We began hiking a little after 6 am, starting from the Italian Springs trailhead. Round-trip distance was 15.8 miles, with a total elevation gain of over 4500 feet, and we did it in a little under 8 hours. A description of the route is available here.
The second-highest peak in the Rincon Mountains is Rincon Peak, which we hiked about a month earlier.
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Parking near the trailhead. Fortunately I had my friend Matt's truck, which is 4WD and has a lot of clearance, as the last stretch of road to the trailhead was pretty rough. |
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Looking west. I think the distant peak might be Cathedral Rock in the Santa Catalinas north of Tucson. |
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Looking southwest back through Reddington Pass towards town. You can see a little bit of Tucson off in the distance, with the Tucson Mountains visible as the dark range in the background. |
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Mica Mountain, which is probably the most dome-like major peak around Tucson |
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The point is not Mica Mountain |
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The Santa Catalina mountains (and maybe Mt. Lemmon) in the distance |
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Horned lizard |
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The trail passed through some areas that were burned not too long ago |
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Another horned lizard. This guy was only about an inch long. |
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Plant life along the way || || \/ |
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Italian Spring |
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Neat mushroom |
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Near the top |
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The dangerous final climb to the summit of Mica Mountain || || \/ |
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Lots of ladybugs at the summit, like some of the other peaks around town (Rincon Peak and Mt. Wrightson in particular). It was interesting that they all crowded onto the one point that was just a few feet higher than the surrounding area, and we saw very few others anywhere else. |
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Marker near the summit, where there used to be a fire lookout tower |
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Another neat mushroom |
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Shots from Spud Rock, which is half a mile from the Mica Mountain Summit and just ~50 feet lower, but has a much better view || || \/ |
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There were a lot of clouds moving out of Tucson and up through Reddington Pass || || \/ |
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Similar marker to that at Mica Mountain, indicating its use as a fire lookout |
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Old USGS benchmark, giving a somewhat different elevation than the current measurement. Strangely, I didn't see one of these at the Mica Mountain summit. |
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Spud Rock was covered in lichen |
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Looking back at Mica Mountain |
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Heading down from Spud Rock. Rincon Peak is the prominent peak in the distance. It's only a little lower than Mica Mountain, but has a much different shape! |
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Some shots from the hike back to the trailhead || || \/ |
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One last shot of Mica Mountain |
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This weird yellow fibrous stuff was growing over some of the plants near the trailhead. I'm not sure what it is... |
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Shot from the 'road' near the trailhead, which was far from smooth and flat! |
