• Total Length: 4.5 mi
• Total Elevation Gain: 900'
• Duration: 3 +-
• Rating: Intermediate
See "What we're about" at www.meetup.com/Hiking-Tucson/
**RESTRICTIONS: No guests, dogs, firearms or tobacco
• Cell phones SILENT during hike
This hike will start at the overflow parking area which is about .50 miles (www.tinyurl.com/ygdagy6n) past the main entrance and on the right.
This hike starts at the overflow parking area for Sabino Recreation area.
From there it takes an unofficial trail I call the Gold Mine trail through a wash and up a slope for about .25 miles and then picks up another unofficial trail on the left which climbs steeply up a ridge on the east side of Bird Canyon and then connects with the Esperaro Trail.
On the Esperaro trail we will hike down canyon and pick up the end of the Gold Mine trail and walk in about 600' to look at the old gold mine entrances.
We will then back track and take the Esperaro trail down to the Rattlesnake Canyon trail and hike down to the Tram Stop where there are rest rooms.
From there we will walk the Sabino Canyon roadway a short distance to the Bluff Trail and take it down to the Sabino Canyon Dam Trail where we will stop to enjoy the dam waterfall and boulder strewn creek.
We will then take the picnic road down to the Sabino Lake trail and then back to the Bluff Trail to the Sabino Canyon roadway then walk the roadway to the Sabino Connector Trail and back the overflow parking area.
----- Sabino Canyon Gold Mining History -----
Col. Charles P. Sykes and a small group of associates staked claims to five gold mines near the mouth of Rattlesnake Canyon in 1892. By 1897, the group had formed the Sabino Gold Mining Company and had expanded its holdings to ten mines. The mines never panned out but the short tunnels dug into the canyon walls by this group can still be seen today. http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/sabino/shistory.html
