My husband lived in Tucson for a bit so he knew all the fun little spots to get to for an afternoon adventure. The Peppersauce Cave was one of those cool spots!
Location
It’s up on Mt. Lemon and past the Ziplining place but it’s quite a bit further up a narrow dirt road that our little Nissan Versa was scaring me on. I was glad Ricky was driving so I could knuckle it the whole way up.
I honestly can’t tell you were we pulled off, I only know it had to be close because there were cars parked. Maybe 6 cars total. Lots of people in the area off-roading it though with ATVs and 4-wheelers and camping in the area.
So we crossed the road and walked down behind trees and then down a rocky path that looked like water might have ran through at some point and then Ricky pointed to some rocks and said “I think that’s the way”.
Cave Entrance
There was a sign with some info on the caves but no sign like “start here”.
We climbed in the first section that was NOT the correct entrance. It narrowed REAL fast and Ricky tried to climb through but he would have had to like crawl at a 45 degree angle to make it through.
So we excited and as we looked around we saw people stumble out of some trees and we asked if that was the way – they confirmed. So we started again.
You had to crawl to start in and the temperature changes, it’s like a humid but cool temp. We climbed over and under and followed the arrows painted in there or I would have been seriously lost.
We made it to the Big Room but we weren’t really dress properly to start climbing ladders to make it to the other pools. There are over a mile of trails in there with pools at the end (not swimming pools) but super clear cool water that you can see right down to the bottom. It was a lot of fun! But again – don’t drink the water, lots of bacteria in there.
Make sure to bring/pack
- HEADLAMPS – Seriously don’t even attempt without
- Clothes that can get dirty
- Shoes that can get wet and dirty
