We had to park a quarter mile away due to a lack of parking. This turned out to be a good thing because this extra walk just about doubled the length of the hike.
The first sign that this would not be a 'real' hike came when we entered the main parking lot.
There was not a single car in the parking lot that was not brand new and fancy. Therefore, this must be a classy hike. This was not too much of a surprise because of the classy nature of Scottsdale, but still not a good sign for a hike.We started up the hike by walking past the Visitor's Center. Wait, what kind of random, one trail, hike has a visitor's center? It's not like this is a state or national park. May I re-emphasize that there is only a single, short, trail.
Then at the trail head there was this sign... It says something like "grab a rock or two to make your hike challenging".
If you need to carry rocks for a hike to be challenging it makes you wonder, weird....We hiked for a little over a quarter of a mile and came to a offshoot trail for rock climbers. Dayna couldn't resist the temptation to check out the rock climbing routes, so we took this side trail. We were able to see some cool, expert level, rock climbing routes and this trail took us up to the base of the big rock outcropping that makes up the top of Pinnacle Peak.
We decided to see if we could find the main trail and see how it makes its way up to the top of Pinnacle Peak. We scrambled around for a few minutes before we realized that the Pinnacle Peak hike does not hike Pinnacle Peak. Instead, it winds around the base of the hill, as can be seen in the picture below.
We were shocked. We wanted to hike a peak, and the trail doesn't even attempt to approach the peak. Fortunately, we were among the fortunate few who actually got to hike up Pinnacle Peak due to our explorations and curiosity.
