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| Hiking | 4.49 Miles |
533 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.49 Miles | 2 Hrs 11 Mns | | 2.69 mph |
| 533 ft AEG | 31 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | We only had a few free hours this weekend, not enough time for a longer hike or to drive far enough to reach higher elevations to beat the extreme heat, so we decided on an early start and a short, easy hike at Marcus Landslide. The hazy sunrise over Four Peaks was beautiful on the drive to Scottsdale. There were quite a few cars in the lot, as expected, but most of the traffic was headed for Tom's Thumb, and we only saw a few mountain bikers and hikers along the Marcus Landslide Trail.
I've been to the McDowells many times but hadn't been to Marcus Landslide yet. The trail is very flat and easy, but it offers plenty of nice scenery, including Four Peaks and the Superstitions. The saguaros were beautiful, with lots of red fruits, apparently beyond the flowerings stage. The signage in the landslide area was helpful in pointing out this interesting facts and features of the landslide, almost none of which I would have noticed if it wasn't specifically pointed out. To the untrained eye, the landslide area doesn't look much different than the rest of the boulder-strewn mountains all over that area, and the fact that the landslide wasn't discovered until 2002 suggests that it's not very obvious even to many trained eyes...
We took a lot of the short informational spurs off the main loop to check out Submarine Rock, Percussion Boulder, Fallen Mushroom, and Mushroom Rock. Lots of interesting history and geological features in the area that made for an enjoyable hike. As we got back to the parking lot around 9AM, the temperature was approaching 100°, heading for 115°+ later in the day. It wasn't a challenging or adventurous trails by any means, but it was a good choice for the time we had available and the extreme heat today. |
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