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| - Hiking Thunderbird Park for the second time in two days my friend looked at me and said "if you lived here I bet you'd hike every single mountain...". I agreed but saw the futility of it: perhaps I'm oversimplifying, but my impression is that here in Arizona every hiking trail looks much the same: Rocks, cactus, heat, repeat and not a shade tree in sight.
So I didn't mind returning to Thunderbird, especially knowing that I'd be hiking a different trail than I'd done the previous day.
Day one took me on the Coach Whip Trail, a 5-mile long, mostly flat, rocky path that's good for anyone who doesn't want to climb. The web site bills this as a "moderate" hike which I imagine it would've been had we done it in it's entirety and then retraced our steps back to the beginning (Coach Whip is not a loop-trail). I found it easy and rocky.
Day two I returned for a shorter hike with more elevation. A loop trail took me up to the highest peak (not very high nor difficult but there's a nice view from up top), the one marked with an American flag. Taking my time, this hike was over and done in about 1 hour and I noticed a couple of people going twice around for an extra work-out. The hikes here seem perfectly designed for exercise, not exploration.
Even though there's 15 miles of trails at Thunderbird, I easily climbed to what appeared to be the highest peak so I have a hunch that the rest of the trails are equally user-friendly with one exception: there were no restrooms to be found on any part I hiked which can be a problem as there's really no privacy to be found in a cactus-laced landscape.
Trails here are well-marked and well-defined, your leashed dog is welcome, and your chances of getting lost appear to be impossible. The park itself is 1,185 acres and its existence is a good reason to get you and your dog off the couch.
A map of TP's trail network can be found here: https://www.glendaleaz.com/parksandrecreation/thunderbirdpark.cfm
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