Feb
14
2010

Valentines Day

Hiking Camelback and the Hard Rock Hotel

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSunday, February 14, 2010 - 09:44:44 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life)
For Valentines Day we hiked Camelback Mountain, which was a wholly new experience for us. It actually looked like it wasn't going to happen, it taking us a long time to work out the parking situation. Given that Camelback is such a destination for hiking in Phoenix, it's quite a surprise how little parking there is. Either way, it was kinda nice driving around the Camelback area. We almost aborted and went to Papago instead, but ended up parking at 64th Street and walking up to the Cholla Trail head. Which was a bit of a hike itself.

Photobox ImageIn anycase, we got started around 4pm, with not much preconception about how far we were going to go, moreso with the idea to have a fun afternoon. it wasn't too long before we had some decent elevation behind us. Surprisingly the Cholla Trail wasn't that hard - though at the same time rewarding, as it was more that the usual drive up South Mountain. There were pretty good views of the valley pretty early on. We stopped for a while before deciding that we should push ahead. Pretty much right after I commented how easy the trail was, it got a bit more trepidatous. Oh how I love to eat my own words. Still completely doable by novices like us, but certainly requiring a bit more effort and climbing ability. The view continued to get better as we climbed higher and higher. When ended up getting about a mile across, where the trail crosses over the the north side of the mountain a bit. Which looked quite easy to do that bit, however with the sun starting to set, we decided to call it a day and head back, particularly because we weren't going to get any better views from where we were.

Photobox ImageWhile we were up there, there was a pretty cool sunset. Although it was mostly obscured by the summit (basically the peak of Camelback's front hump) it was still a decent site. Looking out to the north east valley (Scottsdale and beyond) it was pretty impressive the red tinge that was cast over it.

Despite the fact that we turned around before the end of the trail, we both had a sense of conquering Camelback, even though looking on the map it doesn't look like we went that far. Given that we didn't neccesarily set out to go intense with the hike, it was certainly an accomplishment. And a good thing that we did turn around when we did, as it was reasonable dark by the time we got back to the bottom. While if it weren't for the time I'd have wanted to continue on, very soon into the descent back down the trail I started to notice that the hike had been pretty hard work and all of a sudden was starting to feel it.

The walk back to the car was a bit cruel. [smile] But we made it the half mile or whatever it is back to the car, and headed to the Hard Rock Cafe in Phoenix for our traditional Valentine's Day dinner. This year it was a lot easier to make happen and not requiring any flights interstate. [wink] We had a great time, the food was great. We witnessed a marriage proposal on the Hard Rock stage, which was cute.

Overall it was a really great day!

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