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The Go John Trail winds its way between a cluster of small hills (or mountains) to make a 4.5 mile loop through some very nice Sonoran Desert country. The trail starts out from the parking lot with a bit of a climb to a low saddle. Right at the peak of the climb is an abandoned mine shaft. Some Arizona state department has built a wire cage over the opening to prevent people from climbing in. That's probably a good idea.

After the saddle the Go John Trail begins a meandering track through many little hills. At one time these hills were full of miners digging for something -- maybe gold, I really don't know. We only saw the one mine shaft while we hiked along the trail but there were many other little side trails that we didn't follow that may have led to mines. At many places along the trail we could see large piles of rocks on the sides of hills. These may have marked the entrance to other mines. I'm not sure if they were looking for gold or some other valuable material.

The northernmost leg of the Go John Trail runs parallel to the Arizona State Trust Land boundary and there are a couple trails that lead into that region. In order to go there you need to have a permit from Arizona. These trails descend off of the side of the hills into a flat valley. It seems that the trails cross the floor and climb up into the mountains a couple miles away. It's intriging and at some point I'll probably get a permit and hike out on those trails.

After passing the two trails that lead off into the forbidden lands the Go John Trail begins to loop back around to the south. It passes along the side of the hills and offers great views of the northern Phoenix/Scottsdale valley. Finally the trail completes the circle back at the parking lot where the adventurous hiker could head on over to the Overton trail for another hike through the desert.

We did this trail in early July so the temperature was pretty high. Fortunately we started out around 6am. Even starting out that early didn't make us the first ones on the trail though. In fact, as we were climbing up to the first saddle an older couple (probably retired) passed us as they were coming down. I only hope I'm so active when I'm retired. We passed several other groups of hikers and one horseman. As the guidebook warned, the Go John Trail is a popular trail. I'm guessing that all other times of the year it is probably crowded.

Below, and on the next pages, are some pictures I took during this hike.