Camelback Mountain's Two Trailheads Are Both Open Again, and What's Waiting at the Bottom Just Changed

Ask a regular at Echo Canyon Trailhead which side of Camelback Mountain they hiked in late August, and the answer wasn't really a preference. For most of five weeks this summer and early fall, it wasn't a choice at all.

Phoenix Water Services closed the Cholla Trailhead from August 17 through August 28 to replace a sewer line running along Cholla Lane, part of what the department calls the Cholla Sewer Diversion and Abandonment Project. The only way up the mountain during that stretch was Echo Canyon, on the west side. Then, almost as soon as Cholla reopened, the city turned its attention to Echo Canyon itself, closing it in early September to install new automatic gates and safety cable work along the trail. For roughly two and a half weeks, Cholla carried the entire load of Camelback's foot traffic. In between the two closures sat a window of just a few days when both trails were open at once. Across a five-week stretch, Camelback Mountain effectively offered residents one trail at a time for all but a handful of days.

That run ended when Echo Canyon reopened. As of this week, both trailheads are back in service for the first time since mid-August.

Why the Two Trails Were Never Really Interchangeable

The closures read like routine maintenance notices, but anyone who hikes both sides of Camelback regularly knows the two trails don't function as substitutes for each other.

Echo Canyon Trailhead, at 4925 E. McDonald Drive, comes with restrooms, benches, potable water, and a small shade canopy, according to the City of Phoenix parks department. It's also the trailhead with the tightest parking problem in the city. During winter and spring, the lot typically fills by late morning on weekdays and stays full all day on weekends, and once it hits capacity the entry gate closes. Idling on McDonald Drive or Tatum Boulevard to wait it out earns a ticket, and illegally parked cars get towed.

Cholla Trailhead, off Invergordon Road, doesn't have a comparable lot at all. Parking is limited to a handful of areas where parallel parking is permitted, and the city tows vehicles parked in violation of posted signs along the rest of the street. The trail itself is longer than Echo Canyon and completely exposed, with little shade anywhere along its route, and its upper third is steep enough that the city's own trail notes recommend less experienced hikers turn back at the small rest area before the boulder field. Neither trail allows dogs, regardless of which one happens to be open on a given week.

So when Cholla closed in August, Echo Canyon's already-strained lot absorbed hikers who'd normally split toward Invergordon Road, tightening an already narrow morning window. When Echo Canyon closed in September, Cholla picked up all of that traffic with no lot to fall back on and a trail that offers no shade at any point along the ascent. Bobby's Rock Trail, the short loop off Echo Canyon that passes a helipad and a cube-shaped sandstone formation, was also unavailable during that second closure since it only connects from the Echo Canyon side.

What Opened at the Bottom While the Top Was Restricted

The trail schedule wasn't the only thing moving this year. While Camelback's access rotated between one option and the other, the ground below it picked up more new places to land afterward than it's had in a decade.

Kimpton Miralina Resort & Villas opened in January on the site of the former Scottsdale Plaza Resort, the result of a $42 million renovation. Its signature restaurant, Hecho Libre, comes from chef Wes Avila, recognized by both the Michelin Guide and the James Beard Foundation. The resort's final construction phase, running from the fourth quarter of this year into early 2027, adds 134 renovated Valley Villas, an onsen-inspired retreat called The Enclave, and Arizona's first Katsuya, a modern Japanese concept known for sushi and robata-grilled dishes. Once that phase wraps, Miralina becomes one of the only resorts in town running two distinct chef-driven restaurants under one roof.

A few miles closer to the mountain, Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort & Spa announced on September 16 that it's shifting to independent ownership under a partnership between Berger Holdings and RJ Hospitality. The 53-acre property is starting a multiyear renovation that begins with all 110 guest rooms before moving to dining and spa upgrades in 2028. It's a continuation of work already underway there. Sanctuary completed a separate $7 million renovation of its meeting and event spaces in January, including a redesign of its 3,851-square-foot ballroom and new flexible seating across the Views Lawn and Terrace.

Mountain Shadows, the resort at the literal foot of the mountain, didn't need a renovation announcement to stay relevant this year. It picked up a One MICHELIN Key designation for 2026, and its restaurant, Hearth '61, has been a fixture for residents since the property's 2017 rebuild. What's new is timing rather than construction. The resort's Fee-Free Staycation window opens today, September 27, and runs through October 23, waiving the nightly resort fee under promo code PROAZRFF. Earlier this year, Mountain Shadows also ran a Summer Golf Pass on its 18-hole, par-3 Short Course, priced at $399 for the season that ran from late May through September 20, with unlimited holes each day and flexible tee times built around weekday availability rather than tourist scheduling.

A Few Blocks North, the Bigger Shift

The most visible change isn't on the mountain at all. It's happening a short drive north at Cactus Road and Tatum Boulevard, where the 100-acre redevelopment on the former Paradise Valley Mall site has filled in faster than almost anything else in the area this year. The site sits inside Phoenix city limits, just across the line from the Town of Paradise Valley, and it is the closest concentrated dining and retail block to many homes in the area.

Chef Beau MacMillan's Mediterranean restaurant Cala is building out a 6,500-square-foot space there. Harry & Izzy's, the upscale American grill from Indianapolis-based Huse Culinary, is opening in a standalone 8,300-square-foot building on the same block. Trevor's Liquor already turned the former Sears Auto Center on Tatum into a 14,000-square-foot venue with a full-service bar, pizzeria, golf simulator, cigar lounge, and a dog-friendly patio. Whole Foods Market relocated its Phoenix store here last October, into a location spanning more than 50,000 square feet that stocks over 330 items made or grown in Arizona, from Duncan Family Farms produce to Danzeisen Dairy milk. And on April 30 of this year, Life Time opened a 91,000-square-foot athletic club on Tatum Boulevard, complete with a rooftop pool deck and seven pickleball courts split between indoor and outdoor space.

None of this existed in anything like this concentration two years ago. The corner most residents have driven past for a decade now functions as an actual neighborhood center, with a golf simulator, a full-service grocery store, and a growing restaurant lineup all within the same block.

Reading the Calendar Together

Taken separately, a trail closure schedule and a run of restaurant openings look like unrelated local news items. Read together, they describe the same fall. The mountain that anchors daily routines here spent five weeks limiting access to one trail at a time, and it happened to end in the same stretch that a new resort restaurant, an ownership change at one of the town's oldest properties, a locals-priced staycation window, and a genuinely different retail corridor all landed within a few miles of each other. The trail access has settled back to normal. What's changed is what's waiting once you're back down.

If you're weighing what any of this means for a property you already own in Paradise Valley, or you're thinking about what comes next for your home here, Allison Cahill can walk through it with you. Schedule a confidential consultation.