Cat Mountain

March 7, 2026

1175m

Tucson, AZ

Cat Mountain is one of the P300m objectives in the vicinity of Tucson. Earlier in the day I had tagged two smaller but more obscured objectives with Matthias but I found myself still having at least 2 hours of time. I wasn’t sure what exact time I should be back home for the dinner with Caspar’s family so I might as well make full use of the day. There are two ways to access Cat Mountain and I chose the shorter one from the south. The parking lot is a small pull-out on the side of Ajo Highway and the drive to that spot from the base of “Peak 3302” took about 10 minutes.

Cat Mountain via the east ridge. GPX DL

The first part of this trail was well maintained and in fact, I came across two bikers on their way down while plodding up the trail. Near the saddle I correctly located the unofficial trail heading up to the east ridge of Cat Mountain. The ascent was no brainer but was longer than I thought. It took me a while to plod onto the east ridge, and the east ridge itself was very foreshortened with some undulating terrain. There’s a trail for most of the way, but there’s also fair amount of boulder hopping. There’s also one section of scrambling that could not be avoided, but I did manage to go all the way to the very summit before stopping for the first (and the only) energy break.

The view of Cat Mountain from the lower part of this trail
Looking back at “Peak 3302” with saguaros
“Peak 3302” and Beehive Peak with Mt. Wrightson behind
The long and undulating east ridge of Cat Mountain
Golden Gate Mountain to the NW
Summit Panorama from Cat Mountain. Click to view large size.
The tiny Beehive Peak with Mt. Wrightson behind. Two very different peaks.
Table Mountain with “Canine” and “Barrier Tooth” to the right
Mica Mountain and Rincon Peak with the city of Tucson in front
The typical desert hills in this part of the state
Me on the summit of Cat Mountain

I caught some cell reception and it seemed like Caspar’s family had changed their plan so I no longer needed to be back “in time” for dinner. As a result I spent another half an hour on the summit relaxing before making the dash back to the trail-head. The drive back took half an hour and I stopped buying some food for the following day. Erica was waiting for me so we went out for dinner. It also looked like I wouldn’t be having the vehicle for the last day of this trip so Erica dropped me off at Pima Canyon’s trail-head and I would spend the night there camping alone.

The desert plain to the south, from the descent
Descending the east ridge with Cat Mountain’s shadow casting ahead
There are lots of chollas on the ridge
The sun angle’s getting low. Note the amount of saguaros in the foreground
One last look at “Peak 3302”, my previous objective in the day
Plodding back along the main trail at sunset
Looking back at Cat Mountain