Brown Mountain Trail, Tucson Mountain Park

Brown Mountain, in Tucson Mountain Park, was named in 1979 in memory of CB Brown who died in that year - he was the man who instigated the creation of the park, in 1929. The mountain is an isolated, elongated summit with a one mile-long ridgeline incorporating five little peaks, the highest, at the center is 3,110 feet. It is an outlier, and affords grand views is all directions - west over the main body of the mountains and east across the vast expanse of Avra Valley towards many more distant peaks, in the Tohono O'odham Reservation.

The Brown Mountain Trail, a 4 mile loop, climbs either end of the ridge and follows the crest, returning across the rocky, bushy land below, encountering the usual variety of Sonoran Desert plants. The trail is one of the more popular in the area owing to the good views and the easy access, along Kinney Road, starting at one of the park's three picnic areas. Despite several steep sections, the route is also popular with mountain bikers.

The lower portion of the trail runs for a while alongside a dry wash where the colorful bedrock is exposed - blocks of red and purple line the streambed, from a sandstone strata of uncertain origin. The geology of Brown Mountain is quite complex, and the ground is split by several faults. The north and south ends of the ridge are formed of the sandstone, while at the center is reddish-brown volcanic conglomerate, topped in two locations by rhyolitic ash-flow tuff, and to the northeast, the land below the peak is a bigger expanse of amole arkose.