Fat Man's Pass

Descending by airplane into Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix at night is fantastic experience. But it is amazing how few of your fellow fliers, jaded by years of flying, will even bother to look out the windows. One of the most prominent landmarks is the huge dark curtain of South Mountain, crowned with it sparkling ring of transmission towers. The towers are so visible, they are a certain reference point to orient any guess at which part of the valley you are flying over. In the daytime they are an almost invisible backdrop to the city.

But spend a few hours and drive to the edge of these urban mountains and you will experience one of the most contradictory wilderness experiences possible, hiking in solitude in an almost untouched desert environment while overlooking one of the largest cities in America. Granted, some of the trails are so overused as to be beaten to powder, but the western end of the enclave is as remote as any mountains could be so close to a large city. The further west you go, the more solitary your hiking experience.

South Mountain Park is one of the largest, at 16,283 acres, if not the largest city park in the United States. At the eastern end of the mountains lies one of the most unusual and surprising destinations of the Park, Fat Man's Pass. This rock canyon is located in Hidden Valley, a valley whose hills block out any view of the City and transform the small environment into a magical place of Indian Petroglyphs and a very small intermittent stream. The most prominent feature of the valley is a ridge of rocks on the west side, with a narrow crack of an entrance or exit giving the area its name.

The hike to Fat Man's Pass is located on the National Trail about a mile and half from the trail head. The National, as it is called, is frequented by mountain bikers, horse riders and hikers and is easily negotiated. The hike is especially popular with children since the entrance to hidden valley is through a natural tunnel made of huge boulders. Access to the trail head is along an abandoned dirt road that runs from a parking lot on the extreme eastern edge of the Park. Very few natural areas are so accessible and still retain their wilderness feel.