Usury Mountain Park

Our hiking guidebook suggested this trail that loops around Pass Mountain in Usury Mountain Park.  It's only a half hour drive from our campsite and did not involve crossing Phoenix during rush hour so we were game.

And we had the first hour on the trail mostly to ourselves. The first 3 hours of the 4 hour hike were pretty wonderful,

with beautiful desert




and views of mountains in every direction. 




The north side was particularly lovely, with patches of blooming larkspur in between the desert plants. 



We crossed over two saddles and wandered up and down the slope of the mountain.

The last hour was in flat, drier desert in the full heat,




so it was just a matter of getting back to the parking lot and some shade, but there were lots of staghorn cholla in bloom



in their various shades of yellow.

We hiked all the way around this mountain!