A Mountain

I wish I liked this mountain more. The views are nice enough, but really, it’s all city sprawl, if you want a great desert view you have to get out of town. The paths are short hikes to view points so I suppose they’d be decent for families and children. Unfortunately, the parking lot was packed with people blasting their radios and there was trash and graffiti everywhere. Not exactly the nature break I was hoping for.

Well maintain, good conditions and a fun mountain.

A Tucson icon with beautiful views of downtown and beyond. A nice hike right in town – don’t miss it!

Perfect place to bring out of town guests to enjoy sweeping views of the City. New picnic ramadas and trails makes it fun for locals looking for a close hike. Dogs are allowed on leash. Love this place! Visit Friends of A Mountain on Facebook for information about hikes.

It’s so funny to me that I was born in Tucson and grew up here until I was almost 10yrs old and always saw «A» Mountain, but never made the trek up to the namesake until returning over 20yrs later… life is interesting that way I guess!
«A» Mountain (aka Sentinel Peak) has a pretty rich history (there are plaques in both english and spanish explaining the peak’s importance and even where Tucson got its name). The drive up gives you pretty great panoramic views of Tucson, especially downtown. But warning, for some reason people drive up here like bats outta hell… I don’t know why you would go over 25mph on the road up here when there are so many things to see on the drive up… but people are idiots and feel the need to race up the mountain. I had to pull over a couple of times to let said idiots pass me so I could enjoy my jaunt up to the top.
You can park in front of the «A» itself and even attempt to climb it (though make sure you have closed toed, sturdy shoes because it is steep and there is broken glass everywhere!). But, if you make it up to the top of the «A», the photo opp is pretty epic!
I will say that I went in late afternoon on a weekday (and maybe it was because of Spring Break), but among the local and out-​of-​state tourists, there is a certain «element» here that is blaring music, smoking blunts, and leaving trash, broken beer/​alcohol bottles and cigarette butts everywhere. That just makes me sad that people cannot respect this place for themselves or for others…
That being said, it was a fun little Tucsonian experience that was very nostalgic for me and would recommend if you are driving through Tucson to make the detour. I was there for just under 45mins and most of that time was climbing up and climbing down the «A» portion of the mountain.

A Mountain (Sentinel Peak) serves several purposes– folks like to drive up and take in the views, others do a little hiking, cyclists ride up and down, and I mostly like to take in the view from my neighborhood. It’s a Tucson staple and I love it for the peak that it is with an A stamp on it.

One more star for this icon of Tucson. Still think it needs to be cleaned of all the riffraff before it reaches its true potential, but I’ve found a little known trail up the back side, from Starr Pass. Maybe I should keep this to myself, but it is too fun to not share. A great little trail, up past a couple memorials. Wide and shallow enough that you can walk your bicycle up (or ride if you can!). Then you can ride down the paved road for a fun little jaunt towards the heart of downtown. So how do you find this little trail? Well, that’s half the fun!

Very depressing how beautiful the view from the top can be but yet the conditions of the peak itself are absolutely abhorrent broken glass bottles and trash everywhere you look and inconsiderate people driving far to fast for a place with pedestrians. What has happened to the friendly community I remember?

Over rated. It’s good for a run but there isn’t much to see other then the big A, do it once and you never really have to do it again.

Once upon a time there lived a beautiful Jewish princess… She moved to Tucson years ago, and, like her proud Israeli ancestors, began to build a new life day by day in the desert sands, one grain of sand at the time, discovering the T-​town with her best friends :)
About a week ago my friend and I decided to take a short drive to A-​mountain — supposedly, the perfect sunset watching spot. After reading some mixed reviews online, we wanted to see the A-​peak and find out what it’s all about.
The famous A turned out to be an average city-​meets-​Wild West mountain landscape, nothing too spectacular or picturesque, should I say. There’s a sandy dirt-​like road there, an unremarkable gift store and a weird parking lot. We indeed had a chance to watch the sunset, but it was more like an Uhm, okay, I’ve been to the A Mountain.
Nothing too romantic, especially when it comes to a perfect sunset-​watching date. You wouldn’t wanna see your lady walking in the sand wearing her favorite high heels and a skinny mini, trying to climb the A.

A quick drive to the top and a great view of the city. For a tourist like me, it was A-​OK.
From the vast parking area you can easily walk up to the A summit on the east end, but it’s covered in broken glass. There’s a gazebo on the west end of the park where you can catch up on the latest local graffiti. That’s about it… pretty uninspired. I guess it’s too windy for a picnic anyway.

So I have to agree with other posts that the drive up to the «A» is fairly short and the views are average. I have noticed the smog on certain days but I like this place because it is about a 15 min bike ride from my place (near the university) and a great place for me to work on climbing on my road bike. Mt. Lemmon would be my choice if I could go but it is not exactly close — so I go here in the early morning to get my work out for the day! It is nice and quiet at 6 – 8 am. I haven’t noticed or met any weed smokers at this time of day… they may be asleep… I wouldn’t know :)
But other than me and some other cyclists, there are some nice people walking and taking in the morning sunrise. It’s not bad and I appreciate the fact that it is a nice alternative to staring at the four walls of the student rec center or gym!
*For those of you who are driving, the gates to the parking at the «middle» are usually not open until after 8 – 9 but you can park in the neighborhood at the «base» and just walk up.
Also, they set off fireworks off here on the Fourth of July. As you know, it is impossible to get close since they barricade the roads but if you are on a bike, they will let you through. I was able to ride to almost the parking lot level where they set off the fireworks — amazing view — never been this close to fireworks before! Going home was a breeze too since I wasn’t in a car stuck in the parking lot traffic!

Go up to this mountain if you like the sense of insecurity and unsafeness of idiots and/​or gangbangers/​wannabes smoking weed at the top or while driving around the mountain. Will not go back, because every time I’ve gone up, there were people smoking weed, gangster cars, and ugly low iQ idiots who think they are cool and want to intimidate people.

«A» mountain is a tawdry pile of rocks & dust with an old pass on it. It’s notorious for idiots going up there to make out, drink or kill people. Once up on the top you can see how ugly Tucson has grown, & inhale the smog from cars.
The local idiot politicans recently fought a battle to paint it «blue & red» like a flag to support the war. Wow, great idea, jump aboard the war wagon. But, that’s what we have to deal with in Tucson, idiot politicans & idiots who drive cars too much while war is waged.