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Camelback's Echo Canyon Trail is Partially Open

PostPosted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 5:39 am
by Raystern
Phoenix, Arizona hiking news from my personal (no-advertisements) Camelback Mountain site:

Camelback Mountain's Echo Canyon Trail is Open for Hiking! (Well, Three-Quarters of It, and You First Have to Climb Cholla Trail to the Summit)

If you want to have Echo Canyon Trail all to yourself, there's no better time than now.

The trail isn't closed like you may have heard. As usual, the news media steered you wrong. Most of Echo Canyon is open. The catch is that you have to hike to the summit via Cholla Trail to access Echo Canyon.

Click below to read the rest of the story...

http://www.camelbackphoenix.com/2013/06/camelback-mountains-echo-canyon-trail.html

Re: Camelback's Echo Canyon Trail is Partially Open

PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 12:28 am
by lcarreau
The trail is currently set to reopen (in its entirety) on January 15, 2014 ....


http://www.azfamily.com/news/Camelback-Mountains-Echo-Canyon-trail-to-open-Jan-15-239324751.html

Re: Camelback's Echo Canyon Trail is Partially Open

PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 12:48 am
by Jow
In Feb I'll be in scotssdale was planning to hike camelback via cholla should I do camelback if open? Which is prettier and more fun? I was also going to hike Piestewa on same day, doable? Doesn't seem like either trail is too long I only have a day for hiking purposes

Re: Camelback's Echo Canyon Trail is Partially Open

PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 1:59 am
by sbkelley
Cholla is a good route: a little quieter than Echo (though to be clear, neither is truly "quiet"), and a little more gradual. Echo's more scenic, but that's just my opinion.

You can definitely do it and Piestewa in the same day, both are good workouts.

Re: Camelback's Echo Canyon Trail is Partially Open

PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 2:24 am
by lcarreau
I never did Echo Canyon, but my brother did it and he said it was the cat's meow.

I normally steer clear of crowded trails, and only go during the week.

Re: Camelback's Echo Canyon Trail is Partially Open

PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 2:53 am
by Jow
This will be on a Tuesday so shouldn't be too crazy. My wife is on work trip and I'm tagging along since itll be nice to get out of cold for a few days. she'll be busy all day so seems fun option to hit some nearby peaks.

Re: Camelback's Echo Canyon Trail is Partially Open

PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 6:48 am
by Tonka
Just so you know, the parking lot could be full at Echo and the walk an extra 1/2 mile at Cholla on a regular Tuesday morning by 8. You can have your quiet time maybe in July or Aug.

Re: Camelback's Echo Canyon Trail is Partially Open

PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 8:18 pm
by surgent
Nice to hear Camelback is set to reopen. I am very curious to see how they reworked the Echo Trail.

The Cholla Route is very nice too. Park on Invergordon south of Cholla's intersection, north of the Phoenician Resort. I've had to walk up to a mile each way just on city streets just to get to the trailhead. The Cholla Trail has a few sections of easy scrambling. It looks exposed, but it's really very safe.

Weekdays are usually less crowded. With the west-side Echo Canyon reopening, that may relieve some of the space-crunch on the east-side Invergordon/Cholla route.

If you have time for just one of the two main peaks, I would opt for Camelback over Piestewa. But Piestewa is still a lot of fun and a good workout.

Re: Camelback's Echo Canyon Trail is Partially Open

PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 12:22 am
by lcarreau
Tonka wrote: You can have your quiet time maybe in July or Aug.


Yeah ... and you can hear the sizzle of the egg frying on the hood of your vehicle .... :wink:

Re: Camelback's Echo Canyon Trail is Partially Open

PostPosted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 6:23 pm
by surgent
I've hiked Camelback and Piestewa during those hot summer months. There's always a small stream of people even then. I'd usually start at 5 am and be down by 6 before the crazy heat would kick in, but even then it'd be in the high 90s even at 6 or 7 am. A few very hardy (or foolish?) people will hike it at mid-day. Some people just have the ability to modulate their core and not be affected by the heat, but it does take training.

I've hiked lower, shorter trails in the high heat (110 F), but I falter fast... Hayden Butte (A Mountain) near ASU works well because there're about 9000 bars that one can duck into for air conditioning and liquids. I am fascinated by those who can perform well at such high temperatures.

Re: Camelback's Echo Canyon Trail is Partially Open

PostPosted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 8:43 pm
by Jow
surgent wrote:Nice to hear Camelback is set to reopen. I am very curious to see how they reworked the Echo Trail.

The Cholla Route is very nice too. Park on Invergordon south of Cholla's intersection, north of the Phoenician Resort. I've had to walk up to a mile each way just on city streets just to get to the trailhead. The Cholla Trail has a few sections of easy scrambling. It looks exposed, but it's really very safe.

Weekdays are usually less crowded. With the west-side Echo Canyon reopening, that may relieve some of the space-crunch on the east-side Invergordon/Cholla route.

If you have time for just one of the two main peaks, I would opt for Camelback over Piestewa. But Piestewa is still a lot of fun and a good workout.


Did these last week. A fun way to get 2500ft elevation gain and a good workout before lunch. Got to Cholla on Camelback about 8am and got a very good spot on road, there were people but not an obscene amount and a bunch turned back at saddle. then went to Pietsewa which was already getting pretty hot by then (coming from NYC), parked in overflow lot. this was much more crowded. hit up the the true summit which is easy little 2 minute scramble and took a selfie of myself on summit all alone with like 25 people below on false summit in background. finished by 1230 just in time to go out for lunch. fun half day.

Re: Camelback's Echo Canyon Trail is Partially Open

PostPosted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 9:21 pm
by surgent
Jow wrote:Did these last week. A fun way to get 2500ft elevation gain and a good workout before lunch. Got to Cholla on Camelback about 8am and got a very good spot on road, there were people but not an obscene amount and a bunch turned back at saddle. then went to Pietsewa which was already getting pretty hot by then (coming from NYC), parked in overflow lot. this was much more crowded. hit up the the true summit which is easy little 2 minute scramble and took a selfie of myself on summit all alone with like 25 people below on false summit in background. finished by 1230 just in time to go out for lunch. fun half day.


Glad you had success on both. And yes, it's actually hot, even for us Arizonanians. Temps in the mid-high 80s in February. The snakes are rousing earlier than normal. I've seen one rattler on Camelback.

It's amusing to note that of everyone who hikes up Piestewa, most stop at that lower summit. Very few seek the true top. By that metric, very few people actually "climb" Piestewa Peak.