Catalina State Park, Oracle State Park, and Bumblebee, Arizona

 This is a continuation of my six week trip to Arizona: After leaving Apache Springs:

I didn't know what to expect at Catalina State Park. I figured I would actually be camping with other horse people for once, but I wasn't sure how busy it would be. Although the other campgrounds in the park need to be reserved, and are consistently packed full of people, the horse camp is first come first serve. As it turned out, there were just a few other campers during the four nights that I stayed there.

Catalina State Park.

This is a great place to stop, whether you want to stay for awhile to ride, or just as a brief overnight to get water and/or do some shopping, laundry etc. since it is right in the city limits of Tucson.

You pay at the ranger station at the entrance of the park, and they will give you a map of the trails. They call the horse area, the equestrian center, and it is at the end of the road past all of the other campgrounds. It is also a trailhead, where cars park on the left and horse trailers park on the right. It is not a traditional camp with designated spots, you just pull in and park wherever you want in a large flat gravel area. Be prepared for hikers and bikers to walk through the corral area to gawk at and pet the horses.

Park anywhere at Catalina State Park's Equestrian Center.

The Equestrian Center has a large grid of 16 individual and fairly roomy steel corrals. Four of those are under cover and consequently have shade. There is a bathroom, potable water hydrants, some with hoses, a manure bin, with a wheelbarrow and rakes, and a picnic area, with grills, garbage cans and recycling bins. There is also a water trough and mounting blocks. The camp and entire state park is kept spotlessly clean, someone drove in to restock and clean the bathroom twice a day. Next door is people campground B, which is within walking distance, where you can have a delightful hot shower for free. After all of the dispersed, "roughing it" camping I had been doing, it was like a vacation from my vacation! Everyone that stayed there really liked it, and since it is only $20 a night, a lot of people who had been camping at private facilities were also thrilled with the lower cost. 

The Equestrian Center.

It was finally consistently warm during the day, and the nights were far nicer weather wise than what I had been experiencing previously. As soon as I arrived I met a couple from Idaho and we became friendly, exchanging notes about where we had been and where we were going next. They had been to some of the same places, and talked to some of the same people I had along the way. As I was chatting with them a bobcat nonchalantly wandered by in pursuit of some prey, and later I also saw a coyote stroll through camp.

The following day I decided to do a loop along the trail which leaves from camp. Once it splits, you can either follow the 50 Year Trail, or the Bridle Trail, which runs along the perimeter of the other campgrounds, eventually arriving at another hiker trailhead. There are also other obvious horse trails veering off every which way, and so I kept riding until I got to a viewpoint of the creek.

Along the Bridle Trail at Catalina State Park.

Looking down on part of the Canyon Loop.

I then did the Canyon Loop which is a short 2.5 miles and popular with hikers, who were mostly all delighted to see a horse, and were taking pictures and videos as I was riding by. One couple took two videos, thinking I was a different person the second time they saw me!

I also took a little detour over towards Romero Pools, but it was eventually blocked off and closed due to a recent fire. It is supposed to reopen in May of 2021.

On the Canyon Loop, in the burned area.

Kitty! This little bobcat thought I couldn't see her/him.

I then followed the Trail Link Trail which joins up with the 50 Year Trail. As another option you could continue up into the Santa Catalina Hills for awhile on the 50 Year Trail, to make a much longer ride.

On the 50 Year Trail.

Since this park is located close to other riding areas, I trailered out the second day and went over to Oracle State Park. There is no horse camp in this park, but there is a parking area on American Ave. that is suitable for horse trailers. You can ride either on a variety of trails, including the Arizona Trail, or through various washes or a combination of both, which is what I did. There is a porta potty and a self pay station, and it costs $7.00 for the day.

Parking at Oracle State Park.

At Oracle State Park.

There's a spigot at the windmill, but no water.

Instead canned water was provided.

As I was riding I noticed what looked like a little smoke above a nearby mountain range, but I thought I was mistaken, and it was probably just a cloud. Sure enough, as I kept an eye on it, it became a full blown plume, and it was obvious a fire had started.

Fire in the nearby mountains.

The Arizona Trail at Oracle State Park.

Kannally Wash.

On my way back to camp I stopped at a feed store to get propane, some more senior equine, and I wanted to look at what kind of hay they might have. There were three stores in the area to choose from and I chose Ranchers Supply. I knew hay would not be cheap in Arizona, but it was pretty shocking, alfalfa was $17.00 a bale and the only other option was Bermuda Grass which was $20.00 a bale. I just ended up buying one bale to tide me over. It was a fairly comical transaction, the man at the cash register was not really equipped to deal with the public, consequently I wasn't really able to communicate with him, so I was there for quite awhile, but finally got everything I needed. ( I bought more hay in Wickenburg, later on in my trip, at a much cheaper place called Texas Hay Co... only $14.25 a bale, for the same hay.) Turns out my horse doesn't really like Bermuda Grass, I still have some to this day, that she will not eat, and I've heard about other people's horses not caring much for it either.

When I arrived back at camp, the Idaho people had left and a new couple from Washington were parked in the same spot, which was close to me. They invited me to hang out with them over at their "house" and we talked for quite awhile. Pretty much everybody was on the road a lot longer than I was, my six weeks was a short trip in comparison.

The next day I hiked around the rest of the state park in the morning, visiting the Romero Ruins, and then in the afternoon I unhitched and went into town to do laundry and more shopping. That evening I went across the street to Red Lobster for dinner. Ah, the luxury!

Sunset at Catalina State Park.

After leaving Tucson my plan was to head to Sedona, stopping at Bumblebee along the way. I had no idea what Bumblebee was going to be like, until I got there. It is 5 miles off of Hwy 17 in the middle of nowhere, and it is tiny, and I do mean tiny, consisting of a few houses and the Bumblebee Ranch. You can camp with horses at the ranch, but there is also dispersed camping nearby, so I went ahead and grabbed a spot. Even though this is a fairly isolated area, there are cell towers up on a nearby hill, so I had plenty of service. There are no amenities, but it is possible to get stock water from a creek, if you want to go for a long walk. It's good for watering your horse on the way back from a ride, but it is not conveniently located for hauling. The GPS coordinates at the bottom of the blog are for the ranch, not the exact spot I camped.

Bumblebee, AZ.

My dispersed spot in Bumblebee.

As I was doing some last minute planning about where to camp in Sedona, I noticed the weather was not looking so great during the time I was supposed to be there. I hadn't ultimately had the best luck with weather during the whole trip, so I was definitely not looking forward to more frigid temperatures. And as soon as I was going to leave Sedona, it was going to go right back to being nice weather again. Figures.

My first ride in the Bumblebee area was just following the road/trail that I was camped off of. This is part of The Black Canyon Trail which is apparently 80 miles long, but in this area it is a pretty rugged narrow road that ATVers use. After awhile I was running into a few too many ATVers ( it was a weekend) so I veered off onto some less used two tracks. There were some pretty nice views along the way, and at one point my horse spotted an unidentified creature up on a hill. I also found a hermit type of shack, someone was actually living in so I skirted that, did some more exploring, and then followed another road which led me to a gate that I could not open, where I finally turned around. I also came across quite a few active mining claims along the creek.

Part of the Black Canyon Trail.

A long line of ATVers.

I turned around at this gate.

This road is cut through the rock.

A mining claim.

After my ride I walked into the town of Bumblebee. There was a trail running race/event going on, so it was probably a little busier than normal. There is a solid well used trail directly across from the ranch driveway, but since that was being used for the race, I did not end up exploring it.

The next day I followed The Black Canyon Trail in the other direction, but I didn't stay on it very long, since a steady stream of trail runners kept coming up behind me. Instead I went cross country, which was easier said than done, there were a lot of small but deep washes to cross and thick bushes, but eventually I skirted around the backside of Bumblebee Ranch, and followed a gas pipeline until I got back into more open country. I ended up checking out a small canyon, and then instead of going back the same way, I took the road right through Bumblebee.

Riding near Bumblebee.

Found this little canyon.

That's all there is to Bumblebee, AZ!

That concluded my stay at Bumblebee, and at that point I had decided that I was going to have to skip Sedona, which was a big bummer, but I had thought up a couple of new places to go, one being on the way back towards Nevada, (which did not end up working out)... more about that in my next and final blog about this trip.

Next stop: Lake Mead and Valley of Fire.

To be continued....

GPS COORDINATES TO CATALINA STATE PARK

GPS COORDINATES TO ORACLE STATE PARK

GPS COORDINATES TO BUMBLEBEE RANCH