Officials: 300-mile long Maricopa County hiking trail nearly complete
Aug 27, 2015, 7:00 AM | Updated: 7:31 pm
(Photo: Maricopa County)
PHOENIX — The Maricopa County Parks and Recreation Department said a hiking trail that will connect several regional parks around the Valley is currently about 70 percent complete.
The Maricopa Trail is a 300-mile long trail system that will attempt to connect all 10 regional parks and loop around the entire Valley, according to Maricopa County Parks and Recreation Director R.J. Cardin.
Cardin said the trail will connect parks such as South Mountain, Lake Pleasant, Estrella Mountain, McDowell Mountain, Usery Mountain, and White Tanks, as well as many others.
Although the trail has brought a hefty price tag of more than $5 million so far, Cardin ensured that park officials and crews are taking extensive measures to keep costs as low as possible.
“Wherever possible, we’re connecting that trail to city park systems, or the canal system, so that we don’t have to actually build new trails if we can avoid it,” he said.
The trail’s grand opening will kick off a little early, with a special event called the Prickly Pedal Race on Jan. 23, 2016.
“We’re hosting a mountain bike race on a segment of that trail,” Cardin said. “The idea is to turn that into a multi-day stage race, much like a Tour de France for mountain biking.”
Much of the trail is already open and being used by the public, but Cardin said he expects the entire trail to be completely ready by 2017.