Locals Hike

Stone X at the east end of Gadsden Trail. The stone X overlooks Desert Rose Trail, which ends at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR), barely visible past that small hill in the middle.

Toothaker / Gadsden / Butterfield

2022-01-05 Hiking 0

Estrella Mountain Regional Park is 19,840 acres of easy Sonoran Desert hiking. Officially, the most difficult trail is rated “moderate-difficult”, but Maricopa County tends to […]

Balanced "mushroom" at Mushroom Rock Scenic Point. Tom's Thumb Trailhead visible on the left. It is an easy one mile roundtrip to Mushroom Rock Scenic Point.

Marcus Landslide

2021-12-23 Hiking 0

Marcus Landslide was “discovered” in 2002 by two ASU geography post-grads. Surely, many people had looked at the rocks before, but the students were the […]

Small portion of the antenna farm atop Shaw Butte.

Shaw Butte Trail #306

2021-11-17 Hiking 0

Today, November 17, is National Take a Hike Day — something I only realized sometime in the past year. My two previous hikes on this […]

Two outcroppings form the summit of Maricopa Peak. I am on the lower outcropping, looking northeast at the actual summit. The short scramble to the top is either side of the dark rock with graffiti on it.

Maricopa Peak

2021-02-11 Hiking 0

I was going to hike another segment of the Maricopa Trail today, but my wife was visiting family in Florida, and hiking from Anthem to […]

Barrel cactus needles were the only color in Skyline Regional Park.

Skyline Regional Park

2021-01-21 Hiking 0

Working my way around the Phoenix metro area doing winter locals’ hikes, today was Skyline Regional Park’s turn. Skyline Regional Park has four summits, of […]