text: Being a city girl and not graced with the surefootedness of a mountain goat Camelbacks Cholla trail was my first ever hike It was terrible back then and muscles in my legs that I did not know I had hurt like no other the day after But here I am four years later still hiking the Cholla trail and I love itnnParking is along the side of the road and depending on the time of the day the weather and if school is in session things can get pretty busy and parking can be an ordeal And to add to that it is of course parallel parking a tremendous terror in itself If you are a brave soul and hike during the summer bring tons of water and aim to be done with the hike at AM Any later well your skin starts to burn courtesy of the good old Arizona sunnnThe trail itself is pretty busy with regulars what appears to be guided hikes college kids and dog lovers with their dogs In my opinion this is great for beginners up for a challenge About a third of the way involves a fair amount of steps nothing too hard Then comes the next third where the path narrows down to being just big enough for one person but is fairly flat And finally the last third marked by the helipad is the scramble I have never done this last third but I heard it gets pretty tough making it comparable to Camelbacks other trail Echo trail So two thirds of the trail takes me about hours at a leisurely pace a decent hike to work up a good sweat