rev:text
| - Since moving to Arizona this fall, I decided that I should be more outdoorsy, especially as AZ boasts to have over 300 days of sunshine a year. My idea of roughing it is staying at a Super 8 Motel, so hiking seems as outdoorsy as my husband can get me right now. So far, we've been to South Mountain Park twice to hike. Now, I won't say that I'm becoming one with nature quite yet, but I actually enjoy myself when we are out hiking!
I like South Mountain Park because there are quite a few trails to pick from, and they range from easy to difficult, so there is something for every level of fitness. We've hiked Beverly Canyon, which is an easy to moderate trail. Nothing super special about it. There is parking at the trailhead (44th Street south of Baseline), although the parking lot is not super big. It was definitely a good first trail to break me in to South Mountain.
On Christmas afternoon, we took our dog and hiked the Mormon Trail. There is a nice size parking lot available at the trailhead (24th Street and Valley View, which is south of Baseline). What we thought was going to be about an hour and twenty-ish minute adventure turned into two and a half hours! So, when you get to the top of the Mormon Trail, there is an option to take the Mormon Loop. But, beware, this is not a loop! Eventually, the Mormon Loop deadends and you have to get on the National Trail for a while until you meet back up with the Mormon Trail. Despite the adventure, it was a great hike and definitely by the end I was sore and tired. The views were nice and I definitely can't believe places exist like South Mountain and Camelback here in a metropolis area like Phoenix. I do prefer the views at Camelback more though.
Next time we go to South Mountain, we are definitely printing out one of the maps so we don't get confused like we did yesterday!
|