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Sky Island Odyssey: Rolling valley trails, mountain passes and historical settings. Simply amazing!

Sky Island - East-Loop GPX:
https://www.gaiagps.com/public/lNEzlkVwmDKhZDPKPRBhTfBG

GPS Rally Point: 31.85206, -110.99472 – Friday, October 15th, 2021 at 3PM

Directions: Get to Tucson, AZ and take I-19 out the south end of town about 25 minutes to Green Valley. Exit I-19 in Green Valley at West Continental and turn right. Then make a quick right into the McDonalds parking lot there at, I-19 and West Continental Road. Get an Oreo McFlurry or some chicken nuggets and then meet up with the gang, there at 3pm. We’ll try to get right on the trail and drive a couple of hours to our night-1 campsite, a rolling hilltop spot with a beautiful view in every direction.

It's Tucson, so there must be ancient Saguaros, prickly Chollas and Palo Verdes trees, right? No, not Exactly. Sky Island Odyssey, (East) is one of two loops in the magnificently beautiful, high elevation shortgrass prairies, just south of Tucson. It's called, Sky Island because of its souring mountains that rise above the clouds, like island-tops, and then fall off to its expansive rangeland, that lies below.

While you may expect to see a vast, rolling grassland like this in eastern Colorado or Montana, it’s really special to also find this at Sky Island in southern Arizona. This 129-mile super-scenic loop wanders along its route on mostly mellow, very well-groomed dirt roads. The run closes out with an epic and challenging infinity-view, 4x4 section, (with a paved exit go-around if you’d prefer). A perfect end to our Arizona run.

So, if you like majestic views, true wilderness camping, star gazing, wine tasting, potluck dinner, solitude, cattle ranches, visiting the hamlet of Patagonia, AZ, camping in the footprint-ruins of an old adobe home, along with some of the most amazing 4X that we’ve done together to this point, then this one’s for you. Plus, most of Sky Island is welcoming to Subaru Outback’s and other well setup all-wheel drive rigs, (and what's not can be bypassed).

This one’s also a commitment . . . we’ll drive 500-miles just to put our first tire on the trail, but I promise, it’s worth it! I ran Sky Island last year and I’ve been standing on one-foot-and-then-the-other, just waiting to get back out there. I hope to see some of our old faithful crew and a few new rigs, as well.

On the Rocks, - Mark

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