Phoenix Hikes
Lookout Mountain, sitting somehow at 2,054’, is barely considered a hike and more of a steep walk. Regardless, any skill level should be able to summit this .45-mile treadmill to the summit. It provides a good lunch city view. Overall, it's not the worst lunch hike.
North Mountain: I cannot make fun of this hike because I hike it as a training mountain. It is the perfect steep paved hill to walk with weight or run to train for much more view-specific hikes. Again, it does provide a good nighttime homework city view.
People try to say this is part of North Mountain, but I guess it is Shaw Butte. It is actually a paved hike, sort of not. That’s about 4.2 miles in total. It provides a much better city view. This honestly may be my favorite hike to view the city of Phoenix in the background.
Piestewa Peak is way too popular but low-key better than Camelback. It provides a great sunset view because the sun will set right on top of downtown from this view. It is steep enough that it matters to watch your step, and many people get injured on this one for various reasons that I won’t dive into.
South Mountain, at least this one, has a good reputation. People act like you can get lost in this range and you are in the middle of the wilderness. Maybe I am just really good at hiking, but I drank the entire time while hiking this, and I struggled none. There are plenty of hard routes to make it worthwhile. The ridgeline trail is my personal favorite, and you can hike point to point for 16 miles or out and back the entire range for 32.
Camelback Mountain, I hate you. Honestly, it is the hill with the highest climb rate in all of Arizona. I couldn’t even give it the mountain title in that last statement to prove my hatred of the hike. Echo Canyon is the only route worth taking, but good luck ever finding a parking spot.
Black Mountain is one of those hikes people will brag about and spend money on gear for. It is up in the Cave Creek area, so at least out of the city, but then right before the mountain is just tourist hell. It is a super busy road, and people always wouldn’t even consider hiking this. There’s an American flag on top, which makes it really cool to take pictures with different views as a backdrop.
Pinnacle Peak, this one has a good reputation, but it is also way too busy. It's a rich neighborhood full of snobby bastards who complain when you pass them because you actually hike. There is no summit push of the route. You have to go off trail and do some scramble to get to the actual peak; gear is not required as you can free solo it. I am no rock climber, but I would say it's a class 4 with about 3-4 pitches, maybe. Sometimes, you have to go off the straight path to get what you are looking for.
Dobbins Lookout, starting at Holbert trail, this 4-mile round trip hike in South Mountain is great for a sunrise morning hike or trail run. The trail is well put together, not crazy crowded, and provides a solid landscape view of the city.
Thompson Peak is not easy, actually. It offers a nice city view; you can see Tom’s Thumb from the top. It is steep, but it is actually a really good elevation gain hike. I did this as a train for Whitney. The trail starts walking through a rich neighborhood of people who have a somewhat better idea of what living in the hills is actually like. It then heads up a brutally steep dirt path turned into a paved road to the cell-towered summit.
Tom’s Thumb is one I will not hate on. This hike is fun. Unfortunately, if you go early enough, you will have to wait for the gates to open, but if you do go early, you beat the daily crowd this trail brings. A cool icon of the McDowell Range hikes, the Thumb itself is climbable with set pitches, so if you want to look like a cool guy in front of a bunch of people, go for it.
Woolsey peak, no one in there sane mind should hike this to be honest, the view sucks, there is no road to the trailhead it is completely off roading basically just as far as your vehicle can go, then hiking to the actual trailhead maybe another 2 miles, then there is no trail so you follow this trail of barb wire because it is private property and you walk to the base of the mountain and just get lucky to trail blaze scramble up this almost 160% graded mountain. Watch for mountain lions as there were several piles of droppings I ran into and could tell it was mountain lion poop.
