Photo by Ray Stern Phoenix New Times
By Ray Stern |Phoenix New Times
The Phoenix Parks and Recreation department declines to provide any timeline for when Camelback Mountain’s popular Cholla Trail will reopen, but says plans to relocate the trailhead could be finalized in a few months.
If those plans come to fruition, Cholla Trail will feature a bathroom and water fountain for the first time. The trail might also need to be renamed, as it’ll have nothing to do with Cholla Lane anymore.
Camelback, the 2,704-foot-high mountain in east Phoenix, sees about a half-million summits a year by hordes of hikers, from out-of-shape hotel guests who end up needing a mountain rescue to local fanatics who run up and down multiple times each day. The two summit trails, Cholla and Echo Canyon, gain about 1,200 feet of elevation over 1.5 rugged miles.
