Rice Peak

Today we decided to take one of the jeeps out and do some explorin' somewhere in the Catalinas, where it would be closer to home. So Greg called up one of his 4-wheelin' friends, and we prepared for the afternoon adventure. I packed a lunch while Greg strapped down the "white jeep."

Rice Peak is another mountain in the Catalina Mountain range, located north of Mt. Lemmon, where we hiked last weekend. Greg had yet to experience this trail, but his friend Ken had. According to a 4-wheeling book he had, this trail was rated difficult, so it was best that we had another vehicle with us...just in case. Here are some signs we encountered as we began the 5.6 mile trail:

This was about a third of the way up the mountain, looking directly east, towards the Galiuro Mountains off in the distance. We saw similar views to this last week from Mt. Lemmon, but the pine trees were in the way of truly enjoying the range.

The very last part of the trail included this very rocky and steep climb. It was so bumpy, that I had wished that I would have included a certain piece of clothing in my outfit that day (ladies, you know what I mean).

When we reached the top of the summit, we literally had a 360 degree view. It was amazing. Here is a quick video clip, demonstrating the 360 degree views:

This is Mt. Lemmon, where we hiked last weekend. The very top is right where we had hiked to! You can barely see it, but there are some ski slopes on this side of the mountain that are utilized during the winter months (some of the shadows from the clouds make these difficult to see).

These rock formations are what give this peak it's name. The small stones and pebbles are held together by old lava, creating a look resembling rice:



This view to the west (and towards Tucson) is of Charleau Gap, a pretty prominant feature of the Catalinas. We did that trail back in November, driving from the west, through the gap, and camping out on this side of the range. It's a really neat trail with a lot of HUGE boulders.

What a stud. Don't you just love his aviators? :)