Camping & Hiking Around Phoenix, AZ

After Christmas with our family, we beelined to Arizona on an unoriginal route for us, I-20, even spending nights in mostly unoriginal locations along the way. It’s not my favorite drive, simply because this is the 3rd time we’ve done it. But, it’s the most direct from NC, and it avoids most winter weather issues we could have this time of year.

I’ve had a couple of campgrounds near Phoenix on my radar and we were excited to be back in the land of the saguaros, yet exploring a part of Arizona we have not spent much time in. We made it to our first weeklong destination, McDowell Mountain Regional Park in Fountain Hills by New Year’s Eve.

We loved McDowell Mountain Regional Park. The campground was immaculate and surrounded by mountain biking trails, which we used on New Year’s Day. The campsites were gigantic, had water and electric hookups, and were decorated with swirly designs raked in the dirt by the camp hosts. Next time we will plan to spend two weeks there.

Fountain Hills, adjacent to Scottsdale in the foothills of the McDowell Mountains, is a picturesque master-planned community that, according to the internet, has the 4th tallest fountain in the world.

We spent Saturday morning wandering around Scottsdale and hiked the popular Camelback Mountain trail that afternoon.

The next day we had less than an hour’s drive to our next weeklong stay at Lost Dutchman State Park. We were in the dry camping loop but had an amazing view of the Superstition Mountains surrounding us.

That Saturday, we tackled the tough trail up to Flatiron Peak, the washed-out one above Michael in the photo below. Right after that photo, the trail gained almost 1500 feet in a 1/2 mile! Once we got to the top there was snow! Have I already mentioned this was a tough hike?

While Michael was working, I spent most of these two weeks with final preparations for travel down the Baja Peninsula. My biggest obstacle, of many, was trying to convince our Cody kitty to switch food because I had just found out that pet food of ruminant (beef/lamb/goat) origin is not allowed in Mexico, nor could we buy it once there. This led to a hunger strike, and ultimately a couple of vet visits, before a turkey-flavored compromise.

Next up is our quick journey through Baja California to Baja California Sur, Mexico!