San Tan Mountains Regional Park Hike - May 6, 2006


On May 6, 2006 my then fiancé Kristie and I took a short hike in San Tan Regional Mountain Park which is near our home in Queen Creek, AZ. I had read about the trails here in a local newspaper a few months back and since I drive by these mountains daily I have always wanted to hike them. Normally my fiancé, Kristie, is not the hiking type but she's been on a fitness kick lately so she agreed to go. We started about 10am and it was already pretty hot. Probably about 90F.

    

 

We saw the graves and plaques of miners and nature lovers Mansel Carter and Marion Kennedy.

    

                   

We were almost at the summit of this small mountain Kristie spotted some suspicious looking flying insects. They did look somewhat like wasps. I looked around and saw that several bushes were covered with them and they were flying around intermittently. Since Kristie is allergic to insect bites we didn't want to take any chances in this remote location so we turned back at this point.

Even though the hike was short and we didn't quite make the peak it was still a rewarding and spiritual experience for both of us. We plan to go back and hike a couple of the bigger peaks.

     

    

                   

To get to the trailhead go south on Wagon Wheel from Hunt Highway. Follow the curve of the road around to the west. Go past the pyramid house. Follow the road west to the end. This is parking for the trailhead. I've highlighted the route Kristie and I took in blue.

 

Here's a link to the park service web site for San Tan Mountain Regional Park

We had a good time. It was about a mile hike each way. Since Kristie is relatively new to hiking I took it extremely easy on her so she will hopefully go with me agin some day :) We took our time, looked at rocks, squirrels, birds, and each other's company and just enjoyed ourselves. It took us about 1.5 hours to do the hike.

Last updated Jan 11, 2009

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