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| Difficulty |
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0.5 of 5 |
| Route Finding |
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1 of 5 |
| Distance Lasso-Loop |
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4.1 miles |
| Trailhead Elevation |
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2,724 feet |
| Elevation Gain |
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-124 feet |
| Accumulated Gain |
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362 feet |
| Avg Time Round Trip |
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1-2 hours |
| Kokopelli Seeds |
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5.91 |
| | Backpack No | |
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| Collective Slideshow |
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51 |
2016-12-30 |
Christmas bird count (CBC) 2016 |
New2hyk |
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19 |
2016-12-19 | New2hyk |
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10 |
2016-04-03 |
Brown's Mountain Summit via Upper Ranch |
JasonCleghorn |
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15 |
2016-03-04 |
Hackamore Trail MSPN |
RowdyandMe |
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10 |
2016-01-24 |
Another meander in MSPN |
mazatzal |
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27 |
2016-01-16 | New2hyk |
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16 |
2016-01-01 | New2hyk |
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9 |
2015-11-22 | New2hyk |
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Historical Weather |
| Trailhead Forecast | |
Radar |
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| Preferred Mar, Dec, Feb, Jan → 8 AM |
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Official Route
9 Alternative
Water
| Brown's Mountain Summit via Upper Ranch
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4.62 mi
677 ft |
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| Hackamore Trail MSPN
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5.99 mi
688 ft |
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| Another meander in MSPN
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9.89 mi
656 ft |
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| MSPT-North
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7.41 mi
424 ft |
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| Brown's Mountain Trail - MSPN
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8.89 mi
512 ft |
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| Cone Brown's Loop
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8.29 mi
922 ft |
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| Cone Mountain & Brown's Mountain Summits
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9.11 mi
1,294 ft |
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| McDowell Sonoran Preserve - North
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18.41 mi
1,935 ft |
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| Cone Mountain Loop via Wrangler
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4.98 mi
423 ft |
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 | | Cholla Mountain Loop from Brown's Ranch TH
0.0 mi away
| |  | | Jane Rau Interpretive Trail - MSPN
0.0 mi away
| |  | | Brown's Mountain Summit via Upper Ranch
0.0 mi away
| | | | Upper Ranch Trail - MSPN
0.0 mi away
| | | | Chuckwagon Trail - MSPN
0.2 mi away
| |  | | Hackamore Trail MSPN
0.3 mi away
| | | | Rustler Trail - MSPN
0.5 mi away
| | | | Cone Mountain Trail - MSPN
0.5 mi away
| | | | Wrangler Trail - MSPN
0.5 mi away
| |  | | Brown's Mountain Trail - MSPN
0.6 mi away
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| | [ View More! ] |
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| Fauna |
Nearby |
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American Kestrel |
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American Snout |
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Anna's Hummingbird |
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Arizona powdered skipper |
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Ash-Throated Flycatcher |
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Black Tailed Gnatcatcher |
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Black-tailed Jack Rabbit |
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Black-Throated Sparrow |
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Blue-gray Gnatcatcher |
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Bordered Patch Butterfly |
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Brown-headed Cowbird |
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Buffalo treehopper |
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Cactus Wren |
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California Patch Butterfly |
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Canyon Towhee |
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Canyon Wren |
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Cardinal |
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Cassin's Kingbird |
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Ceraunus blue |
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Checkered White Butterfly |
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Chuckwalla |
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Clouded Sulphur Butterfly |
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Cloudless Sulfur Butterfly |
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Common checkered skipper |
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Common Raven |
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Common side-blotched lizard |
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Cooper's Hawk |
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Costa's Hummingbird |
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Curve-billed Thrasher |
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Dainty sulphur |
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Desert Cottontail |
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Desert Spiny Lizard |
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Desert Tortoise |
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Dragonfly |
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Edward's blue |
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Empress Leilia Butterfly |
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Erichson's white skipper |
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Gambel's Quail |
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Gila Woodpecker |
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Gilded Flicker |
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Grasshopper |
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Gray Hairstreak |
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Greater earless lizard |
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Greater Roadrunner |
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Harris Antelope Squirrel |
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Harris Hawk |
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House Finch |
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House Sparrow |
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Jack Rabbit |
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Ladder-backed Woodpecker |
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Lark bunting |
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Lesser Goldfinch |
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Loggerhead Shrike |
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Marine Blue Butterfly |
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Metalmark Butterfly |
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Mormon Metalmark |
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Mourning Dove |
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Mule Deer |
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Northern Flicker |
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Northern Mockingbird |
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Orange Skipperling |
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Orange Sulphur |
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Ornate Tree Lizard |
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Painted Lady Butterfly |
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Pallid Winged Grasshopper |
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Phainopepla |
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Pine Siskin |
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Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly |
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Queen Butterfly |
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Reakirt's Blue Butterfly |
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Red-tailed Hawk |
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Regal Horned Lizard |
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Rock Squirrel |
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Rock Wren |
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Rosy-faced Lovebird |
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Round-Tailed Ground Squirrel |
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Say's Phoebe |
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Sharp Shinned Hawk |
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Showy emerald |
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Sleepy Orange |
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Soldier beetle |
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Spring Azure Butterfly |
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Tarantula |
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Trap-door Spider |
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Unidentified Butterfly |
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Unidentified Fauna |
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Verdin |
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Western Diamondback Rattlesnake |
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Western Patch-nosed snake |
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Western Pygmy blue |
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White checkered skipper |
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White-Crowned Sparrow |
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Zebra-tailed lizard |
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| Flora |
Nearby |
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Annual Goldeneye |
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Barrel Cactus |
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Blue Dicks |
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Brittle Spine Flower |
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Brittlebush |
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Broom Snakeweed |
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Chia |
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Christmas Cholla |
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Cinquefoil |
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Coopers Paperflower |
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Creosote Bush |
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Crucifixion Thorn |
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Cuman ragweed |
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Datura |
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Desert Broom |
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Desert Globemallow |
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Desert Hackberry |
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Desert Marigold |
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Desert Mistletoe |
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Desert Senna |
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Desert Shaggy Mane Mushroom |
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Desert Thorn Apple |
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Desert Tobacco |
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Desert Trumpet |
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Desert Wishbone Bush |
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Dodder |
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Erect spiderling |
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Fairy Duster |
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Fiddleneck |
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Flat Top Buckwheat |
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Globe chamomile |
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Goldeneye |
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Ivyleaf groundcherry |
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Jojoba |
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Low woollygrass |
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Many-Headed Barrel Cactus |
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Melon loco |
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Mexican bladdersage |
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Miniature Wool Star |
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Mojave milkweed |
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Mormon Tea - E. fasciculata |
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Moss |
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Mycena abramsii |
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Narrow-Leaved Popcorn Flower |
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Ocotillo |
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Odora |
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Palmer's buckwheat |
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Perezia |
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Rattlesnake Weed |
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Red Spiderling |
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Rough menodora |
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Sacred Datura |
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Saguaro |
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Saguaro - Crested |
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Sand fringepod |
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Scarlet Bugler |
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Scorpionweed |
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Slender Janusia |
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Soaptree Yucca |
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Sorrel buckwheat |
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Spiny Cliff Brake |
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Spiny goldenweed |
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Spiny hackberry |
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Spreading Fleabane |
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Teddy Bear Cholla |
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Texas Virgin's Bower |
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Threadleaf ragwort |
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Trailing Four O'Clock |
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Triangle Bursage |
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Trixis |
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Turpentine Bush |
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Unidentified Flora |
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Unidentified Mushroom or Fungi |
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Watson's dutchman's pipe |
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White Ratany |
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Whitethorn Acacia |
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Wild Heliotrope |
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Wire Lettuce |
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Wiry Lotus |
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Yellow Menodora |
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| Named place |
Nearby |
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Brown's Mountain - Scottsdale MSP |
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Browns Ranch |
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Cholla Mountain - MSP North |
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Cone Mountain - MSP |
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Four Peaks Wilderness |
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Granite Mountain - MSP |
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Little Granite Mountain - MSP North |
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Pinnacle Peak |
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Thompson Peak |
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| Culture |
Nearby |
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Aircraft |
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Informational/Interpretive Trail Sign |
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Inscriptions |
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Summit Register Log |
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Trash Hauled Out |
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 This 4.1 mile lasso loop in the northern section of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve is a gentle meander around the circumference of a small cone-shaped mountain. This description starts from the Brown’s Ranch Trailhead which offers bathrooms, water, and a nice educational board with timeline of human history in the McDowell mountains. Mountain bikers, trail runners, and hikers will enjoy the firmly packed wide trail with minimal elevation change. From the trailhead go 0.1 miles and take Upper Ranch Trail 0.7 miles to the intersection with Cone Mountain Trail (at sign marker #UR4). These trails in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve are extremely well-signed, and it would be difficult to get lost in this area. At the intersection between Upper Ranch Trail and Cone Mountain Trail you can proceed either direction depending on time of day and sun exposure or your desire to connect with other trails in the area. I chose clockwise to keep sun at my back in the early morning. Brittle bush and saguaro are the predominant flora, and there are scattered granite boulder formations to catch your eye. Brown’s Mountain is in view for much of the hike to the northeast with a peak of 3,253 feet. Cone Mountain trail continues for 2 miles with slight elevation change and easy, wide turns. Finally you dead end into Upper Ranch trail and continue back southeast 1.3 miles to trailhead.
You can link this hike with Brown’s Mountain trail via Upper Ranch Trail. These trails are very popular on the weekends and the parking lot fills quickly. Cone Mountain loop offers a slightly less crowded spur from the Brown's Ranch Road Trail main thoroughfare.
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