Pinnacle
Peak Park celebrating five years of operation
Recent
trail project improves hiking experience
by Brian DiTullio
NORTH
SCOTTSDALE – Pinnacle Peak Park will celebrate its five-year
anniversary the weekend of April 20-21, and a recent
trail improvement project, coincidentally finished in
time for the event, has given the ever-popular namesake
hike a facelift.
Recreation
Leader Diane McCoy-Berney
said in the five years the park has been open under the
management of the City of Scottsdale, nearly 800,000 people
have visited and that the staff and volunteers are gearing
up for the anniversary.
We’ll
have events going on throughout the day,” she said.
The
trail work was performed by a crew of eight Southwest
Conservation Corps members earlier this year, and was
funded by the Recreational Trails Program
sponsored by Arizona State Parks. As a result, the city
received the benefit of $44,000 in services, according
to the City of Scottsdale. The results of the project
include better drainage on the trail and the addition
of steps to improve hiking conditions.
Volunteer
Joe Zveglich said “quite a few” steps were brought in
due to erosion along the hillside. “It’s just maintenance
to make the trail more hikeable.”
McCoy-Berney
guides groups of people during the week on hikes up the
hill, and says Saturdays and Sundays during the winter
months can see between 1,200 and 1,500 people a day.
While
not a part of the trail rehabilitation
project, the department also installed several signs last
fall. The signs are descriptive in nature about the various
plant life hikers will find along the trail.
“It’s
so everyone can do their own guided hike at their own
pace,” said McCoy-Berney.
Nature
lovers can view numerous varieties of plant life that
grow in the Sonoran Desert. For example, there are seven
different species of cactus growing in the park and as
many as 148 different kinds of plants.
“It’s
the plushest desert on Earth,” said McCoy-Berney, pointing
out eight different species of plants in a relatively
small area. “There’s more wildlife here than in any other
desert.”
To
prove her point, McCoy-Berney also talked of a bobcat
sighting the morning of The Desert Advocate’s visit.
The
park does have some quirks, though. Despite having seven
different species of cactus, the prickly pear cactus does
not grow around Pinnacle Peak, and the ironwood tree only
grows on the west face of the peak.
Free,
guided hikes at Pinnacle Peak Park are offered Tuesdays
through Sundays beginning at 10 a.m. Hikes last about
two hours and cover a little more than a
mile, all while discussing the elements of the beautiful
Sonoran Desert.
