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| | | Alta Hau'Pal Crosscut Las Lomitas Ranger, AZ | | | |
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Alta Hau'Pal Crosscut Las Lomitas Ranger, AZ
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| Hiking | 6.34 Miles |
1,458 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.34 Miles | 4 Hrs 37 Mns | | 1.71 mph |
| 1,458 ft AEG | 55 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | We started at the Trailhead Parking at the San Juan Road Gate, where the Steven Mather Drive ends and the Telegraph Pass Road starts heading up the hill. There is usually ample parking at this trailhead.
We hiked up the Alta trail to its intersection with the Hau’Pal Loop trail, then headed west along the ridge. From this ridge, the views are tremendous to the north across Phoenix and Glendale, with a panorama from the White Tank Mountains to the west, the city peaks of Shaw Butte, North Mountain, Piestewa, and Camelback, with the mountains of Cave Creek in the background, sweeping all the way to the Four Peaks in the east. The ridge is challenging walking, up and down, sometimes steeply.
The sounds of Shooting at the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club and the Phoenix Police Academy just below on Olney Ave. are significant on a Saturday morning. From this high viewpoint, it seems like the Western Canal runs along the surface and suddenly disappears at Dobbins Road, but it actually continues westward, in smaller canals.
An hour into our hike, we encountered the trail heading down to the 19th Ave Trailhead. It was marked Hau’Pal loop trail. From that intersection, the Hau’Pal Loop seems to head both east and west along the ridge and north down to 19th Ave. I was hoping to write a current guide of the Hau’Pal, but it will have to wait until I can hike the rest of its branches.
The trail is rugged, but the views are fantastic. It’s a knife edge ridge so you see north to the Phoenix panorama and south into the park. Looking down, one could see that the 19th Ave. parking lot is full, and cars come in circling, looking for spots. 19th Ave. is indicated “No Parking,” but there is side street parking a quarter mile away at Lodge Drive by the T-Bone Steakhouse. At times, a little scrambling is necessary.
About 2 hours into our hike, the trail switchbacks sharply off the ridge, down to its intersection with the Crosscut Trail. That intersection indicates the Crosscut goes east and south, while the Hau’Pal heads north toward the 19th Ave. trailhead. HAZ shows the trail to the right and left as tha Ma Ha Tuak Trail, but another trail (Link) now has that name. The printable trail map provided on the City of Phoenix site is pretty useless here. We followed the Crosscut Trail over to corrals where it intersected the Ranger Trail and continued a short distance to the Holdout Loop Trail. The Crosscut Trail continues east from that junction, which doesn’t match any maps, but it is a popular horseback trail.
We followed the east branch of the Hideout Loop Trail intending to follow an old HAZ route indicating an intersection with the Las Lomitas Trail, but that trail has been abandoned and obliterated. We eventually picked up the Las Lomitas Trail, and followed it back to the Kiwanis Trailhead, then continued west on the Las Lomitas to its intersection with the Ranger Trail. After a short stint on the Ranger heading south, we came to the start of the Bajada Trail, which took us back to the car. These valley trails seem to experience a lot of renaming and rerouting and cross several now-closed roads and pass several closed picnic areas. I’ll try to get some complete updates to HAZ guides over time. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
Brittlebush, Emory's Rockdaisy, Notch-leaved Phacelia, Arizona Poppy |
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- not fun). Ate my lunch at the San Juan lookout, then headed north to Ma Ha Tuak Perimeter trail. There was a nice breeze that kept it cool and comfortable. As the trail got closer to the 202 freeway that breeze turned into a stiff headwind that tried to take my hat. All day there were times with no wind when it was hot, and strong wind when it felt cold. On average it was pretty comfortable. 
