Mt. Wrightson, South of Tucson
June 24, 2006

Participants

Dave O'Brien
Catherine Neish
Colin Dundas
Ann Revill
Eric Christensen
Catherine Christensen
Guy McArthur

Description

Mt. Wrightson is the tallest peak in the Tucson area, at 9453 feet elevation. We hiked to the top from Madera Canyon via the Old Baldy trail (description here). It's ~10 miles round-trip with ~4000 feet of elevation gain, but overall it wasn't too painful. Fortunately, it was fairly hazy most of the time so it never got too hot, although it did obscure the view from the top a bit.

Photos

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Large		 Our starting point
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Large		 Heading off along the trail...
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Large		 A memorial to a group of Boy Scouts that got lost in a snowstorm and died in 1958
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Large		 Cool blue flower
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Large		 Neat lizard
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Large		 Looking up at the peak from Baldy Saddle
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Large		 Heading for the peak!
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Large		 We passed through an area that was pretty badly burned in 2005
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Large		 The final part of the trail up to the peak got pretty steep
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Large		 View from the top, which because of the haze, wasn't ideal. Looking towards the northwest, you can see a big pile of mine tailings (looks like a home plate) and some pecan groves running diagonally in front of it.
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Large		 Pondering the view
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Large		 Info plaque about the peak and the fire lookout that used to be there
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Large		 More views from the top. You can see some areas where the fire passed through
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Large		 Telescopes! The MMT on the right is a 6.5-meter telescope, and I'm not sure what the smaller ones on the left are.
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Large		 Shot of some cliffs on the way back down