Hole in the Rock Phoenix Hike: Papago Park Trail Guide

Most people who visit Hole in the Rock think it’s a photo opportunity. A big red rock with a window in it, frame your shot, move on. That’s how it gets described on most hiking lists. What those descriptions skip is the reason the opening exists where it does.

The Hohokam people oriented this formation intentionally. The hole functions as a solar calendar, aligned so that sunrise light passes directly through the opening on the spring and fall equinoxes. For people farming the Salt River Valley with no written calendar, this was a precision instrument for tracking seasons. It was in use for roughly 600 years before the Hohokam culture declined in the mid-1400s.

Knowing that changes how you look at the hole. You’re not staring at an erosion feature. You’re standing at a working astronomical site that’s 500 to 1,000 years old.

Trail Overview

The Hole in the Rock trail is about as short as a real hike gets. The round trip from the parking area to the hole and back is 0.4 miles with roughly 100 to 150 feet of elevation gain. It takes 20 to 30 minutes at a normal pace.

The difficulty is easy, with one caveat. The footing is uneven throughout. You’re walking on sandstone and loose rock, not a paved path. Wear shoes with any grip at all, not flip flops or flat-soled sandals. The built sandstone staircase leading up to the hole is stable and well-constructed. The optional scramble beyond the hole to the upper viewpoint involves loose rock and requires reasonable coordination.

The trail is free. Papago Park is a Phoenix city park. No entry fee, no permit, no reservation.

Getting There

Papago Park sits between Phoenix and Scottsdale, adjacent to the Phoenix Zoo and the Desert Botanical Garden. The main address is 625 N Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, AZ 85008.

From central Phoenix, take McDowell Road east or Van Buren Street east to Galvin Parkway, then turn north. The Hole in the Rock trailhead parking lot is on the left side of Galvin Pkwy before you reach the zoo entrance.

From Scottsdale, take Scottsdale Road or Hayden Road south to Camelback Road, then west on Camelback to Galvin Pkwy, then south.

Parking is free in multiple lots throughout the park. The lot on Galvin Pkwy closest to the Hole in the Rock formation puts you about 200 meters from the base of the trail. On winter weekends, this lot fills by 9am. The secondary lot near the picnic areas a few hundred meters south is almost always open.

Trail Description

From the Galvin Pkwy parking area, the trail to Hole in the Rock is direct and obvious. You walk toward the large red sandstone butte visible from the parking lot. The formation is hard to miss. The “hole” is visible from the parking area on clear days.

The approach crosses flat desert ground for the first 150 meters. The terrain is sandy with scattered rocks. The red Papago Buttes rise ahead of you, formed from Tertiary sandstone deposited around 15 million years ago. The distinctive rust-red color comes from iron oxide in the rock.

At the base of the butte, a sandstone staircase leads upward. The steps are wide and built into the natural rock, rough-cut and stable. This section is the steepest part of the trail, but it’s short. From the base of the stairs to the hole itself is about 50 vertical feet.

The hole opens up at stair level. It’s larger than it looks from below, roughly 10 by 15 feet. Stand inside it and look west. Downtown Phoenix sits 4 miles out, clearly visible on a typical dry winter morning. The Salt River valley spreads south. The McDowell Mountains are to your northeast.

On equinox mornings (around March 19-21 and September 22-23), arrive before sunrise. As the sun clears the horizon to the east, the light passes directly through the hole and illuminates the rock face inside it. The city parks department runs a ranger-led program for the spring equinox most years. Check phoenix.gov/parks for the current year’s schedule. The autumn equinox typically doesn’t have a formal program, but the alignment works the same way.

From the hole, a rough scramble continues upward to a small summit plateau above and behind the formation. This section is not maintained. It involves loose rock, no trail markers, and a few moves that require using your hands. The view from the top adds the eastern perspective to what you saw from inside the hole. From up here you can see south into Tempe and east toward Mesa. The scramble is worth it if you’re comfortable on loose terrain.

The descent is the same route back down the staircase to the parking area.

Combining Hole in the Rock with the Double Butte Loop

If the 0.4-mile Hole in the Rock trail feels too short, the Double Butte Loop is the obvious pairing. It’s a 2-mile relatively flat trail that circles both of the main Papago Buttes. The terrain is sandy and easy, well-suited to families and casual walkers.

The loop gives you multiple different views of the Hole in the Rock formation from ground level, and it passes through the interior valley between the two buttes. That interior valley has a different character from the outer slopes, more enclosed, quieter, with better wildlife watching. Jackrabbits and coyotes are common here in early morning.

Start with Hole in the Rock while your legs are fresh, then walk the Double Butte Loop. The combined route takes about 90 minutes at a comfortable pace.

The ranger station near the main park entrance has printed maps. Staff are generally helpful with trail questions.

Photography at Hole in the Rock

The Hole in the Rock formation photographs well in two distinct conditions.

The first is morning light in the hour after sunrise. The low eastern sun lights the red sandstone directly. The warm color of the rock and the warm light interact well. Standing inside the hole and shooting west toward the city gives you a framed shot with the skyline in the background.

The second is equinox morning, when the sun alignment is active. The light shaft through the hole creates a dramatic interior lighting effect on the rock face. This shot requires being there before sunrise and having a camera that handles high contrast well. The bright exterior versus the darker interior is a significant exposure challenge.

For casual photos with a phone, any time from an hour after sunrise to mid-morning on a clear winter day will give you clean results. The red sandstone picks up direct sun well and the western view is consistently clear.

Golden hour in late afternoon is harder to work with at this specific site because the setting sun is in the same direction as the city view, creating backlit conditions that are trickier to expose.

What to Bring

The trail is short, but the desert doesn’t care about distance. Carry at least one full water bottle even for this 0.4-mile scramble. In summer, carry more than that.

Shoes with any real grip make the staircase and upper scramble noticeably more secure. Trail runners or hiking shoes are ideal. Flip flops are genuinely not suitable for the rocky upper section.

Sunscreen matters at Papago Park. The buttes offer no shade and the trail faces open sky. In winter this is less pressing, but from March through October the sun exposure is intense.

A hat and sunglasses are worth having even on short outings like this. The open desert at 1,100-foot elevation gets direct sun from all angles.

Safety Notes

The main safety consideration at Hole in the Rock is heat. The trail is extremely short and the scrambling is minor, but Papago Park sits at low desert elevation with no shade. Summer temperatures routinely hit 115°F in Phoenix, and the red sandstone radiates heat in addition to the ambient air temperature.

From October through April, the trail is comfortable at any time of day. From May through September, finish by 8am or 9am or bring more water than you think you need.

The upper scramble beyond the hole involves loose rock. Wear appropriate footwear and move carefully. The footing is less predictable than it looks from below.

Papago Park has strong cell service and is staffed by city park rangers. If you have an issue, help is not far away.

Related Trails

For more Papago Park terrain, the Double Butte Loop is the natural complement to Hole in the Rock.

For a more demanding Phoenix hike on the same day, South Mountain Park is 20 minutes south and has trails ranging from easy to strenuous. The National Trail at South Mountain is one of the longest urban park trails in the country.

For a hike that’s short and historically interesting, the Hieroglyphic Trail in the Superstition Mountains (about 40 minutes east of Phoenix) has a comparable length with Hohokam rock art that’s more extensive than anything at Papago Park.