OPC

Hello. My wife and I have heard about the Tucson Loop but have never been on it. We are planning to do a day trip from Phoenix to ride a portion of it, hopefully 50miles of cycling. We were thinking to do an east-side section like Diamond St Loop that's farther away from the interstate. We'd ideally like to minimize time on surface streets while on the bikes and we are not opposed to paying for secure parking. Any recommendations on where to safely/securely park a vehicle for 3-4 hours while we ride?

Thanks for any suggestions.

tom306

There are a number of free parking lots along the Loop where people park and ride. I don't know of any pay lots, but I think the free lots are pretty safe (caveat: I ride from home, but see lots of people parked there). For an example, you could park at the lot on the east side of Campbell, just south of the Rillito River. You would be right next to the Loop at that point and could ride in either direction. You could do a full loop around the city from there that would be about 54 miles and be mostly on the trail (a few miles are on streets that have bike lanes).

There are a number of great rides you could put together; the Loop system is really quite a gem !