Always looking to hike in various areas around Tucson, Arizona, I decided to hike from the Iris Dewhirst Pima County Trailhead. An environmental education Pima County staff person and I met at the paved parking lot. It’s a huge lot capable of holding 45 vehicles.

The first 1700 feet of the trail is owned by Pima County. Then we enter Coronado National Forest. It’s a rocky trail with some short climbs, but otherwise an easy trail for the first couple of miles. You’ll see other hikers and trail runners out on the trail even during mid-week. If you continue into the Pusch Ridge Wilderness it does have a substantial elevation gain, so do your research as you decide what distance you wish to hike. Also know, between January 1st to April 30th, it is prohibited to travel more than 400 feet off the Forest Service trails for bighorn sheep lambing season.

So who was Iris Dewhirst? She was on the Pima County Board of Supervisors between 1984- 1988 representing District #1. While interested in mental health issues, the YMCA, recycling and libraries, she also wanted to protect desert environs. Her goal was to have buffer zones between housing development and the natural resources, such as the national forest lands.

As you hike the trail it is very obvious that you are near backyards of many homes, but walking further into the wilderness to be away from them. Their sight and sounds soon are nowhere to be seen or heard and it was wonderful. This trailhead and trail though are the only way to access Pima Canyon! Thankfully Iris Dewhirst helped create this access.

We looked for bighorn sheep; saw none. Enjoyed seeing some wildflowers and found a couple of pockets of water where cottonwood trees loved to be too.

Amazingly there was a dam built many years ago. If you look closely at the next 2 photos you can see both sides of the dam.

Thanks also goes to Iris Dewhirst for creating Tortolita Mountain Park. I have to add that to my future hike list. I appreciate having individuals in the world that work to protect natural resources. Otherwise, we would have housing right up to mountain tops and wildlife would have no place to live. And our hiking areas would be gone too! Let’s protect our lands for all to use!