Here are three more kid friendly and challenging adult hikes to add to your list during a visit to Scottsdale! (Didn’t see Part I? Check it out here.)
Pinnacle Peak
Kids Hike: About 1.5 miles roundtrip
Adult Hike: About 3.5 miles roundtrip
Entrance Fee: Free
More Info: http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/parks/pinnacle-peak-park
Pinnacle Peak is a well-loved hike by both locals and visitors to the Scottsdale area, and is a local landmark. You’ll see beautiful views of the valley, and the hike up to the highest point is do-able for kids, or for families carrying their kiddos up (I’ve carried both kids in carriers on this trail!) There are hosts on site to help with any questions, and nice bathroom facilities.
This trailhead gets very busy on weekend mornings, with parking sometimes overflowing far down the street from the trailhead. I’d recommend trying this hike on a week day morning or very early on the weekend. If you arrive to cars are parked down the road, give the parking lot a try, the early risers might be leaving when you arrive. (And we love the Four Seasons nearby for lunch or a drink after our hike!)
Kids hike: Our typical hike with the kids it up to highest point on the trail just before the mile marker at ¾ mile. It’s a lot of gradual up, but it flattens out after the first bit and they enjoy running and seeing the scenery. It’s a well maintained trail which keeps them from having to keep a close look on their feet. Our kids especially enjoy the way down, they run almost the entire way!
Adult hike: The full hike at Pinnacle Peak is 3.5 miles and offers a good variety of climbing and downhill. The first stretch up to the highest point is all up, but then you go down to the Owl’s rest, where you have a beautiful view of the other side of the valley. Then you continue down and back up again until mile marker 1.5. This is where we turn around, the last ¼ mile is steep and rocky, and going all the way down it and coming back up just doesn’t sound interesting to me, I like to save my energy for the rest of the way back, and will run a lot of the downhill portions of this hike. You can plan on this hike taking two to three hours.
Cave Creek Regional Park
Kids Hike: Customize the length of this hike
Adults Hike: 5.4 miles
Entrance Fees: $7/vehicle day pass
More Info: https://www.maricopacountyparks.net/park-locator/cave-creek-regional-park
We haven’t hiked out at Cave Creek for a few years, but it is one of our favorite hikes with beautiful views. The trailhead here is well done with plenty of parking and restrooms.
Kids hike: We usually park at the Nature Center and hike up the Overton trail to the Go John trail and hike as far as the kids want to go. It is all up, but they love the way down. We’ve also created a loop hike by starting on the Overton trail, heading the opposite direction on Go John, then looping it together with the Jasper trail to the Slate trail. The second part of the hike has some fun dips and rocky areas that the kids enjoyed. This loop portion had barely any elevation gain.
Adult hike: This is one of the longer hikes, but it doesn’t have as much elevation gain, and around the backside of the loop is some fun hiking over rocky terrain. This hike also has beautiful wildflowers that pop up in the spring season. Mountain bikers share this this trail, so keep your ears open for approaching bikes, they sometimes appear out of nowhere.
Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area / Jewel of the Creek Preserve
Kids Hike: About 2.5 miles OR about a mile
Adult Hike: About 3.2 miles
Entrance Fee: Jewel of the Creek Preserve = free, Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area = $3/person
More info: https://www.maricopacountyparks.net/park-locator/spur-cross-ranch-conservation-area/ and https://www.dflt.org/jewel-of-the-creek-preserve
Spur Cross Ranch Conversation Area and the Jewel of the Creek Preserve are tucked in behind the town of Cave Creek, and both areas are amongst our new favorites! This area has Cave Creek running through it, and after heavy rains some of the trails may be closed because of the creek overflowing. The most recent hike we took in February we didn’t see any water and were able to hike in the creek bed. But it was an awful lot of fun when the water was flowing last year, the kids helped us make a little rock bridge across a very shallow area. (And we enjoyed watching other hikers cross the deeper water at a point.)
The Spur Cross Ranch Conversation Area and Jewel of the Creek Preserve are right next to each other, but have separate parking areas. To explore the kid hikes, it’s best to park at the Jewel of the Creek trailhead, however there aren’t a lot of spots available there and it can fill up. There also aren’t any restrooms. The Spur Cross Ranch Conversation Area parking is much larger, with restrooms, but there is a fee to enter here ($3/person). There are hosts on site there to collect the entrance fee and they are helpful with any information you may need as you enter. One of the coolest parts of this area is the rock formation that looks like an elephant. The more you hike, the more the elephant comes into view, and it’s fun for the kids (and the adults) to figure out the different pieces of the elephant (there’s the head, tusks, ear, and trunk – maybe you’ll see more?)
Kids Hike: The kids hikes we do leave from the Jewel of the Creek trailhead, and there is a short or long option. For both hikes, after going down the hill, take a left at the split (you can really go either way, but we found going left hits the “boring” part of the hike first for the kids, there’s much more for them to explore on the second part, which keeps them more interested at the end). For the shorter hike you’ll eventually come to a split, and take that to the right, which will loop you back around to the hill and parking lot. For the longer hike, keep going straight at that first fork and that will keep you on the Dragonfly Loop. There is a point where the Dragonfly trail veers off, but if you stay straight you’ll continue on the loop (that all makes sense when you look at the map!) Both of these hikes are really fun for the kids, and it’s an interesting environment because of the water rich soil. There are big trees along the creek bed, and hillsides full of saguaro cactus, huge ones. The trails are relatively flat and easy for the kids to navigate.
We’ve also taken the kids into the Spur Cross Ranch Conversation Area on the Spur Cross Trail. We took the kids about 3.0 roundtrip, and the point I highlighted to on the map should be the second time the trail crosses Cave Creek. We weren’t able to go any further because it was rushing water, but the kids enjoyed seeing the creek go past. It wasn’t a very exciting hike for them other than that though, we had lots of snack breaks along the way!
Adult Hike: We need to explore more of the longer hikes here, but the only one we’ve done here was a fun one. The hike was about 3.7 miles and winds its way around Elephant Mountain. You start off on the Spur Cross Trail, then break off on Tortuga, and come down on Dragonfly. It’s nice that it’s a loop and see new scenery the whole way. This was a relatively easy hike too despite the length.
