Five Favorite Phoenix Area Hikes

[LindaAnn]

If you had to come up with a list of your five favorite Valley of the Sun hikes, what would they be?

Limiting the geographic range to the mountain ranges immediately surrounding the Valley (which everyone will interpret slightly differently) I'm curious to see how many hikes repeatedly make it into the lists. My top five, in no particular order, are:

Guadalupe Ridge
Ford Canyon, especially with Barry Goldwater Peak thrown in
Skull Mesa, to the ruins
Tom's Thumb, Windgate Pass, East End loop
Flatiron/Peak 5024

Honorable mention is Quartz Peak, but the drive makes me wonder if I should include it.

[joebartels]

Majority valley HAZ members are probably eastside, to be fairish I threw in...
Bold distances - direct crow miles from Central & Baseline

37 mi [ Superstition Ridgeline ]
12 mi [ Piestewa Peak Summit Trail #300 ]
1.9 mi Holbert - National - Kiwanis - Box Cyn Loop Los Lomitas
28 mi White Tank Loop
16 mi [ Montezuma Peak Summit 4354 ]

[BrunoP]

My paws down fave!

[Jim]

Hmmm, favorite by frequency of hiking it or by desire to do it?

If I had a suitable alternative I would probably hike Piestewa Peak at least half as often as I currently do. I've been doing the Mormon Loop recently and I enjoy aspects but I would never call it a favorite. Maybe this is because it's too hot these days.

I suppose ranked in no particular order of favoritism end being more about my desire to hike them as opposed to being a convenient in town exercise hike:
5. Hayes aka Estrella Peak, and not just because I have a happy memory from during it this past December.
4. Bighorn Peak even if it isn't truly a valley hike.
3. 5024' peak, which I suppose I would do more often except it is on the east side of the valley. It's a very nice summit even if the hike itself is somewhat overused.
2. Piestewa, as it is still a pretty convenient and relatively enjoyable hike. I just feel like I do it too often and sometimes that takes the joy away.
1. Something new, something I have yet to do. Eventually I need to explore the White tank's maybe there's something over there.

[DixieFlyer]

hmmm...off the top of my head, in no particular order:
1) Peak 5057 from the Hieroglyphic TH Lost Goldmine Trail
2) Battleship Mtn with a stop at the Labarge Box Brown's Ranch
3) Miners Needle Loop with a sidetrip to Bluff Spring Mtn Marcus Landslide
4) Superstition Ridgeline Hieroglyphic Trail to the glyphs
5) tie between a hike to the Skull Mesa Ruins or a hike to Aylors Arch & Black Top Mesa Silly Mountain

[The_Dude]

My five best in the Valley (no particular order) are Superstition Ridgeline, Tom's Thumb-Windgate-East End loop, Battleship, Skull Mesa to ruins, Pyramid-National-Goat Hill-Bursera loop, and Perl Charles-Piestewa summit and circumference loop. Hopefully I have some free time to start hiking again soon instead of just being a lurker for the last two years...although I have at least been kayaking a lot.

[sajor75]

I wouldnt say they are my favorite but being so close i frequently hike these trails and they are not too shabby lol . No particular order.

• Perl Charles

• North Mountain

• Geronimo

• Pyramid

• National