First time hiking Camelback via Echo Canyon but Cholla trail side was closed. Trail was rated extremely difficult and I must say it was pretty accurate. While the trail is relatively short it was all straight up with lots of rock and boulder climbs. Plenty of opportunity to work out quads and knees on this one. We normally hike with poles to assist with both balance and saving knees on descent but opted to leave them behind based on the trail description. Overall a good choice as we needed our hands free for the rock climbs in a number of areas. Hike is mostly shaded in the early morning but it did get a bit sunny on the way back. To be fair, this should be about a two hour hike if you cruise through it. We took our time and it was more like 3.5 hours. We prefer more traditional trail hikes but this was an adventure and while it was very crowded people were patient and pleasant to each other. Summit was a great payoff with beautiful city views. Lots of areas along the trail gave good phot opportunities as well.