Camelback Mountain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Camelback Mountain is a mountain of 2,704 foot elevation in Phoenix, Arizona. The name is derived from its shape, which resembles the two humps and head of a bactrian camel. Interestingly, a period of missing time amounting to almost a billion and a half years is represented by the division between the two rock formations which comprise the mountain. The higher part of the peak is Precambrian age granite, around 1700 million years old (almost 1/8 of the age of the Universe.) The head of the camel is Tertiary age sandstone, approximately 30 million years old.

This mountain is a very popular hiking destination for locals and visitors to the Valley. It is located in the Camelback Mountain Echo Canyon Recreation Area between the Arcadia neighborhood village of Phoenix and the town of Paradise Valley. Camelback is also very close to Scottsdale.

The peak lends its name to a major east-west street in Phoenix called Camelback Road that starts in Scottsdale and goes about 34 miles west past the West Valley suburbs of Goodyear and Litchfield Park, and to Phoenix Camelback High School.

Serious efforts to protect Camelback Mountain as a natural area began in the early 1910's. In the late nineteenth century Camelback Mountain was set aside for an Native American reservation. Half a century later nearly all of the area was sold to private interests. Federal and state authorities attempted to stop development above the one thousand and six hundred feet level. They failed to halt development and in 1963 efforts to arrange a land exchange failed in the Arizona State legislature.

However, it wasn't until 1965 that Senator Barry Goldwater took-up the cause, helping to secure its high elevations as a city park for Phoenix in 1968.

Camelback Mountain has been designated as a Phoenix Point of Pride^[1].

[edit] References

1. ^ Phoenix Points of Pride. Retrieved on October 18, 2006.

[edit] External links

• Phoenix Parks & Recreation Department Website
• Phoenix Parks