Bell Pass is about a three and a half mile hike the pass itself in the McDowell Mountains. The round trip from start to finish is about seven miles and takes somewhere from two hours to three hours depending how fast you do it. Bell Pass is at 3,500 feet and has a fairly steep ascent in the last part of the trail.
Trail Heads and Parking Bell Pass has two trail heads. The trail head at Bell Rd and 104th St has a small graded dirt area for parking. It holds about fourteen cars maximum and can become crowded during the peak periods in spring and fall.
The larger main trail head is on Thompson Peak Parkway and Foothills Drive. This has a facility with toilets and drinking water. There is ample parking there as well, some paved, mostly finely graded dirt.
Hike Distance Approximately seven miles from Bell and 104th St.
Hiking Time Two and a half to Four hours. If you are very fit you can get to the pass within an hour.
Hike Elevation 3,500 Feet.
Hike Difficulty Moderately difficult for experienced hikers. This can be a brutal hike in summer. Always bring plenty of water.
Trail Description From Bell and 104th the trail goes up 104th St for a while before hitting the Levee Trail. You follow the levee up until it meets the main trail. From there follow the signs to Bell Pass. From Thompson Peak and Foothills the main trail is followed from parking area.
The trail itself slowly ascends up to Bell Pass at 3,500 feet. The scenery is stunning with centuries old saguaro's, fishhook cactus, cholla's and wildlife crowding the mountain sides. The last mile or so the ascent increases considerably and the last 200 yards is very steep.
We have seen mountain bikers on the trail but it isn't that often bike riders are on it. Probably because the trail is pretty strenuous in ascent.
Trail Map 
Bell Pass on Google Maps. More on the
McDowell Regional Park including trails and maps.
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
