Lookout Mountain Hike

On Tuesday this week, it was a rare overcast day in the city, so Clinton and I decided that we would go for a quick little hike after work. We stopped at home to change and pick up Emmy, and went to Lookout Mountain Preserve to get in some quality time with our teeny family unit.

Looking North from the base of the mountain.

Turned around, looking at part of the mountain. There's more to the left, and it's higher.

The above picture only shows part of the mountain. There's the smallest peak to the right, then to the left is the middle peak, and to the left of that (not pictured) is the highest peak. We took a circumference trail that went around the whole thing, instead of up. About 3/4 of the way through, we went up to the top of the middle peak before heading back down.

pre-hike selfies ftw.

We hiked around about a quarter of the trail before we had to stop for puppy's first water break. Seriously, our pup is a champ. She is so teeny and takes like 20 steps to our one, but she makes it through every hike we do - even the long ones!

Puppy!



About 1/4 of the way around the mountain. We are now looking Southeast.

After a quick break, we were on our way again. Clinton and I spent this leg of the hike talking about how stupid and unfair cancer is. Someone we work with was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer and it's just so frustrating because she is one of the nicest people you will ever meet - not to mention the healthiest! It just feels frustrating and unfair that someone like that (or someone like my sister) has to deal with this crap. It makes you feel helpless. It was therapeutic though - there was nobody else out on the trails but us, so it helped being able to vent and work out some frustrations by sweating a little bit.

I just thought this rocky area was cool-looking.

 



 View to the South.

 

About 3/4 of the way around the circumference of the mountain preserve we slowed the pace because we were looking at all the huuuuuge houses on the west side of the mountain. Seriously, they are enormous! In the one pictured above, there was a wraparound raised patio with arches around the entire house. There was another house (pictured below) that looked like a tropical resort or something with all of the trees surrounding it and the pool. I wondered aloud if the people who live in these houses get irritated when people on the mountain are totally creeping on where they live, because I'm sure everyone who hikes there does it.

 

Also - the clouds were awesome, so you know I had to snap some photos of those too. I just love grey days!

Thanks, clouds, for allowing us to hike in Phoenix in the middle of summer!

 



 

We also took some photos on the peak (this time the photos are facing north again, except from the top now instead of the base). I captured Clinton trying to take a photo of Emmy - poor guy, he can hardly ever get a good one! I tried to get Emmy to come stand next to me to take a photo w/ the city behind us, but she was toooooo scared because about 3 feet back you could see over the edge and she thought she was going to go over it or something. Poor thing... I was trying not to laugh at her, but it was pretty funny.

 

 

She refused to back up at all and laid flat on her belly. As soon as I told her she could move she bolted right back over to Clinton for comfort. Our dog thinks she is a human...

Wimp.

 

After taking in the views at the top for awhile we decided to head back down so we could get home and make supper.

 



The infographic and map at the base of the preserve.

 



Post-Hike. It wasn't difficult, but it was hot even though it was cloudy!

 

All in all, I'd call it a success. It was nice to get outside for awhile on a weekday. We can't wait until the weather starts turning so that we can do these quick little weeknight hikes more often, instead of being forced to go out of town on the weekend if we want to hike!