Piestewa Peak Super Circumference with a Summit.

I hiked this last Sunday and really enjoyed it. I needed a training hike for Superstition Ridgeline so since this hike is close to my home, I hiked it today as a training hike. I wandered around using the Circumference trail, the Summit trail and some other trails in the Preserve My GPS showed my total distance today for my meandering was 11.82 miles with accumulated elevation gain of 4,036 ft.

I started out from the north end of the parking lot and hiked the trail clockwise. I then turned around and hiked counterclockwise. As I came down from the first saddle, I decided to try a different path, so I turned right instead of left and went out farther west in the Preserve and wandered around. This brings you closer to the Highway 51 but not too noisy today. After about 10 miles, I positioned myself at the junction of the Circumference trail with the Summit Trail and climbed to the Summit. Lots of people out today with the wonderful weather. The Summit was crowded. I climbed part way up the east side rocks, but did not want to bump anybody off, so I retreated and came back down. Instead of taking the southern part of the Circumference trail, I cut across on the Summit trail and picked up the Circumference trail at the parking lot.

I never departed from what appeared to be established trails. There was one stub on the outer circumference (west of the regular Circumference trail #302) that appeared to be an established trail until it ended on the slope. I decided to respect the Preserve and not bushwhack so I retraced the route back to the established trail and went south before coming back to the east.