For starters when you park, the bear mountain trailhead is actually across the street. We actually failed to read that part and did a good 1/4 mile on the other trail before we realized it lol.

Now, let me start with the good stuff. The views are beautiful basically from the start. Lots of cool things to look at and beautiful landscape to take photos of. Stop for breaks because honestly the best views were all along the way up. The top was nice but some of my favorite views were when I would stop for a very much needed break.

Now the bad stuff, holy hell was this a hot hike! You should start early! Virtually no shade, so when you find a semi-tall juniper that is giving shade, take it. Also, probably good to bring gloves because there is a lot of scrambling up and down. And lastly, bring extra water! Even my 21 year old son who works construction in the Phoenix sun ran out of his 2 liters. It got a little scary in the midday sun with no shade and no water.

Took us well over 5 hours to complete and was so glad it was over. In the end, I would do this hike again but in cooler months for sure!!