Views of the Bursera trail and the Estrella mountains in the distance.

The switchbacks of the Pyramid Trail.

We phoned the folks in the first vehicle and instructed them to just start hiking from our separate parking spots, and after using the walkie talkie to direct the group that didn’t have the hike leader, we were all able to meet up at a junction just a short distance from both trailheads. Success! But we noted that as these newer trails on the southwest part of the park become more popular, the parking issue will need to be addressed by the park managers.

How do we get over there – Parasail?

Remnants of the CCC’s handiwork.

Ajay and Michael check out the lookout tower. [Ajay’s photo]

It looks like they might be in the process of adding more signage, because several of the metal sign posts were blank. Some trail junctions were obvious as to which way to go, and some were not, and there are many more trails in this part of the park than are shown on the map. So at one particular fork in the trail we were faced with decision #2 – does the left or right fork lead up those switchbacks? Even though the left fork initially appeared to head off to the west, we reasoned that it would eventually cut back east between the small hill to our right and the start of the Gila Mountain range on our left. Good choice! We passed by a nice quartz display, crossed a wash, and in a short while, found ourselves heading up the switchbacks. The right fork may have led back to the nearby neighborhood, but it was hard to tell, even viewing the area from higher above.

We took a brief break at the top of the switchbacks, and even though we only saw a few others on the trail for the entire trip, there was a neighborhood group even larger than ours that passed by us, making for a brief traffic jam at the top. We chatted with them for a bit before they forged on ahead – they were Pyramid trail regulars, and were timing themselves.

We could clearly see the next leg of our journey on the ridge on the other side of the valley, and although it looked like it would take a long time to get over there, the trail had pretty much flattened out by this time, so it didn’t take very long to reach the other side. We did see a parasailer that had touched ground in the valley to the south of the mountains, and thought that would be a fun way to reach the ridgeline to the north.

At the junction of the Pyramid and National trails is a short side trail leading to the Telegraph Pass lookout. 3 of the Trailblazers head there to check it out, while the rest of us keep moving. The lookout is a stone masonry structure built sometime between 1933-1940 by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps). The CCC was one of the emergency programs created in an effort to help bring Americans out of the Great Depression by putting them back to work. The Phoenix Parks website tells us that 4,000 men that worked at two camps in South Mountain Park and created over 40 miles of trails, 18 buildings, 15 ramadas, 134 fire pits, 30 water faucets, water dams and other features throughout the park with regionally compatible materials. Quite impressive!

But back to our journey...At this point, we are walking high atop the ridgeline on the National Trail – great views!

Along the way, we marveled at the many side trips that Ajay took up to the top of nearby hills – too bad he didn’t have a GPS so that we could see how many more miles and elevation gain he covered compared to the rest of our group! In the blink of an eye he was gone...another blink and he was on top of another hill...and one more blink and he was back in our group. He has reached “Mountain Goat” status like our other fellow Trailblazer Rudy ; )

We find a faintly marked turnoff to the Mine Drop trail, and take a lunch break there to let everyone catch up. This is the point where we descend back into the valley for the final leg of our journey.

But ahead we can see decision #3 in the distance – another fork in the trail. It doesn’t really matter which fork we take, because they both eventually lead to the same spot at the bottom, but of course we want to select the most interesting route. Knowing there were a couple of mine shafts on the trail to the right (Mine Drop), and not knowing what, if anything we’d see on the trail to the left (Lost Mine), we pick the trail to the right. Another good choice.

But before we even get to that fork, we look to our left and see a couple more shafts nearby. A few of us can’t resist peeking, at a safe distance, of course. One hole was filled in, another looked like it went quite a ways down, a third one looked like it went back in a little ways, but not too far.

With all the loose rocks making for unsteady footing, we slowly made our way down the trail to the area with two mine tailings. Even at our slow pace, we still passed a small group of teenage girls, who didn’t have proper footwear or equipment, so one of them was crouching down and sort of butt-sliding her way down the path, as she seemed a bit leery of the slippery slope. Her friends were doing a good job coaxing her down with encouraging remarks.

At the mouth of the mine – Let’s not
find out how sturdy that timber post is!

We got a surprise when, out of the blue, fellow Trailblazer Becky appears out of nowhere on the trail walking towards us! How did our group gain a hiker, we wonder? She was not able to hike with us today, but knew we would be there and wanted to check out the trailhead, so she just started heading out on the trail to see if she would run into us. Nice timing! A moment later our group splits off to head back to the two separate trailheads, and we say our final goodbyes when we meet again back at the carpool location.