Hiking to the Bowen Stone House Ruins – Tucson Arizona

If you’re looking for something that’s off-the-beaten path in the Tucson area, consider hiking to the ruins of a homesteader’s stone house. The Bowen Stone House Ruins hike is located on the Yetman trail in Tucson Mountain Park, just a few miles away from Gates Pass. Not only do you get to hike to some abandoned ruins, you’ll see lots of saguaro cactus and beautiful desert scenery. In this guide, I’ll tell you how to hike to the Bowen Stone House ruins in Tucson, Arizona.

Table of Contents

• How the heck did I even find this hike?
• Brief History of the Bowen Stone House
• Bowen Stone House Ruins / Yetman Trail Quick Stats
  • Trailhead Location:
• Hiking the Yetman trail to the Bowen Stone House
• Is hiking to the Bowen Stone House in Tucson Mountain Park worth it?
• What else to do in the Tucson area?
• Where to Stay in Arizona
  • Phoenix area:
  • Sedona:
  • Tuscon:
  • Other areas of Arizona

How the heck did I even find this hike?

This is way off the beaten path of things to do in Tucson, so how did I find it? Well, as with most of the offbeat things I find, I found it on Google Maps, just zooming in on random places near me. I love hitting up abandoned places, and when I saw “Bowen Stone House Ruins”, I was intrigued. Even better was that it was a short & sweet hike I could do after work.

Brief History of the Bowen Stone House

These ruins don’t have any sort of amazing lore behind it. The history of this place is quite boring, to be frank. In the 1930s, Sherry and Ruby Bowen moved out to the desert and built this house. Sherry Bowen was a former editor of the Arizona Daily Star. Eventually, they moved away, and this area became part of Tucson Mountain Park in 1983 and is now preserved. Only the stone walls and foundation remain.

Bowen Stone House Ruins / Yetman Trail Quick Stats

Type: Out and Back
Distance: 1.5 miles round trip
Elevation Gain: 118 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Dogs are not allowed on this trail
There are no fees or passes needed to hike this trail; it’s free

Trailhead Location:

The trail to the Bowen Stone House is part of the longer Yetman trail in Tucson Mountain Park. You can park at the Camino del Oeste Trailhead. Make sure to abide by the many ‘no trespassing’ signs in the area, as the trail starts out in a neighborhood. There are about 10 spots for parking here, and when I visited (a weekday afternoon in March), there were about 5 or 6 cars in the parking lot. There are no restrooms at the trailhead.

Hiking the Yetman trail to the Bowen Stone House

The trail starts off in a neighborhood and then goes through the desert valley. You’ll be surrounded by saguaro cactus, mesquite trees and other desert vegetation. The trail is pretty rocky and it’s mostly flat, but I still recommend wearing proper hiking shoes. With the rocks jutting out on the trail, I had to constantly watch my footing. There’s also a few spots where you do climb up some rock stairs — it’s not difficult but it’s another case for wearing proper footwear on this hike.

The trail itself is pretty well-marked — with signs with little yellow arrows — except for one spot where I ended up going the wrong way. Thankfully I had my AllTrails map with me, so I quickly realized my mistake.

There is no shade on the trail, and even though I was hiking this in 65 degree weather, I shed my sweatshirt layer and hiked in a t-shirt. I wouldn’t do this trail during the heat of the day in the summer — it’s probably miserable.

As you hike along, you’ll be hiking alongside saguaro cactus, so if you wanted a spot where you can get up-close-and-personal with one, the Bowen Stone House trail will do the trick. Not only will you be alongside them, you’ll see tons and tons of them on the hills. I only spotted two other groups on my hike, so this felt really quiet, deserted and remote.

If you hike this in the spring like I did, as you get closer to the Bowen Stone House, the valley floor gets covered in orange poppies! I did this hike in early spring, and technically, it was a bit too early for the wildflowers, but I still saw tons of them — I bet if I would’ve hiked this a week or two later, it would’ve been even more beautiful. It was too early in the season for the prickly pear cactus to be blooming, but I’m sure that’s a sight to see as well.

Soon you’ll reach the Bowen Stone House ruins — all that’s left are the stone walls and the house foundation, but it’s enough to help you use your imagination on what life was like for the Bowen family when they lived here. The valley surrounding the house is beautiful — and feels like a world away from Tucson! The Bowens sure had some great views from their ranch.

Once you’re done visiting the ruins, you’ll simply turn around and head back the same way you came. There are other trails that you can add to your hike from here, but I didn’t have enough time (or daylight) to continue hiking.

Is hiking to the Bowen Stone House in Tucson Mountain Park worth it?

Yes! I really enjoyed this short hike. While it’s not a ‘workout’ type hike, it’s a fun hike that pretty much anyone can do, and it won’t take long to complete it. There are very few people on the trails here, so if you’re looking for solitude, you have a good chance of it here. And if you’re looking to photograph saguaros, this trail is great for that. In fact, I felt that there was a much larger concentration of saguaro cactus here on this trail than what I saw in nearby Saguaro National Park. Additionally, because this hike is TO something (the stone house ruins), I think it’s much more interesting than any of the hikes in Saguaro National Park — in fact, I didn’t find any that particularly interested me.

RELATED: Gates Pass is nearby and a great location for sunset photography in Tucson!

What else to do in the Tucson area?

First, if you like ruins and abandoned stuff, you’ve got to drive by and check out the Lisa Frank Abandoned Warehouse! I wrote all about it here.

Otherwise, some of the other things to do in Tucson include:
Pima Air and Space Museum
Saguaro National Park
Agua Caliente Regional Park
Mt. Lemmon / Catalina Highway
Tucson Neon Sign Museum
Day trip to Tombsone & Bisbee
Sonoran Desert Museum