Hike of the Month

HIKE OF THE MONTH Cool Your Hiker's Heels at Romero Pools in Tucson's Catalina State Park

Sometimes the difficulty of a trek turns out to be a blessing. Such was the case that spring day on the Romero Canyon Trail in Catalina State Park north of Tucson.

After ascending a steep and winding escarpment for three miles from the trailhead at the park's easternmost parking lot, we were confronted by a miracle of the desert: water. Not just a trickle, but an actual stream with a waterfall, which filled the natural bowls and chasms between the cliffs below. As my hiking companion Charles Tapio and I discovered, the depth of two of these pools was some 15 feet.

We'd left early hitting the trail at 7 A.M., armed with canteens, Indiana Jones hats, and SPF 25 sunblock lotion. Hiking along this trail, named for earlyday rancher Francisco Romero, we crossed a wash and made our climb into a boulder-strewn wonderland of cactuses and fabled gold.

Were it not for the ubiquitous saguaros, I could have imagined a science-fiction scenario from "Star Trek" with Captain Kirk and Mister Spock beaming down to investigate the exotic landscape. My sense of otherworldliness was heightened by the flora and fauna. Among the bizarre-sounding natives are the side-blotched lizard, the soaptree yucca, bladderpod, and devil's claw. As for birds, there are the buff-collared nightjar, the yellow-eyed junco, and the spotted towhee. Spock would have been fascinated.

The impact of our arrival at the pools was heightened by the exertion of getting there. Not only was the scenery dramatic with sheer cliffs and circling Cooper's hawks, but the feel of the cool water erased all memory of dry desert heat.

WHEN YOU GO

Dressed in shorts and walking out on the smooth but slippery rocks, I suddenly lost my footing and went under.

"How deep is it?" Charlie called.

"Hold on and I'll see," I replied.

Taking a breath, I kicked down into the depths. When I reached the silty black bottom, I looked up along the uneven submerged stone wall to the surface. Fifteen feet? Hard to estimate. Of course the depth depends on the amount of recent mountain rain.

Later we watched several teenagers jump off a cliff 55 feet above one of the pools. Fifty-five feet? That's what someone had painted on the rock face. But to me it seemed more like 155, so I declined the challenge and made a 20-foot jump instead.

In late afternoon, we made our way back up the canyon trail, which to the east connects with the Mount Lemmon Trail. Too late to tackle that, we headed back down into the setting sun with vows to return.

Catalina State Park is nine miles north of Tucson on State Route 77. The Romero Canyon Trail is 7.2 miles long, but our hikers stopped at Romero Pools, about three miles in. The pools are there year-round, but the waterfall appears only in the spring, the best time for this hike. Always carry water. To inquire about the trail and current weather conditions, contact Catalina State Park, P.O. Box 36986, Tucson, AZ 85740; (520) 628-5798.