The Mormon Trail and Fat Man's Pass, South Mountain Park, Phoenix

Distance: 4 miles

Elevation:

Signifance: hiking around boulders and tall saguaros at sunrise, views of city lights.

Trailhead is at the south end of 24th Street and East Valley View Drive.  Parking lot holds 25 vehicles.  Two spots are for handicapped. Lot fills up fast!

http://www.arizonahikersguide.com/all-hikes/mormon-loop-to-fat-mans-pass

I'm on Thanksgiving break this week and took advanrage of a cool front in the area by driving up here Monday afternoon.  My intent to hike and try several brewpubs in two days was achieved. I took Zeke and Gretel.

I left home at 2:30pm Monday and got to my first brewpub, Arizona Wilderness Brewing in Gilbert, at 6:30pm.  This is a big place with a large patio. (The other location in DTPHX (Downtown Phoenix), even has a beer garden)  Everyone was masked.  I kept the dogs in the car while I ate two chicken street tacos and had an oatmeal stout.  The meal and beer were fine, but the coffee oatmeal stout was the only beer on tap that was under 6%  that I had a taste for, so I only had that one beer.  This brewery specializes in DIPA and sours, neither of which I like. https://azwbeer.com/about/

My big surprise Monday was stopping at the famous OHSO brewery next, a short drive from the first brewery. That stands for Outrageous Homebrewer's Social Outpost and there are four locations in the Greater Phoenix area. This place is as large as the Wilderness brewery and has a separate entrance for dog owners.  Here I had two more beers, a Handlebar Hefeweizen and a Popcycle Ale, both beers I've had at taphouses elsewhere in the past.  I sat at a picnic table away from the more crowded outdoor bar so that the dogs wouldn't bother anyone.  Both dogs did great and Gretel stole the show.  This is a place I'd come back to.

The big event was on Tuesday at sunrise as I got to the Mormon trail parking lot at 5am.  There were already people hiking up the trail in the dark, as their bright flashlights shone and marked their presence via swaying light trails.  I didn't get started until 6:30, with sunrise at 7:04am.  The trail is too rocky for me to hike in the dark so I waited until dawn to get going.  It's a well-marked trail with signs at every intersection.

This is a popular trail with Phoenicians and I can see why.  The 25-car parking lot is known to fill up quickly and it did this morning, with cars waiting in line to get in when I got back to my car. The city enforces a no-overnight camping rule here, with tire spikes put up at night. I was the third car in when I got started. I had the dogs on leash, although there were a few steep areas where this was hard to do.

I made it to the first hilltop at sunrise, then continued south on the trail to Fat Man's Pass and the Tunnel, both geological formations made by giant boulders.  Parts of the boulders are shiny from oil left behind by millions of human hands.

  This pass lives up to its name.  I had to slide through sideways with my backpack off.  The dogs had no trouble getting through. Minnie would have gotten stuck and whimpered.

From the pass on this section was a rock hopper. I enjoyed the challenge but some people would have trouble climbing up these slick boulders.  I watched my footing as my Teva sandals, despite being only eight months old, are losing their treading.Again the dogs didn't mind the rocks.  I was still in the cool shade as I made my way through the area.  No one was near me and I let the dogs off leash here for my safety, although Gretel did take off after a rabbit and barked.  Luckily there were no witnesses to this indiscretion!

It got more crowded on the return hike.  Most people seem to just hike to the first hill and go back down.  Many were masked due to the city's requirement, but I didn't wear mine on this hike.One man I met on the hill at sunrise did the Fat Man's Pass going in the opposite direction.  We met again as we both headed downhill.  This was slo-go for me with the dogs onleash. I had to restrain Gretel whenever we passed other dogs.

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The hike was a little over four miles. I could have gone farther but I didn't want to tire out Gretel.  I still had a sunset hike planned for later today in Piestewa Peak Park to the north.  But now I needed lunch and a few beers to refuel.

Lunch was a chicken caesar wrap from Walmart, where I went to get new reading glasses because the glasses I had fell out of my shirt pocket during the hike. I also got the dogs raw chicken breast for their post-hike meal but only Gretel was the one eating.

I had time to spare.  The first brewery on Tuesday's list was State48 Brewery in DTPHX at 345 Van Buren.  I sat outside on the dog-friendly patio, in the cool shade for the dogs.  While the location was a bit dubious, with homeless men pulling their belongings behind them as they walked past me, the beer and service I got here was excellent!  I was the first customer for the day right at opening and I got stellar service.  My server even praised the dogs for being so well behaved.  https://www.state48brewery.com/

This place is a co-op of several brewers, with over 40 beers on tap.  I had never had any of their beers before.  I chose this place because it's listed as one of Phoenix's top ten best breweries on Yelp and other review sites. I started out with a Mango Wheat, the right kind of beer after my hike.  It's one of the brewery's year-round beers.  The other three I had, the pineapple pilsner, bluebeery ale and orange blossom ale, were all 5-ounce tasters.  All were very good!  The place was a bit busy by the time I left 90 minutes later.  I was the only person in the shaded patio that entire time. The dogs appreciated the break.

My next stop was Wren Brewing on 24th Street, but that place is a small nano brewery and is currently open to take-out only.  I will try the place another time when this pandemic is over.

My last stop was at Huss Brewing in the Uptown Plaza, another fine stop to just sit and chill.  I had time to spare before sunset.  It's another small place but has an outdoor area friendly to dogs.  I sat at a picnic table and had people on either side of me, spread out for safety.  I took my time as I sipped on a sweet milk stout (it won second place in the 2019 Great American Brew Festival) and later the Orange Blossom ale while middle school girls sat on the fake grass nearby counting money they collected from their chocolate bar fundraiser for school. It was warm out now but we kept cool in the shade.

I made it to the Piestewa Peak area by 5pm.  This is in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve.  All four parking areas going up the mountain were full.  I found a spot at the highest lot, but that meant I had farther to go for the peak trail.  Trails here have numbers, not names.

I didn't realize until I got to the official trailhead for the peak that dogs are not allowed on that trail.  They can hike other trails, just not this one, so I hiked back to my car and left.  I should have done my homework!  Lookout Mountain Summit on the north side of this park does allow dogs and is only a mile o/b. This was a short two-miler and just enough for me.  The dogs were tired and I was getting tired, too.  No more beer for me! 

I had planned to spend a second night in the area, but my Google phone stopped working.  It wouldn't let me sign in.  I am lost without a Map tracker to get me around unknown cities, let alone have no phone contact with Kevin, so I decided at 10:30pm to just drive back home.

I enjoyed my little hike-and-beer adventure and will do this again soon.  There are over 60 breweries in the greater Phoenix area and I knocked out four in two days.  They are all worth visiting again.  Visiting OHSO is a must, but State 48 was a nice surprise.  Now that I know that Gretel can go the distance, I will chose a longer hike with peaks next time I visit South Mountain Park. I'm thinking of making another trip to PHX over the MLK three-day weekend in January.