Drive up to the Echo Canyon Trailhead on McDonald Drive right now and you will find it gated. No cars turning in off Tatum Boulevard, no line forming before sunrise, just orange fencing and a redirect to the other side of the mountain. If you have lived near Camelback long enough to treat its two trails as interchangeable, this is the first time in a while that choice has not existed.
That is not a coincidence stacking on a coincidence. It is a schedule, and the schedule itself tells you something about how the city has changed the way it handles this mountain since last year.
The Schedule, Not the Chaos
Cholla Trailhead, reached off Invergordon Road near 66th Street, closed August 17 through August 28 so Phoenix Water Services crews could replace a sewer line along Cholla Lane as part of what the city calls the Cholla Sewer Diversion and Abandonment Project. It reopened August 28, right on schedule. Then Echo Canyon Trailhead closed September 2 through September 18 for a different job entirely: new automatic gates and trail posts at the trailhead.
Run the math and Camelback Mountain has been operating on a single working trail for most of the past month, with one narrow exception. Between August 29 and September 1, both trails were open at the same time. If you missed that four-day window, and most people did not know it existed until it had already passed, you have been choosing between one trail and no trail since mid-August.
What Changed Since Last October
Last October, Echo Canyon closed with no end date attached. Storms had loosened three boulders along the trail, and the city's own announcement at the time said Parks and Recreation needed to consult geotechnical and civil engineers before it could say when hikers would get the trail back. Stabilization work did not begin until the week of November 24 and ran into the week of December 8, closer to two months after the initial closure.
Parks and Recreation Director Cynthia Aguilar spoke to that stretch when the trail finally reopened in December, telling 12News:
"We appreciate the community's patience while our teams completed this critical safety work."
That was a city working through an emergency in real time. This year's closures are the opposite kind of event. Both had dates attached before the fencing went up, and both were sequenced back to back rather than stacked on top of each other, so that at no point did Camelback go fully dark. One trail down is an inconvenience. Two trails down at once, with no timeline, is what happened in October. The scheduling this time is the tell that Phoenix planned its maintenance calendar around avoiding a repeat.
What's Actually Off Limits Right Now
For anyone mapping out this week's hike, here is where things stand as of today:
- Echo Canyon Trail is closed through September 18 for the gate and trail-post work.
- Bobby's Rock Trail, the short loop that circles a cube-shaped sandstone formation and passes a helipad, is also closed for the same window, since it can only be reached from the Echo Canyon Trailhead.
- Cholla Trail, off Invergordon Road, is the only way to the summit until Echo Canyon reopens.
Cholla is not a gentler stand-in. The city rates it Extremely Difficult in its own right, slightly longer than Echo Canyon, fully exposed with almost no shade along the way.
Where the Cars Actually Go
The parking math is the part that catches people off guard. Echo Canyon has a bathroom, a drinking fountain, and a bike rack at its trailhead. Cholla has none of that, just a gravel path along the south side of Cholla Lane and a requirement that hikers parallel park in specific marked sections along the west side of Invergordon Road, with a few yellow-curbed drop-off spots for rideshares. With every hiker who would normally split toward Invergordon now funneling through the same limited stretch of street parking, that lot fills earlier in the day than the usual weekend rush. If you are used to grabbing a spot at Echo Canyon on a Saturday morning, this is the week to either get to Cholla before sunrise or plan your hike around a different mountain entirely.
The Other Mountain in the Room
That different mountain, if you want a genuine alternative rather than a squeeze onto Cholla, is Piestewa Peak. The Summit Trail there carries the same Extremely Difficult rating as Camelback's routes and gains roughly 1,200 feet over a little more than a mile, a comparable workout in a shorter package. The trailhead is currently on extended summer hours through September 30, meaning the parking lot entrance stays open until 9 p.m. and the trail itself until 11 p.m. For the next five days, until Echo Canyon reopens, Piestewa Peak is the pressure valve for anyone who would rather not compete for a spot along Invergordon.
After the Hike, Something New
One thing has genuinely changed on this side of Paradise Valley since last year's hiking season, and it is worth knowing before you plan your post-hike stop. The former Scottsdale Plaza Resort on Lincoln Drive reopened in January 2026 as Kimpton Miralina Resort & Villas after a $42 million renovation across 42 acres. For anyone finishing a Cholla or Echo Canyon hike on this side of town, that is a real option that did not exist a year ago. The old Scottsdale Plaza was not the kind of place you casually wandered into after a trail run. Whether the new property becomes that kind of habitual stop for the neighborhood is still an open question, but it is now at least a question worth asking.
The Takeaway for the Next Five Days
None of this changes what makes Camelback worth the effort. It changes how you get up it between now and September 18. Cholla is your only route to the summit, its trailhead parking is tighter than usual, and Bobby's Rock is off the table until Echo Canyon reopens. If your knees or your schedule would rather skip the wait, Piestewa Peak is open late and rated for the same kind of climb.
What is worth carrying forward past this particular closure window is the pattern behind it. A mountain this popular is always going to need periodic work. The difference between a city that reacts to a storm two months at a time and one that schedules its maintenance and tells you the dates in advance is the difference you are living through right now, whether you noticed it or not.
If you are the kind of Paradise Valley resident who tracks details like this because you actually live with them, that same attention to what is changing on the ground, not just the headline, is what Michael Bullis brings to conversations about the neighborhood itself. Whether you are curious what a home near Camelback or Lincoln Drive is worth in today's market or just want a straight answer about what is actually happening nearby, reach out and request a home valuation whenever the timing is right for you.
