina mountain range. If you took this trail to its end, Box Camp Canyon turns into Sabino Canyon. I didn't go that far, just far enough to get some amazing views of the city below (Tucson). After all, it was a rather warm day and I knew it would be pretty toasty at 3760 feet where the trails meet up; or, maybe all the vultures circling above me was just a bad omen of what would become of me should I not be able to make my way back up the mountain. Anyway, the first mile or so of the trail goes along the mountain side through grass and ferns and a lot of burnt trees with very little change in elevation. That is followed by a good downhill moving into the forest with a stream and pools with banks of wildflowers. This made for a great spot to relax, have a snack, and watch the bees enjoying the plentiful golden columbine flowers. The trail follows along the stream for about a 1/2 mile before intersecting the Box Camp Spring Trail. If you hike the spring trail for a few tenths of a mile it goes down to another area with a seasonal spring and some pools. For the extreme hiker this little side trail goes still further and STRAIGHT DOWN a hillside to another stream, which had almost no water in it this time of year. With some water flow it could make for a neat waterfall, but otherwise there is little point to hiking down this really steep overgrown trail through thorny plants (unless maybe you're training for "Survivor" or something). Anyway, I made it back to the main Box Camp trail and headed further on it as it looked as if there may be some good views ahead. After a mile or so more I came to a rocky area providing a panoramic view of Tucson; although the haze and smoke from fires really limited what could be seen. This was yet another enjoyable trek in the Catalina's that provided a variety of things to see.

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