McDowell Sonoran Preserve

We spent a couple hours hiking the various trails here. Very beautiful scenery all around! Clean and spacious restrooms and nice and easy/medium hiking trails. Plenty of parking when we were there. If you are in the Phoenix area and looking for something to do and want to see some awesome Saguaro Cacti, this is the place to go! easy to get to and great for kids to tag along and enjoy. We would come back here again. Nice job by all who have helped make this possible for us to all visit and enjoy!

Several well maintained trails, allowing loops or in and out hikes of about 4 miles Loop (Saddle trail), about 5.5 miles Round Trip (inspiration point), 7 miles round trip (Bell Pass), a 9.5 mile loop, 11 miles round trip (Tom Thumb) or 14 miles round trip (Thompson Peak). All hikes have good elevation gains ranging from a few hundred feet to a couple of thousand feet (Thompson Peak bit more). Very clean restrooms and water at trailhead. Volunteers often available during morning hours to help plan hikes. Probably one of the best if not absolutely the best spot to launch hikes in Scottsdale!

A very nice hike on the gateway trail. We did the loop and it took about 2 hours. You get some elevation gain but not much and it's a bit Rocky so we're good strong shoes. There's almost no shade so bring water and a hat. Plenty of parking and bathrooms.

The rating Dependance on what you are looking for on your hike. On a Sunday night this place was buzzing. It is well maintained, offers activities (like today's owl demonstration) and has a educational path that has a lot of surprizing fact to offer. For golden hour there were plenty of photo shoots going on. If you are looking for a relaxed hike in solitude, you will have to get past the crowded first to find the further out trails with great view. The Park has a good map about the different levels of the many trails. For a quick evening hike with my dog, I prefer less frequented and organized trails. But that is only my taste... 😉

This is a well maintained trail! When we went, there was a lot of people there, granted Thanksgiving is just a couple of days down this week. Good to see people enjoying the outdoors and maybe learning along the way! We went on the loop and enjoyed the informational panels throughout the trail! At the end, we were blessed with a close encounter with a roadrunner! (Video in this post) Remember to stay hydrated!