Friday night, August 7, lightning moved through the Catalinas and put a fire on the slope above Finger Rock Canyon. Anyone who has lived in the Catalina Foothills long enough to remember June 2020 felt the same jolt: flames on the mountain, again, in the same general neighborhood of trails most of us walk on a Saturday morning. One resident, Adam Wilson, told a local television crew exactly what was running through his head.
Especially after the Bighorn Fire in 2020 it's always going to be that thought in the back of your mind.
That instinct is fair. It's also, this time, misleading. The fire that started that Friday night, later named the Finger Ridge Fire, topped out at 67 acres and reached 50 percent containment by Sunday afternoon. The Bighorn Fire burned almost 120,000 acres and left more than 200 miles of trail damaged, some of it for years. Those two numbers sitting next to each other are the actual story here, more than the smoke was.
The Trailhead Wasn't Closed Because It Was Dangerous
Here's the detail that got lost in most of the coverage. Finger Rock Trail closed that weekend, but not because officials thought hikers were in danger from the fire itself. The trail closed because Coronado National Forest crews were using it as their access route into steep, roadless terrain where the fire was burning. Reporting through the weekend confirmed there were no structures at risk and no evacuation orders at any point. The closure was a staffing and safety call for the firefighters walking that trail every day, not a hazard warning for hikers.
That distinction matters if you're trying to calibrate how worried to be the next time smoke shows up over the ridge. A closed trailhead near a wildfire in the Foothills doesn't automatically mean the fire is threatening homes. Sometimes it means the opposite: the fire is small and remote enough that the trail itself is the only way in.
By Monday afternoon, with containment holding and overnight moisture helping knock down hot spots, the Coronado National Forest reopened Finger Rock Trail to the public. Total time closed: roughly three days. Compare that to Pima Canyon Trail, a few ridgelines over, where trail stewards at Friends of the Santa Catalina Trails didn't report the full seven miles clear again until the spring of 2023, three years after Bighorn burned through. Some trail segments on the range's northwest end were still described as damaged beyond reasonable repair without major reconstruction, years after that fire went out.
None of that recovery arc applied here. The Finger Ridge Fire didn't require trail rerouting, didn't leave a scar that needed volunteer crews to rebuild drainage, and didn't keep anyone off Finger Rock Trail past the weekend it started. If your gut reaction in August was to brace for another multi-year trail closure like the one after Bighorn, the record doesn't support it.
The Loop That Wasn't There Two Summers Ago
The other thing that changed on this piece of the front range has nothing to do with fire. It's a new trail.
For decades, hiking Finger Rock Trail meant an out-and-back. You climbed the steep, technical bedrock from the trailhead at the north end of Alvernon Way, and when you were done, you turned around and descended the same terrain you'd just fought your way up. That changed in early 2025, when Outslope Trail Solutions and WildArizona crews finished a roughly two-mile connector, funded through the National Forest Foundation, linking Finger Rock Trail to the Pontatoc canyon trails at Linda Vista saddle.
The practical effect is a loop of about seven miles, or closer to twelve if you tack on the out-and-back extension to Mount Kimball. Hikers who've run both directions describe a clear preference:
- Start at the Finger Rock Trailhead and climb Finger Rock Trail first, while your legs are fresh for its steep, technical bedrock.
- Cross the connector at Linda Vista saddle.
- Descend via Pontatoc Trail, which multiple hikers describe as noticeably more gradual on the knees than retracing Finger Rock's descent would be.
That order isn't just a preference. One reviewer who'd done the loop both ways said reversing it left their knees "still not speaking" to them, and switched to climbing Finger Rock and descending Pontatoc on the second attempt. If you've avoided Finger Rock Trail because the idea of down-climbing that bedrock twice sounded miserable, the calculation is different than it was two hiking seasons ago.
The Bedrock Work Nobody's Finished Talking About
Finger Rock Trail's most technical stretch, the steep slab sections closest to the trailhead, has also been getting attention separate from the new connector. Earlier this year, Santa Catalina Ranger District trail crews said they planned to rebuild and reroute a few of those steep bedrock sections this spring, the same kind of stonework that had already been completed on nearby routes like Baby Jesus Trail. That's a maintenance detail easy to miss if you're not tracking Coronado National Forest's trail program, and it means the parts of the hike hikers most often flag as sketchy footing were slated for rework before this fall's hiking season opened up.
A Fall Window Before The Sheep Closure Returns
One more timing note worth knowing if you're planning to use either trail this season: Finger Rock Trail sits inside Bighorn Sheep Management Area, and access restrictions kick in every year from January 1 through April 30 to protect lambing season. Travel more than 400 feet off the official trail during those months is prohibited.
That means right now, September through December, is one of the more reliable stretches for full access to both Finger Rock and Pontatoc before those seasonal limits return in the new year. A few practical notes for anyone using the trailhead this fall:
- Both Finger Rock Trail #42 and Pontatoc Trail #410 share the same trailhead at the north end of Alvernon Way, so check signage carefully at the junction to stay on the route you intend.
- Cooler October mornings are typically when front-range parking fills fastest. Arrive early if you want a spot.
- Dogs are not permitted on Finger Rock Trail. Confirm current rules before bringing one along on either route.
What This Means If You Live Here
None of this is a reason to treat wildfire near the Foothills casually. Lightning-caused starts happen every monsoon season, and this one could have gone differently with less moisture or worse wind. But the specific comparison residents reach for when smoke appears on the ridge, the memory of Bighorn's 120,000 acres and years of trail closures, doesn't match what happened at Finger Rock this August. A 67-acre fire, contained within days, on a trail system that's actually been getting new connectors and rebuilt footing rather than losing ground, is a different kind of event than the one that scarred this range in 2020.
If you're the kind of Foothills resident who tracks what's changing on the trails you've walked for years, this is the year Finger Rock stopped being a one-way climb and started being a loop, and the year a small fire tested that system without leaving a mark on it.
For homeowners near the Pima Canyon Estates area and elsewhere along the front range, staying current on what's actually happening in the Catalina Foothills, from trail conditions to the pace of the local market, is part of what keeps this neighborhood worth the drive up Alvernon or Skyline. If you ever want a local read on how any of that connects to your own property, Lore Denny is glad to talk through it. You can reach out here any time.
