"A warm morning; I was only originally planning to do Union Peak via the Desert Vista trailhead, and then another peak (Peak 2144') caught my eye. I hadn't even summitted Union Peak at that point, so I told myself I wanted to see how I felt after the planned summit before trying anything else. I noted from the previous logged ascent on Peak 2144' that it is on AZ state trust land (or at least that you cross it), and happily I had purchased my state land trust permit yesterday and printed it out, and stuck it in my pack this morning. So, I knew I had the right permit to be where I wanted to go, just in case someone wanted to know what I was doing and why. Union Peak was super easy - man, the City of Phoenix makes *really nice* trails. (Las Vegas, Henderson, etc., are you listening?!) There was even a summit register! Had just been started a few months ago, but that still felt nice to read and sign. :) From the summit of Union Peak, I checked the maps (also, A+ Peakery app for having the trails) and my GPS location and decided I'd at least go scout out the Cactus Wren trail as it passes somewhat close to Peak 2144'. Looking at the map, I recognized that if I didn't get it *now*, I'd b..." — psychikingjes • May 13, 2021

"Started at the hike at the Desert Vista Trailhead this morning. Still pretty cloudy and wet. From the trailhead, I took the Hawks Nest trail and turned off onto the Desert Tortoise trail, followed by Valle Vista trail, Great Horned Owl trail and finally the Union Peak trail that summits the peak. Even though this was a holiday and I got a later start (9:00am) I only saw two people on the trail heading up.SO I pretty much had the entire trail to myself. Took about an hour to reach the summit from the trailhead and My Tracks logged the distance as 2.8 miles. Enjoyed the nice views, signed the summit log (in a small plastic bottle at the end of the trail.) and then headed back. Nice hike." — lawrencebaker • Jan 16, 2017

"Hiked at the Phoenix Sonoran Desert Preserve. Trail was a little longer than I was expecting. Nice loop hike you can make different distances. Mine ended up being over 7 miles. Great hike though. Easy peak." — Rob_Keller • Mar 15, 2014