Written: December 1, 2021

Trip report, Aliso Spring to Florida saddle, November 30, 2021

The Santa Rita mountains are all about views, at least once you get up on the high country. Some of the best views anywhere and indeed some of the best in southern Arizona. Once you get out of Madera Canyon the Santa Ritas are all about solitude. Everyone hikes the Mt. Wrightson trail and nobody hikes anywhere else, or so it seems. The roads on the east side get a lot of use from the ATV crowd, but hiking weekdays is the way to avoid the weekend warriors, and once you are on the trails, you are likely to have the entire day all on your own.

View south from near Florida saddle (just before sunset)
When I hiked from Melendrez Pass to Sawmill Spring, I noticed that hiking from Aliso Spring would cut about 2 miles off of the distance. I also noticed that there was road access to Aliso Spring (somewhat to my surprise). So, I checked the maps and planned a return trip. I made two trips. One on November 23 when Dave and I did some trail maintenance, and the second on November 30 when my son Paul and I hiked to Florida saddle.

There is indeed road access to Aliso Springs. You will however need a 4 wheel drive vehicle and plenty of determination. The road is bad with steep rocky sections. We decided not to drive all the way to Aliso Springs. We parked at about 2.6 miles just before the steepest and worst looking hill. This then required us to walk the remaining 0.9 miles of road to Aliso springs. We tried a bit of a shortcut hiking crosscountry to the Aliso springs junction. This worked, but was no real shortcut due to catclaw and general rough country. My advice is to stick to the road and trail and just relax.

Note: (5-29-2023) We drove to Aliso Springs in my friends Forerunner which handled that steep hill just fine. On this visit (after a rainy winter) the Spring was running and yielded a nice spring for some distance below the spring. Be advised that the road alignment is now quite different from what is shown on the old 7.5 minute USGS map (it mostly stays on the ridge to the north rather than following the stream).

Even with hiking part of the road, this is still a win (1.25 miles versus 2.2 miles) over the Melendrez Pass trailhead. This win is offset by the rigors of 4x4 driving, but each person has to make their choice. If you don't have 4x4, then Melendrez Pass is the choice.

Florida Saddle 7800 feet

The drive

From Tucson, head east on I-10 to Highway 83. Exit and drive south.

The Gardner Canyon road (FS 92) is clearly marked by a big green highway department sign, but it is somewhat hidden by bushes on the right until the last minute. From here the road is dirt and passable by virtually any car for the first 5 miles. The following gives mileages on Forest Service 92 (FS 92) from Highway 83. Once on FS 4084, it is up to you how far you care to go. With my 4x4 Tacoma I was not entirely terrified to drive 2.6 miles. No doubt I could have gone the entire 3.5 to the end of the road, but I was more interested in a nice day hiking than in 4x4 challenges. The sign says the distance is 4 miles, but they must round up to even miles.

You avoid any tempting roads that turn off to the right. If you have the USGS topo map, note that the current road does not follow the stream, but stays on the ridge to the south. You pass through two "cowboy gates" and should close them after you pass through.

Sawmill spring

The hike

On our first hike in (11/23) I carried an axe and Dave carried a 5 foot crosscut saw. The plan was to remove several trees that had fallen across the trail, and we did exactly that. This took enough time that a hike to Florida saddle was out of the question, though we did visit the spring.

A week later my son Paul and I returned and hiked to Florida saddle. We found two other places above the spring where some down trees need attention, then a dozen of them just before reaching the saddle. A project for another day.

My son and I began hiking at exactly noon and were back to the truck at around 7:00 PM. This involved us in an hour and a half of hiking with headlamps, which is fine by us. The round trip distance from where we parked was just under 10 miles. The ascent is 2600 feet, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Last light over Baldy Saddle
Being out and about and up high around sunset provides interesting light that you don't get at other times of day. As a photographer I appreciate that. As someone who does not at all like being up and active at sunrise, it is my prefered way of getting the "magic light" when the sun is near the horizon.

Ready to do some trail maintenance
Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org