Hike TwoBit Peak and Phoenix Mountains Loop Phoenix Mountains Preserve, AZ

Mar 31, 2024 — This loop reaches a bunch of minor peaks in the Preserve, excluding the high point Piestewa Peak, a nice romp around the Phoenix Mountains Preserve I thought would be the best way to cure a hangover from the previous night's music festival. You can create all sorts of loops in this overly-trailed urban park, but the route I took seemed the most efficient way to summit all my peak goals. I started on the north side of the Preserve at the 40th Street Trailhead. I hiked south on a flat mountain biking trail, taking a quick detour to hike up to Peak 1987. There's apparently a trail up this peak from the east side, but I was able to locate a faint social trail coming from the west and it worked nicely, introducing some very light Class 2 toward the summit.

I continued south to TwoBit Peak, which seems to be also known as Dixie Peak, but signage within the Preserve labels it as the former so I'll stick with that. The trail to its summit is in great shape and quite popular, switchbacking tightly to its south ridge before a final hike to the summit. Rather than backtrack all the way down the TwoBit Peak Trail, I noticed another unlabeled social trail leading west just before the switchbacks and took this to join the Quartz Ridge Trail.

The Quartz Ridge Trail ascended to a minor saddle before continuing south toward the N 36th Trailhead. A fancy house was currently under construction, and while their view will probably be quite nice, the home is a great big wealthy eyesore for everyone else. Peak 2112 was next, an off-trail jaunt across from the trailhead. It was steep and a little rocky/loose at times. The summit is unclear since the ridge has a few small bumps, but with some Class 2 scrambling I reached each of them.

Next up was Peak 2141, a hike on Trail #8B all the way up to a nice view toward Piestewa Peak and the various other summits on my loop. Below I could see the popular main trailhead for the Preserve. I then continued north on Trail #8A to reach the base of my final summit, Peak 1955. There are a ridiculous number of intersecting trails you can use to reach the peak, but the goal is to reach a steep one that climbs to Peak 1955's western saddle, where its summit is easily reached from there. I headed north from here and was soon back down to the desert floor where another swath of too-many intersecting trails made getting back to the trailhead a slight process.