Lin Chao led 16 Arizona Trailblazers on a multi-day trip (13-16 November) to Southeast Arizona (Bassett Peak and Chiricahua National Monument) both near Willcox, Arizona. On the drive from Phoenix metro area on Friday, 13 November (we saw no black cats and we did not walk under any ladders!), we stopped in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains, near the town of Catalina, to hike the Fifty-year Trail. We started at the Golder Ranch Road Trailhead which is outside of Catalina State Park.

The story is that this trail got its name from the fifty-year lease the county has with the state Land Department. This trail has become a trail that mountain bikers really like – however, it is a fun and interesting hike also – it is quite pretty, relatively flat with small undulations of a combination of single track and a couple of areas where there were – at some time in the past-old Jeep trails. There are views of Pusch Ridge and some great rock and boulder formations along the trail. It was a refreshing break from the drive. Of the 16 hikers, 13 did 6.3 miles and 3 did 5.2 miles (used a crossover and shortened the hike by 1.1 miles). This time of year, you do not see the wildflowers – which a hike in the springtime would reveal.

After the hike, we had lunch at Tohono Chul Garden Bistro (outskirts of Tucson, AZ), The Bistro is part of a 37-acre garden oasis. Richard and Jean Wilson bought the land and the hacienda style home that they turned into a Bistro in 1966-1968. They created a park: Tohono Chul Park and added 11 more acres in the mid-1990s and later added another acre or so. The Bistro opened later and is an incredible place to eat. Whether you eat in the patio or inside the hacienda it is a calming and enjoyable experience. The food is tasty and enjoyable.

All of us AZ Trailblazers who ate there enjoyed the experience and the food and camaraderie of our hiking friends.

After eating we headed on to Willcox and to either do some wine tasting or to our hotels. Some of us did some exceptional wine tasting – and bought some wines to take home as gifts or to drink for those occasions a good bottle of wine is great for the palette and the friendship that complete the evening.

We all met for dinner at a great Mexican Food Restaurant in Willcox: La Unica Restaurant & Tortilleria. We ate in the partially enclosed patio with the patio heaters going full blast. We enjoyed the food and company of our fellow AZ Trailblazers. Then It was off to bed to be well rested for our next day’s hike.

Early in the morning 16 of us intrepid AZ Trailblazers met at the McDonalds in Willcox (since we were all in different hotels – some of which – due to COVID-19 did not have breakfasts – so McDonalds afforded them an opportunity to get fuel for the hike!). We arranged carpools – the last few miles required high-clearance vehicles – for the long drive to the trailhead in the Galiuro Mountains north of Willcox. The drive passes by some interesting farms – including an exceptionally large farm that has huge hothouses/greenhouses for tomatoes and other vegetables and such. These greenhouses cover 80 or so acres of land. The last part of the drive was a little rough, however, for some reason, we stopped about a half-mile earlier than we did last year – so we missed the roughest part of the high-clearance road/trail with our vehicles and had some extra hiking (about one-half mile each way) over last year’s hike on this trail.

The trailhead is at the end of FR 660 – and you are now on the North fork of Ash Creek. The trail has oak, pine, aspen, and maple trees – all of which display their magnificent colors in the first couple of weeks of November. The route to the top of Bassett Peak has you following the creek and then ascending the ridgeline of the Galiuro Mountains. The final ascent of Bassett Peak is hard to find and is a scramble towards the end – only two of the intrepid sixteen AZ Trailblazers made it to the top of Bassett Peak and signed the logbook. As an aside, there is the crash site of a B-24 bomber that crashed in 1943, killing all eleven souls on board. The fall colors were magnificent and are captured in many of the photos that the AZ Trailblazers took. The Trailblazers did this trip the year before (one weekend earlier in November) and the colors were better – but, this year, there was little rain, and of course, there was COVID-19 – so take your pick as to why the colors were not as great as last year! It should be noted that back in November 2003, The Arizona Highways magazine had an article of the Galiuros and the changing colors and highlighted this trail. It took a long time to hike this trail as there were some many photogenic spots to stop and take pictures.

Many of us decide to do a repeat of last night’s dinner. We met for dinner at a great Mexican Food Restaurant in Willcox: La Unica Restaurant & Tortilleria. We ate in the partially enclosed patio with the patio heaters going full blast. Sure enjoyed the food and company of our fellow AZ Trailblazers. Then It was off to bed to be well rested for our next day’s hike.

Chiricahua National Monument is described as a “Wonderland of Rocks”. Again, we met at the McDonald’s Restaurant in Willcox and arranged carpooling for the drive to almost the end of the Bonita Canyon Drive – where we stopped at Echo Park as our trailhead parking spot.

We hiked down Echo Canyon to the Echo Canyon Grotto and over to Echo Park and then took the Upper Rhyolite Canyon Trail to The Sarah Deming Canyon Trail to the Heart of Rocks Loop and then onto the Big Balanced Rock Trail and up the Mushroom Rock Trail to the Ed Riggs Trail and back over to the Echo Canyon Parking Lot. There were two of the group who took and at the intersection of the Upper Rhyolite Canyon Trial with the Sarah Deming Trail and the Lower Rhyolite Canyon Trial – went down this Lower trail to the Visitor Center – where they were later picked up by those who had parked at the Echo Park Trailhead parking area.

The rock formations are really an amazing jumble and stacks and stacks of rocks with so many balanced rocks that it seemed like they were threatening from every direction if a gust of wind came along or a little shaking of the earth – we defied an almost certain death! At least it was not Friday the Thirteenth!

This night we ate at the Double SS Steakhouse in Willcox – the food and company were enjoyable, and it ended the trip for many of us – as most of us headed back to Phoenix the next day (16 November).. Some of us took additional sight-seeing trips: to a great park on the outskirts of Sierra Vista (a Nature Conservancy Preserve). Others did some more wine tasting.

Here are the statistical charts for the Willcox trip: