Pima Canyon TH and Overnight Parking in and around the Catalinas

[speedgoat]

Question about the Pima Canyon TH parking.
It has an automatic gate, that maybe works.
I seem to recall having tire spikes on the exit, which don't seem to be there any more
The signs say open Dawn to Dusk, and conflictingly with other signs that say 6 am to 10 pm. There lots of scary towing signs
Most puzzling is the sign outside the gate, the NO PARKING ICON, 10-6, then EXCEPT HIKERS AND BY PERMIT. What does that mean?

So, in real life, how does parking work up there? A 6 am start this time of year is pretty late for a long adventure in the heat.
Can you overnight park there if backpacking?
Can you overnight park at Cat SP if backpacking?

[Mountain_Rat]

@speedgoat
You have to email the county. There's a link on this page about half way down, and a bunch of other info to dig through. The page is written in bureaucrat, so it will remain absoultely confusing, but at least you can apply for an overnight permit there. You will need to provide the proper trailhead name, "Iris O. Dewhirst Pima Canyon Trailhead". Failure to provide the trailhead name properly - full name of trailhead, proper capitalization, no double spaces, no abreviations, no emojis, and apparently no commas - will result in your application being rejected, and might get you banned for life from all county property, so be sure to get that right.

https://www.pima.gov/1329/Iris-Dewhirst ... -Trailhead

[speedgoat]

@Mountain_Rat
So I guess that explains "EXCEPT BY HIKERS AND PERMIT" really means hikers with permit. And, or, with, they should use their words better.
I did find out that CatSP allows overnight with an additional $5/night fee on top of the daily fee or annual pass.

[SpiderLegs]

I've parked at Pima Canyon pretty early in the morning. I live sort of close and have been to the lot as early as 4 AM, never seen the gates closed. The signs are more to dissuade anyone from parking in the street if the lot is full. The neighbors are the kind that will call it in and are well connected.

[Jim]

I know you're planning on parking at Pima Canyon, but last I saw, the tire spike and gate at Finger Rock TH were not functional. Lots of spent condoms at the bottom of the FR lot, too, so late night rendezvous are a thing, there.

What are the odds that a deputee is going to be on patrol looking for early morning hikers at a trailhead, just to ticket them? Low.

What are the odds of the vehicle being broken into if left during down hours, or later at night if parked at 11 PM on a given night? Probably higher than the ticket at 4 AM.

[Mountain_Rat]

@speedgoat
Well, it is Pima County, after all. In the case of the sign you referenced “Except By Hikers And Permit”, there are five words. Isn’t it interesting that there are also 5 county supervisors? Given the situation, I would have to guess that each of the supervisors were tasked with coming up with a single word to contribute to the $50,000 sign that they would be installing in one of their own neighborhoods. And being such a critical issue, they put a rush on the assignment of only 18 months, leading to a less than perfect execution. You would get better, faster & cheaper resullts from a drunk third-grader.

[speedgoat]

@Jim
Parking at CatSP seems like a much safer bet, at least for the car.

[outdoor_lover]

@speedgoat I'd like to know what CatSP considers overnight. I showed up there at 6pm a month ago for an.overnight and they charged me 50 bucks. Wasn't even there 12 hours.