Santa Catalina Mountains
Welcome to the Santa Catalina Mountains, one of the premier natural areas in southeastern Arizona. The elevation ranges from 2,724 ft. in Sabino Canyon to 9,157 ft. at the top of Mt. Lemmon. The lowland desert as well as the high pine forest offers settings for a variety of recreation opportunities including hiking, biking, rock climbing, skiing, and camping
Outstanding scenery features steep rock cliffs and foothills covered with unique desert vegetation adjacent to riparian corridors.
General Information
Complexes
Recreation Sites
Esperero #25
Many hikers start along this trail, which includes several miles of hard climbing, because it leads to The Window, a 15 by 25-foot hole in a fin-like ridge that extends out from Window Peak on Pusch…
Evans #32
Trail #32
Finger Rock #42
As you look toward the Santa Catalinas from metropolitan Tucson, one of the most distinctive landmarks on the Pusch Ridge skyline resembles a closed hand with the index finger extended to make a #1…
Finger Rock Trail #42
As you look toward the Santa Catalinas from metropolitan Tucson, one of the most distinctive landmarks on the Pusch Ridge skyline resembles a closed hand with the index finger extended to make a #1…
Garnet #411
There are good views along both of these trails and plenty of evidence of mining activity left over from the days when the Santa Catalinas were the focus of extensive mineral exploration. At one time…
Garnet #411, formally Pontatoc Ridge Trail
There are good views along both of these trails and plenty of evidence of mining activity left over from the days when the Santa Catalinas were the focus of extensive mineral exploration. At one…
General Hitchcock Campground
Site Open
This small, sheltered campground is tucked away just off the Catalina Highway, along the rocky streambed that forms the floor of upper Bear Canyon. Campsites are nestled under a canopy of ponderosa…
Gordon Hirabayashi Campground
Site Open
This site is also known as Prison Camp .The site was a Federal Honor Camp beginning in 1937 to house federal prisoners supplying labor to build a road for access into the Santa Catalina Mountains.…
Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Site
In 1999, the Coronado National Forest renamed the site and in 2002, the Forest unveiled an interpretive kiosk at the Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation (Interpretive) Site. In 1942, at the age of 24,…