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Fun ride, but misleading. We got on at N 68th Street in Scottsdale, and it is neither paved or concrete. Very rough ride along the canal. Some parakeets in a tree and some other art along the way, but be advised it isn’t paved the whole way.
The trail is scattered with homeless people, shopping carts, & trash. I don't feel safe. They need to patrol the canal roads & clean them up to make them safe.
First, the map shows the east end at Alma School Rd. The east end is at Dobson Rd. I was there 2 wks ago.
The trail is paved from Dobson to the 143. There is usually some water in the river east of Tempe Town Lake. You can get on/off at Riverview Park in Mesa, Tempe Marketplace, Tempe Town Lake and all the major streets you cross.
It looks like they are going to extend the trail from the 143 to about 32nd St. If they do it will be awesome to be able to ride from 19th Ave in Phoenix to Dobson Rd in Mesa.
The trail is wide, and gently uphill. The rough surface is more suitable for mountain bikes and hybrids, not good for a road bike. Approx 1 mile is paved, presumably to keep the dust down for a nearby subdivision.
To get to the trail, turn right as you exit the Horne Rd gate. The trail begins on the other side of the road, on the left side of the canal.
You will pass an orange grove and many horse properties for the first half of the ride. Look for large carp swimming in the canal.
At the small hydro power station at E McDowell Rd, stay left to go though the underpass rather than going up a steep concrete incline.
About half way along the trail you will pass under the Red Mountain Fwy and the populated area ends abruptly.
Their are spectacular views across to the McDowell’s as you follow the Salt River (dry). It’s all desert landscape from this point to the Salt River Dam.
You may see wild horses.
It’s gently downhill as you head back along the canal to the Park of the Canals.
It’s worth wandering around the small Brinton Botanical Garden-good place to stretch your legs and rehydrate.
FYI there've been improvements. The trail now ends by connecting to the New River Trail on the west end. The last half mile is a nice paved path. The area around Priest Dr near Tempe is still being worked on. It is a gravel trail from just east of Priest to 48th St. But the path is hardpan and I've had no problems on either a hybrid or MTB. The previous reviews are true. Both the good and the bad.
I was very excited to see the extension of this path to Riverview as it is near a flooded section of the Salt River, so today I walked from Tempe Marketplace to just past the last freeway overhead in Mesa.
Where I walked there was shade from the highway interchanges above, but most of the path is not shaded, so is only usable on cooler days/months and by bicycles. Walking the path with the intent of birding was not very rewarding. True, we did see a couple of Osprey's diving for fish, but the amount of trash and distance from the water itself was truly disheartening.
I hope this is just the beginning of what this pathway can become and will look forward to well advertised opportunities to at least clean up the areas below the walkway and perhaps to help in planting more native vegetation where possible.
Phoenix is in the midst of a project to improve a significant portion of the canal path: http://www.grandcanalscape.com/ Work has started but it has not made a noticeable improvement yet. Most of the work is going to happen on the north side of the canal. Project descriptions indicate that there will be "improved crossings" where the canal intersects streets (which is a lot).
If you ride the Grand Canal on Saturday and Sunday the crossings at 7th Ave, 7th St and other busy roads is somewhat manageable. Just don't expect to cross safely during weekdays. You almost always need to find the nearest crosswalk. I hope the "improved crossings" promised will alleviate some of this. If they do, I'll certainly do an update of this post.
Same as a previous comment, my daughter and I got to AZ Mills heading west and it just ends at the parking lot. A map would be awesome so we could hook up to the other side. Also the crossings over Guadelupe and Baseline in particular are a bit hair raising.
This trail is concrete and crushed-packed gravel. Parking is available at the Silverado Golf Club in Scottsdale (7605 E Indian Bend Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85250). From there you have several options. First you can go east two miles to Pima Road and join the Pima Road trail or continue on east along the canal. This part of the trail is concrete and excellent along the golf course, there is even a restroom facility about a mile east of the golf club. At Pima Road the trail changes to gravel.
Or, you can go west through Scottsdale. From the golf club the trail is concrete along the north side of the canal for two miles where there is about 200 yards of gravel leading up to Camelback Road at its intersection with Scottsdale Road. Crossing over to the southwest corner of this intersection the trail continues on the south side of the canal. It remains concrete for another two miles and then changes to crushed-packed gravel. The trail goes on for six miles as gravel and picks up as asphalt on the north side of the canal about ten miles west of the golf club. There are some underpasses along this route and some street crossing both with and without crossing buttons to push.
The golf club marks the intersection of the Indian Wash trail with the Az Central Canal Path so you can head straight south for six miles and join the Rio Salado trial. This is all concrete and excellent trail through parks and around lakes.
Rode the east end of this trail January 15, 2018 for about 12 miles. Starting at the Washington St trail end and going west. The first 1.5 miles are excellent and concrete, but the trail is totally torn up by building construction projects at Priest street and can not be ridden. Picked it up at 48th and Washington street and headed west for 9 miles. This stretch is not in good shape. It is part asphalt and part gravel. The asphalt has large cracks and holes, there are a lot of homeless along the way, the canal has a lot of trash in it, and about every 1/2 mile or so it is necessary navigate another cross street. Only one cross street had a crossing button, the rest you cross as best you can as the crossings are not at an intersection, and several are very busy. However, there is a new concrete path being laid on the north side of the canal, so in the future the trail may improve.
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