Enjoying a hiking beer atop Sunrise Peak. (That palo verde is the high point.)

Lost Dog Wash to Sunrise Peak

2026-03-12 0

Sunrise Peak is in Scottsdale’s McDowell Sonoran Preserve, the largest city park in the United States at 30,500 acres. Maricopa County’s McDowell Mountain Regional Park, […]

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 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 […]

Sunrise at the Golden Eagle Trailhead.

Dixie Mine Loop

2020-11-18 0

After two weeks of minimal physical activity, including seven days sitting in my car, driving to & from Maryland, I needed to do some real […]

The chuparosa were BONKERS on the south slope of Granite Mountain!

Granite Mountain Loop

2020-03-27 0

First off, just to be clear, this is the Granite Mountain in north Scottsdale’s McDowell Sonoran Preserve — not the Granite Mountain in Prescott, made […]