2011 9-24 Piestewa Peak

Length:  2.1 miles

Duration: 3 Hours 11 minutes

Vertical Up: 1430 feet

My track log at EveryTrail




Today I hiked on the 405 freeway. Well, not really - but I did hike on the 2nd busiest trail in Arizona.

Piestewa Peak is a busy trail. On Saturday it's insane. We arrived early for the hike thinking that parking would be a problem - we were right. It was impossible to find a spot so Mike dropped us off and went to park on the streets below the park.

According to Hike Arizona, the trail is an old horse trail (click me). The trail was mainly used for means to travel to an old mine. I don't know about horses, but, we passed some odd looking people today. The trail is a combination of dirt path and steps made from rocks. While the trail is really no harder than walking up a steep stair case, the rocky terrain and the mass of people makes concentration imperative.

The trails starts of with some longer switchbacks quickly ascending from the valley floor. In no time at all you are rewarded with your first elevated view of the valley. As the trail progresses up to the summit, the steps get larger and the trail gets steeper. About midway up there is a nice bench for rest plus many other places to rest along the way. I did not use those today. I hiked this trail a few years (and 35 pounds) ago. Because I have been hiking and working out, today was a breeze. It was actually a lot of fun!



Back to the hike, its really a short trail (by short I mean 1400 foot elevation gain in a little over a mile). The thing that makes this hike unique is the mass of people on the trail with you. As a person that likes to people watch, I can tell you it was really fun to watch the mix of people I passed. I saw everything from a group of boy scouts to a couple arguing about the guy mistreating her the night before. Imagine listening to that all the way up!

In no time at all I was at the summit. I was the 2nd to arrive and we sat and enjoyed the summit for a while. After 15 minutes or so the group started to trickle in. While we were at the summit, a Phoenix police helicopter appeared below us. It was a cool site (but not one I was quick enough to catch on camera).

With all the people and the rocky terrain, the steep descent requires some real concentration. Once again I was following Mike (a fellow geocacher). He hikes real fast so I was really working. To break up the descent, we stopped and found two geocaches (Slide Rock and Scar(r)y 9 9 9). They were tough finds! In no time at all we were back at the bottom and off to the car. Another fun hike! I look forward to Shaw Butte next week!