Echo Canyon Trailhead — Attraction in Phoenix

We were out of towners so we went off of reviews, so I want to add a few things I didn’t read about.

1. when looking at reviews take into consideration time of year. We hiked mid January at sunrise. Which I would highly recommend! But when people take about gallons and gallons of water to bring, you don’t need as much during winter and it actually gets chilly at the top because your sweat starts to dry, so I recommend dressing in layers! And Capri leggings were perfect. We both wore tennis shoes and that was fine for hiking.

2. we used our hands more on the way down than we did going up, so hands free is ideal or at least one hand free if you Carry water. I did have a snack bar on the way down but snacks aren’t necessary. Good to have in case! Also, my husband is a little weird and has hiked in his T-shirt, sweater, and jeans on all of our Arizona hikes, so you definitely don’t HAVE to be in athletic gear (it was 40 degrees when we started our hike).

3. my husband and I are both athletic but from Wisconsin so we don’t climb mountains a lot. We hiked it in 38 minutes up, spent about 10 minutes, and actually took us 38 minutes to get down because you have to take your time going down the rocks! But everybody is different with their speed and athletic level!

4. overall it’s a really nice trail and all the rocks make it a fun climb! You do climb up one part just to find out you have to curl around another part, but still really enjoyed the climb!

5. they have a really nice base area with bathrooms and water fountain and parking lot was bigger than I expected, although I’m sure it fills up during peak seasons when climbing hours are limited!

6. overall I thought it would be way more difficult, but was just the right amount of challenge and distance.

7. definitely worth going at sunrise or sunset. We started our climb at 6:44 am and got up to peak at 7:22 in time for 7:25 sunrise.

Have fun and enjoy. Even if it seems intimidating, just take extra water, a snack, good shoes, and plan on taking breaks as needed! Maybe even a walking stick if worded...

Amazing trail and hike to the Camelback Summit! We took our 7&9 yo kids. A couple of things to know:

It was late October (not the same as July weather!) And it was a completely beautiful and clear day. Great hiking conditions. We also started around 10am.

We brought almost 2L water for each person (kids included) and we only came back with .5-1L each. In summer heat, you would need even more.

We packed snacks. We have one kiddo who gets crabby when she is hungry.... We went in knowing we might need to make multiple snack stops. And we did.

We had hiking shoes and camel packs but we did not have other hiking gear like gloves. Those are nice to have but we did alright without them.

It took us 1hr 20 minutes to get tot the top and about 1 hour to come back down (needed fewer snack stops on the way down).

Wear sunscreen, maybe reapply at the summit! We wore hats/sunglasses too so that we could focus on the climb and be protected.

There were other kids on the trail too. It's not for all kids, but ours have hiked plenty of trails and are fairly active so this was doable. Our 7yo did ask to turn around a few times but she was so stoked to get to the top when we stuck it out.

When you are going up and get to the rail-assist section with the fence, use the left rail. Do not try the middle rail with kids. That was the only time I questioned our decision to take the kids on the hike. It was busy with people coming down so we thought we'd be ok on the middle rail which is significantly harder than the left rail. Going up you have the right of way but feel free to stop and catch your breath 😉

Catch your breath and enjoy the views at the top! Top is trail marker #35. 👍

Last 1/3 is rock climbing/bouldering. It's...

1.30 miles to the top according to my Garmin gps watch with 1,355 feet of gain. It took our family of five 57 minutes to reach the top, boys age 13,15; daughter age 10. The last 3/4 mile is basically bouldering. If your looking for a hike on groomed paths, this is not it. Gorgeous views at the top, and also along the way. We watched the sunset on the way down, about 1/3 mile from the bottom there is a nice overlook with benches. We arrived around 4:45pm, easy to find parking. There were signs saying you’ll get a ticket once they close at sunset, we left the lot about 30 minutes after sunset, and there were still 25-30 cars parked there. Probably just want you down and off the trail by the time it’s pitch black. I wouldn’t want to be scrambling down the top section of the trail in the dark anyways. Thankfully there were no dogs allowed, it was full enough with people. Take water, the sun is unmerciful on the trail, plus it’s a difficult hike.

UPDATE: my son and I returned for a sunrise hike this morning. We arrived at 5:28am, parking lot was open and had 10-12 cars there already. We used headlamps and reached the top at 6:06am. Sunrise was 6:29am. We hiked steadily, but stopped several times to take in the views of the city lights and the night sky lightening up, so it took 38 minutes. We spent about 30 minutes on the top, then headed down. It took us 29 minutes to descend. Absolutely...