What is Elephant Mountain?
Drive up Spur Cross Road from the Town of Cave Creek and the big dark mountain on your left is Elephant Mountain, about 3,926 feet high, on the west side of Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area. It’s the hard hike in a park that’s mostly known for easy walks along a winter creek.
Maricopa County lists the Elephant Mountain Trail at 2.0 miles with 638 feet of elevation change and rates it extremely difficult, its top rating, for experienced users only. It’s open to hikers and horses, not bikes. The numbers undersell the day, because the trail doesn’t start at the parking lot. You walk in on the Spur Cross Trail first, and the official trail ends at a saddle on the mountain’s east ridge, not on top. Hikers report round trips from about 6.6 miles to more than 10 miles, with roughly 1,500 to 2,500 feet of climbing depending on route and whether they continue to the summit.
Entry is the same as the rest of Spur Cross: $5 per person in cash at the honor box, under 15 free. There’s no water in the conservation area.
How to hike it
Get there early. Take Scottsdale Road north to Carefree Highway, west to Cave Creek Road, north through town to Spur Cross Road and right to the end. The last 1.5 miles are graded dirt. The gates open at 6 a.m. from November through April and 5 a.m. from May through October. Pay $5 per person at the iron ranger.
Walk in. From the main lot, follow the wide Spur Cross Trail, an old ranch road, across Cave Creek. In winter you may get your feet wet. Many hikers cut over on the Tortuga Trail, which drops through a drainage and climbs to meet the Elephant Mountain Trail. Staying on the Spur Cross Trail also gets you there, but it’s longer.
Climb to the saddle. The Elephant Mountain Trail crosses a flat, then drops into a wash; watch for the marker where the trail leaves the wash and starts up the mountain’s north slope. From there it climbs steeply on loose rock to a saddle on the east ridge. This is where the maintained trail tops out, and it’s a good turnaround.
The summit, if you go. Past the saddle, the county trail wraps around the mountain rather than climbing it. The summit route is an unofficial path along the ridge, with brush, cholla, loose eroded slopes and a short rocky section where you’ll use your hands. Route reports call it Class 2 to Class 3. Load a GPS track and turn back in high wind.
Carry enough. There’s no water and no shade on the mountain. Three liters per person is a sensible minimum in cool weather. Go from November through March; in warm months, the long exposed approach makes this a poor choice even at sunrise. See our summer sunrise hiking rules.
If you want something easier, stay low and walk the creek loops at Spur Cross, or try the Go John Trail at Cave Creek Regional Park. For a short, steep summit closer to Scottsdale, there’s Black Mountain on the Cave Creek–Carefree border.
A mountain inside a purchase
Elephant Mountain is public because of the fight over Spur Cross Ranch. In the late 1990s the ranch was planned for hundreds of homes, a golf course and a hotel. On September 9, 2000, Cave Creek voters approved a one-time property tax for the town’s $7.5 million share, and the state and Maricopa County covered the rest of the roughly $21 million price. The deal was signed on January 9, 2001, and the 2,154 acres became the county’s first conservation area: trails, no campground, no road through. That’s why the mountain has one primitive trail rated extremely difficult rather than a graded summit path.
Old walls on the ridge
People lived along upper Cave Creek long before the ranch. Hohokam farmers were here from roughly 750 to 1450 AD, and the hills around Spur Cross hold village and hilltop sites. Near the saddle on Elephant Mountain’s east ridge, hikers pass the remains of prehistoric stone walls on a high point; some route reports refer to it as a fortress. It’s an archaeological site protected by law. Look, take pictures from the trail, and respect any closure signs.
Why it matters
Spur Cross is usually sold as the gentle county park, a winter creek under cottonwoods. Elephant Mountain is the other half of it: a long, dry, rough climb that shows how much empty country sits just north of Cave Creek, between Scottsdale and the Tonto National Forest.