What do you do when the temperature in Oklahoma drops to below freezing for days on end?  Well, if you happened to get some great airline ticket pricing several months ago, you head for sunny Phoenix, Arizona.  We had planned to go visit our good friend Bob of Click and Learn Software in early January, and the weather could not have been nicer.  It was sunny and about 70 degrees every day of our trip to the Phoenix area.

We decided to take advantage of the trip out and the great weather to get in some good hiking in the Phoenix area. First, we stopped by the Arizona Hiking Shack. The helpful folks there provided some great advice. They also sell maps and other hiking and adventure gear. The Shack is well worth a stop when in Phoenix.

Our first hike was at the Phoenix Mountains Park and Recreation Area. We wanted to get high enough for some great views of the area, so the Summit Trail to Piestewa Peak (formerly Squaw Peak) was our trail of choice. This 1.1 mile (one way) trail from the parking area to the summit at 2608 feet was steep but manageable. We saw people of all ages hiking up and down from the summit. As you can see in our photos, the view from the summit was great!

For our second hike that day, we chose a trail with less elevation change, but very representative of the desert environment and landscape. The North Mountain Preserve area offers some trails to higher peaks, but many of the trails are fairly level. This allows hikers, equestrians, and mountain bikers of all ages to enjoy the desert surroundings. We hiked portions of a few trails resulting in a 2.35 mile outing in this park.

Between the previous two hikes, we stopped by REI for some quick bargain hunting (I’m in the market for new trail runners). The next morning, we headed to the west side of Phoenix. White Tank Mountain Regional Park on the west side of Phoenix offers 25 miles of trails ranging from less than a mile to about 8 miles in length. The nearly 30,000 acres include peaks rising to about 4000 feet from the desert below. We would have loved to hike some of the longer trails in the White Tanks, but due to time restraints could not do lot of hiking that morning. We decided to try out the Mesquite Canyon trail. Although the trail can be hiked for many miles, we ended up doing a 2.1 mile round trip hike. The morning air was cool, and the sun was shining. Once we started up the canyon, it felt like civilization was far away.

We had a great few days in the Phoenix area, and we would love to have had more time for hiking and shopping ;-) We discovered Trader Joe’s food store, and we ended up buying a bag to carry back some of the items we purchased there! We bought a daypack by ChicoBag. It is a uniquely designed daypack made of 89% recycled content, and it weighs less than 6 oz. Not far from Phoenix, Arizona are many other hiking opportunities including the Prescott National Forest and Coconino National Forests north toward Sedona and the Tonto National Forest northeast of Phoenix.

Happy Trials,

Shawn

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