Trip report
Feb 21, 2022 — South Mountain is a fairly big peak on the south side of Phoenix that has a web of well-loved trails and roads used to access viewpoints all around the mountainside. While it's not exactly a wilderness experience, the extensive trail system makes for a nice alternative to the absurdly popular Piestewa Peak or Camelback Mountain. You can drive to the top of the Gila Valley Lookout point and skip the 8+ mile loop we did to get the views, but what's the point of that? The actual summit of South Mountain is heavily fenced off, so this lookout would have to serve as the legal high point as not to trespass to reach the cluster of radio towers on the true summit.
Austin and I set out along the Holbert Trail, which started east as it wrapped around the base of South Mountain along a well-maintained trail before starting to ascend. The Holbert Trail winds south around the slopes and through minor canyons as it leads away from Phoenix. This portion of the hike is really popular, likely because most people use the Holbert Trail to access Dobbins Lookout. We skipped the lookout point because a road leads to this minor bump and we wanted to avoid the loud portable speakers and other unpleasantness that comes from congested areas in the outdoors.
Past the Dobbins Lookout turn-off, the hike became much more secluded. We crossed over the "Summit Road" and took the National Trail. This trail runs along the crest of South Mountain, but we'd only be on it for a portion of that. The National Trail heads west, paralleling the Summit Road for a bit. There isn't an official trail to get from the National Trail to the Gila Valley Lookout, so we left it very briefly and headed south off-trail in order to meet with the road and continued to the summit on pavement. I marked this short off-trail portion on my attached map. The views were nice, but the towers on the true summit of South Mountain were exhausting to look at.
Once back on the National Trail, we continued west as the trail made its way around the north side of South Mountain, then paralleled the Summit Road for a while. It had some nice views to the west before the trail descended inefficiently to the junction with the Kiwanis Trail. Maybe I've just gotten used to the mentality of getting up and down via the most direct route, but this trail felt like it was taking forever. Once along the Kiwanis Trail, we headed north through a pleasant drainage. Along the way some historic dams lined the watercourse, and the foliage was relatively lush. We passed the Kiwanis Trailhead and continued along the Las Lomitas Trail to complete the loop.