"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

"To quote my IG post, "Ohhhh man I was soooo slow. How the heck did I hike Whitney like 3 years ago?!" I don't want Whitney to be the only 14er though. I want at least two more. There's a saying nowadays..."Speak it to existence, sis."" — Roselle • Jan 6, 2019