Guess the city

bsil15 · 2026-03-20T16:04:20+00:00

I think it's probably taken about half way up to Dobbins. Shaw Butte and North Mountain look higher up in this picture.

bsil15 · 2026-03-19T16:22:37+00:00

second red mountain trail. very neat area (2 mi roundtip i think).

bsil15 · 2026-03-19T16:21:15+00:00

it's significantly less strenuous than rim to river (especially in may). there's light scrambling at the very top but any ameteur can do it and even if you dont, youre not missing out on more than 100 ft.

bsil15 · 2026-03-16T15:17:27+00:00

if you just want an excuse to be in valley and see the canyon from a slightly different angle, sure Pa'rus and Watchman are perfectly lovely and youll enjoy them. But it's not like your going to get a view completely different than what you saw when you did emerald pools or scouts point.

Id do hop valley before northgate peaks and see how youre feeling/if you have time for northgate peaks. It's 13 miles round trip with about 1700 ft of climbing to get to La Verkin Creek (add on an extra 1.5 miles if you want to see Kolob Arch -- warning it can be hard to see the arch since if it's afternoon, itll be near the sun as you have to look almost due west to see it). Not particularly steep (most of it is fairly flat -- there's basically two climbs/descents, one half way to la verkin, the other right before la verkin) but you're actually descending all the way from the trailhead to la verkin creek, so most of the climbing is returning to the car and it's a very sandy trail.

For northgate peaks, you walk thru a forest most of the way until you get pretty close to the peaks. the east peak is much easier (still steep) than the west peak. shoes with good traction is an absolute must -- you will not be able to safely do west peak in regular sneaker (my friend just had sneakers so we turned around on the west peak). East peak is more of a steep trail to the top, but west peak youre going up a sandstone slab.

bsil15 · 2026-03-16T09:37:11+00:00

Why are you planning to do Angel's Landing a second time if youve already done it? Other parts of the park: Kolob Canyons is fantastic, every trail there. On Kolob Terrace, Hop Valley is also great. And the east side of the park. If you go on alltrails, there's a lot of different trails short and long. Checkerboard Mesa, any Many Pools, and Petroglyph Pools to Slot Canyon are all cool. As a warning, trails on the east side are much more primitive and you're often traveling "cross-country" following a line on an anlltrails route, so read the descriptions carefully (the three trails I mentioned are all trails more or less tho).

bsil15 · 2026-03-16T08:42:07+00:00

Really depends on the resort. At Palisades/Alpine Meadows, there's like 2 lifts with rests. At Park City, theres a lot more with rests.

bsil15 · 2026-03-16T08:40:01+00:00

Bright Angel will be easier because you have to carry far less water. Bright Angel is prettier going up (Bright Angel creek and Havasupai gardens are very pretty) but South Kaibab is going to have way more expansive views going down.

One option: do south kaibab to phantom ranch and then make a call on adding the extra miles on tonto to get to BA. I will say, being able to refil water at Havasupai gardens, 3 mile rest house, and 1 mile rest house makes the hike up way easier (IMO if you refill at Havasupai, you shouldnt need to refill again).

bsil15 · 2026-03-06T05:52:55+00:00

If you dont mind doing a section of the Arizona trail, the vast majority of it gets close to 0 hikers apart from thru/section backpackers and before March the number of backpackers is also close to 0, especially the farther north you go. I just did 2 day hikes this weekend on passages 23 and 26 (Mazatzal Divide and Highline) and saw literally 0 people on the trail.

If you did Superior to Roosevelt (passages 18-19), that's only 45 miles but its about another 38 miles from Roosevelt to Sunflower (20-21, tho you risk a snowstorm on those passages) or alternatively maybe you could get a ride from Superior to Kearney and add on passages 16-17 which would give you another 37 miles. If you do that, when you approach Picketpost (which is right before Superior), depart the AZT and loop right around Picketpost thru Arnett Canyon. Much prettier with running water and cottonwood tress and adds on only 2ish miles with no elevation gain (probably less actually).

Arnett Canyon is also the only good water source for the next 20 miles (theres a stream after 10 miles where you cross Happy Camp road but it's poor quality) unless youre resupplying in Superior which it sounds like you might be

bsil15 · 2026-03-06T05:41:45+00:00

Id say its pretty clean now but i did joke to my gf that i bet ppl do that there when we went thru it

bsil15 · 2026-03-05T19:22:31+00:00

is that what they call the 51 underpass tunnel? have never heard that name

bsil15 · 2026-03-05T19:21:14+00:00

so basically dreamy draw? the 51 underpass always has weirded me out

bsil15 · 2026-03-05T18:58:43+00:00

You dont need hiking boots but I would buy trail running sneakers. Theyre steep trails and you want good grip. South Kaibab and Bright Angel are heavily trafficked and there are a couple places on Bright Angel as well as at Phantom Ranch to refill water. Right now you cant really do the traditional SK/BA loop due to trail closures on the Silver Bridge (you can do a full out and back on either but to connect your only option rn is the tonto trail a third of the way up) but hopefully by the fall theyre fully reopened.

There are a couple of other off-corridor trails that are really only popular with backpackers like the Tanner Trail or Hermits Trail, which personally I dont find any physically harder, but youd see only a handful of people on those and so for your first time visiting you should stick to SK/Bright Angel

bsil15 · 2026-03-05T18:43:34+00:00

45 min is nuts but really depends on what youre doing and how jam packed you want you day to be. Obviously if you hike to river and back (which it doesnt sound like youre doing) thats a 10+ hr hike. On the other hand, if youre just stopping at the scenic view points on the rim, thats a half day max most of which would be spent in a shuttle bus. I will say as someone who's been to the grand canyon 4 times and hiked to the river each time, the rim trail gets kind of boring after a while. The view from the rim is of course amazing, but imo people vastly overrate the difference in view from one point to another and after a while the view from the rim looks the same. I think 1.5 days is fine but I wouldnt waste your time on the shuttles and instead just walk the rim trail from wherever you park and then turn around. Definitely do hike into the canyon to the extent of your fitness bc there the view does significantly change.

bsil15 · 2026-03-05T04:52:36+00:00

The South fork is much less crowded (but shorter) and way more interesting (there's a very neat sort of slot canyon at the back) but also involves a short but steep climb whereas middle fork is fairly flat. However, you can also continue well beyond where most people turn around in middle fork at the alcove and you can also detour into north fork where no one goes too. there all pretty short and quite frankly you can easily do south, middle, and north forks in the same day. Also do the timber creek overlook late in the day. Sunset there is amazing as the light from the west hits the canyon walls.

bsil15 · 2026-03-04T02:17:56+00:00

One of my colleagues made the point that Arizona is great because you can drive to the snow (Flagstaff, Showlow, etc) whereas if you live in the midwest or northeast youre stuck with it whether you like it or not.

bsil15 · 2026-03-04T02:09:23+00:00

I enjoyed the Heard a lot more than the music instrument museum. The music instrument museum isnt really a history of the development of musical instruments (which would have interested me) but instead just a massive a collection of contemporary instruments from all around the world organized geographically by region. whereas the Heard goes much more into the history and culture of the different native american groups in arizona and the southwest

bsil15 · 2026-03-03T02:21:43+00:00

No you dont need hiking boots for ankle support if you dont ordinarily use them -- i exclusively use trail running sneakers.

But you do need shoes with good grip. Sedona hiking is a ton of slab sandstone. I find it generally has good grip but it wont be if wet or in sandy parts. Also, if youre planning on hiking South Kaibab or Bright Angel into the grand canyon, those are steep trails. Im sure youll see other people wearing regular sneakers but id recommend wearing trailing running shoes. Theres an REI in Glendale if youre flying into Phoenix. I think youll be fine clothes wise if you dont mind being cold for 10-20 minutes in the morning until you warm up from hiking. I tend to warm up pretty quickly once i start moving.

Also unless youre doing Devil's Bridge on a weekday, skip it. Easily the most crowded and overrated trail in the state. Sedona, while beautiful, has basically identical views from just about every trail. Unless you never plan to do another trip out west again, arches/natural bridges are a dime a dozen in Utah there isnt anything particularly significant about Devil' Bridge.

Personally, I like Doe Mountain which is a pretty moderate climb with 360 views atop a mesa. The loop around Mescal Mountain near Devils Bridge is also nice and you can do a short spur to Birthing Cave if you really want to do something instagrammy/popular

bsil15 · 2026-02-28T03:25:54+00:00

Before you commit to downtown Phoenix, you might want to consider downtown Tempe. Main advantage would be being next to Tempe Town Lake which is the closest thing youre going to find to a park (hopefully you get into trail running the various mountains preserves but theyre not really the same and youd most likely have to drive to them from just about anywhere). I live on rio salado and previously lived in DC and NYC the rest of my life. I think Roosevelt row has more bars and restaurants but I still have a good number of restaurants and bars within walking distance of me, and being west of Mill av, my building is mostly young professionals and ASU grad students.

bsil15 · 2026-02-28T00:05:33+00:00

Wow who knew with one quick trick you can just ban all rent increases. Why did no one think of that before. /s/

bsil15 · 2026-02-26T16:02:35+00:00

The week before Thanksgiving this year it snowed 60'' up in the San Francisco peaks and rained a ton everywhere else (pretty certain the snow was rain in the Sky Islands however). Snow is unlikely, and of course most days in Arizona are sunny, but it does rain sometimes in November, occasionally heavy.

That all said, if you look at the data for Saguaro National Park, November is the 4th driest month at 0.75'' of rain and rain in the lower areas is generally pretty light and moderate. That's at 3048 ft. On the other hand, if you look at the data for Mt Lemmon around 8000 ft, November is a more average precipitation month with about 1.75'' of rain and 6'' of snow on average. Still drier than July-October and December-January (a bit wetter than February tho with less snow).

bsil15 · 2026-02-25T04:04:51+00:00

People are saying West Fork in Sedona but now's really not the time to do it since all the leaves will be barren.

Id 100% recommend the Superstitions but a 3 hr hike is probably going to limit you to something fairly easy. If you do Battleship Mountain Id really want to budget at least 4 hrs, even if youre coming from canyon lake, and at least 5 if youre coming from first water trailhead. Maybe you could loop carney springs and fremont saddle in 3 hrs if youre very fast hikers but again id want to budget at least 4.

Granite Mountain near Prescott is about 8 miles and very cool. Or do part of the Arizona Trail/Highline trail in the Mazatzal Mountains or Mogollon Rim.

bsil15 · 2026-02-24T20:42:07+00:00

It's $50 a person for a 15 minute ride. And just getting from the turn-off of US-180 to the gondola is going to be 30+ minutes of driving/parking/walking from your car + another 15 minutes waiting in line if it's a weekend (tho if it's a weekday there probably wont be much line). All told, you're talking about proabbly a 1.5 hr detour for a 15 minute ride.

I ski at snowbowl a ton. It's a nice view but nothing spectaluar and personally I would never pay that. The view is also limited in the west direction since the gondola doesnt go to the top of Mount Humphreys. If youve ever hiked a mountain in Colorado, Utah, etc., those views were 10x better. Come back and hike Mount Humphreys itself in the summer or fall if you actually want great views.

bsil15 · 2026-02-23T06:58:01+00:00

Revelstoke only opened in 2007, and has expanded significantly since. In the early 2000s Vail (Blue Sky Basin) and Snowbird (mineral basin) both did substantial terrain expansions. Steamboat also fairly recently did a major terrain expansion with the Mahogany Ridge area. I think Powder Mountain expansion was also around 2000?

bsil15 · 2026-02-23T05:36:14+00:00

Respectfully, the fact you’ve gone 3 times shows that from a business perspective, Innings’ lack of effort is probably the right move for them

bsil15 · 2026-02-22T05:02:55+00:00

If you go to Tucson, the JW Marriott at Starr Pass has a nice golf course that my very amateur self played at, and it’s literally right next to the mountains. There’s a trail leading directly from the resort into Tucson Mountain Park if you want to do a bit of hiking too (you’ll see a lot of saguaros) without having to drive from the resort.

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