Wind Cave Trail

Hiking 3.3 miles, with 1,000 feet of elevation gain, in Phoenix, Arizona

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When Adam and I originally planned a morning in Phoenix, Arizona, I thought we would end up exploring Lost Dutchman State Park. However, when Adam said he wanted to do a morning ride in Usury Mountain Regional Park, I pulled up AllTrails to find a hike that sounded interesting. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to hike Wind Cave by myself, so I had a backup hike for that morning. But when Adam balked at his original plan and mentioned he would do a different ride later in the day, we went to hike Wind Cave together.

The park opened at 6 am, so we tried (tried) to get there as soon as we could. We were definitely not the first people in the park, and as we found while hiking that morning, a lot of locals hike this trail as part of their morning routine. There were some fit people in Tucson!

Yes, hello, I would like one house on a mound of dirt, please.

Oh, this way to Phoenix?

There it is.

We did not stop at Wind Cave because we wanted to hike to the top for a 360º view. It was definitely a little sketch at times because there was no official trail past the cave (you had to follow a series of blue spray painted arrows), and at one point I thought I was stuck for a hot second, but we made it to the top, eventually.

The light to the east was awful.

Editing required a lot of dehazing, and because of the layers in this shot, I had to clean up three parts separately. Meh.

On the backside of the mountain is another trail (I think it stays low on the north side of the mountain).

The trail is more remote, but it looks quite beautiful. It’s probably worth checking out when we come through here again.

Once we had a snack and our fill of pictures at the top, we headed back down.

A sunny Sagurao looking to the south side of Phoenix, toward Queen Creek.

We also didn't stop at Wind Cave on the way down - it didn’t look that interesting, especially after making the summit. We did pause briefly because someone pointed out some massive honeycombs on the rock walls, but we didn't want to dawdle because that sun was getting hot.

A guy from Ohio hiked alongside us for a while. We stopped so I could take a picture, so he asked what I saw. I laughed (because I knew why he was asking) and said a Saguaro. He was not impressed and hiked on without us.

The hazy skies in these images were so annoying. The smog in Phoenix is worse because it hangs in the valley.

The Chicago Cubs have their spring training field in Mesa, which is why we stopped in Phoenix to begin with. We can spot a Midwesterner a mile away, so we chatted with a few people on the trail who were also in town to watch the Cubs. We all comiserated about watching their shit loss to the Atlanta Braves.

Adam thought I was going in for a hug, LOL.

I somehow didn’t see this sign at the start of the hike, but I definitely noticed it at the end.

This trail was more challenging than I thought, but it was a fun hike. It was awesome to see so many cacti! It was nice to hike so early because it wasn’t as busy as it would have been later in the day. However, I would like to hike this trail again in the evening because I want to reshoot some of these angles in different light, especially any shot facing east.

Cheers.