Pima Canyon Trail, Tucson

I ran in Pima Canyon today, 3/25/2007. A beautiful day. Sunny and in the upper 70's. Pima Canyon is the western most trail and canyon on the south and Tucson facing Catalina Mountain range. It is a fairly technical trail for the first 2 miles. It is very rocky and has quite a little rise in the first mile. The desert is lush and the views of the entire city are amazing. Not that you have much time to see them since your watching your steps carefully. The trail meanders up the canyon and crosses a mostly dry creek bed several times. There is a fair amount of shade, relative to other Tucson trails. There are some large cottonwood trees up the canyon. Today, I was on the lookout for snakes. The weather is warming up and it is prime time to see some of the deserts creatures for the first time of the year. As you get beyond 3 miles there are some meadow areas with some wildflowers starting to bloom. The trail becomes soft dirt based and is great to cruise on. Only a slight grade going up, but enough that on the way down, you can fly. Traffic on the trail was pretty minimal. Typical for Pima Canyon. It is a superb trail to run. But you have to be okay with a technical start and finish. The rest is as far as you want to go of trail heaven.