Surrounding Tucson

When you think about our national parks, Saguaro (wiki, nps) probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.  Unless you live in Tucson, Arizona, since the park straddles the city.  Established in 1933 as a National Monument, and upgraded in 1994 to a National Park, Saguaro was formed to protect its namesake – the Saguaro Cactus (Carnegiea gigantea).  Pronounced Sa-WAH-ro, the cacti grow very slowly, but can get as tall as 40 feet and live for more than 150 years.

While the Saguaro cacti are the main draw for some visitors, there are other ecosystems to explore.  And you can enjoy sightseeing, autotouring, hiking, backpacking, and horseback riding within the park.  We would spend a week in the park, focusing on hiking and backpacking.

Saguaro Districts and Regions

The park contains two geographically separate districts: The Tucson Mountain District (west) and Rincon Mountain District (east).  The city of Tucson lies in between them.  It can take as little as 30 minutes to drive from one district to the other, depending where you are, of course.  Both sides have a visitor center, numerous hiking trails, and other outdoor opportunities.

• Tucson Mountain District (West) – Smaller than the east side, the Tucson Mountain District has a variety of trails that crisscross the park.  Day hiking only on this side – there is no backcountry camping.  Comparatively to the east, the west side features more Saguaro cacti and lower elevation.  South of this district is a county park: Tucson Mountain Park.  Try not to confuse the two since they have similar names!
• Rincon Mountain District (East) – Larger than the west side, the Rincon District offers backcountry options, and a well-maintained trail network.  You can hike from a low elevation of 2,750 feet at Douglas Spring to a high elevation of 8,000 feet at Manning Camp, and visit a variety of areas that most visitors don’t get to see.  The Arizona Trail also goes through this district.  We spent more time on this side since there’s more to do, it covers a larger area, and (bonus!) it’s cooler at higher elevation.  This is the original part of Saguaro National Park; the Tucson Mountain District was added later.

Lodging and Camping

There are no lodges or hotels inside the park, but each district has hotel options close by.  We would stay at a couple hotels over the course of our trip, in between camping or backpacking.  We need to shower sometimes.  Sleeping in a comfortable bed doesn’t hurt, either.

Similarly, there are no developed campgrounds inside either district of the park.  Luckily, Tucson Mountain Park is home to Gilbert Ray Campground, just 3 miles south of the Tucson Mountain District.  The campsites primarily accommodate RVs, but they have some tent only sites.  We stayed two nights in the campground (in a tent).  We really appreciated its peacefulness, unique flora and fauna, as well as mountain views.

Although Saguaro NP has no developed campgrounds, there are 6 backcountry campgrounds in the Rincon Mountain District.  These can be reserved up to 2 months in advance.  They’re scattered throughout the backcountry, and all have 3 campsites, except for Manning Camp, which has 6.  Manning Camp is the only campground that has a continuous water source.  Douglas Spring, Grass Shack, and Spud Rock have seasonal springs, while the other campgrounds rely on snowmelt for a nearby ephemeral water source.  On our trip, we’d visit Happy Valley, Manning Camp, and Spud Rock.  Here’s a listing of all the sites:

• Douglas Spring – 4,800 feet elevation.  3 sites.  Located along the Douglas Spring Trail.  Has a nearby spring.
• Grass Shack – 5,300 feet elevation.  3 sites.  Located along the Manning Camp Trail.  Has a nearby spring.
• Juniper Basin – 6,000 feet elevation.  3 sites.  Located along the Tanque Verde Trail.
• Happy Valley – 6,200 feet elevation.  3 sites.  Located on the Heartbreak Ridge Trail.
• Spud Rock – 7,400 feet elevation.  3 sites.  Located on the East Slope Trail / Deerhead Spring Trail.  Has a nearby spring.
• Manning Camp – 8,000 feet elevation.  6 sites.  Located on the Manning Camp Trail.  Year-round water source from a stream/spring.

Activities and Wildlife

As mentioned above, there are plenty of activities to do in the park, but these primarily include sightseeing, autotouring, hiking, backpacking, and horseback riding.  Our trip would focus on hiking and backpacking, with some sightseeing and autotouring on the side.  Both districts boast many trails, but there are more miles of trails in the Rincon District.  Most day hikes are in a desert environment, surrounded by saguaros and other desert plants.  Often, these trails go through a wash (intermittent stream bed).

We were excited to backpack in the Rincon Mountain District; fewer people visit this area, and we knew it would be very different from the cactus forest.  You can hike up to higher elevations with conifer and Douglas fir forests, something we didn’t associate with Saguaro National Park before we visited.  Dispersed camping is prohibited, but you can plan your trip around the 6 backcountry campgrounds mentioned above.

Our goal was to reach Manning Camp, since it’s located at the highest elevation, and has a reliable water source.  This would allow us to do a 2 night, 3 day trip without breaking our backs.  The park maintains a concise but useful wilderness area guide that includes information about each backcountry campground, trip planning, wildlife, and a basic map of the Rincon Mountain District.

Saguaro has a multitude of wildlife – you won’t always seem them, but they’re there, especially at certain times of the day.  We saw an many lizards, as well as a coyote, woodpeckers, a rattlesnake, turkeys, and other birds.  To get an idea of what wildlife you might encounter in the desert, we recommend checking out the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which is in Tucson Mountain Park, just south of Saguaro’s Tucson Mountain District.  This was the first real stop on our trip, since we wanted to know what we were getting into!

Weather & Seasons

Saguaro NP is a desert park, so the climate is quite different compared with Shenandoah, our “home park.”  We visited Saguaro in late April, and we had mainly mid-80 degree days.  Late fall to early spring is the best time to visit, since you’ll have mild temperatures and little rain.  I’m partial to the spring when you’ll see a variety of wildflowers.  And Saguaro typically start flowering in late April.  The summer (July to September) features very high temperatures, with abundant rain in the form of monsoons.  For those reasons, we decided to avoid visiting during the summer.

If you plan to see Manning Camp (8000′), the temperatures there differ quite a bit from the lower elevation Sonoran Desert (3000′).  We brought jackets for our visit!  On average, it will be around 20 degrees cooler at Manning Camp.

Visitors

This is not a heavily traveled National Park, but the number of visitors is increasing.  There’s a lot to see and do here – more than you might expect.  There are plenty of people on the roads and at viewpoints.  But get on the trails, and you may not see many people (at least we didn’t in April).  On our two-night backpacking trip, we didn’t see a single person.  Even so, April is the 3rd highest-visited month.

Transportation

Tucson International Airport is right in between Saguaro’s two districts, so we flew directly into the city.  Flying into Phoenix and driving around 2 hours to the park is another option.

Saguaro NP doesn’t have a bus system or similar public transportation.  If you have a car, you can visit pretty much anything.  A couple backcountry trailheads require four wheel drive, but we did just fine without.  Each Saguaro district has paved and unpaved roads that will get you around the park.  We recommend a car with a higher clearance if you plan to drive on unpaved roads.

Maps

As is our usual modus operandi, we bought the National Geographic Trail Map for Saguaro.  It’s accurate, and we highly recommend it.  The national park also maintains some trail maps that were helpful, mostly with the cactus forest section in the Rincon Mountain District.  We’ll also provide maps we created for specific trails on each Saguaro blog post.

Link to National Geographic Map for Saguaro
Link to Rincon Mountains District (West) Trail Map (NPS)
Link to Tucson Mountain District (East) Trail Map (NPS)
Link to Detailed Cactus Forest Trail Map in East District (NPS)
Backcountry Map and Guidelines (NPS)

Visitor Centers & Entrance Payment

There are two Visitor Centers, one in each district.  The Red Hills Visitor Center is in the Tucson Mountain (West) district.  It has the usual educational displays, gift shop, restrooms, and water fountain.  This visitor center also plays a 15 minute video about the park every 30 minutes, which we highly recommend.  There’s also a very nice Saguaro cactus forest right behind the visitor center.  The Rincon District (East) has the aptly-named Rincon Mountain Visitor Center.  It’s very similar to Red Hills, but it has different displays and lacks the video.  Various Ranger Programs are also offered at each visitor center.  We would attend a Star Party program at the Rincon Visitor Center, which we greatly enjoyed.

Payment is different depending on what district you’re in, and where you are in the district.  For the Tucson Mountain District, you can pay the $15/vehicle fee at the Red Hills Visitor Center.  The Rincon Mountain District has a booth after the visitor center where you can stop to pay your entry fee.  As with other National Parks, a one-time payment gets you a 7-day pass.

Our Itinerary

We decided to explore the west side of Saguaro first.  Then we would go into the east side, so we could work our way up to the 3 day backpacking trip we had planned.  Below is our overall itinerary; our other blog posts detail the adventures we had on our trip.  We didn’t really know what to expect with Saguaro, aside from well… saguaros.  It turns out that Saguaro National Park is much more than cacti, and it surprised us around every turn.

Our Packing List

This was the first time we traveled via airplane with our backpacking backpacks.  We have two carry bags from REI, to hold our backpacks (loaded with gear like trekking poles, quilt, etc.), which we checked.  We brought suitcases as our carry-ons, and our personal items were our daypacks.  This worked out well, and we’ll probably do the same thing next time we fly.

One thing I would recommend is to bring a water bladder for each traveler, as it can accommodate much more water than bottles.  Layered clothing options are also ideal for larger temperature swings throughout the day, especially if you’re going to go up to Manning Camp.

Our Experiences

There’s more info about planning specific excursions in the posts below.  I hope they help you plan your trip, inspire you to travel, or at least provide interesting reading material.

• Tucson Mountain District (West Side)
  • Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
  • Gilbert Ray Campground
  • Wasson Peak via Kings Canyon Trail
  • Ringtail Loop & Signal Hill Trails
• Rincon Mountain District (East Side)
  • Backpacking to Manning Camp
  • Garwood Trail
• Tucson Eats and Drinks
• Reflections on Saguaro: Best Hikes and Planning Guide

The post Planning and Overview Spring 2017 appeared first on KTNPBlog.

We don’t like lobster. Normally, we would jump at the chance to try any local or regional delicacy. During our trip to Maine, we did have plenty of blueberries, fish, maple candy, and other tasty local treats. But we didn’t go to Maine solely for the food; our trip was centered around Acadia National Park. This post discusses how we planned for our trip to Acadia. This wasn’t just a random vacation either, this was our honeymoon! Because of competing life events, we only had 10 days in Acadia and were determined to make the most of it. We’ll go over our planning process, what we did and how we did it, and our recommendations. There’s much more to do, this is just what interested us. And even if you only have a day or two, checking out a national park is an experience you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

Maine’s Only National Park

Acadia (nps, wikipedia) is located off the coast of Maine, and preserves parts of Mt. Desert Island (MDI), as well as other smaller islands and areas. It was initially established in 1916 as Sieur De Monts National Monument, before being renamed to Acadia in 1929 (with another renaming in between). We were drawn to Acadia’s breathtaking rocky coastline, abundance of hiking, wildlife, and adventures. There’s a lot to do in the park. Many visitors just drive the main Park Loop Road, which is on the eastern side of MDI, but there’s so much more to see. We like to take our time, and see everything we can. Even with 10 days in Acadia, we wish we had more time to explore. The following quote, posted at Hulls Cove visitor center, captures the spirit of the park:

“Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in…where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul.”

–  John Muir

Acadia Districts and Regions

K had been to Acadia before, but hadn’t explored the park much, so we started from scratch when we did our research. All we knew about Acadia was that it was located on an island, and was near the town of Bar Harbor. We started with some basic online research at Wikipedia and The National Park Service’s Acadia site. In our research, we found that there are three main geographic districts of the park. And we wanted to visit them all (spoiler alert: we did).

• Mt. Desert Island – This is the main island that most people visit in Acadia. It’s separated into two “sections” – the more populated east side and the quieter west side. Contains the majority of sights, hikes, and campgrounds. Bar Harbor, the most well-known town near Acadia, is on the east coast of MDI. There are also historic carriage roads, with a series of impressive bridges that you can hike or bike on. You can also hike trails to view some of the bridges.
• Isle au Haut – A small island to the southwest of MDI. You have to take a mail boat to get here. Gorgeous views, amazing campsites, and great hikes. And all without a ton of crowds! This was one of our highlights. Pronounced Isle au Ho (Not Isle au Hot as we said for the longest time…).
• Schoodic Peninsula – To the east of MDI, this small peninsula houses the Schoodic Education and Research Center. In addition, there are hiking trails, a newly-built campground, and the photogenic Schoodic Point, where waves crash into the rocky shoreline.

Activities and Wildlife

There’s a lot of outdoorsy fun in Acadia, but we focused on hiking, camping, and kayaking. Biking is also a popular activity on the park’s historic carriage roads. There is no backcountry camping in Acadia, sadly. The NPS FAQ for Acadia states that it’s due to Acadia’s small size and fragile environment. Joe’s Guide to Acadia was a great help for the hiking portion of our research. From his site and other sources, we developed a list of hikes that we were interested in, and planned to do as many as possible. One thing to remember is that some areas are closed during the year because of Peregrine Falcon nesting. This typically happens from March through August, but the exact dates vary. This prevented us from doing a couple trails that we wanted to hike (Precipice, Jordan Cliffs, and Valley Cove). That calls for another visit in the future.

There are 4 campgrounds in Acadia. We visited 3 out of the 4. Next time, Schoodic…

• Blackwoods –  Located on the east side of MDI.  290 Sites. $30/night (May – Oct), $15/night (April,November), Free (Dec – Mar).  Reservations available.
• Seawall – Located on the west side of MDI.  About 200 sites.  $22/night for walk-in tent site, $30/night for drive-up sites.  Open Late May – Sept 6th.  Reservations available.
• Schoodic Woods – Schoodic Peninsula.  94 sites.  $22/night for walk-in tent site, $30/night for drive-up sites. Open Late May – Columbus Day.  Reservations available.
• Duck Harbor – On Isle au Haut.  5 camping shelter sites.  $25/stay, maximum 3 nights.  Open May 15 – Oct 15. Advanced reservations required.

For kayaking, there are a number of outfitters on MDI that lead trips around the island. Likewise, there are boat tours for whale watching or bird watching (like puffins). Technically, those aren’t part of Acadia since the park doesn’t extend into any waters. This becomes evident if you’re in parts of Acadia where lobster traps are placed close to shore. And puffins, while featured in Acadia memorabilia, are not actually in the park (though they are found on surrounding islands). Similarly, moose and bears within the park are rare. If you go on a kayaking trip (like we did), you’re much more likely to see plenty of harbor seals.

Weather & Seasons

Before we decided to go to Acadia, we evaluated various factors like weather and insects. We went to Acadia in late June, and weather was forecasted to be in the high 60s / low 70s. The weather during our stay ended up being perfect, with highs in the mid to upper 70s.

You do have to watch out for insects depending on what time of year you visit. Black flies are a problem in the spring (especially when it’s particularly rainy), most common between mid-May and mid-June. When it gets warmer, they generally disappear…and are replaced by mosquitoes. Our trip fell at the end of black fly season, though we only ran into them on Isle au Haut. Likewise, we really only saw mosquitoes on Isle au Haut.

Park Loop Road (the main road) is closed every year from December 1 – April 14 due to snow. There’s always a threat of snow if you visit during winter.

Visitors

It’s no secret that National Parks are very popular, and becoming even more crowded. That’s a good and bad thing – it allows more income for the NPS to maintain the park, and hopefully visitors will respect the parks. On the flip side, it’s harder to find peace and quiet with hordes of people everywhere.

The NPS publishes monthly visitation statistics back to 1979, so if you’re flexible, you may want to plan your visit during a time with fewer visitors. We went in June, which isn’t the worst month to go. Check out the chart below for monthly visitation averages to help you plan your trip.

[visualizer id=”98″]

Transportation

There are a few airports around, including Hancock County Airport (15 minute drive), Bangor International Airport (1 hour drive), and Portland International Jetport (3 hour drive). Based on availability and price of flights, we decided to fly into Bangor and rent our car there. Driving into the park is an option as well; there are bridges connecting MDI and Schoodic to the mainland. However, to travel to Isle au Haut, you’ll need to go by boat.

In MDI, there are a variety of roads to get around the park. The main park road is the Park Loop Road, which is on the east side of MDI. Annoyingly, this road is one-way at specific points. Make sure you have a map, so you know where and how to get it around it – you may not have a cell signal. Go slowly, especially on the one-way section, since people will randomly stop (either legally or illegally) on the right side of the two-lane road.

During peak season, I would recommend using the Island Explorer shuttles. They travel to a variety of locations throughout the east side of MDI, parts of the west side of MDI, and Schoodic Peninsula. We didn’t end up using the shuttle, but probably would have had it been more crowded.

Maps

If you don’t plan to do much hiking, the official park map (free at the visitor center) will work just fine. If you plan to hike, I recommend that you get the Map Adventures Acadia National Park waterproof trail map. It was really wonderful for finding our way on MDI and seemed to be very accurate with a lot of information. The only the problem is that it doesn’t include Schoodic or Isle au Haut.  We created our own maps that show details pertinent to hiking, available on each respective blog post.  Additionally, we created a detailed map of Isle au Haut that showcases the hiking trails, which is available here.

We also purchased the National Geographic Acadia map, since it did have maps for Isle au Haut and Schoodic. In hindsight though, I don’t think we really needed it. We recommend that you print the National Park’s map of IaH or ours. You can buy a detailed map of Schoodic for $0.50 at the information centers in that region of the park, or you can grab a trail map from npmaps.com.

Visitor Centers & Entrance Payment

Acadia’s only “true” visitor center, Hulls Cove, is on the east side of MDI. You can pay your entrance fee, get maps, and get trip planning tips from the park rangers. There are other locations where you can purchase entrance passes too, but this was the easiest for us. Passes are also available online. For $25, you get a 7-day park pass and a hang tag. Most other parks we’ve been to have a booth at the entrance where you pay, but Acadia is different.

The park has many entrances, so they can’t have an attendant at every one; the hang tag system shows that visitors have paid they entry fee. If you enter the park outside of the main operating months (November – April), you don’t have to pay. We used our “America the Beautiful” pass, which gets you into most national park sites for 13 months. It can easily pay for itself, and it supports our national parks!

Besides Hulls Cove, there are a couple of ranger stations and pseudo visitor centers too. The notable ones are Sand Beach Entrance Station, Park Headquarters on Route 223, Isle au Haut Ranger Station, and Schoodic Woods Information Center (near the campground).

Our Itinerary

Now that we knew what we were getting ourselves into, we could properly plan our trip. We decided to split our trip into 4 sections: East side of MDI, West side of MDI, Isle Au Haut, and Schoodic Peninsula. Below is our overall itinerary and lodging. Our other blog posts further detail our adventures in Acadia.

Our Packing List

There weren’t a ton of packing considerations for this trip. Just your standard hiking and camping gear. We brought duffels for our stay in Duck Harbor, though you could also bring a backpacking backpack. For camp cooking, we brought a backpacking canister stove so we could easily boil water for oatmeal in the morning. You can’t bring canister stove fuel on a plane, so we stopped at Walmart on the way to Bar Harbor from Bangor… which did not have canister fuel in stock. So when we got to Bar Harbor we went to Cadillac Mountain Sports (which also has a location in Ellsworth, on the way to Bar Harbor). We’d recommend going there, since they had every outdoor item that you’d need. Here’s a quick overview of gear we brought with us:

Backpacking tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pads, headlamps, mallet, Swiss army knife, backpacking canister stove, backpacking pot set with bowls and sporks, tongs, small flexible cutting board, small container of 4 spices, 2 dehydrated meals (for Duck Harbor, just in case), water filter (for Duck Harbor, just in case, but we didn’t need it), ziploc bags, dry bags, daypacks, foldable duffels, water bottles, hammock, cameras & tripod, clothes & toiletries, deck of cards, books, rain & fleece jackets, hiking boots, sandals, & flipflops

Here’s what we bought in Maine at Walmart or Cadillac Mountain Sports:

Food, small hard-side cooler, ice, canister fuel, lighter, aluminum foil (for foil packets on campfire), paper towels, water jug

Our Experiences

There’s more info about planning in specific posts about various attractions and areas of the park. Below is a list of our blog posts about Acadia. I hope they help you plan your trip, inspire you to travel, or at least provide interesting reading material.

•  Mt. Desert Island (East Side)
  • Bar Harbor & Bar Island Trail
  • Blackwoods Campground
  • Carriage Roads, Bridges, and Jordan Pond House
  • Ocean Path & Beehive Trails
  • Pemetic Mountain Northwest Trail
  • Kayaking West Side MDI
• Isle au Haut
  • Stonington & Mail Boat to Isle Au Haut
  • Duck Harbor Campground
  • Duck Harbor Mountain Trail
  • Isle au Haut Town Adventure
  • Thunder Gulch Trail
•  Mt. Desert Island (West Side)
  • Seawall Campground
  • Beech Cliffs Trail & Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse
  • Southwest Harbor
• Schoodic Peninsula
  • Schoodic Institute & Sundew Trail
  • Schoodic Point & Schoodic Head Trail
• Reflections on Acadia: Our Favorite Spots and Visiting Tips

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