Hiking Red Mountain / Patagonia AZ
Hiking to Red Mountain Lookout with Friends | Patagonia, AZ | January 2025
A visit to Tucson wouldn’t be complete without hiking with our old friends. We wanted everyone to have some time with each other, and after some back and forth and discussion on which peak would be the best to for our limited time together, we ended up deciding on a lesser known peak near Patagonia. This would allow Mitch and Emily time to finish some house chores and give Alex and Kathy time to come down from Marana. Then the guys could go out and bag a peak, while the ladies and dogs could enjoy some less strenuous activities.
Sometime after lunch, Alex, Mitch, and I gathered up our gear and set our way South through Sonoita and Patagonia. The whole ride was filled with pointing out peaks that ‘I needed’ or ‘we needed’ and overall heckling. Our chosen hike for the day was Red Mountain Lookout which had a disused forest road heading to the top. It also had the advantage of meeting my prominence cutoff. After navigating through Patagonia and finding the turnoff we drove as far as we felt comfortable along the access road and then set off on our hike.
Overall the hike was very enjoyable and rather easy all things considered. The road was steep, but not overgrown and not too long. Benefiting from having someone to talk to while hiking, the guys allowed me to monologue at length about the things I’ve been thinking about. And hopefully they don’t think I’ve gone off the deep end too far. And because we spent the whole time talking, the route went by rather quickly. We took our summit pictures on the rather windy peak and climbed around the fire lookout. There were some good views of the Santa Rita’s and Mt. Wrightson to the North as well as the hills and peaks to the South. I showed the guys how they could use the peakbagger app to identify the name of all the surrounding peaks, which I’m sure will only result in more hiking for both of them.
After a short snack at the summit, we realized that it was getting later than we had anticipated and hurried down, tagging a minor sub-peak along the way. More conversation and joking around and we soon returned to the car. Even now I’m honestly surprised with how long the hike was compared to how short it felt. The whole distance was just over 8 miles, but time flies when you’re having fun. You can see a trail recording of our route here.
Realizing we wouldn’t get back until after dark, we offered to pick up food for dinner on our way back. We enjoyed the meal and lively conversation with friends.
