We decided to spend this Christmas riding the Sky Islands Loop, a network of backroads in Southern Arizona that was put together as a 4-5 day route by bikepacking.com. The route has about 11,000ft of elevation gain over 169 miles, so it isn’t extremely difficult, but the route definitely had some challenging terrain. The weather was perfect, from about 30 at night to 75 during the day.
Satellite view of the route, a lot of it was very close to the border. Supposedly there is a lot of immigrant traffic in the area but we didn’t see many signs of that, just a ton of Border Patrol. BP ignored us.
Struggling to the top on the first day. We did about 20 miles after a late start. It seemed to be all uphill.
Beginning a steep and loose descent.
Some parts were too steep to ride safely and we were running out of daylight.
There was a really nice sunset during the ordeal.
Sunset.
Nice views.
Riding.
Rolling hills in the middle section.
Action shot.
Posing with the cholla.
Mountains in the distance.
Camp on the last night.
Experiences Collection: Wilderness Backpacking and Budget Travel 