Review: Hiking in Buckeye Arizona
WARNING: Prepare yourself for less words and stunning photos.
Last minute John and I packed our bags and flew off to Arizona due to a family emergency! Now for the few of you who may know me, I am terrified of flying. I probably should have never seen the TV show “Lost”, that was my first mistake; but I wanted to try and be excited since this was my first time flying with John!
The sad part was we originally weren’t even sitting together since we bought the seats so last minute. Me 5 hours on a plane, without him?! As if I wasn’t already nervous enough to fly! Luckily we upgraded seats and even got free alcohol service the whole flight, not too shabby. Since I didn’t feel like drinking at all on the plane I made John keep ordering small bottles of wine to put in my bag to sneak off with. I had to take advantage of the upgraded service I paid for somehow!
John and I stayed in Buckeye, AZ with his dad and stepmom. It was my first time meeting them, and honestly it was the first time John ever brought a girl home to meet his parents. I surely did feel special and gosh were they lovely! Most of this trip was spent bonding with one another and hanging out within the house but at times John and I would go off and try an adventure. Here’s where the fun begins!
We went on a hike at the “Skyline Regional Park.” It was in the same town we were staying with John’s parents and his stepmom said this hiking location was a great place to try. There were a bunch of different trails but we decided to try the “Skyline Crest” since it was one of the more difficult trails (As shown being a black diamond on the below map).
I never realized how much I adored tall cacti until I saw so many out and about. They really are fascinating and gorgeous. The air alone in Arizona had such a different heat than here in New Jersey where I am from. The heat was dry, no moisture or humidity, so it actually felt cooler at 95 degrees than it would feel at 95 degrees in New Jersey.
The trail we chose reached an elevation of 530 feet. I’ll admit it started out easy but sure did it get harder as we went…but that could have only been because I hadn’t gone to the gym in about a week or so.
We started the hike around 7:30am because we knew it would take around 2-3 hours and once 11:00am hits the Arizona heat really starts to kick in!
Soon enough we began making leaps and bounds to the top of these mountains, and let me tell you, the views were GORGEOUS. We saw tons of tiny lizards crawling around and even a HUGE tan one inside of a rock. It was pretty neat.
Soon enough we were halfway there! The pathways were getting more narrow and not sure if you can tell from this photo but we were pretty high up! You could see all the mountains and suddenly they looked so small. We went off the trail too, like we always do but DO NOT advise, and climbed rock towers.
As we got higher there were lots of little ups and downs in the mountain pathways and then one last big hill to where I think we reached the promised elevation of 530 feet.
The hike probably took us longer than it should have, because of my obsession with photos, but we finally made it to the top where this lovely cactus greeted us. Look how cool it is!
Fun fact: Did you know it’s illegal to cut down these large Cacti? They are actually protected by the state. So if you suddenly had the idea to get a HUGE checking bag and bring one home as a souvenir…you should probably think twice.
The rest of the day we spent with John’s parents and cooked dinner while telling stories. It was really nice. Of course I also had to bond with their 2 dogs. You know me, I can’t resist a cute pooch, especially times 2!
The next day we decided to head over to “Old Town Scottsdale.” This town has a variety of unique shops and great places to eat, which is right up my alley! There were shops and places to eat on either side of a road that cars would drive through. It was a fantastic 85-90 degrees out, not too bad after coming from a chilly April in Jersey!
This whole trip made me realize how close to Mexico Arizona was! I never really put two and two together. There was definitely a lot of Mexican themed stores that had a bunch of fun knickknacks.
One really cool store to check out was called “Red Dirt Shirts.” What makes this store so unique and interesting is that the company takes rich Red Dirt from mountains and uses this to dye their shirts naturally red. The red dirt is so powerful that it won’t even wash out! Just a fun little place to check out if you’re in the area.
Guys look! More Cacti! They had so many “Make your own Cactus Garden kits” I obviously had to buy one.
This was a fun day trip to go to and though I didn’t get to try any of the restaurants I wish I could have. They all smelt really good!
For our second hike we headed over to “White Tank Mountain Regional Park.” This was probably a 30 minute drive from where we were staying in Buckeye, AZ. This location actually has a small wildlife center, library, and gift store. To enter this Regional Park you also have to pay a fee. I’m not going to lie, I was a little freaked out to do this trail because right before we started our hike we saw employees release a Rattle Snake into the wild. That was slightly intimidating!
Since this was a trip due to a family emergency, and not a vacation, we didn’t have the luxury to hike all day. We normally would have chosen the “Extremely Difficult” trail with two black diamonds but since we were on a time crunch we chose the “Moderate – Difficult” trail called “Willow Canyon.”
The trail started out really easy and flat. We started this hike around 3:00pm. Be warned that Arizona is a very nocturnal state and most creatures, being warm blooded, come out as the sun sets because it’s cool. Us starting a hike around 3:00pm honestly probably wasn’t the best idea. It also didn’t help that John thought it would be fun to poke all the bushes with a stick to see a Rattle Snake come out.
This trail was definitely a lot different than the “Skyline Regional Park.” The paths were a lot more narrow and had many more bushes and after seeing that Rattle Snake being released into the wild I was more than on edge. Every time the wind blew and the bushes shook I thought we were doomed.
This path had a lot more rocks for climbing which of course we explored to try to find cool lizards. We found a huge lizard but he ran and hid under a rock right before we could take a photo.
About half way through our hike the views started to get insanely beautiful. It’s such a shame too because pictures really can’t even do it any justice.
This was a cool edge where you could look out and see all the mountains. This really made you realize why this trail was called Willow “Canyon.” You were basically on the outside of a dessert canyon.
Now we were reaching towards the end of our hike, with the paths getting super narrow to the point where if you made one wrong move you were going to fall down the mountain! It didn’t help either that it was a really windy day out.
If you look at the photo above you can see the zigzag line of what we hiked. It looks so flat and easy from far away but it wasn’t! It makes me wonder how intense the “Extremely Difficult” hike would have been considering we only did the “Moderate – Difficult” trail.
We were starving after this hike and decided to go out to eat! I really wanted authentic Mexican food but sadly in Buckeye, AZ they only have fast food. There aren’t many sit down restaurants with a server, which I prefer over fast food. We ended up going to “Filibertos Sports Grill” which interestingly enough was a Sports Bar attached to a fast food Mexican Restaurant called Filibertos at 4370 Miller Road, Buckeye, AZ 85326.
The inside was nice and had lots of TVs up to watch games if that is what you are into. It was nice that even though the other side of the restaurant next door was fast food that we were able to have a sit down meal.
It was definitely hard to leave Arizona. Though I showed you all the fun mini trips we did the most amazing part was being able to meet John’s family and connect with them. It was so great to see where he grew up and the people that raised him. I wish I could have had more time there to spend with them just to talk. Being the first girl John ever brought home to meet his parents is such a special moment and I am truly blessed I was able to experience these memories with him. It’s definitely a week I won’t forget.
We have plans to come back in the summer with my parents and make a road trip out of it. I can’t wait for this to happen and am counting down the days. Thanks Arizona, it was fun. Until we meet again!
P.S: If you have anywhere in Arizona I should check out please leave a comment! I definitely want to explore Sedona and Phoenix but if you know of a hidden gem please share! I’m always up for suggestions!
