 By
Roger Cox
I don’t recommend climbing Camel-back Mountain in
Phoenix in tennis shoes. Not after this often-rocky trail
gnawed at the soles of mine and had me feeling insecure
enough about my footing in places to wish I’d worn
lug-soled hiking boots. On the other hand, you can’t
get this kind of adrenaline rush on a StairMaster, and on
Camelback the reward for a demanding workout is a 360-degree
panorama of the Valley of the Sun and its mountains.
I can’t think of another major U.S. city with mountain
trails right in the middle of town, and Greater Phoenix
has several, including some 60 miles of hiking and biking
paths in its South Mountain Park. In past visits I’d
clambered to the summit of Piestewa Peak (the former Squaw
Peak, until it was renamed for Lori Piestewa, the Tuba City
soldier who lost her life in Operation Iraqi Free-dom).
But Camelback commands a “Stren-uous and Difficult”
rating in park literature, whereas Piestewa rates merely
“Moderate.”
There are two trail heads: Echo Canyon from the west and
Cholla Lane from the east. Both end at the 2,704-foot summit;
however, the Echo Canyon route is the steeper of the two,
gaining almost 1,300 feet in elevation over a 1.16-mile
route versus Cholla Lane’s 1.5 miles. Echo Canyon
begins as a series of earth-and-railroad-tie steps up over
the head of the camel, then descends down the saddle of
the neck and finally upward again to the top of the hump.
In places the route is so steep and potentially treacherous
that one rock face has a handrail made from pipe embedded
in it and protective fencing to prevent anyone who slips
from falling off the mountain. Elsewhere I found myself
scrambling over slick sandstone rocks and searching for
both handholds and footholds. Yet I was hardly alone. This
very popular trail attracts people of all ages, locals and
tourists alike. They’re drawn by the view, a sweeping
panorama of this city sprawled across the floor of the Sonoran
Desert, and by the challenge of making it to the top.
To
read the rest of this article, purchase this issue
here.
|
