Phoenix Hikes

We unfortunately didn’t get to do a ton of hiking while we were in Phoenix. We had a few days of glorious weather, but most days the sun got so hot by 10am that we couldn’t be out as much or as long as we would have liked. Regardless, we managed to find plenty of trails in the area to get our legs moving and blood pumping.

Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest National Park – painted desert

Petrified Forest National Park – painted desert/badlands

Petrified Forest National Park

We didn’t actually hike through here, but there are plenty of trails winding through the park. We ended up doing a detour on our way from Albuquerque to Phoenix to drive through the Petrified Forest. Pets are allowed on all trails – a rarity for National Parks and a huge plus for us! The park is filled with petrified wood and colorful badlands providing a very unique and beautiful backdrop. The trees are hundreds of millions of years old and have become fossils from silica deposits. The painted desert area is amazing with it’s stratified layers of different rock – siltstone, shale, and mudstone.

Papago Park

Papago Park – Hole in the Rock

Papago Park

Papago Park is located between Tempe and Scottsdale and has plenty of biking and hiking trails. While none of them are very strenuous, it can’t be beat for a quick outing inside the city. We went to this park a couple of times – once for a short walk and another for a trail run. There’s a short trail to the “Hole in the Rock” (pictured above) that provides a nice vista of Tempe and downtown Phoenix. The park is also scattered with some ponds and backs up to the botanical gardens. For a trail run or a longer walk, there are numerous trails up to and around the buttes that’s an easy way to log a few miles.

Phoenix Mountain Preserve

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This park is just north of Phoenix. A popular hike is to Piestewa Peak, but it’s very crowded and dogs aren’t allowed so we bypassed that in favor of the circumference trail. The first time I went with Snickers with the hopes of circumventing the peak, but at 9am the sun was blazing and I barely had enough water for Snickers so we just did a quick 3 miles out and back. The second time, I left the dog at home and did the full 4.5 miles solo. While not an impossible trail, it’s not for the faint of heart. In 4.5 miles, the trail climbs about 1,300 feet, but the views at the top are well worth the effort and the backside is deserted providing a fun, mostly downhill jog.

Lake Pleasant

Lake Pleasant is about 40 miles directly north of Phoenix. We ventured up one weekend with the hopes of doing a 6 mile run, but cut it to a 3 mile walk so we could enjoy the new scenery and conserve water. We walked along a burro trail near a wash surrounded by plenty of cacti and some decent views of the lake. It was a really lightly trafficked trail – we only saw two people! This trail in the Sonoran Desert is littered with saguaro cacti. Fun fact: saguaros only start growing arms when they reach 15ft. in height, which takes about 75 years!!

McDowell Mountain Regional Park

About 40 miles northwest of Phoenix lies McDowell Mountain Regional Park, which is a veritable playground for mountain bikers. We did the Scenic Trail, a relatively mild 4.5 mile trail through quintessential dessert landscape. Just a short climb and we had some great views for miles across the Valley. If we had a little more time, we would’ve loved to go back and log some serious miles on our feet.

Phoenix Eats

A little rundown of places we enjoyed.

Coffee

Matt here – Added my own Phoenix Coffee post with a bit more detail on my professional blog – https://matt.guide

Cartel – coffee roaster in downtown Phoenix. Multiple pour over options to choose from, all with a smooth finish.

Press – local roaster right on Central Ave. They have a handful of pour over options from single-origin growers to fit any flavor profile preferences, and you can choose your brew method (Chemex, Kalita, etc.).

Giant Coffee – dog friendly coffee bar in a large, open space. They roast their own beans and do a pretty solid cup of joe.

Breakfast

Matt’s Big Breakfast – good breakfast spot downtown. Ample portion sizes and fresh-made food. They make their bread and jam in-house and have fresh-ground coffee brewed locally just for them. Go hungry and early because it can get busy for the brunch crowd.

Rainbow Donuts – we only tried one donut shop, but we didn’t need to try any more! Rainbow has a seemingly endless menu, and they do them all extremely well. We went with our classic order: jelly filled, custard filled, glazed, and apple fritter and they were all perfect.

Lunch

Kaleidoscope – located downtown next to Cartel, this place is serving up fresh and healthy options. Choose from smoothies, juices, protein bowls, and sandwiches. They don’t skimp on the veggies and protein in the bowls and it’s always nice to have a healthy option when you’re out and about.

Poke Catcher – fast lunch spot in Central Phoenix. Fresh poke and all the toppings make for a quick and healthy lunch option.

Carolina’s – don’t be deterred by the location, Carolina’s is serving up authentic Mexican on the cheap! They make the tortillas in house and the food is a slam-dunk. You can’t go wrong with anything on the menu and the burros and chimis hit the spot. Don’t forget to get a bag of chips!

Dinner

Drinks at The Yard

Little Cleo’s happy hour

Presidio Cocina hibiscus margarita

Taco Guild

St. Francis – a great happy hour option located in Central Phoenix. $5 drink specials and sharable small plates.

Little Cleo’s – located at The Yard, a veritable outdoor adult playground with multiple restaurants and games (cornhole, shuffleboard, etc.). We went for the happy hour special of $1 oysters on the half shell and $2 champagne.

O.H.S.O. Brewing – dog friendly brewery serving up plenty of house-brewed beers. Snickers gives the spent-grain treats four enthusiastic paws up, and we thoroughly enjoyed the brewer’s cheese and charcuterie board with an added smoked sausage made next door. They’ve also got a great happy hour special on beer – $7 for a pitcher (normally $6 for a pint).

Taco Guild – tacos in an old Methodist church. They’ve maintained a lot of the original pieces – including a number of stained glass windows – which makes for a great juxtaposition of old and new. You can’t go wrong with the unique taco offerings on the menu, but be sure to check out the daily taco (it was fried chicken with mashed potatoes and a green chili gravy when we went) and don’t forget to get a margarita to wash it down.

Presidio Cocina – upscale Latin food with good happy hour specials. Food is very fresh and flavorful and you can’t beat a $5 real margarita!

Forno 301 – Italian and pizza. They make the pasta in-house, and serve up wood-fired pizzas. We tried the caprese salad, which included half a plate of prosciutto along with the mozzarella and tomato, arugula salad, and the Forno 301 pizza. Everything was fresh and delicious and paired well with the Italian Moretti beer.

Dessert

Creamistry – very cool concept! The ice cream is made to order using liquid nitrogen to freeze the milk. Incredibly creamy with lots of unique flavor options and mix-ins.

Nami – vegan soft serve with plenty of fun mix-in options.

Grand Canyon and Sedona

We’re rounding out our third week in Phoenix and have been loving the sun and warm weather. The nights are cool and the days are hot and sunny and we have the tans to prove it 🙂 – not to rub it in for everyone in the Midwest who is still dealing with snow.

We decided to take advantage of a free weekend and headed north to the Grand Canyon and Sedona. Since we are both working remotely, we went up on a Sunday afternoon and worked from the hotel Monday – this is where working Eastern time while on Pacific time comes in handy since we log off at 2pm and can use our entire afternoon for fun. We left a little later in the day, which worked out to our advantage because we got to the Grand Canyon in the late afternoon when crowds were mostly non-existent.

We took a slight detour to Prescott on the drive to grab some lunch and stretch our legs. We stopped at Watson Lake for a quick walk – the scenery was gorgeous! At 5,000 ft. elevation, the scenery was a bit different from the desert we get in the Phoenix valley with lots of scrub bushes, juniper trees, and an absence of cacti. Snickers especially enjoyed chasing birds through the mud.

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Since we had the dog with us, we were limited in the hiking we could do at the Grand Canyon (National Parks are notoriously dog-unfriendly). We parked at the Bright Angel trailhead and walked about 3 miles out and back along the Rim Trail. The great thing about this location was that no cars are allowed beyond that point and most people ride the shuttle rather than walking. We had the trail mostly to ourselves, and even though it was paved we had a very enjoyable time. It’s amazing to see all of the striations along the canyon walls and think about how the Colorado River cut it out over millions of years. It’s impossible to capture the grandeur in pictures, but suffice to say we were constantly uttering “wow, this is amazing!” even though we’d both visited before. We definitely recommend a visit at least once in your lifetime.

Sunday night we drove down to Flagstaff to stay for the night. Our time was mostly spend in the hotel since it was a Monday and we had to work, but we did end up grabbing beer at Dark Sky Brewing (highly recommend!), some lunch at Macy’s Coffee House (delicious lattes and healthy food), and walking the trail that runs through town (such a great use of space!).

Once we were finished with work, we headed to Sedona for a hike. The drive down was on mountain roads that cut through the rocks and provided amazing views. The weather was cloudy and cool – 70s – which was actually perfect for the hike since the desert sun can be brutal. We did 6 miles on the Chuckwagon Trail to Devil’s Arch. Very few people were on the Chuckwagon Trail, but the last 0.8 miles up to the arch we ran into quite a few hikers. I can’t blame them because the view was spectacular! The hike itself wasn’t too strenuous and we ended up running about 3 miles of it. Snickers, our resident mountain goat, had a blast running up the rocks at the end and nearly gave Matt a heart attack when she ran to the edge to survey the land. The red rock landscape is something that you just can’t see anywhere and even though they weren’t lit up by the sun we were amazed by their beauty. Matt didn’t brave walking on the bridge, but Snickers and I ran out there to snag a quick photo before our descent.