Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Overview
This short trail gives you a lot of bang for your shoe leather. There are excellent
mountain, forest, and valley views all around (though you can't see Tucson), and the
rock slabs at the end of the trail are great for resting and picnicking. The main draw-
back is the dirt access road leading to a diminutive parking area. Cars can get there
with care but may find nowhere to park. In that case, if you return along the access
road, you'll find a few spots where you can pull over and hike back up the road.
Route Details
Looking out over the north side of the parking area, you'll see a few twisted remains
of what was once an incinerator—hence the name of this ridge. The trail leaves from
the northeast corner of the parking area, signed “Incinerator Ridge Trail #18A.” It
climbs gently for 0.1 mile to the junction with Knagge Trail #18, which drops steeply
to the left into the lowlands north of the Catalina Mountains. This trail is named after
a family who mined in the area in the early 20th century and also provided pack-train
services to the Summerhaven area before roads were available.
Stay on the Incinerator Ridge Trail as it continues flatly southeast. Looking to
your right (south) through the pine trees, you'll catch glimpses of Catalina Highway
below you. Soon you'll see a helicopter-landing pad to the south and, beyond it, Rose
Canyon Lake, which at about 0.25 mile long is the largest lake in the Santa Catalina
Mountains. Stocked with trout in summer, the lake has a campground nearby. Where
the trail reaches the ridge, you can see the small communities of San Manuel and
Mammoth in the San Pedro River valley to the northeast.
The trail begins to climb again and swings east as it reaches Incinerator Ridge
Peak (8,135 feet) almost 0.4 mile from the trailhead. This is the highest point on the
trail, but the best views are farther away, on the slightly lower peak directly east.
The trail drops clearly into a saddle at about 7,960 feet elevation between these two
peaks. Here, you'll find two trails, unsigned as of this writing. One drops to the right
(southeast); this trail, completed in late 2012, goes to the San Pedro Vista lookout on
Catalina Highway.
Our trail climbs left (north-northeast) into an area of large boulders. You'll round
the left (north) side of Leopold Point, making your way through the boulders as you
