Gates Pass

February 26, 2025

The awesome lookout over the Sonoran Desert from Gates Pass keeps this ride on my Tucson bucket list. Every year I fiddle around with the route to cut down the time we spend riding in traffic. This time we're swapping some of the road miles for gravel to make it more car-free.

From the RV park west of town we warm up on an easy grade, then coast down the hill on Irvington Road to the Loop bike path. The roads are pretty quiet this morning, even as we get closer to the city.

Surprise! RidewithGPS doesn't know about this gravel section of Nebraska Street. It's firm and not long, maybe half a mile.

Cruising down Irvington toward the Santa Cruz river and the Rincon mountains beyond. It's our first time this year on this road; I forgot how much fun it is.

Once on the bike path we continue downriver by the Santa Cruz on familiar ground. By the time we turn off the path to start climbing up to the pass we've covered 19 miles with no stress.

I've ridden the path by this wall on the Ajo/Irvington bridge dozens of times and just got curious enough to look it up. Artist Vicki Scuri created the carved patterns from tire tracks left in the Santa Cruz riverbed.

Another perspective on the Luis Guttierez Cushing Street bridge from the path underneath. The Cottonwood leaf cutouts look so graceful flying overhead.

In Silver Creek we leave the bike path, turning west to work our way back uphill through the neighborhoods. There's not much car traffic until Gates Pass Road where more tourists join us for the three miles up to the pass. I wouldn't do this part on the weekend but on this Wednesday it's not uncomfortable.

At the top we take a break to eat our lunch and take in the view from the scenic overlook.

I was hoping we'd catch up for another look at this party bus after it passed us coming up. Peace out, man.

After a little walk around it's time for the payoff - the descent down the west side of the pass. Here the road is narrow so we wait for a break in traffic and take the lane.

After a mile or so the road flattens out. Just as I'm thinking we're clear of traffic worries, I'm startled by a rude guy in a Jeep who close-passes me in my lane. I guess you can't let your guard down on the roads.

Barry loves a fast descent so he takes off first

Kinney Road has always been my least favorite part of this ride. I've been stalked by too many cranky truck drivers here. This time we're doing only a mile on Kinney before we bail out to the singletrack in Tucson Mountain Park.

All the time we've spent riding the trails here has been helpful for figuring out which ones are easiest to handle on a gravel bike. There's a short steepish wash at the start, then three miles of easy riding through the desert and back to the park.

This is the most enjoyable loop we've done yet through Gates Pass, one I look forward to repeating. The mighty gravel bikes score again.

We're back in time to shower and jump in on the Bocce games going on this afternoon. There's a big group of 32 people here to play and three Bocce courts. We count off to form six teams and the game is on. Some players are rookies, some clearly know what they're doing.

My team comes up short but it's a friendly game, and a nice time to get to know more of the folks here.

This is working out to be a great day all around. Tonight we're going back to Basqueria for dinner, meeting my friend Lorraine and her new love Dan. The food is delicious again although the timing is off; my Paella comes out as everyone else is just about done with their mains. Still, I hope to come back here again.

I think this place has great curb appeal. It's not very busy at all; I hope they're still here next year.

A wonderful evening with Lorraine snd Dan

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Today's ride: 33 miles (53 km)
Total: 787 miles (1,267 km)

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