Hiking in Pinnacle Peak Park

Hiking Pinnacle Peak in Scottsdale, Arizona, is as close as I’ve ever gotten to entering a real-world cartoon landscape: The cacti were multi-armed monsters; the boulders defied gravity, perched on pinnacles at crazy tilts; and as the sun came up, the desert blazed with crimson, ginger and putty. Everything seemed so exaggerated and peculiar, at least to my lake-and-pine-forest Canadian sensibility. From the highest point of the trail, my companions and I caught our breath and surveyed the valley below. We saw protected desert with a forest of cacti, a golf course and some houses, and in the distance the undulating hazy-blue silhouette of iconic Camelback Mountain.

The trailhead of Pinnacle Peak Park is a 10-minute walk from Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North. It’s a moderately challenging 2.8-kilometre track that takes about 90-minutes roundtrip. Along the way, markers flag some of the flora of the Sonoran Desert. Banana yucca. Desert ironwood. Succulent ocotillo.

Things we learned:
• Cholla cactus bites (sort of).
• Snakes don’t come out when it’s cold.
• Saguaro cactus starts its life sheltered under the leaves of other plants.
• The Concierge was right to insist we take an extra bottle of water despite the cool morning.

The trail is free and the Concierge can provide a map. But you might want to sign up for one of the new Desert Preservation hikes. Working with the city of Scottsdale, Four Seasons can arrange a two-hour hike with a park interpreter. When you’re done, you’ll plant a cactus in the park—a baby saguaro, perhaps, or a prickly pear.
It’ll be your small contribution in helping this bizarre and fascinating landscape stay surreal.

For information, contact the Resort Concierge.