We had an awesome day at Sabino Canyon, and did a great long hike.
We had a somewhat colder morning, I wanted to sleep in a bit, but Bella woke me up at 7… which is sleeping in for me, hahahaha, but I could have gone another 30 mins maybe. Now, I’m having coffee and writing a bit and she’s playing games on the iPad.
We planned to go back to Sabino Canyon today, so I got the TV going around 8, with sound, so we could have everyone up and going. Carol came out soon after, and Bia slept in a good 45 minutes more. We got everyone rolling from there.
I bought tickets to the tram so we could take that all the way in and up the canyon this time, and got the 11am tickets, so we wanted to get ready and go. The girls did not want to miss the tram this time, so they were quick to get ready.
We were making good time, so after we left I stopped to fill up the truck and get a jug of DEF, and we made it to the parking spot by 10:35. They were already full, and I had to drive around twice to fortunately find someone leaving so I could park. It worked out well. We all put our hiking shoes on, got the back packs ready and went.
We checked in, waited for the time by the waiting area, got headphones since it’s a guide tour up, and were on our way at 11.
It’s only 3.7miles, but it takes 30 minutes on the tram, with minimal stops on the 9 stops they have. The audio tour just talks about the area, birds and animals, and plants, and how it was discovered and used in the past. It was cool. The drive up is amazing… and it didn’t take long to realize why this park is a big deal. It is amazing. The mountains that form the canyon are quite big, and there’s a creek coming down, so some spots looked amazing. It was a tad chilly in the shade, with the tram moving, but it was a nice day. We all enjoyed the ride up and all the beautiful scenery. There were actually lots of people walking up and into several different trails on the way.
We got all the way up and followed Carol’s guidance to a trail going up the mountains in a zig zag. We stopped for lunch within the first 10 minutes, and just found a big rock, with the amazing canyon view as our lunch spot. It was super nice. Bia has been cutting down on bread as she has felt a bit sick lately and has had some tummy aches, and we think it’s due to too much bread. She loves bread so for her to slow down is a big deal. She had one sandwich and some fruit. We enjoyed our time there a bit longer and then continued.
We kept going to the peak spot to view the canyon, which was 0.7miles up that trail. We got there, took some pictures, enjoyed the view… it’s amazing. Then walked back down. Walking down is faster and easier 🙂
When we got back to the tram stop, the girls didn’t want to take another trail, so I said since the tram was not there, that we should just walk to stop number 8. Bia wanted to sit for a minute, and then we left.
When we got to 8, which was close, I said that if we went to stop 6 I could let the girls share a GU energy gel, I had 4 in my backpack. They were in… we went to 6 while they had half each. Then on 6, I did the same thing to get to number 4, so we went… and when we got to 4, they each wanted their own… so we made the last deal… we walk all the way down, and they each get their own… and they agreed!
Wow… we had an awesome walk down the entire 3.7 miles of the canyon. The girls did awesome. We stopped at a few stops where there was a creek. On Stop 6, we spent a good amount of time as it formed some nice pools, with big rocks that looked really awesome. We walked into the rocks and the girls found a spot they liked. They took their shoes off and started playing. I explored the area a bit, took some pictures of the rocks, the water, the mountain and canyon with the water reflecting those, etc. Carol found a rock that she felt was a nice bed hahaha… and laid there for a while, I think she snoozed a bit. The girls were playing with some dry mud, putting it in the water and pretending they were bath bombs, etc. They would walk in the water a bit, but the water was cold. I asked at one point if they wanted to go, and they said no, immediately. I think we stayed there a good hour. That is a popular spot and some people were coming by later so we knew it was time to go then. The girls had a lot of fun playing at that spot, and that was a good break from walking down, which helped get them convinced to just keep going. Oh, and every other stop they tried to use the restrooms, but tried because they did not go until we got back to the visitor center. At each stop they’d go in and come right back out saying there was a bug, or it was stinky or what not. Hahahaha.. I guess they didn’t have to go that bad.
I really loved our walk down, it was a great time talking to them, laughing, making jokes… and it was a beautiful setting to be together and accomplish such a long walk. This is the longest hike they’ve done so far as we totaled 5.5 miles for the day. I really loved it, and Carol did too. The girls said they really enjoyed the park and the day. We gave them high fives for the big accomplishment, but they didn’t seem to realize how big of a deal it was to walk that much 🙂
From there, we were kind of tired and just wanted to relax so we went back home. We had some leftovers for dinner. Carol and I had some beers and we all tried to enjoy the rest of the warmth of the day outside. Carol talked to her mom for some time as well. From there we did our normal wind down: showers, tv and bed.
We had a nice Saturday hiking Sabino Canyon and enjoying ourselves. This was an awesome day at Sabino Canyon.