If your week runs on a Camelback loop, the kind where you know exactly which lot fills up first and exactly how long the scramble near the top takes, this is the month that routine breaks. Starting August 17, the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department is closing the Cholla Trailhead on Invergordon Road for construction, and it will not reopen until August 28. The Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department said Monday that the Cholla Trailhead, on Invergordon Road near 66th Street, and north of Chaparral Road, will be closed from Aug. 17 through Aug. 28. For eleven days, Camelback Mountain effectively has one door.
Most people who live inside the 85253 line, or in the neighborhoods that treat the mountain as a backyard fixture, assume the two trailheads are roughly interchangeable. They are not, and this closure is a useful moment to see why.
What Actually Closes, and Why
The Cholla Trailhead will be shut down as Phoenix Water Services Department crews install a new sewer line along Cholla Lane, north of the trailhead and east of Invergordon Road. The existing line running through that easement is being pulled out entirely, not just patched, which is why the closure runs a full two weeks rather than a weekend. The only way to hike Camelback Mountain during that stretch will be from the Echo Canyon Trailhead on the west side of the mountain on McDonald Drive, near Tatum Boulevard.
That single sentence carries more weight than it looks like it should. Echo Canyon is not simply the backup lot. It becomes, for eleven days, the only way onto a mountain that ordinarily splits its traffic two ways.
| Trailhead | Address | Status Aug 17-28 | Difficulty | Notable details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cholla Trail | 5150 N. Invergordon Rd | Closed for sewer work | Extremely Difficult | A bathroom, water drinking fountain, sinks and a bike rack are available when open |
| Echo Canyon Trail | 4925 E. McDonald Dr | Only trailhead open | Extremely Difficult | Dogs are not allowed on this trail |
If your dog is part of the morning routine, that last detail matters more than the construction schedule does. For eleven days, there is no leg of Camelback open to leashed hikers with a dog in tow.
The City's Own Description Gives Away the Real Difference
Phoenix's own trail literature draws a distinction worth sitting with. Cholla Trail is a slightly longer alternative to the more strenuous Echo Canyon Trail, but don't expect an easy hike as this trail also is rated Extremely Difficult. In practice, that means the trail being closed is the gentler of the two options, even though gentler on Camelback is a relative term. Everyone funneled to Echo Canyon this month is taking on a steeper, more technical version of the mountain than they may be used to. The trail closure means hikers will have to plan for a tougher Camelback Mountain hike because Echo Canyon is considered more difficult.
There is a second layer to this that has nothing to do with the sewer project and everything to do with the calendar. Camelback in August already comes with its own access rules. During an Extreme Heat Warning, the city of Phoenix restricts access from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at several popular hiking areas, including Camelback Mountain Preserve's Echo Canyon and Cholla trails. Stack that against a trailhead closure and the honest math is this: on any day this month that trips an Extreme Heat Warning, the entire mountain narrows down to one trail open for roughly three hours at dawn and a similar window after 5 p.m. That is a much smaller margin than most residents plan around.
This Is Not the First Time the Mountain Has Gone Dark
The instinct is to treat this closure as a one-off inconvenience. The trail's own recent history argues otherwise. Camelback's other trailhead, Echo Canyon, spent weeks shut down after the city identified structural problems on the slope itself. Echo Canyon Trail at Camelback Mountain remained closed as the City of Phoenix worked to resolve safety concerns, including three unstable boulders identified following recent storms. In mid-October, the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department temporarily closed Echo Canyon Trail to investigate possible erosion. The fix was not quick. Work to address the safety concerns posed by the unstable boulders began the week of November 24 and continued into the week of December 8. During that stretch, the city pointed hikers elsewhere entirely. Until Echo Canyon Trail reopened, the Parks and Recreation Department encouraged residents to visit other popular hiking destinations, including Cholla Trail at Camelback Mountain, Piestewa Peak, North Mountain, Dreamy Draw, Lookout Mountain and South Mountain Park and Preserve.
Put the two closures side by side and a pattern shows up that a single news item would hide. Camelback's two trails have each gone dark for extended repair work in recent memory, once for a multi-week boulder stabilization project on Echo Canyon and now for underground utility work on Cholla. Neither closure was announced far in advance. Each time, the entire mountain's foot traffic got compressed onto whichever trail happened to still be open. For residents who structure a weekly routine around Camelback specifically, that is a real reliability problem, not a scheduling footnote.
The Workaround Regulars Actually Use
Echo Canyon does have one built-in relief valve that many casual hikers never notice. Located within Echo Canyon, Bobby's Rock Trail is a short hike that loops around a large cube-shaped sandstone rock. It splits off from the main trail early, well before the technical scramble that defines the rest of Echo Canyon. Bobby's Rock Trail has a total elevation gain of 200 feet and provides hikers with a view of Paradise Valley and the Phoenix Mountains Preserve. Against the summit's 2,704 feet above sea level, that 200-foot loop is a fraction of the climb and a fraction of the crowd. It will not scratch the itch for anyone training for the full ascent, but for a dawn walk before work during a closure week, it is the honest alternative rather than fighting for parking at an overloaded single trailhead.
Mummy Mountain: The Option Most People Never Think to Use
Paradise Valley has a second mountain inside its own boundaries that almost never comes up in these conversations, largely because getting onto it is not straightforward. Mummy Mountain sits across Lincoln Drive from Camelback, and its most established route runs through private resort property rather than a public trailhead. Hikers start at the northern end of the Camelback Inn and are advised to notify the front desk so their car is not towed. From there, the route crosses a small bridge into what is known locally as Tyner's Trail, a short but genuinely steep climb that most Camelback regulars have simply never tried.
The mountain is not a free-for-all despite being less crowded. The Mountain Preserve designation covers property on Mummy Mountain, Camelback Mountain, and the Phoenix Mountain Preserve within and around the Town of Paradise Valley's boundaries. The Preserve Trust currently protects more than 260 acres and continues working with property owners to expand that footprint. That acreage is managed independently of the town government, through a private trust structure built specifically to keep the slope undeveloped. It is a quieter option, but an informal one, and it depends on the same resort courtesy every time rather than a marked public trailhead with posted hours.
The Practical Takeaway for the Rest of August
None of this means Camelback stops being the mountain that defines the town's daily rhythm. It means the assumption that it is always fully open, in both directions, on any given morning, does not hold up against the trail's own recent history. Two separate closures, one storm-driven and one utility-driven, have each taken a trailhead offline for one to four weeks apiece. For anyone whose week depends on that mountain specifically, a short list is worth keeping on hand before August 17 arrives:
- Plan Echo Canyon mornings before 8 a.m. or evenings after 5 p.m. if a heat warning is active, since restricted hours apply on top of the closure.
- Leave dogs at home for any Camelback hike through August 28, since Echo Canyon does not permit them.
- Treat Bobby's Rock as the fallback loop on days when Echo Canyon's main lot is full, rather than waiting out a parking line.
- Keep Piestewa Peak, North Mountain, Dreamy Draw and South Mountain in rotation, the same list the city itself pointed to during Echo Canyon's last extended closure.
The mountain will still be there on August 29. The reliable version of it, the one that lets you choose your trailhead based on mood or crowd size, comes back with it.
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