Picacho Cable climb

We started this cool morning hiking the Hunter trail. We started around 8:15 and the parking lot was already about half full. The climb was not meandering the least bit. It started straight for the top. Less than a quarter mile in and we came to the first cable. It was a challenging hike. After we made it to the saddle we had to drop down the west side of the mountain about one hundred before returning to an upward grade.  The sign at the saddle indicated that the Conservation Corp built the Hunter trail around 1932 to service the navigational tower built atop the peak.

The trip down the mountain was just as exciting, if not more so, than the trip up. We had decided to take the Sunset Vista trail on the way down and it was a chance to view the beautiful desert and saguaro cactus forest landscape.

The full trip was 5.3 miles with a total elevation gain of 2,018 feet. It was a wonderful day