I'm not familiar with the Mount Hopkins area, and I've only done Madera Canyon once...but I will say, Madera Canyon was one of the least interesting rides I've ever done in the Tucson area. The climb itself is kinda okay, though actually pretty short; but getting to the climb is just a long slog through a featureless landscape...not really anything to recommend about it. :shrugs:

Beware that Mission road has no bike lane or even shoulder south of Drexel and there's quite a bit of traffic up to the San Xavier entrance. If you decided to gravel bike it on the side of the road, there are several very sandy sections with all of the intersecting washes. Just a heads up.

https://maps.pagregion.com/PAGBikePed/BikewaysMap

Here's a video I did a few years back of Saguaro East (for anyone unfamiliar with the road/park):

yah...snp-east is a must do for tucson visitors. gotta do the one-way loop inside the eastern unit of saguaro national park at least twice or you'll regret it.
lushest desert i've ever seen.

If you have a gravel bike, I highly recommend Patagonia (I have a video on that one too lol).....definitely a ride to do in the cooler months and not the heat of summer. One of the most amazing places I've ridden in, especially once you're out in the grasslands.

...and not necessarily two consecutive loops; if you have the opportunity to do it in the early morning and in the late afternoon/early evening, do both. The different angle of the sun completely changes the experience, and it is stunningly gorgeous at both times.

One of the local cycle clubs (Cactus Cycling Club) does a regular Saguaro National Park East ride on nights when there will be a full moon: Two laps of the park, the first just as the sun is setting, and the second after the sun has gone down and it's completely dark. They encourage cyclists to not use front or rear lights during that second lap, just ride at a responsible pace and use the light of the moon to see. It is a spellbinding experience!

question for the locals...it's been approx a decade since hitting the saguaro national park-west unit by gates pass. seem to remember it
as nearly exclusively dirt road (mtb vs gravel bike) once leaving the visitor center area. is that western unit dirt, pavé or a mix these days?

Huh... I'm not sure which roads you may be talking about, I've been riding up Gates Pass to Saguaro National Park West, North Kinney Road to the visitor's center (sometimes via McCain Loop, sometimes skipping that), to Sandario Road, to Picture Rocks Road -- basically the go-to big loop through and then around the park -- for ~20 years, and I don't recall any stretch of it being dirt or gravel. It's always been paved.

Paved like crap, but that's par for the course around here...

Bob Ross thank you for the local update. more than happy to hit gates pass again (northeast to southwest) and carefully hit snp-west unit on my '23's
on a loop back to the verry southern edge of oro valley on the 2/4-2/6 visit in a few weeks. praying that it isn't just above freezing in the early daylight
hours but i'm likely out of luck in that regard.

Bob Ross was originally thinking about the bajada loop nw of the snp-west visitor center. did some auto recon after hitting kitt peak on wed and bajada loop still looked to be hard(ish) packed dirt. kinney was big hit or miss with pavé quality but sandario and picture rocks rd were generally very good. most of the snp adjacent/contained/involved roads seemed fairly recently paved.

hit(t) kitt peak climb on wednesday am. twelve miles uphill. twelve miles downhill. no flats. a bit of guard rail construction between miles 6-9.
road recently got all the cracks tar sealed. rode slightly less than halfway up (and down) last year around this time and road was in worse shape.
visually, road looks like an absolute mess. no issues heading up and some road chatter on the way down but (again) descending entire length waay better than
descending less than half last go round. mean, if this road got entirely repaved, it would be a monster hc desto, alas, state budgets/priorities...

roughly an hour drive from oro valley north of tucson. good sized hard dirt parking area at the base (az state hwy 86/386 intersection). road is supposedly not open till 9am
but have ridden it twice w/o drones, 'packing' observatory personnel or air cav turning me around/back. if starting in the early morning, realize that you could be in the shade for the first 7-8 miles
given the height of the mountain and how closely the road is cut into the slope. super chilly if hitting it late fall-mid spring. scenery really starts to pick up around mile 8. mile 9 and after is worth all the slogging.
fairly consistent slope up to mile 10. flattens out a little bit for the last 2.5 miles but the altitude starts to bite so things even out. not sure the road on the first half of mile 11 ever sees direct sun.

again, if this road were a tad smoother, this would be a ripping descent and there would be more than a few riders able to negotiate it without using their brakes the entire descent.

wasn't in shape to ride this as i've ridden only a handful of times in 2025. after having to pull the plug last year (10 degrees colder at the start for this reptile) with time constraints, wasn't about to turn around this time
with no "be back by x" mandate. felt suspiciously good first 5.5 miles. galumphed through the next 4.5 miles and made a few lengthy "picture stops" in the last two miles because the altitude said hello.
this epic hc climb was definitely worth riding once. if a majority/all of it got repaved in the next decade, would definitely make the pilgrimage to ride again. otherwise, will look to hit mount lemmon again or even
attempt mount graham (which seems to be a longer drive from tucson).

https://www.strava.com/activities/13548830094

Great info in this thread!! Planning my trip for later this year...

Any good intel on quality - high quality - rental bikes? I've come to understand that many of the websites for rentals are all the same company, where you get directed to a storage unit and pick out a bike with no support - and the upkeep is questionable. I'm looking for decent road bikes that will be safe for descending Lemmon...

Looking at mid to late October. Any issues with the weather around this timeframe?

Planned rides -
-Mt Lemmon, to the tippy top!
-Kitt's Peak. Planned to start at Three Points and take 86. Google maps shows a nice shoulder all the way - is this road OK for the traffic adverse person?
-Some of the loop, then hopping over to a few loops around Saguaro
-And if I feel real sporty - Mt Graham from Swift Trail.

A friend from NYC has visited twice in the past year, and both times he rented a road bike from Tucson Endurance Bike Shop on the corner of Speedway Blvd. and Kolb Rd. (same parking lot as Lowe's)

Both times he got a top-of-the-line Cervelo that was in impressively good condition...looked like it had barely been ridden.

Great - thanks. I saw that shop and just wasn't sure if it was associated with the other place that has more than one web domain.

hitting kitt peak from three points has fast traffic, with good sightlines/straightaways, but not medium or heavy volume. seems like nearly every auto on that
road is a ford f150 truck or comparably-sized. that stretch to the az hwy 386/kitt peak climb start is doable but boring. understand if you prefer a warm up to
the actual climb vs just parking at the base of kitt and going from there. a bit of not insignificant climbing from three points. personally, have opted (twice) to just start
at the az hwy 86/386 junction at the base of the peak with a sizable dirt lot for parking and haven't regretted it. i'm also one of those weirdos that doesn't mind doing
2-3 shorter rides in a single day if i feel like hopscotching around an area. i'm nearly always pressed for time when on vaca in tucson so prefer to do the scenic stuff vs just
slogging thru miles. rides i would/have consider(ed) if doing kitt peak (just the summit and back from the base-24 miles) and down for another ride afterwards
(depending on commitments or lack thereof/weather/legs/where i'm staying) would be:

1. parking near the intersection of az hwy 86 and s. kinney rd. and heading nw on s. kinney road. early straightaways, then dips and wiggles with a little uphill.
low speed limits along with relatively mellow traffic + scenery. hang a right on w. gates pass rd. climb up and descend to the rollers of w. anklam rd.
a right on n. greasewood rd., then a left on w. starr pass blvd. right on s. mission rd. and then a right onto az hwy 86 and back to start.

2. same as #1 but continue on s. kinney past w. gates pass rd. and eventually hook up with n. sandario rd. right on n. sandario. right on w. rudasill rd.
left on n. tula ln. quick right on w. picture rocks rd. and enjoy the (mostly) descent. hang a right on w. ina rd and connect with the loop bike path just before reaching the
10 fwy. loop path to w. starr pass blvd or w. silver lake rd. and then a left onto s. mission rd. and a right onto az hwy 86 and back to start. this will more
than double the amount of miles as option #1.

3. same as #1 with hanging a right on w. gates pass rd. ascend to the top of the pass, take in the well-earned view and return same way. short and sweet.

4. noodling and toodling on the loop wherever.

these are some options before the actual return into tucson itself. doing the short sabino canyon (check the cycling restrictions/hours but worth it for an hour's effort)
or zipping crosstown to do at least two loops in saguaro national park-east unit (the west unit of the park has very little pavement and you get the vibe by doing #2).
again, depends on where you're staying, comfort/fitness levels and priorities.

Great stuff Dip... I will do at least on of them.

This trip will be 90%+/- for bike riding. I would like to do 1.5-4 hours per day for at least 4 days, maybe 5.

The hard part is grasping how big this area is when looking at google maps. I just looked at what I thought would be a great little loop - it mapped out to be 130+ miles!!

I would like to do a fast/flat route - looking at an out and back on Arivaca Rd south of the town. Looks like decent road with little traffic - it goes from nowhere to nowhere. That would be 70 miles...

Another great looking Route???

Mt Hopkins from Rt 19? Not sure if you can ride a bike to the peak/observatory area, looks to be gated off. But the views from google look incredible. I may be able to incorporate that with Arivaca Rd...

Edit - may need a gravel bike for Hopkins.

Bump - my planned trip last year to Tucson is now happening the first week of May this year.

Revisiting one of my planned rides - Arivaca road from Arivaca Junction, thru the town of Arivaca, out to RT 286 and back.

Looks like a nice desolate stretch of road with low traffic - some websites list this as a great ride... but is it safe? I saw the border patrol shooting there yesterday and it go me thinking - alone, out on a bike, right along the Mexico border...

Jughed your call. done thousands of miles over the last 25 years within 10 miles of the border without incident but they were all in california and before the current political climate.

i think you'll be fine. would be more worried about support like convenience stores, bike shops, cell service in case of mechanical/emergency/overt heat at that time of year.

first time in a few years not making it out to tucson at the beginning of the year. missing it already. quintessential, western americana.

frankly, twere i heading to tucson in may (may!!!!), first ride would be the entire enchilada of mount lemmon to the observatory tippy top and back 56 miles or so.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5121837109

you'll likely need arm warmers and a windbreaker 3/4 way up and probably for a spell down.
rest of your rides will (also) be sunrise-9:30am/10:00am before you become a fried egg sando.

do not know what you have ridden, or not, in previous visit(s).

I've never been yet! Nor have I ever ridden a bike more than 150 miles west of the Atlantic.

I have a big week planned - with two must do, key rides.
-Kitts Peak
-Mt Lemmon.

I'm going to pick the best weather day for Lemmon, whenever that day falls in the week. But my current plan looks like:
-Tune up ride on the loop my first evening there
-Kitts Peak the following day
-Metric century on Arivaca road (and yes, there is a small town/junction in the middle of each direction)
-easy day - Saguaro and some of the loop
-Mt Lemmon
-easy day, possible rest day
-Mt Graham if I have the legs, if not - one of the local canyon rides around Tucson.

Other thoughts were to spend less time in Tucson - more time around Mt Graham. Add a trip up Morencini Mine climb.

awesome. you'll have a blast.

totally unrelated except that you'll be in the area...would be remiss if i didn't mention both the pima air & space museum along with the titan missile museum/experience. both are within a 30 min drive of dt tucson.
if you've ever been curious about where a third of our tax dollars go yearly...but both are top notch visits if you've got extra time/need a day off.

p.s. don't forget pikkies here when you ride tucson!

Pikkies?

^ pictures

^^ no doubt!! I will post plenty.

I was thinking you were talking about things in Tucson that would jab my tires and give me lots of flats... didn't know if Pikkies was local slang for pokie stuff.

Speaking of pokie stuff - should I run my GP5000's or my Armadillo's? I'm bringing two sets of wheels - was torn between the Armadillos or a set of gravel tires on the second wheelset.

A - not sure if I will even do any gravel.
B- I'm not worried about speed on my flat rides.
C- I don't want to climb with the Armadillos, nor do I want a blow out coming down Lemmon. GP's OK for the climbing bits?