Sycamore Creek Loop

4/5 (17 reviews)
Fountain Hills, Arizona (Maricopa County)
Last Updated: 07/07/2021

Trail Information

Highlights

This route is a wonderful get away from the Phoenix congestion and is a VERY popular place for the locals. The area is comprised of many different trails connecting for an incredibly beautiful, yet challenging tour of the desert. The large Sycamore Wash has the challenging Widowmaker hill climb as well as sweeping panoramas of the Four Peaks Region in Tonto National Forest. The Sycamore Creek and Four Peaks region combined, create an incredible place to play at any time of the year. The region has many double and single track trails to explore for days. The trails in the area wind through sandy wash canyons, up steep hill climbs and over rock strewn mountain tops, all while being within an hours drive of the Phoenix valley. The entire area has limitless free camping, but please try to reduce your impact by using an existing campsite area. The area is popular for target shooting and can become crowded on holiday weekends. Please be very cautious when traveling the trails, all trails are TWO WAY and collisions do occur, resulting in deaths, please slow down!

Trail Difficulty and Assessment

Trail Navigation

Trail Reviews

4/5 (17)
900
Open
Rated 2/5
Visited: 05/06/2023
Difficulty Accuracy: Harder

Going to be completely honest in this review. This was definitely not one of my favorite trails. We started at the south entrance and did the trail clockwise. Everything up to waypoint 9 is fairly boring and just covered in trash. People go out there to shoot and do other things and obviously don't know how to clean up after themselves. Once you get to waypoint 9, you start climbing up and away from the creek and things get a lot better. Starting at Quartz Hill (Waypoint 10) things get a bit tricky if you don't have lockers. The trail is very loose and there's not much traction to be had. I struggled at times in my Pathfinder but my brother's Bronco Sport Badlands seemed to have no issues because it has a rear locker. Because of this I am rating the difficulty a bit higher than a 3. You go up and down several hills and then around waypoint 15 it gets boring again. I do not see myself going out there for another attempt, there are other trails in the area that are more exciting.
Open
Rated 4/5
Visited: 04/16/2023
Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

This trail is really beautiful when it's not covered in trash! We opted out of the rock obstacle. A spotter is a complete necessity as the bottom of this obstacle is completely rutted out. I would rate that obstacle in it's current state much higher than the rest of the trail. High clearance is a must at one particular part
Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 01/30/2023
Difficulty Accuracy: Harder

We did the trail with https://valleygladiators.com on 1/29/23. We had 2 4 door JK's with 33s and no lockers as well as 3 Jeep Gladiators with 37/38 tires with a 3.5 + inch lifts. The hardest section which is not listed here is about a third of the way between WPT 9 and WPT 10. It’s a steep hill that makes Quartz Hill look like an ant hill in comparison. Very rutted with a tall 3 feet or so ledge. Four Door JK’s without lockers did fine with careful spotting. Gladiators made it through with both front and rear lockers engaged. To clear the hill, the right line requires proximity to a rock wall. As a result, four of our Jeeps sustained minor scratches to the passenger side of our rear fenders. There is a more difficult line on the left side which we did not try due to a much higher ledge. Taking that line would avoid body damage to the passenger side. This spot here would definitely put the trail in the “Difficult” category with everything else in between being intermediate and medium as stated. A bypass is available for the hill mentioned. Follow #4007 from the creek, it will eventually turn into #1876 then turn right to #4062. This will put you right on the other side of the difficult hill climb and right on track to continue with the rest of the trail.
Official Crew
10900
Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 12/29/2022
Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Ran this trail with 5 others and it didn't disappoint. Good challenges, nice scenery. Scraped the skid plates a few times. Wrapped it up with a few runs up the Widow Maker. What a blast!
Open
Rated 4/5
Visited: 08/28/2022
Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On

Ran this today with my family. Great fun trail. Let my boys each drive the middle portion which has severs steep climes, steep descents, and technical areas due to large ruts. It’s a good trail to teach wheel placement to beginners. Trail was pretty dry despite the recent monsoons. The scenery is gorgeous and very green from the recent rains.

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