Hiking Pontatoc Ridge Trail #411

Crossing another one off the Tucson, Arizona bucket list! The Pontatoc Ridge Trail #411 is a relatively short but brutal and beautiful desert hike that leads to the top of a prominent mountain ridge in the Catalinas. And you don’t even have to drive far to get to the trailhead for this kind of torture!

The trailhead to the Pontatoc Ridge Trail #411 is shared with the ever popular Finger Rock Trail at the northern dead-end of Alvernon Way. The parking lot is almost always full, with good reason. Check out this classic Tucson beauty. The landscape is quite something else too. 😉

Pay attention to the map at the trailhead; there are two forks to watch out for. The first is near the beginning of the trail: Finger Rock Trail (which we did 4 years ago) splits to the left while the shared trail to Pontatoc Canyon and Pontatoc Ridge veers to the right.

The next fork to watch out for is about .8 miles in to the signed intersection of the Pontatoc Canyon Trail and the Pontatoc Ridge Trail. Take a right to the Pontatoc Ridge Trail if you’re not up to adding an extra mile to your hike.

There are Chollas aplenty on this trail. Sometimes my husband likes to live dangerously.

Near the end of the trail are sheer drop offs. This is not the best area to text and walk. 🙂 Unless you also like to live dangerously.

The Pontatoc Ridge Trail, once called the Old Spanish Mine Trail, leads to 3 abandoned mines. They don’t go in very deep and to be honest, not worth the crazy scramble (considered class 3).

Short girl obstacle course.

And back we go!

We did it!

At the start of the trail, we had thought this would be a good trail to bring out-of-town guests who are itching to get nose to nose with the desert… but by the end of the trail, we decided we didn’t want to kill any of our visitors. 😆 The Pontatoc Ridge Trail, while exceptional, is rated as difficult. But by all means, if you and your guests are masochistic, do it! We can’t guarantee they’ll still like you by the end of it. 😛