What is Brown’s Mountain?
Brown’s Mountain is the flat-topped peak in the middle of the northern McDowell Sonoran Preserve. It’s the high point of the old Brown family cattle ranch and the easiest real summit in north Scottsdale. The summit is about 3,253 feet, around 550 feet above Brown’s Ranch Trailhead. The standard out-and-back is about 3.2 miles.
You don’t climb much of the mountain itself. The route follows the wide old ranch road north from the trailhead for about 0.7 mile, turns left onto the summit trail, then winds gently around the mountain’s flank. All the climbing comes in the last quarter mile: a steep, loose chute of switchbacks up to a saddle, then onto the caprock.
The top is broad, with boulders around the rim and cliffs falling away to the north. From there you can see what makes the northern Preserve different from the mountain trailheads farther south: miles of flat saguaro forest, Cholla and Cone mountains, and the McDowells to the south. For the area’s granite landmarks, including Cathedral Rock, the Amphitheater and Balanced Rock, see our guide to the Brown’s Ranch rock formations.
Right now, the trailhead is closed. The city shut Brown’s Ranch Trailhead on July 13, 2026 for a roughly $1.17 million rebuild and expects to finish in fall 2026. Check before you drive.
How to hike it
Confirm the trailhead is open. While construction continues, the lot is closed and parking on nearby streets and in neighborhoods is prohibited. The city lists Tom’s Thumb, Pima-Dynamite, Fraesfield and Granite Mountain as alternatives, but none of them is a short walk to Brown’s Mountain. If Brown’s Ranch is still closed, pick another hike: Tom’s Thumb is a harder summit, and the Granite Mountain Trailhead has a similar flat-desert feel.
Watch for the junction. About 0.7 mile north of the trailhead on the ranch road, the summit trail goes left. It’s signed, but people talking on the road miss it, keep walking, and end up circling the mountain.
Save energy for the end. The first mile and a quarter barely climbs. The last stretch is steep, with loose decomposed granite over rock. Wear shoes with real tread and take the descent slowly. Trekking poles help.
Explore the summit. The top is bigger than it looks from below. Walk to the north rim for the cliffs and the best views, and look for the ravens that nest in them.
Pick the right season. October through April, starting early. There’s no shade anywhere on the route. From May through September, go at first light or not at all, and read our summer sunrise hiking rules first.
Make it a loop. Returning on the Upper Ranch Trail makes about a 4.5-mile loop. That’s the route the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy uses for its guided summit and fitness hikes, which are a good way to learn the trail.
A ranch mountain that became a park
The mountain is named for the family that ran cattle around it for most of the twentieth century. E.O. Brown brought cattle into this part of the northern desert around 1916–1917. The operation eventually covered about 44,000 acres, nearly 70 square miles, and lasted into the 1970s. The old ranch roads are now the wide, easy tracks the summit route starts on.
When Scottsdale expanded the Preserve north after the 1995 and 2004 sales-tax votes, the Brown land was at the center. The city bought the remaining ranch property in 1999, and the trailhead opened in 2013. Its displays tell the ranch’s story. Along the route, a decades-old concrete pad with names written into it is still there, a reminder that this was a working ranch before it was a park.
Why it matters
The southern Preserve is about climbing mountains. The northern Preserve is about the desert floor: miles of flat trail through saguaro forest. Brown’s Mountain is the one place out here where you can see all of it at once, for about an hour and a half of effort. That makes it the best first hike in the north Preserve, once the trailhead reopens.