My friend and I hiked the south area trail 'Dixie Loop Trail' after reading it was a great place to see wildflowers in the spring in Phoenix Magazine (Dec 2014 issue). The trail was easy to get to, about 8min drive east off I-17.
The trail is 3.8 miles and was beautiful. We kept a nice stroll and finished just over an hour and a half I think. Nice path to follow and much of the way we were able to walk side by side to keep up our conversation. A few steeper parts to get the heart rate up but it's still in the realm of what I would call an easy hike for someone moderately active. I enjoyed seeing all of the beautiful mountains and cactus but I was a bit disappointed that there weren't more wildflowers. There were some but most were so tiny, I wouldn't consider it a place to go for that reason only.
Regardless, I still enjoyed it a lot and thought it was beautiful!
There were only a few people so it made it seem like we had the place to ourselves and there were lots of interesting rocks to see. Plenty of parking and post workout lunch was only a 5 minute drive away.
I would definitely come back here and check out other trails! You can find the map of all the trails here...
https://www.phoenix.gov/parkssite/Documents/095100.pdf