This post is the fifth in my “Every picture, every story” series detailing my 5 weeks of road trips in the summer of 2024. Some dates will be skipped, grouped, or abbreviated due to unrelated events happening on those days, such as conferences or extensive road travel.
I arrived in Tucson, Arizona in the middle of the night, driving past the city on my way north to the hotel I’d stay at for the duration of the conference I was attending the next several days.
Oddly enough, staying at this hotel would be the only time I would hear coyotes yipping during the entire trip.
Despite only just arriving in Arizona, I knew I wanted to get out and explore before the conference would keep me stuck in conference rooms all day for the later half of the week. And being right next to Saguaro National Park, I knew exactly where I wanted to go.
Saguaro NP is split into two halves: western and eastern. I’d heard the western half had more activities to do, so chose to begin there and spend the whole day hiking up to Wallen Peak, the highest peak in the park at just over 4,000 feet in elevation, about 2,000 feet above ground level. This may not sound like a challenging hike, but….I am cautiously dumb.
I began the hike a bit later in the day, so the temperature was already fairly hot when I began, despite being overcast at the time. On top of that, I was in no way acclimated to the elevation at this point, having only just arrived in Arizona the night prior. Desert heat, arid climate, and high elevation (coming from Florida back then) all combined to make this hike on the more difficult side.
The trail began with a steady ascent, a gradual slope on gravelly stone with very few twists and turns. About a mile into it, there’s a pueblo on the side of the hill you can divert to. A little farther up is a split in the trail: take a left if you want a shorter loop, continue straight if you want to ascend the mountain.
I accidentally took the left turn, walked a quarter mile, then realized I was heading away from my goal, so turned around and got back to the main trail. It wasn’t long before the gravelly trail turned to dirt, the gradual slope steepened, and the up-til-then straight path began to weave its way up the mountainside. A glance back revealed my true elevation, and you could see the plains in the distance meeting the bases of new mountains in the west.
Then came the ridgeline.
It was at this point I began to admit to myself…maybe I’m out of my physical limits here. I could have turned around. Maybe I should have. By now, the clouds had cleared and the Sun was beating down, meaning the only shade came from higher outcroppings along the ridge. It wasn’t far to the peak at this point, but the slope continued to steepen, and at the top, it would still be another 1/3 of a mile to Wallen Peak itself.
Needless to say, I took my break, gazing down upon Tucson in the valley below, then stood and continued the trek.
I came to the split in the path that would take me to Wallen Peak…and went for it. A 360 panorama of the valley and mountain I just hiked greeted me, the Sun still baking the dirt and rock and cacti all around me.
Getting to the peak perhaps wasn’t the smartest move I could have made; waiting a few days would have been the best choice, when my body was more prepared and in a better acclimated state. But I made my choice, had plenty of water (and have since increased my capacity and added electrolytes to my daily intake everywhere I go), and got back down the mountain in the cool of the evening.
It does serve as a warning (and wouldn’t be the last time I made an arguably dumb hiking decision, as my Grand Canyon post coming later will prove…). Heat, altitude, and aridity pose dangers. While I did mostly fine on the Wallen Peak hike in Saguaro NP, I definitely experienced early symptoms of heat exhaustion and a small bit of delirium associated with exposure, until I was able to cool down in the shade, rehydrate, and rest a while. As much as I loved the hike, I wouldn’t do it again without ensuring my body was prepared and I had snacks and electrolytes with me.
This was part of Saguaro’s western side, and as you’ll come to see, it was the better side. Seeing hundreds of cacti in every direction, all shapes and sizes, most of them still blooming, was a refreshing adventure away from the rains and clouds and stifling humidity of Florida.
On the drive out, I took one of the park’s scenic dirt roads on the other side of Wallen Peak, and came face to face with a mule deer hiding in the shadows.
The next few days would be filled with conferences. And that’s where this story continues…
Alex
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