Camelback (Echo Canyon to Cholla Lane)

We're three weeks away from hiking the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim. We thought we'd mark the milestone by hiking a Phoenix landmark, Camelback, from end-to-end.

We started at Echo Canyon hiking up the Summit Trail (1.2 miles long, elevation 1,264 feet) and going down the Cholla Trail (1.5 miles long, elevation 1,200 feet).  Then we walked the 3.1 miles (on city streets, thank you) back to our car.

We completed this odyssey in four hours. Impressive considering it took us nearly five hours a few weeks ago to go up/back on the Cholla Trail. Of course that also involved a picnic at the top and we had the dog with us.

We knew hiking Camelback was extremely popular but we underestimated just how popular. The park hours are from sunrise to sunset. Trying to beat the crowds, we got to the trailhead around 6:30 a.m. Not early enough. The line of cars waiting for a parking space at the trailhead was already eight deep. Fortunately, there were enough people FINISHING their hikes that we had a parking space in about 25 minutes. That was good. (Note: when we were leaving, the parking had overflowed to residential streets a half mile and farther from the trailhead; very popular.)

Immediately the Summit Trail is a climb.  This is definitely not a trail for the novice or the visiting tourist who isn't in shape. The trail goes up between a butte to the north and the camel's head to the south, skirting the north side of the camel's head (see the yellow line on the picture at the top - click picture to make it larger to see details) as it continues to ascend to the camel's neck.

As you get through the canyon, a fence appears along the north edge of the trail. This fence is to protect the homes below from falling rocks dislodged by the hikers. There is a great deal of hiking traffic on the popular trail and the homes are built into the side of the mountain so the risk of rocks damaging homes or hitting people is understandable.

Two places along the trail there are hand rails installed to help navigate the steep grade and slippery rock. These handrails were very helpful on the way up, however, their presence on the way down would seem even more beneficial. We saw one obviously experienced hiker slide down the handrail with proficiency and great speed.

Camelback is an interesting point of reference in the Valley.  From most of the East Valley, especially to the south, the mountain looks more like an "old man" with a bit of a belly who's laying on his back taking a nap. On the north side, the kneeling camel is more easily identified. The Praying Monk at the nose of the camel is also visible.

When we got to the saddle, or neck of the camel, we saw the back of the camel's head. Hum. OK, that just looks more like a big sandstone butte than a camel's head.  Oh well, it was interesting to see another view.


Looking north towards Paradise Valley from the saddle (picture on left), we could see the head and surrounding buttes to the left, their sandstone red a distinct contrast to the brown/black of the granite that makes up the "back" of the camel on the right side of the picture. In reading, we learned that it's believed the camel's hump is actually significantly older than the head. Interesting to think about what the area looked like with the big granite mountain there for years before the sandstone arrived and the camel came to be.

This is, as I mentioned earlier, an extremely popular hike. We started on the trail about 7:00 on a Saturday morning. We encountered an almost continuous stream of hikers on the trail. This was also true when we hiked Cholla Trail a few weeks ago. In our hiking experience, we've also encountered several hikers on the Peralta Trail and Siphon Draw in the Superstitutions, but Camelback gets the prize for being the most popular.

The other prize for Camelback is the landscape. During this hike, the Saguaro and Prickley Pear cacti were blooming. It's humorous and intriguing to me how such a dangerous plant with long unforgiving thorns can produce the most delicate flowers.  The picture to the left shows the view to the south of Scottsdale. Visible are the Saguaros with their tops in bloom.  Close-ups on the Saguaro and Prickley Pear blooms are below.

At the top of the camel's back where the trail changes from the Summit to the Cholla, Papa and I stopped to rest, enjoy some refreshments and take in the view.  We only stopped for about ten minutes. During that time, a low flying helicopter approached the peak causing us and other hikers to wonder if it would land to rescue an injured hiker (a fairly common occurrence I'm afraid). The helicopter just circled the peak and then flew off, actually descending as it headed north. I think that's the first time I saw a helicopter flying and I was above it.

The descent down Cholla Trail was uneventful and swift. We made the descent in less than 45 minutes with only brief pauses to provide courtesy yields to other hikers. Since our descent at the canyon is 17 miles, we were encouraged and will plan on about 2.5 mph on the descent which will enable us to take the side trips to Roaring Springs and Ribbon Falls. Hope that works out!

Once we reached the trailhead, we had two options.  1) Back up Cholla over the camel's back and down Summit to the car and the trailhead on the other end or 2) walk the city streets back to the Echo Canyon (Summit) trailhead.  We opted to save the knees and walk the city streets about 3.1 miles to the car. Glad we did. By the time we reached the car four hours after starting, the temperatures were into the 90's and the beautiful clear skies meant the sun was bearing down with desert force. We were ready to go home.

Once home, Nana rested for a bit and then took off on the bike for an 8-mile roundtrip to the grocery store. Yard work, house work, laundry round out the weekend along with some reading. We hope the weekend ends as it began, with the Phoenix Suns defeating the San Antonio Spurs to wrap up the series. If not, the Sun are back in Phoenix on Tuesday.  Go Suns!

A good active week:  Papa got in 16 miles on the bike plus this hike.  Nana biked 43 miles for the week, including the grocery run, plus the hike.

Oh, and a follow-up with the doctor proved that Nana doesn't have asthma. Looks like it might just be a small lung capacity; trying to decide if it's worth the referral to a pulmonary specialist the doctor is recommending. Hum, we'll see. The blood tests came back and everything's good so Nana and Papa have now each received their clean bill of health to pursue the R2R adventure.

Biking, walking and a little gym/weight time will be our focus for the next three weeks before we tackle item #1 on our joint Bucket List. Stay tuned.