Hiking The Canyon Loop Trail At Catalina State Park In Tucson, AZ

One of my favorite things to do on our 5 year road trip is to go hiking. The first two months of the year were spent in Mississippi and Louisiana which aren’t states conducive to great hiking, so I was looking forward to getting to Arizona in March.

We spent the first couple of weeks in Tucson and I ended up visiting nearby Catalina State Park several times as it’s such a beautiful park at the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains. It has eight trails available of differing lengths and difficulty levels. I’d been hoping to hike the Romero Canyon Trail up to Montrose Pools and Romero Pools, but those parts of the trail aren’t pet-friendly and I had Truffles with me.

As a result, we hiked the Canyon Loop Trail and Nature Trail as dogs are allowed on both those trails. Here’s more about both trails and why Catalina State Park is well worth a visit if you’ll be in Tucson.

Catalina State Park

It costs $7 per vehicle to enter Catalina State Park and $3 for individuals and bikes. This is a reasonable fee considering how nice the park is and the wide range of activities they run there. For example, when we visited in March they had a Music In The Mountains concert series, bird walks, geology walks, ‘Save a Saguaro’ projects and much more.

When entering the park, you’re provided with a leaflet giving more information about the park, including a map of the different hiking trails. To get to the main trailhead, follow the road all the way down to the end.

Once you reach the end of the road, you’ll arrive at the parking lot. Even when it was busy, there were still spaces available.

There are some basic restrooms, with a faucet off to the left. There’s no soap or hand sanitizer though, so you’ll want to bring that with you.

Depending on when you visit, their gift shop might be open. The store also has information about the park’s activities, including a print-off with a list of times and dates for you to take with you. There are several tables and chairs outside, along with some larger picnic tables in case you want to have lunch before or after a hike. If you’ll be hiking the Canyon Loop Trail, I’d recommend taking your lunch with you as there’s a nice spot to stop for a picnic on the trail.

Canyon Loop Trail

The Canyon Loop Trail takes you along parts of the Romero Canyon Trail and Sutherland Trail, with a connection between the two to create the loop. The loop starts and ends in slightly different locations (only about 100 yards from each other); I’d recommend walking it counter-clockwise as I think it’s probably a little easier that way.

That means you’ll start off on the Romero Canyon Trail. To get to the start of that trail, cross over the road to where you see the below mural.

In addition to all the fun activities they organize, one of the great features of Catalina State Park is how well-marked the trails are. I visited the park a couple of times without Shae (once while she was relaxing and another time when she went to Biosphere 2) and I didn’t have any problem with getting lost despite not always having the greatest sense of direction when hiking.

The trail takes you across a creek bed. We had an inordinate amount of rain during our time in Tucson, so there was still some shallow water there. I can imagine that if you visit in the summer there’ll be less water – if any at all. It wasn’t a problem crossing the creek though as it was still pretty shallow, plus there were stepping stones placed across it.

Truffles decided to take advantage of the cold water by quenching her thirst at this early stage.

Once you’ve crossed the creek, you’ll walk up a steady slope. It’s a wide, flat trail, so there’s plenty of space even if the park is busy with other hikers.

The Canyon Loop Trail doesn’t offer much shade for humans, so be aware of that if you’re visiting in the summer and bring water with you. The Canyon Loop Trail is only 2.3 miles long, but it can be thirsty work in the heat of the day.

For as much as she loves hiking, Truffles isn’t a huge fan of the sun. Although there’s not much shade for people, the shorter trees and shrubs did afford some shade for small pups like her, so she liked to stop and sniff around whenever we came across any shade.

Catalina State Park is on the north side of Tucson. The city is straddled to the east and west by Saguaro National Park, but there are plenty of saguaro (pronounced suh-wah-roh) in Catalina State Park to enjoy if you don’t want to pay the $25 entry fee for vehicles at the National Park.

The saguaro aren’t the only eye-catching feature as the views of the Santa Catalina Mountains are pretty stunning too.

As nice as these photos look, seeing it in person is even better.

If you want to take in the majestic views for a little longer on the hike, at the top of the hill there are a couple of benches to sit and enjoy them.

Seeing as you’re hiking the Canyon Loop Trail, the next part of the trail takes you down into the canyon. This involves taking almost 100 steps down which is the reason I recommended going counter-clockwise around the trail. The path up to this point is fairly gradual, whereas taking the ~100 steps up in the opposite direction would probably be a little more of an intensive workout. Having said that, the stairs are fairly gradual too.

Once you’re down in the canyon, you’ll find yourself walking alongside a stream.

This is the perfect spot to stop for some lunch as there are a few trees providing some shade, so Truffles and I did just that on one of our hikes.

Truffles was due to be groomed, so I was a little concerned she might be too warm with her longer-than-normal fur. I therefore encouraged her to wade in the water and then covered her with more water to help keep her cool.

Apparently she didn’t appreciate the impromptu bath as shortly after that she decided to stop, drop and roll in a big pile of horse poop.

The worst thing about this is that she was still wet, so the (thankfully mostly grassy) poop just clung to her fur.

I couldn’t be mad at her for long though because seriously – how cute is she?! (n.b. the photo below was taken on a different visit which is why she doesn’t look filthy!)

The trail takes you across the creek a couple of times.

You’ll then head uphill a little out of the canyon, although it’s not at all steep along this section. There are lots of saguaro to see along the way.

At this point you’re on the Sutherland Trail. Along the last section you’ll pass through these trees; I don’t know what kind they are, so I don’t know if they always lack leaves, or if they provide shade at other times of the year when their branches aren’t bare. Either way, they look pretty cool.

As you come to the end of the Canyon Loop Trail, you’ll see the parking lot in the distance. If you still have some energy in your legs and aren’t feeling too hot, I recommend taking a diversion off to the right to walk along the Nature Trail.

Nature Trail

As mentioned earlier, the Canyon Loop Trail is 2.3 miles, but the Nature Trail is only 1 mile long. It’s a nice, easy trail, with the most difficult part being the ascent up a short hill to get to the loop trail.

There are a couple of reasons I’d recommend also hiking the Nature Trail at Catalina State Park. The first is that it gives you a different – and equally beautiful – vantage point of the Santa Catalina Mountains.

The second reason is that it gives you an opportunity to learn about the flora and fauna of the area because the Nature Trail has lots of information boards along the mile-long loop – here are some of them:

You’ll get to see more saguaro…

…as well as some other types of cacti.

Final Thoughts

I loved Catalina State Park so much that I visited three times during our time in Tucson. Both the Canyon Loop Trail and Nature Trail are fairly easy trails that provide lovely views of the Santa Catalina Mountains and saguaro cacti. The park also provides a ton of activities each week to learn more about the area and enhance your experience there.

If you’re a camper or RVer, they have 120 campsites available. While I’m not much of a camper, if you are then Catalina State Park would be a beautiful place to stay.