Phoenix Area Campgrounds Part 4, Cave Creek Regional Park

Because of a girl’s weekend in Michigan with my college besties, I only stayed at Cave Creek Regional Park for one day. Therefore, Mitch should write this post. But he prefers photography. So this short interview is all I got:

Me: Where does Cave Creek rank (for you) in the four Phoenix area campground we visited? (McDowell, Usery, Lost Dutchman, Cave Creek)

Mitch: 3rd – after Usery before Lost Dutchman

Me: Why?

Mitch: Biking opportunities is how I rank the parks. Lost Dutchman is last for me because it had no road biking (the road it’s on, Apache Trail, has no shoulder and a ton of traffic) and just one mountain biking trail that was only four miles long.

Me: What were the sites at Cave Creek like?

Mitch: Nice and roomy. Well, I was in the old part of the park. In the new section, the sites are super-tight.

Me: What did you do with all your time while I was gone?

Mitch: Cleaned up after Brandi.

(Our dog was having major stomach issues at this point in our trip. That scary episode might be another blog. Suffice to say, Mitch went through a lot of paper towels and cleaning products while I was gone!)

 

Me: You didn’t do anything else?

Mitch: Mostly I mountain biked. One day I rode my recumbent.

Me: What did you think of the trails at Cave Creek?

Mitch: They were more challenging than at McDowell because they were steeper and rockier. So it was a good, intense work-out. Because of the rocks though, my hands went numb during each ride (Mitch has carpal tunnel).

There is a trail that goes from the park to the town of Cave Creek that looks interesting. I couldn’t leave Brandi long enough to do it though. Maybe next time.

Me: How was the road-biking?

Mitch: Inside the park it was good, had some good hills. And the road (32nd Str) getting to the park was good because it didn’t have much traffic. But once you got to the main highway (Carefree Hwy), it was terrible. So it didn’t add up to much mileage – maybe 6 miles total.

Me: What happened on your last mountain bike ride in the park?

Mitch: I saw my maker.

I did the Go John Trail. It was more advanced. It started out fun. But the second part was terrible – 4′ sheer rock uphill ledges made it impossible to ride. So I took my bike for a nice long walk. If I would have done the trail in reverse, I think it would have been doable.

Me: Final thoughts on Cave Creek?

Mitch: The highlight was definitely the mountain biking.

The only issue was that there is a very busy horse back trail ride operation in the park. So on the trails, you could get stuck behind a line of 8-9 horses. The leaders were always good about trying to get you past the group but sometimes there just wasn’t any place to pass for a while. I ended up slowly riding through lots of horse exhaust.