by Bill Bens
On Saturday I joined the Southern Arizona Hiking Club (SAHC) for a bushwhack up Golden Gate Mountain in Tucson Mountain Park. Golden Gate is thought to be the most filmed mountain in western movies as it is the towering backdrop to Old Tucson Studios where many westerns were filmed. After meeting on the west side of Tucson, our group of 22 car pooled to the Yetman Trail head just below Gates Pass where we began our short but step trek up Golden Gate Mountain. Here's the view from the trail head:
From the parking lot, we headed south on the Yetman Trail about a half mile up to a low saddle:
Shortly after the saddle at a trailside cairn, we began our bushwhack up Golden Gate via a drainage on the north side:
As we climbed up the steep drainage, spectacular views of the Tucson Mountains rose behind us such as these sights of Gates Pass, Bushmaster Peak, and Bren Mountain:
Our SAHC Guide, Thom Davies, found a well-cairned route which kept us out of the prickly stuff and on pretty good footing:
During the climb, we passed this crested saguaro cactus about midway up the mountain:
As we neared the top, Tower and Wasson Peaks came into view off to the north:
After just over an hour, we reached the 4,288' summit of Golden Gate Mountain:
Thom quickly locates the summit register:
Break time:
The summit was very comfortable in sharp contrast to the frigid weather just a couple days ago. A perfect morning for this trek!
From the summit, the view to the east was of Mt. Lemmon and the Santa Catalina Mountains above Bren Mountain below:
Off to the southwest was Cat Mountain and the sprawling Tucson Estates community:
Off to the northwest was a view of Old Tucson Studios as seen in this zoomed shot:
After a good half hour enjoying the summit it was time to head back down, retracing the well-cairned route:
We enjoyed more spectacular Tucson Mountain views during our descent:
Here's a bird's eye view of the Yetman Trail head parking lot and the road leading up to Gates Pass:
We completed our Golden Gate peak bag in under three hours and arrived back to our meeting place from which we carpooled before noon. A GPS measured the round trip hiking distance as 2.6 miles with 1,600 feet of elevation gain.
TucsonHikers members can view more and larger view photos in the Golden Gate Mountain photo album: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TucsonHikers/photos/album/585640767/pic/list
Great hike Thom!
...just another crummy day in the Sonoran Desert!
Bill
Source = http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TucsonHikers/message/4869