Before making it to Madera Canyon, I had a few stops and errands to take care of. I caught up with some friends in Mesa, Arizona along the way… always good to see familiar faces. I camped out in the cactus forest… an absolutely lush desert environment that completely blew me away.
I also rode some of my favorite trails down in Tucson… the Star Pass area, part of the Star Pass trail system, where the cacti stand tall and majestic against the sky. The Sonoran Desert near Tucson is just unbeatable… pure magic.
And of course, I couldn’t skip a night or two at the trash pit. It has its own kind of beauty… rugged, chaotic, and utterly captivating. I love it.
And with that, here we go… next stop… Madera Canyon
Madera Canyon sits in the Santa Rita Mountains just south of Tucson, and it’s one of those places that delivers every time. I found a great campsite on public land just outside Green Valley — free camping, legal for up to 14 days, and close enough to town that resupply was never an issue. The sunsets from camp were something else, with long views out over the valley that made it hard to go to bed.
My friends Gary and Kiki were out here with me for a good stretch of the trip, and we made the most of it. We hiked pretty much every day — working up ridgelines, dropping into creek drainages, and eventually knocking out a summit that still had snow on it. Great views, great company, and the kind of hiking where you feel it the next morning in the best possible way.
I also squeezed in a solo overnight, hammock camping right along the creek. No agenda, just the sound of water and the tree canopy overhead. Those simple nights are sometimes the best ones.
I got out on the mountain bike too, working through terrain studded with cool granite formations. The riding out here is underrated — varied, scenic, and just technical enough to keep things interesting.
The birding in Madera Canyon is world class. It’s one of the premier birding destinations in the entire country, drawing visitors from everywhere hoping to spot species found nowhere else in the United States.
On one of my final hikes I got lucky — an elegant trogon stepped out into the open, vivid and unmistakable. A great way to close out the trip
Good friends, good trails, good camping. Madera Canyon never disappoints.
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