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| Hiking | 5.78 Miles |
1,498 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.78 Miles | 3 Hrs 39 Mns | | 1.65 mph |
| 1,498 ft AEG | 9 Mns Break | | | |
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I finally got a chance to hike the infamous Camelback Mountain in Phoenix. Now, why the label infamous? Well, not due to Camelback’s overwhelming difficulty (though the trails to the summit contain some challenge). Rather, infamous due to the desire of seemingly everybody to hike the mountain, even those who fall short on preparations, even to the point of needing a rescue.
And I was able to put a twist on my route. So what is the twist?
Well, on a standard jaunt, one likely climbs to the peak and back down on the same side as the ascent, and does so on the Echo Canyon side. Still standard, those with two cars can station one car at the far end, and journey up one side (say Echo Canyon) and down the other (Cholla), then use the stationed car to return. Less frequent, but still to be considered relatively standard, the intrepid can go up one side and down the other side, then up and down again back to their starting point.
This route starts the last two ways, up one side and down the other, here with travel up the Echo Canyon side trail, then down Cholla on the other side. Then, in the twist, this route travels back to the starting point not via a stationed car, or a re-ascent and descent, but via a walk (aka flat and even enough not to deserve the title “hike”) via city streets.
City streets? A walk? Not very nature like, and not terribly challenging. Why this diversion into the urban landscape?
Well, for one, perspective. As one ambles westward on the streets, mainly along East McDonald Drive on the north side, one sees a changing view of Camelback, catching its ruggedness, its grandeur, its subtle changing hues. And as one does so amble one can wonder how the mountain became composed of rock from geological periods hundreds of millions of years apart.
Another reason – a view of urban homesteading. Camelback, a least it lower flanks, for long periods escaped guardianship under law or park designation. Thus, luxury homes populate much of the bottom elevations. One can thus judge for themselves whether these homes meld architecture and nature (for example in a way Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water house reasonably does), or on an opposite view scar the otherwise majestic upward sweep of the towering mountain.
Still another reason – a bit of speed. This route allows one to touch both trails on Camelback, without the time spent arranging for and then positioning two cars, or the time to go up and down twice. Using this route, on the spur of the moment, one can just pick up and hike/walk this route in three hours, plus and even minus.
Now note, on the day I took this, huge rains swept across the mountain first as I reached the peak, and then again as I stood on a ridge on Cholla. For both, I stopped and just hunkered down under a rain cover, choosing not to hike given the slipperly rocks, the somewhat high exposure, the howling wind, and of course a desire to not become drenched.
And unfortunately no pics. Sometimes, for me, taking pictures gets in the way of the experience. So I just hiked, leaving all photo gear untouched. |
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