We will be heading to Colorado in June, and because of this, we wanted to start getting our hiking legs and stamina built to ensure our time in the 14er's of Colorado will be with optimum outdoor experience. We have visited Sabino in the past, taking guests to the Visitor's Center and boarding the tram which travels 3.8 miles up into the canyon, narrating a history of the area and what the sites to see along the way. Once the tram (they call it the Sabino Canyon Crawler) reaches stop 9, the crawler returns back to the beginning and travelers can step off at any of the 9 points, or ride to the top (9th stop) and walk back down, or just stay on the crawler for the return trip. We opted to take the crawler to the top (9) and then walked down, locating a lunch spot to enjoy the views, then continuing down until we decide to get back on the ride. We did make it to stop 4 and then got back on to the beginning.
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| View from our seat looking up into canyon |
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| Saguaros are starting to bloom |
Sabino is open 360 days a year, is managed by the national park system, but you have to purchase your ride on the crawler if you choose to do that option. You can walk/hike up or before 9am and after 5pm you can ride your bike. Free earbuds are provided to listen to the guided tour of the geological and cultural history as your transverse up the canyon. The shuttle runs every hour.
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| We see the other side of Pusch Ridge from the house |
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| People continue hiking from stop 9 |
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| Stop 9 - everyone getting out |
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| Starting back down the canyon |
We followed Sabino Creek, crossing the creek 9 times on the 3.8 mile paved road, the creek originates near Mt. Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains, winding its way through miles of canyons before reaching the desert below. During the monsoons, the tram does not go as far due to the high water rushing over the bridges. At one point on our walk back down, we saw someone swimming in one of the pools of water - water looked very cold! I do not know what our elevation was at stop 9, but we had to be at least 8000 feet.
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| Someone swimming in water hole |
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| Lots of small waterfalls |
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| First bridge crossing on way back |
Very pretty day to visit Sabino. We think it has been at least 10 years since our last visit. We were a bit surprised at the amount of people, but it is so pretty up there, and to visit when the temp is still doable - think it was somewhere about 75.
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| Dave standing on bridge taking pics of water |
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| Our lunch spot - stop 6 |
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| Cool saguaro |
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