A friend came in for Thanksgiving week, so we decided to do a hike on the Wednesday before to build up the appetite for the week. Cholla trailhead opened up recently and I wanted to try it out since I did Echo years ago. The new part of the park for Cholla side looked really well done, incorporating the rock walls and bathroom “bins” and hand washing station. Cholla starts off gradually gaining incline while giving great views of Phoenician Golf Resort, as well as the nice homes on that side. It is a steady vert and even in November, the sun was adding to the heat factor. It wasn't until you get past the helipad that you start to see how this trail isn't really like the beginning and how it will require small scrambles to get up to the summit. It is always busy, but since we went mid-morning during a holiday week, there were plenty of people hiking both sides. Now, if you are a visitor/tourist/non-hiker doing this trail, be sure to aware of people who hike this mountain as their daily exercise and trail runners. In other words, people will be running up and down this mountain and need to get past you. Most are polite about it, some don't really even pay attention to you with their Airpods locked in, and a few are blatantly annoyed by your “slowness” and will cut in front of you without shame. Just be aware of this and play the “defensive driver” hiker style. After the summit, which obviously is 360 degrees of awesomeness, we decided to go down the Echo side. This is doing the whole mountain and I think it is worth it, albeit extremely difficult on the body, especially the knees and feet. Your toes will be bruised if you are wearing boots and your knees will creak for days. But I would rather go down Echo than up, and there are some great vantage points along the way as well. The parking situation is tenuous on both sides, but I feel like Cholla has a better chance of finding something and Echo is a gamble. Since we parked easily at Cholla side, we had to Uber back there from Echo. Be prepared to pay $15-25 for a 1.75 mile ride depending on pricing at the time.