by Cameron Thomas

Created on: April 18, 2008   Last Updated: January 23, 2010

I love the dessert landscape in Phoenix Arizona, an area which is filled with lush cacti and beautiful mountain views. Every summer I plan a new recreational trip for my children, this year we planned a visit to North Mountain Park. The reason I chose the park was for the scenic views, you can see for miles of beautiful mountains. The view is worth a million bucks, there are benches throughout the trail to ensure a comfortable resting period.

Encouraging my children to join me on this long hike wasn't easy, but they were entranced with all of the beautiful birdies that we saw. The species included an eagle; the park ranger said we cannot feed the animals because they are endangered. I can understand this, and the birds are much more beautiful when photographed.

North Mountain Park has many levels of intimidation on their hiking trails, with the highest peak coming in at 2,104 feet; the official Phoenix website lists this as a landmark. I found the hiking to be quite enjoyable; I started out slow with my youngest son leading the pack. We packed plenty of snacks, and I recommend bringing lots of water. The park can be very hot between the hours of 9:00 Am and 4:00 Pm; my children weren't uncomfortable so I didn't hear any complaints. Yet!

The park is very beautiful with lush pine trees and some beautiful ponds, I didn't see any bears but there is a large concentration of birds. The park offers many picnicking spots, although they discourage camp fires. I just brought the basic picnic supplies, some sandwiches and potato chips hit the spot just fine.

I was lucky enough to visit the park on a beautiful day, although heat might be a problem for some, I was not uncomfortable. The park has a lot of shading areas throughout, and there are always helpful park rangers near.

My recommended child age for this park is around 10 years old, there are a lot of hiking trails and younger children will get tired very easily. We took my daughter in a jogging stroller; she slept most of the hike.

My goal for this park visit was to give my kids a wonderful learning experience, with high priced vacations like Disney world I figured that it was better if they experienced the great outdoors.

North Mountain Park is a wonderful family retreat for a weekend getaway or a full blown vacation. I know that we will be visiting this park again next spring!

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