Esperero Cathedral Loop gives you a beautiful and steep tour of a portion of the Catalina Mountains in Tucson, AZ! This is one of the long run routes the Tucson Trail Runners group has been running since the 1970s and times on the course are available online dating back to 1979 (long before Strava)! From Sabino Canyon, run on the tram road until you hit Esperero Trail, where you will take a left. The trail quickly becomes steep and takes you up to Cardiac Ridge, then through Esperero Canyon and past Bridal Veil Falls where there is sometimes water flowing. You turn right when you hit Cathedral Rock Trail (marked with a sign); the high point of the trail is about 8ish miles in, by which point you have gained 4000ft! Cathedral Rock trail then drops down steeply to West Fork Trail. At West Fork, take a right and continue running past Hutch's Pool (which always has water and is a great place for swimming when you're not going for an FKT) to Sabino Basin. Turn right (south) at Sabino Basin and take the trail until the junction with Phoneline Trail. From here, take the switchbacks down to the Tram Road and finish with a fast 3.6 miles on the Tram Road to where you started.
Maps and turn-by-turn instructions can be found on the Tucson Trail Runners website at https://www.ttraz.net/routes/esperero-canyon-loop
