Tucson Redington Road Hikes - River Beaches & Waterfalls

This is my 7th year of Vandwelling travels and although I have many favorate places to hike around the city, there is much more to explore.

Well east of down town Tucson is Redington Road that heads up into the mountains to an area called Tangue Verde.

The western slope of the ride up into the mountain foothills you get to view Mica Mountain, here with some snow still on it from the last big storm that came through.

I chose to hike the two smaller hike trails down into the Tangue Verde Canyon.

Above is my hike to the beach and falls that I captured on AllTrails App

The trailhead is not marked roadside so you need to have the location to find it 

A couple hundred feet on the trail there is this sign highlighting dangers.  These are real dangers when hiking any river or canyon.

Note the handwritten comment in black on the bottom.  “Clothing Optional Area”. Yes, that’s right.  A known nude beach.  

It was too cold outside and water was cold for bathing.

Above is the beach and river pool of water.  

Uphill view is of the falls and an interesting area if you like to climb through large boulders and water running through them.

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The next hike is a few hundred feet down hill, again with no trail sign.  The title of the hike says Falls Viewpoint, so I thought the trail only went to a viewpoint.  To my pleasant surprise the trail now goes all the way to the river and a much larger pool of running water, beach and more falls.

Above is my hike captured on the AllTrails App.

The picture above is the viewpoint.

With that beautiful beach down there I can understand people continuing the trail to the river.

Here is a picture of one half of the large beach here.

This is a picture of downstream with little falls all the way.  Later downstream is a large falls with marked trailhead.  I’ll save that hike for another day as it is much longer and it’s time for me to move on to do some errands.

Before I leave I’ll share a few more photos.

I can’t pass up a heart shaped rock or even a cactus.

And this one got me thinking of Mickey or Mini Mouse.



The views of the Tucson Valley area are very good from here.



I did spend the night on the mountain and this was my view.  Such a great time seeing so many new things, even after 6 prior years.

For my Prius friends and followers.  Redington Road is well traveled but dirt and one river crossing to get to the first ridge.  The road has grooves from water running across it.  Even with these possible hazards, your Prius can make it without problems but you must watch for ruts and go slow over them and take the rut in a way to have the least bump.  

Road conditions change with weather so my recommendation is to not travel difficult dirt roads during or right after rain events.  Safety first.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com