Lookout Mountain Summit

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 1 mile
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 1580 - 2054 feet
Cellphone: 4-5 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: 15600 N. 16th
Fee: none
Attractions: Scenic views

The Lookout Mountain Summit trail is part of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve trail system in Phoenix, Arizona. Lookout Mountain is an easier summit hike than most of the other peaks in the area like Camelback, Piestewa Peak and North Mountain. It also sees far fewer hikers than they do. Although the trail is short it can be combined with different sections of the Lookout Mountain Circumference trail for routes of 5 more more miles.

Lookout Mountain Circumference

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 2.6 - 4.4 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
MTB Skill level:
Elevation: 1468 - 1670 feet
Cellphone: 4-5 bars
Time: 2 hrs.
Trailhead: 16th or 18th Street
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs, views

The Lookout Mountain Circumference trail is part of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve in Phoenix, Arizona. The Preserve protects many of the granite peaks that project themselves upward in various areas of the Phoenix Basin. As its name implies, the Lookout Mountain Circumference trail, incircles the peak that goes by that name. Distances for the trail vary depending upon the route followed.

Comet Thrower

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 2.8 - 8.5 miles
Difficulty: Strenuous
Elevation: 4525 - 5073 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 5 hrs. 45 mins.
Trailhead: Dubinky Wash
Fee: none
Attractions: pictographs

The Comet Thrower is a pictograph site that is located in Hell Roaring Canyon near Moab, Utah. The panel of pictographs is on a south facing cliff across the canyon from a rock formation known as the Kachina Spires. Access into the canyon can be made by descending an old cattle trail into Dubinky Wash and then hiking up Hell Roaring Canyon or by descending a Class III+ climbers access trail that is across from the Kachina Spires. The route through Dubinky Wash is about 5 miles one-way while the route via the climbers trail is only 1.4 miles one-way. For this post we wanted to check out both routes so we left our mountain bikes at the Kachina Spires end of the canyon and began hiking at Dubinky Wash. The total round trip distance ended up being about 8.5 miles with 2 of that being an easy bike ride along the road.

Mee Canyon

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 6.2 miles
Difficulty: Strenuous
Elevation: 5368 - 6713 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 6 hrs.
Trailhead: Mee Canyon
Fee: none
Attractions: Scenic canyon adventure

The Mee Canyon trail is located in the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness Area near Grand Junction, Colorado. The trail begins on the west side of Black Ridge where it descends for about 1.8 miles to where it drops into a side branch of Mee Canyon. At the drop in point the trail passes through a small arch and down a ladder. Multiple scrambles come up as the trail works its way over one bench after another as it gets deeper into the head of the canyon. At one point hikers must crawl through a small opening at the point of a cliff followed later by a walk along a narrow ledge. The usual destination is to a massive cavern that is roughly 300 feet deep by 200 feet wide and 80 feet high.