Tom’s Thumb trail is a 4 mile out and back trail, located near Scottsdale. It was my favorite hike of the 4 I did on my Arizona trip. There are numerous trails to, and around, Tom’s Thumb, so picking one to choose can be confusing. I decided on the one to the outlook since the north face of the trail was closed (which leads to the actual Tom’s Thumb rock). The reason I liked this trail so much was for its solitude. I only saw a couple other hikers throughout the entire trail, so my friend and I were mostly alone. Also, being so close to Scottsdale, most of the trails do not have a city-free view, but Tom’s Thumb did.
The trail began with a primarily flat walk to the base of the mountain, then up from there. Hundreds of small, pastel lizards lead our way the entire hike; they were everywhere. We reached what we thought was the top of the mountain only to find more ups and downs. I didn’t mind though. Since you were climbing up and down hills, there was a depth to the view in front of you; you felt truly in the wild.
Once you made it to the outlook, you could clearly see Tom’s Thumb. We took some fun, perspective photos of us touching the top of the thumb, and then we made our way back. There was another outlook to the side of Tom’s Thumb, which we walked up a hill to get to. We were able to see rock climber scaling the face of the thumb, along with a spectacular view of the valley we had started from. The view from the outlook was beautiful. Overall, the hike was challenging, especially in the Arizona heat in mid-day. I received some serious sunburn since we had been outside from 10am to 4pm, but it was worth the numerous aloe applications.
