Friday Fitness Hike

Mitra joined Nora and me for the first part of our ten mile hike. We hiked the Tom’s Thumb trail and then took a climber’s access trail up to and then past Tom’s Thumb, rejoining the Tom’s Thumb Trail at around the two mile point.  Mitra headed back down Tom’s Thumb Trail while Nora and I went in the other direction on Tom’s Thumb Trail. We hiked down the Scottsdale side of the mountain and then hiked up the Windgate Pass Trail to return to the eastern side of the (McDowell) mountain range. We returned by hiking up the East End Trail and then down Tom’s Thumb Trail.

A view from early on along the climber’s access trail:

We saw some deer early on too…

Gardener’s Wall and Tom’s Thumb:

More views from the climber’s access trail…

Pinnacle Peak and Troon Mountain:

Views of the East End, Glass Dome, Weaver’s Needle, Tom’s Thumb, and the Rist (no “w”):

Tom’s Thumb:

Nora and Mitra, nearing the end of the climber’s access trail:

I don’t often see Tom’s Thumb from this angle; I took this one as we were heading west prior to crossing over to the Scottsdale side on Tom’s Thumb Trail:

As we headed west on the Tom’s Thumb Trail, Nora noticed, at first, that there weren’t any saguaros.  But that soon changed as we continued westward:

Another great view from the Scottsdale side of the mountain:

Here, we’ve started up the Windgate Pass Trail; this is a view of the pass:

A view of Weaver’s Needle through a pair of saguaro arms:

Looking towards Red Mountain and Fountain Hills from the East End Trail:

Glass Dome and Tom’s Thumb:

When we nearly done, we saw a pair of climbers hiking up the trail.  Oh, yeah, there was this guy in a Santa suit with and green alien hanging off his back too…