Hog Heaven Loop - McDowell Mountains Photoset • kingsnake • 2019-01-04 • HikeArizona.COM

Hog Heaven Loop - McDowell Mountains, AZ

	2019-01-04
	15 by kingsnake

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Hog Heaven Loop - McDowell Mountains

Phoenix, AZ

Hog Heaven Loop - McDowell Mountains

Phoenix, AZ

Hiking	3.31 Miles	816 AEG

Hiking	3.31 Miles	1 Hour 43 Mns	1.93 mph
	816 ft AEG

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After my last hike, on Prospect Trail in Nevada’s Valley of Fire ( [ photoset ] ), it was back home this week.

I did not wake up until 5:30 a.m., the time I usually hit the road. Rather than fight rush hour only to sit at the trailhead for 90 minutes waiting for enough light to take photos, I took my time getting ready. I was on AZ-51 a few minutes after 9:00 a.m., making it legal for me to use the rush hour-only diamond lane. 🏎

From Tom's Thumb Trailhead, I followed the Climbers Access Route up what I believe is Mesquite Canyon. Note that the Climbers Access Route is not on the official McDowell Sonoran Preserve trail map. Every couple of hundred yards there is a an ancient Climbers Access Route sign, with directions to various rock climbs. I remember seeing CR-23 and CR-27. No idea how high the numbers go, or where CR-1 might be.

Three quarters of a mile into the hike, the Climbers Access Route angles sharply upwards for a ¼ mile. There’s several good step ups, and much slippery pea gravel over rock. At the top is a small, grassy, meadow.

From the saddle, the trail is no longer signed, but is still obvious, and occasionally cairned. (Note that a cairn may only be one or two rocks.) Winding between large outcroppings, the trail climbs 100 ft. in a quarter mile, to an observation point with 180° views from Bartlett Lake past Fort McDowell & Fountain Hills, to the Goldfield Mountains, Weavers Needle and Flatiron to the south.

There were quite a few flowers between the saddle and the OP, particularly brittlebush, which have been blooming non-stop since November.

There was still ice on shadowed parts of the trail at 3260 ft. I had to be careful with my footing, particularly in the next ¼ mile, as the trail was often off camber, and crossed multiple narrow 3 ft. deep gullies. No threat of death, but a sprained ankle would still suck.

A mile and a half into the hike, the trail peters out. It’s still cairned, but no longer so obvious. Just before the route begins its final 700 ft. climb to the summit of East End Mountain, at a cluster of large boulders, I hit a dead end.

Not literally a dead end, but the route crossed the boulders, which were each separated by a fairly decent gap. A younger person — I am 56, with no ACL in either knee — might have leapt across, but the top of each landing boulder was slanted, and the gaps deep enough that slipping in would have been limb breaking.

I spent a few minutes looking for an alternate route, but eventually decided to bail. I’ll be back, but next time, I will stick to the official route up to Ogre’s Den and Tom’s Thumb.