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Alta Trail (South Mountain Recreational Area)
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Total hiking distance covered (per the GPS) 10 Miles
Total time on trail 4 hours
Average hiking speed 2.4 MPH
Maximum elevation 2,472 ft.
Starting elevation 1,602 ft.
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| The trailhead | Parking |
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| Road to the trailhead | Looking back toward the trailhead from1st view |
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| Fire damage | First view of downtown |
On Friday, January 05, 2007 a group of 5 of us hiked the Alta trail in the Phoenix South Mountain Park. We met early to cloudy, drizzly skies and proceeded to the park. Our initial intention was to start the hike at the west end of the Alta trail which starts at the dead end of San Juan road. When we entered South Mountain Park we were informed that San Juan road was closed and we could only proceed to where it started. We were also informed that we could park at that location and walk ½ a mile down San Juan road to the east end of the trail. We figured that the extra mile wouldn’t kill us, and we could hike the reverse direction, so we continued. At the parking area we met up with Hoyt, one of our other hikers. Much to our surprise Hoyt was accompanied by one of the cutest little dogs. Hoyt said that Bear was a very qualified hiker and wanted to join us. Bear turned out to be the best hiker in the group.
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| Tracy from 2nd view | Cloudy skies, looking southwest |
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| Looking down | View from the summit |
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| Looking west | Can you see Squaw Peak? |
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| West end of the trail | National trail terminus |
We walked the ½ mile down San Juan road to the eastern trailhead of the Alta trail and started up the trail. The weather was cold and windy but there was no rain at all. The trail, although not wide was in good repair and very evident. We start out on a very gentle grade but before very far becomes steeper and start switching back and forth. The views from the trail are beautiful in all directions. As we arrived at the first summit (2nd view) we took a short break to look all around the horizon. Some of the views of Phoenix were made even better by the cloudy skies. We continued up this point and within another 45 minutes arrived at the summit.
At the summit we again took a short break and since it was warming up we removed jackets. We the discussed if we wanted to continue on to the west end of the trail and then loop around by the National trail, or return in the direction we had come. The decision was to continue. As we started down the trail it became very steep and the trail was not in as good repair. We were kind of glad that we hiked in the direction that we did. Bear was still bounding about enjoying the hike as well as we was. At the bottom of the trail we were also at the west end of the closed San Juan road and the west end of the National trail. We then hiked the National trail back around the south side of the mountains we had just hiked over. We knew that the National trail cut across and back to San Juan road but shortened the distance substantially. When we again connected with San Juan road we soon found out we would be walking on the road an additional 2 miles just to get back to the trailhead where we started plus the other ½ mile just to get back to our vehicles.
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| Back to the vehicles | Bear (Superhiker) |
We hiked, or walked the road the remainder of the way back to our vehicles and realized it would have almost easier to go back over the trail back. We found it is not as easy on our feet walking on pavement instead of trail. Was the hike worth it? Absolutely. The difficulty is only moderate and the hike is long but the vistas are worth all efforts we put in. I look forward to hiking other trails in the South Mountain park system.
Hikers:
Ruth Dambach Tracy Grisham Hoyt Harvel Larry Wayt
Bear (The best of the hikers)
Larry Wayt (gnhikn@cox.net)