"Short little after-work hike in a popular north Phoenix park. The highlight of the hike was in the parking lot where I found a juvenile desert tortoise. After 30 years in the area, this is the first one I've seen. " — lawrencebaker • Oct 23, 2024

"So good to have my hiking partner in town! As I'm still new to the Phoenix area and we're both not exactly in 3,000+ elevation gain at high elevation shape, we decided to stick around at my new base camp and explore some trails from there. Summer has definitely arrived here in the valley, with mornings starting around 70°F and temperatures climbing rapidly as the sun rises. So - we decided to head to Thunderbird Conservation Park to check out the trails from Glendale city parks and compare them to Phoenix. Verdict: about the same, Phoenix has fancier signage but both groom their trails well! It was a good hike; we started up West Thunderbird Peak, which was *very* popular. Very straightforward trail for both peaks, no off-trail exercises to get to the summits. From West Thunderbird, we went to a short overlook and down what must have been a mountain biking singletrack to join the paved road that many people were walking on, and followed that to a different parking area to join the trail that got us to North Thunderbird Peak. The grades were not bad, everything was well switchbacked, and it was interesting to be nosy and look down at the different housing developments. We were warn..." — psychikingjes • May 29, 2021