Friday, May 3, 2019

Walk report: South Mountain Park, Phoenix, Arizona

Hello, everyone.

We did a training walk today--in the midst of a road trip! DH looked up the city as it was on our passing-through itinerary, and discovered this city park.

We drove over to it when we hit town. It's a mountain inside the city, sort of, and we had water bottles so we set off on a trail. The stated length was 1 1/4 mile up and the same to return. It goes to a lookout on top of the mountain.

It was already 1:30 pm local time and the temp was probably close to 90F. Full sun, of course--it's Arizona after all. The trail was rocky. Not continuous climbing, but some of the rock "steps" are a bit tall.

We walked most of the trail to the top. When we got to probably the penultimate trail marker, it informed us that while we had walked most of the distance, the remaining quarter mile was going to be a hugely steep climb. I surveyed my legs, DH asked his ankle that had broken before, and we decided that the last bit would be too much.

We walked back down, for a total of about 2 miles (3 km) and got into the car and drove the long, squiggly road to the top to see the view. It was lovely. There was an old CCC hut and some benches. Also a couple of folks were selling trinkets--necklaces, rosaries and the like--at the parking lot at the top. Pretty stuff.
Quite a number of folks had also driven up. It is a lovely view of the city.

Unfortunately the pictures I took are all either on the phone or the real camera, so they will have to wait. We did see some old petroglyphs along the path, and a lizard or two. Plenty of cacti.

This city park is quite nice. I recommend it for Camino training. I also strongly recommend walking the various trails here in the morning. It gets fairly warm in the Southwest desert after about noon. Bring water, and wear a hat and sunglasses if it's late in the morning or after noon.


Edited for tag labels.




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