Pima Canyon's Best Hiking Months Come Before the Sheep Rule Starts

Starting January 1, a federal order limits where you can walk in Pima Canyon. For 120 days, through April 30, nobody may travel more than 400 feet off a Forest Service system trail anywhere in the Bighorn Sheep Management Area of the Pusch Ridge Wilderness. The Forest Service also says winter is the canyon's season of highest use. So the months many people treat as prime hiking season are also the busiest and the most restricted.

That makes the stretch from now through December 31 the canyon's open season. The summer heat is gone, the lambing restrictions haven't started, and the whole drainage is open on the terms that apply most of the year. Counting from today, October 3, that's about 13 weeks. This year those weeks also give you your first comfortable look at a canyon that burned in June.

The order sets the calendar

The current rule is Forest Order 03-05-05-25-003. It renews an earlier bighorn sheep closure and runs from February 7, 2025, to February 7, 2028. The order's stated purpose is to protect desert bighorn habitat during lambing season. It has two parts that work on different schedules.

Only the off-trail limit is seasonal. The dog ban doesn't loosen in October, so a fall visit still means leaving the dog at home. What fall does open up is the canyon floor beyond the tread, the side drainages and the rocky benches. Starting January 1, those are off-limits to anyone more than 400 feet from the trail.

The Forest Service gives two different end dates. The Pima Canyon Trail #62 page uses April 30 in its Current Conditions section but says "January 1 through April 15" in its General Information section a little further down. The signed order says April 30, and that's the date to plan around. The page also shows a last-updated date of January 8, 2026, so it's best read as a general reference rather than a live conditions report.

What changed in the canyon this summer

Pima Canyon looks different this fall than it did last fall. On Sunday, June 14, 2026, lightning started what became the Table Mountain Fire. AZPM reported that it was burning in Pima Canyon. By Tuesday morning it had reached 15 acres. AZPM reported that a burning tree fell overnight and spread the fire, and diurnal winds added six acres in a single night.

As of 11 a.m. Friday, June 19, KOLD reported the fire at 105 acres and 80% contained. According to KGUN, an infrared flight that morning found heat still lingering on inaccessible cliff faces, in thick oak brush and inside the fire's interior. The Forest Service declared the fire 100% contained on Sunday, June 21, and crews moved on to cleanup and restoration. No later update gave a final acreage, so 105 acres is the last reported figure, not a measured final perimeter.

The same storm also started the Ventana Fire on the southeastern side of Mount Kimball, the peak at the top of the Pima Canyon Trail. Through all of it, KGUN's June 19 update reported no closures, restrictions or evacuation orders. The trail stayed open the whole time. People mostly didn't go because it was June.

That's why October matters this year. The burned slopes have been there since midsummer, but this is the first season when a long hike up the canyon is pleasant. It's also the only part of the cool season when you can step off the trail for a closer look at the burn without breaking the 400-foot rule.

How far up the canyon to go

Trail #62 starts at the Iris Dewhirst Pima Canyon Trailhead. To get there, take Oracle Road north, turn east on Magee Road, and follow it to the end. The trailhead is named for Iris O. Dewhirst, who represented District 1 on the Pima County Board of Supervisors from 1984 to 1988 and helped keep public access to Pima Canyon open. According to the Forest Service, there's no day-use parking fee, and the trail page lists potable water at the trailhead. The broader Pusch Ridge Wilderness page lists water as unavailable, though, so carry your own.

The canyon rewards a long day more than a short one. These mileages come from local hiking writeups, not official signage, so treat them as approximate:

1. About 0.4 miles. The trail crosses into the Pusch Ridge Wilderness.
2. About 3 miles. Five bedrock mortar holes in the rock, then the lower dam. An older guide puts the dam at 3.2 miles.
3. About 5.1 miles. Pima Spring, which the Forest Service calls a relatively reliable water source.
4. About 5.5 miles. The Pima Saddle sign, followed by a 0.1-mile spur to the saddle.

Past the spring, the Forest Service says the trail gets steeper as it climbs toward Pima Saddle and the upper slopes of Mount Kimball, with views of Pusch Peak and the crags of upper Pima Canyon. A round trip to the dam runs about six miles. That's a reasonable October morning, and the cooler weather makes the canyon's full length practical, which it isn't in summer.

An older local trailhead guide says the lot fills early on weekends. That guide is more than a decade old. The Forest Service's own description of heavy winter use backs up the same point, and a weekday start in October or November is the easier way in.

What the sheep rule protects, and how much is known

The off-trail limit exists because of a herd whose size nobody can currently pin down. Between 2013 and 2016, Arizona Game and Fish released 110 desert bighorn sheep from other Arizona herds into the Santa Catalinas. An October 2021 helicopter survey counted 35 sheep, and AZGFD estimated the herd at 55 to 70 from that count. The Arizona Daily Star later reported that a follow-up survey recorded 25 sightings, including 5 lambs. The department said the herd appeared stable but couldn't confirm that with data, and the follow-up didn't support a new population estimate.

AZGFD's latest statewide survey summary covers 2025. For Game Management Unit 33, it records 11 sheep in 3 groups: 6 rams, 3 ewes, 1 lamb and 1 yearling. That figure is a survey tally for a whole game unit, not a population estimate for the Catalinas, and it can't be compared directly with the 2021 numbers. The honest summary is that sheep are still in the range, the 55-to-70 estimate is now five years old, and no 2025 or 2026 release has been reported.

The Forest Service calls the bighorn "the real viewing prize of Pima Canyon and the entire Pusch Ridge area." The same page describes the canyon floor's dry streambed as an excellent example of desert riparian habitat, used by both resident and migratory birds, with javelina and jackrabbits in the area. In fall you can scan the ridgelines from anywhere in that habitat, including well off the tread. From January 1 on, you'll be doing it from within 400 feet of the trail.

After the hike, closer to home

Magee Road comes out onto Oracle, and the food choices nearby have changed this year.

Casa Vera at 7265 N. La Cholla Blvd. opened August 12, 2026. As of Tucson Foodie's October 1 report, it's open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., with lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and a weekday happy hour Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. Lunch is the first expansion since it opened, and it fits a hike that ends around midday. Owners Jordan and Emma Fuller, who also run Guadalajara Original Grill, built the 7,000-square-foot space in an old-world hacienda style. It has murals by local artist Ignacio Garcia, custom woodwork by The Lost Barrio Gallery and cantera stone imported from Jalisco.

At Casas Adobes Plaza, Shake Shack has opened at 633 W. Ina Rd. Charro Steak North, which soft-opened in August 2025, is at 7109 N. Oracle Rd. in the same center.

The Uptown redevelopment at the former Foothills Mall site, near Ina Road and La Cholla Boulevard, is still being built. KGUN reported in August that the first phase was nearly finished and that the Tempo by Hilton was targeted to open in January 2027. That's a target, not a confirmed date. If it holds, the hotel will open in the same month the off-trail restriction returns to the canyon.

For an exact count of what's left this year: counting today, October 3, as day one, the open stretch runs 90 days through December 31, and the restriction that follows lasts 120 days.

If you live near Pima Canyon and want to know how its trails, open space and changing dining options affect the value of your home, Lorenia Ruiz and the AZ Power Team are glad to help, in English or Spanish. Schedule a complimentary consultation or get your free home valuation, and we'll walk you through what matters on your side of Magee Road.