124 mi. / 200 km
3-5 days
Sky Islands Odyssey (East Loop)
comment 128
time Oct 5
compose Sarah Swallow
USA
The East Loop is a showcase of the Sky Islands' biological wonderscape. By directly circumnavigating the Santa Rita Mountains—one of the Sky Islands—the East Loop highlights a variety of dirt roads, doubletrack, old mining roads, a historic Spanish expedition trail, and a small taste of the Arizona Trail. The route travels through ever-changing grasslands, forests, and deserts in one of the world's most biodiverse regions. This route has evolved over the years, and while it’s the shortest of all three Sky Islands Odyssey routes, it packs the biggest punch in terms of difficulty and landscape diversity.