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| Turnbuckle Loop-Valley Vista View, AZ | | -
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| | Turnbuckle Loop-Valley Vista View, AZ | | | |
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Turnbuckle Loop-Valley Vista View, AZ
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| Hiking | 4.49 Miles |
880 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.49 Miles | 2 Hrs 35 Mns | | 1.92 mph |
| 880 ft AEG | 15 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | Hikngrl and I met up at 8:00am out at Skyline Regional Park. This was my first trip out here, I didn't even know the park existed. I guess it's been awhile since I've hiked the West side!  Hikngrl is nursing a sore knee back to health, so we’re easing into longer distances as she tests it out. We were aiming for something around 4 miles, so chose the Turnbuckle Loop, with the side trip up the Valley Vista...it fit the bill perfectly!
With strong wind gusts that we weren't quite expecting, or prepared for, we headed quickly out of the nearly empty parking lot just to get moving. There is a nice big kiosk with a map of the park trails, which helped point us in the direction of the trailhead, but there are multiple offshoots of trails, with little signs saying "you are here", but not really identifying which way you need to go from "here" to get to where you want to be. After several wrong picks, backtracking, trying again, nope wrong way again...I finally looked at Route Scout and found where we needed to be (thank you, RS!) and off we went! Once on trail, the trail is easy to follow.
We picked the sunny direction, clockwise, and warmed up quickly as it goes gradually uphill. We stepped aside to let 3 young women pass us, and they quickly disappeared out of sight. We wouldn't see anyone else until we reached the other side of the loop and were nearing the parking lot again. Pretty quiet out here. As you reach the western edge of the mountain, it starts gets steeper. A series of tight mini-switchbacks gets you to the saddle, where there is a turnoff to the Valley Vista trail which gets you to the peak. So of course we decided to go. I think the sign said this was only 0.3 miles, but it's steep and pretty rocky compared to the trail we just came off of, and the wind really picked up again so it seemed like a long 0.3 miles! Once on top, we took a short break as Hikngrl retied her shoes, and we snapped the obligatory pictures from the summit. Another hazy day.
The descent of Valley Vista trail was a short 0.3 miles, then turn right back onto Turnbuckle to the Eastern side of the mountain. The trail becomes pretty rocky for a bit, so watch those ankles. I stepped right over a tiny snake on the trail (with just a quick glance, I thought it was a stick), glad I didn't squish it.
Some school kids were listening to a ranger talk when we reached the parking lot (I love those field trips!) this is a nice little park, we'll have to explore more. |
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