What is the Jane Rau Interpretive Trail?
The Jane Rau Interpretive Trail is the short, barrier-free loop at the Brown’s Ranch Trailhead, the main entrance to the northern McDowell Sonoran Preserve at 30301 N. Alma School Pkwy. It starts just east of the trailhead amphitheater, about 400 feet from the accessible parking, and loops through boulder outcrops, saguaros and views of the northern McDowells. It is about 0.4 mile around (often listed as a half mile), with interpretive signs and benches along the way.
First, the closure. The City of Scottsdale closed Brown’s Ranch Trailhead and its lot on July 13, 2026 for a $1,165,599 improvement project, paid for with the 2004 Preserve sales tax. The work covers the parking lot, building lighting and roofing, and a new trail dispersal area with five rerouted trail segments. The city expects to finish in fall 2026, and its Preserve page has pointed to a late-October reopening. Street and neighborhood parking is prohibited until then. Confirm on the city’s project page before you drive up.
The trail is named for Jane Rau, who with Karen Bertiger signed the 1991 incorporation papers for the group that became the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy. The city and the Conservancy dedicated it on March 22, 2014, and Rau, then 91, led a hike along it that day.
What to expect on the trail
Built to a standard. According to the Conservancy, the trail was built to the 2013 U.S. Forest Service trail accessibility standards. It is mostly stabilized decomposed granite, with two very short bridges and one about 30 feet long.
Not perfectly flat. The average grade is 4.8 percent and the steepest section is 11 percent. Cross slopes are typically 2.5 percent, with a maximum of 6. The Conservancy notes that some of these grades are at the high end for accessible trails. A wheelchair user with a companion should be fine. For the flattest option in the Preserve, use the Bajada Nature Trail at Gateway, which averages about 3 percent.
Signs worth reading. The interpretive panels cover the plants, rock outcrops and views. Around Rau’s 100th birthday in 2022, the Conservancy worked with the city to redesign them. A sign along the trail also tells her story.
Don’t confuse it with the other interpretive trail. Brown’s Ranch has two. The Brown’s Ranch Interpretive Trail is a separate loop of about 0.3 mile at the old ranch site, about 1.4 miles out along Brown’s Ranch Road. It has around 20 displays on the cattle operation the Brown family ran here from 1916 into the 1970s. It opened with a grand-opening event on October 18, 2024, and the Conservancy’s calendar still lists that event on its monthly pages. If you see it while browsing 2026 dates, it is the 2024 opening, not a new trail. The Jane Rau loop is the accessible walk beside the parking lot. The ranch-history loop takes a three-mile round-trip hike to reach. Our Brown’s Ranch rock formations guide covers the longer walks from the same trailhead.
While the trailhead is closed. The city points hikers to the Tom’s Thumb, Pima-Dynamite, Fraesfield and Granite Mountain trailheads. For an accessible walk during the closure, drive to the Gateway Trailhead and use the Bajada Nature Trail.
A trail named for a founder
The McDowell Sonoran Preserve began as a citizens’ campaign. On January 21, 1991, Jane Rau and Karen Bertiger signed the incorporation papers for what was then called the McDowell Sonoran Land Trust, which in 2005 began doing business as the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy. The group pushed Scottsdale toward a goal that seemed unrealistic at the time: buy most of the McDowell Mountains and the desert north of them, and leave it alone. Voters approved Preserve sales taxes in 1995 and 2004, and the land came into public ownership piece by piece.
Rau spent the following decades as a volunteer, educator and steward, and as a member of the Greater Pinnacle Peak Association, whose board she served on when the Conservancy was founded. When the city opened Brown’s Ranch Trailhead in 2013 as the main entrance to the northern Preserve, it built an accessible loop beside it. On March 22, 2014, the city and the Conservancy dedicated that loop in her name, and she led a hike along it that day at 91.
The choice of trail suits the honor. Rau worked to get people out into this desert, and this is the trail that lets in people who otherwise couldn’t come. It was built to federal trail accessibility standards, with firm tread, short bridges and benches, and it sits a few hundred feet from the parking lot. When the Conservancy refreshed its signs in 2022, ahead of her 100th birthday, it kept the trail focused on teaching.
Why it matters
Brown’s Ranch is known for long, flat miles through dense saguaro forest, and most visitors head straight out on them. The Jane Rau loop is a reminder that the Preserve was meant for everyone who lives here, including people who can’t walk ten miles. When the trailhead reopens this fall, it is worth a short walk, and worth reading the sign about the woman it is named for.