Backpacking Mount Lemmon's Pusch Ridge: Wilderness of Rocks, Box Camp, Romero Pass, West Fork Sabino

[@michaelmark3994]

i like your style of filming. giving the viewer a truer feeling of being there. especially for folks who can no longer experience that. thanks

[@wendywallace1528]

Wow, your videos are spectacular! Thank you for such beautiful footage ❤️ You really do put alot of work and effort into your video's and it is so appreciated. You inspire me to get out and go.👍

[@WildlandExplorer]

Thanks! I have another video of that area; hopefully finished in the next month or two.

[@MarenLincks]

Awesome! 😄

[@alanwatts5445]

Thank you so much for featuring these trails in southern Arizona. I spent a lot of time in those mountains in high school. Especially Mt. Lemmon in the summer. In my day, Hutch's Pool was often overrun with teenagers and college kids during the summer months.

[@WildlandExplorer]

Thanks! Still is overrun with people. I've been pleasantly surprised to have the spot to myself several times, but I would only go during the middle of the week off season.

[@trailz520]

beautiful video bro! I love box camp down to hutchs and wilderness of rocks is magical

[@teslah2997]

it makes absolutely no sense to me that you do not have over 100k subscribers…..your videos are excellent! and Wild West Hikes was also! I hope you keep doing them….they are very well dine and I enjoy them very much. love your laidback style, too!

[@WildlandExplorer]

Thank you for the compliment! I stopped caring about subs once I got to about 2500 and realized that it's a game for the influencer types trying to make youtube their job, which I have no interest in. It's better for overall video quality that I don't do any self promotion. Which means I get to make videos my way on my schedule; I hope to have one done in a month or two and have two more after that unfinished.

[@teslah2997]

@@WildlandExplorer whenever and however you make them, I will be watching. Thanks again for the great content

[@HomelinkST]

In case you hadn't figured it yet, those rainwise things are rain gauges. They way they function is pretty neat, too; they self empty and track that as well.

[@WildlandExplorer]

Good info! seems obvious in hindsight considering the name on them, lol.

[@ShawnBrandon888]

You are a brave dude, great job, safe travels my friend

[@Banyumili123]

Indonesia hadir menyimak dengan senang teman....

[@cliffdwelling3807]

Yay. Green chile mac and cheese.

[@dmn3773]

Starting the Highline tomorrow and that Cuban Coconut rice and bLack beans meal idea is happening! Thanks for the video.

[@WildlandExplorer]

Thank my buddy Dave. On that last Galiuro misadventure he was using red beans & rice as a taco filling; while I was making burritos which were falling apart, lol. Have a good trip on the rim!

[@Amyas.Miranda]

Hi Wildland Explorer! Where did u go brother? We miss you a lot and honestly i always wonder if everything is okay in your side of the world? It is been a while since you uploaded any of your videos. Hope you back again to trail and share with us some of your pleasurable hikes. May you get inspired to get out again and film us your adventures 🙏 thank you for all your amazing work

[@StephanieHughesDesign]

Frickin awesome job.

[@zimmerfraugudrun]

Absolutely great reminds me of Chiricahua a bit. Thank you for sharing. I enjoy your videos a lot

[@michaelrogers9898]

Hi there just watched your video. Very interesting.brilliant thank you.uk

[@NorwayHikesTrails]

Nice area for hiking 🥾

[@musthaveblues]

Great video. Looks like a fantastic backpacking experience. Thanks for sharing.

[@janmariolle]

You put together a stunning hike! Thanks for sharing.

[@WildlandExplorer]

Absolutely, thank you for watching!

[@ozarksandbeyond4416]

What a great area!!! Very cool with the rocks and swimming hole. Keep up the good work!! Love the videos.

[@tangenttrails]

Really awesome area and another wonderful trip! Thanks for sharing with us.✌️

[@dougmore2008]

Thank you for posting your videos. We hike all the time in the desert but don't hike extensively in the mountains around Tucson and we don't camp. You have a great mixture of the trail, the views and commentary on your hikes. Since we aren't able to get into the higher mountain areas, you have allowed us to see the beauty of those areas too. We have seen a small part of the Wilderness of Rocks on the fringes of the area, so it is amazing to see even more of that magical scenery. Have you ever hiked anywhere around the Reef of Rock in the Santa Catalina Mountains? We would love to see that, but we're not able to ourselves.

[@WildlandExplorer]

I'm not sure exactly what the reef of rock is, but maybe I've hiked it and didn't know it. Mostly I hike in the backcountry parts of the catalinas. Recently been exploring off-trail in the wilderness of rock... there's a lot of potential!

[@jermo6422]

Love your videos! I live in Virginia and i am so fascinated with Arizona. I’m gonna move there within the next year or so. Love watching your videos. Love the quality of them and love all the hikes you do, makes it easy for me to find awesome trails!

[@WildlandExplorer]

Thanks! I think you will find AZ is hard to beat for hiking year round. I hope these videos simplify some of the guesswork for people.

[@TheFremenChick]

Oh I made a comment on your highlight video about linking with hutch's pool and it looks like that's what you did for the full loop hike. Nice!

[@WildlandExplorer]

Yep! It's a really engaging route; you get to see pretty much all of the biomes of the greater Lemmon area. Bet it's hot & dry AF now though. I'd definitely make this a regular trip in late March - April when the water is good.

[@dr.maturin4648]

What a beautiful trip! You do such a great job of making one feel they are right there...the audio is so good I hear the flies buzzing and I swipe at my headphones to shoo them away! The Wilderness of Rocks is exactly like a favorite area of mine in the Aldo Leapold Wilderness: just to the east of the CD Trail from the trailhead off FR 150 , (North Star Road) which is off NM 35 about 10 miles north of Mimbres. Your shots are so similar I thought I was there; hoodoos, balanced rocks and overhangs etc. at about 7,000 feet in the pines. Not to be confused with the "City of Rocks" which is a State Park, close to I 10 near Deming, NM. Thanks so much for sharing your classic backpacking experience!

[@WildlandExplorer]

Thank you! Good feedback about the audio. Lately I'm putting more time into fiddling with audio compression and mic levels in the field to get those background noises in, and switched to an omnidirectional stereo mic. I really like the results. Wilderness of Rocks also kind of reminded me of Chiricahua National Monument; there's a lot of this kind of stuff apparently in the sky islands and high country of the southwest region. Good to know that New Mexico has this sort of stuff as well; I'm going to be spending some more time in that area soon.

[@jcstone4236]

Great video, reminds me of Survivor Man, he would lug around camera equipment and do self production of lining up shots and backtracking to retrieve his equipment. I’m assuming this is your technique. Quite a labor of love that I greatly appreciate! Thanks!

[@WildlandExplorer]

I do lug around a couple cameras. People ask me, "why you don't use the trekking poles?" And I go, "because I'm already lugging around a camera on a tripod that I use as a walking stick". And they go, "huh, ok that makes sense". So yeah, exactly like Les Stroud. Thanks for watching!

[@MJnNB]

Great video. Heading up to hike some of that tomorrow. Well done. Thank you.

[@WildlandExplorer]

Thanks! Hope it’s helpful, enjoy the hike!

[@MJnNB]

I’m not much a techie. So I wanted to ask if you have recommendations for a light weight solar battery charger. Enough to maintain 2 iPhones over a few days?

[@WildlandExplorer]

HI Michael, if all you need is to keep a couple of phones (and maybe headlamps & GPS) alive for around a week on airplane mode - I would suggest something like a Nitecore or Anker power bank with 10,000 mAh capacity. I only bring solar because of the video work, along with a much larger power bank, which is a dual input Anker 26,800 mAh brick. The solar panel I currently use is also Anker, a 15W panel with 2 USB outputs, which works well with the big power brick. But this is much too heavy to justify for the average backpacker - I'd just go with the 10k brick and no solar if I wasn't filming. Hope that helps. Oh and last thing - those integrated solar + power bank things: avoid them, they are little more than a marketing gimmick.

[@MJnNB]

@@WildlandExplorer Thank you much. I was researching some and it does seem like the separate power bank and solar panel are the way to go over the integrated ones. Thank you for your input. I recently discovered your channel and am really enjoying it. We are heading to the Chiricahuas very soon to check out the area you filmed.

[@MojaveZach]

beautiful video, definitely reminiscent of the sierra!

[@marcump]

Hi, I just caught and watched a couple of your videos.. I wasn't awared of the elevation southeast in the Chiriahuas.. I also enjoyed the Sierra Ancha video and now this on. I was wondering.. do you ever run across any sunbathing rattlesnakes at the higher elevations?

[@AlexOffer]

Thanks for posting this video! Do you know if Lemmon Creek runs all year...or at least is running now? I'm heading up to the Catalinas this weekend

[@WildlandExplorer]

I know it’s fairly reliable but you’d want to check the AZT water report and hike arizona dot com. There should be reports for past years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it reported dry. Hope the video helped!

[@AlexOffer]

@@WildlandExplorer I spent the past few days camping in wilderness of rocks and can confirm Lemmon Creek was flowing. Didn't see the drainage though, but I might not have been looking in the right spot. Either way it's great to be out in the mountains! I'll keep an eye on your channel for more cool spots in the Tucson area 👍