Piestewa Peak Park: Piestewa Peak

After my hike on the Bell Trail I hit the road headed south towards Phoenix. I was excited to see some saguaro cacti, but as I drove I didn't see any saguaros. I headed further and further down in elevation, but still no tall cacti, then I crested a ridge and they were everywhere! I decided right then that I wanted to hike among them and I didn't want to have to wait until tomorrow. I had remembered seeing a hike on the north side of Phoenix and so when I stopped the car for gas I looked up the hike and traced out a route to get there. The hike was at a place called Squaw Peak Park and ascended to Squaw Peak itself.

As I made my way through the sprawl that is greater Phoenix, I had a remarkably easy time finding the park, but the entrance was blocked off when I arrived there due to, as I would learn later, a search and rescue operation. I followed the lead of the others and parked outside the park on a side street and walked in. Soon after entering the park I found the Summit Trail and started my ascent.

There were lots of people on the trail, after-all it was a beautiful day and President's Day weekend as well. The ascent was surprisingly steep and I spent much of the hike passing other hikers and getting passed by runners. There were lots of saguaros to gawk at along with the people.

Eventually I found myself at an exposed rock outcrop that was covered with people.

I supposed this to be the summit and sat down for a rest.

As I was sitting I realized that another, nearby rock outcrop was the true summit. It looked very exposed, but after looking around I found a safe route up to the top.

There was some old graffiti up there

and great views of the surrounding metropolitan Phoenix area. I spent some time people watching, contemplated watching the sunset from my high perch, but then decided against it and started my way down.

Despite the waning sunlight there were still lots of people making their way the mountain as I made my descent. While I didn't get to see the sunset from the summit, I did get to watch as the sun slowly made its way lower on the horizon and painted the mountain, cacti and rocks orange until it disappeared.

I did get to see the actual sunset, but from a much lower elevation than the summit.

I also learned that the peak is no longer referred to by the politically incorrect Squaw Peak, but now goes by the name Piestewa Peak, named after Lori Piestewa, a part-Hopi woman soldier who was killed in Iraq.