"This one was very steep on the last day in Phoenix. Nice way to end the trip. So started at 7 AM and summited at 8. The trail was overall rocky and has many steps. The signs were cool and the views were too. Then when we summited, we scrambled over to the higher summit on the side. The summit on the side had the summit benchmark. There was one scramble at the end near the summit." — lc444 • Dec 6, 2022

"Turned into a longer day than expected, but a good day! I was surprised - I shouldn't have been, but I was - by how many vehicles were there at the Piestewa trailheads by 7:00 AM. It was morning twilight, but the sun hadn't risen yet, and there were already at least 100 cars, if not more. The trail was BUSY - something that I had read about, but it was... It wasn't quite as busy as Angel's Landing in Zion a few years ago (I haven't been back since ~2018ish, and as far as I know it's been infinitely worse, hence why it's now a permitted hike), but it was well-traveled, to say the least. Tons and tons of people. I made it up to the summit - it was WINDY. About knocked me over a few times. The condition of the trail, for those who haven't been there, is a lot of stair-stepping. And dodging of people of various hiking skill/ability. After spending a little time at the top, eating some energy chews, taking some selfies, and then getting tired of the wind, I headed back down, which felt a lot better, cardio-wise, and then came back down to the split off from the #300/Summit Trail and the #302/Freedom Trail. From there... I went into loop after loop! I got lost a few times, had a few fals..." — psychikingjes • Jan 29, 2022

"First peak of a 3 day hiking weekend. Drove out to the Mountains Preserve at 7:30 AM and parked at the first lot on E Piestewa Peak Drive. I was surprised how busy the trail was, but as I would realize later that day, there is good reason why Phoenicians get their hikes in early. Took my time on the way up snapping pictures as I went. The trail is stair-like as many people have described with a fun final scramble to the summit. Followed this one up by summiting a small knob an a lesser peak across the street." — tylerdelia • Sep 24, 2021

"Straightforward trail up through piestewa summit trail #300. Was up in 50 minutes and down in 30. Had to stop a lot because of large crowds. Views at the top were pretty great. There's a cool little section with an easy class 2 scramble at the peak but other than that its nothing technical since it's all stairs. I'm not sure if today was just a good day for me but I definitely felt like it wasn't as hard as people make it out to be. I had a more difficult time climbing Dixie Peak and Maricopa peak on the Phoenix City Limits Peak Challenge" — easotelo1 • Jan 30, 2021

"Beautiful hike, the rock steps put in by hand all the way up, really cool. Pretty good workout, in and out fairly fast except for it's a bit over crowded. Had to get there at 5:30am to get the last parking spot before the lot was full for a few hours. " — nikkirogers • Apr 29, 2020

"My second day out in the Phoenix mountains. Yesterday I hit Camelback so naturally today I was obligated to check out Phoenix's other mega-classic Piestewa-don't-call-me-Squaw-Peak. Started out at 6am and of course there were already a ton of people on the trail. Impressed that so many take on the challenge of this tough climb; Phoenix has some serious fitness buffs. Kept my run alive almost to the 0.5 mile junction before getting pummeled into a panting walk. Base to peak in 23:21; would love to come back and try to beat that. Sub-20 seems achievable but you'd need to bring some real fitness to the table. Scrambled over to the true summit (USGS marker) and slowly ran/rockhopped my way down. 50 min RT." — scott • Apr 11, 2019