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| - I really did enjoy this hike a lot but honestly it's not for me. It was easy to find, plenty of parking, and the trail is VERY well maintained. I'm talking so well maintained that if you look at the Teddy Bear cactus aka Jumping cactus, you'll notice the base of all of them are stripped of their thorns. If you've ever seen Jumping cactus not maintained in the wild you'll notice it does not grow perfect and clean like that. That's called dedication to a beautiful landscape. I even noticed some of the wild plants were actually being watered and looked recently planted. The rocks in certain areas almost appeared to be purposely placed in certain areas and "glued" together. My hiking friends even noticed how perfect and almost artificial everything looked. Which we understood it was Scottsdale but it was a little too perfect for our taste.
I would more recommend this trail if you're taking someone not really use to hiking at all ever, people completely out of shape, or children that you would like to educate. There's a lot of signs along the path with information on each different species of plant which is great.
The down side is when you reach the top it's not that amazing of a view. There is this amazing rock up behind the fencing that looks like it can lead to a peak of beautiful views but for whatever reason they never built a path up to it or left it open for people to create their own path after years of walking up there.
Another down side is they LOVE passing out TICKETS. Yes tickets! When you go to other parks and they suggest you be out by 11pm but if you happen to be a slow hiker and you don't make it, no big deal as long as no new hikers are coming in. But at this location there is a gate they lock. Once it's locked your car is stuck until the next day and when you return to get it there is a ticket. If you're lucky a park ranger will let you get your car out but you'll still get a ticket. My friend and I had thought about parking beyond the gates so our cars wouldn't be stuck inside but the other hikers told us not to bother because even if our cars weren't in the parking lot we would still get a ticket. And while we hung around the "top" which wasn't that high, taking in the view around 7:15pm, a hiker passed by and warned us that the park rangers were getting ready to come. Apparently they start on one side and do a sweep of the area to make sure everyone is gone. That was according to 3 different hikers. They all stated the same thing that the park rangers will walk the entire path and pass out tickets to anyone still on the trail past 8. So at 7:15 myself and multiple other hikers decided it would be a great time to jog, not walk, but jog as quickly away from the Rangers as possible down the mountain.
It's just not a trail for me. It's too fake, too perfect, too artificial almost, and too strict with tickets and Rangers. Although it was beautiful I honestly doubt I'll be returning here unless a friend specifically asks me to.
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