Fat Man's Pass -- Spoiler we made it through barely

 

This trail itself isn't so hidden with pretty high foot traffic, however the landscape is expansive. Sharp grey rocks roll out into foothills, creating lots of little canyons up the mountains.

Hiking is a popular activity in Arizona resulting in hundreds of trails. While the weather is still handleable, we hiked the Hidden Valley trail up around South Mountain to get to Fat Man's Pass.

Going into this hike, we thought it was going to be four miles round trip. Turns out it was seven. Still not sure how that happened, but let's set the scene.

Sun shining, dust on our shoes, the trail progressively increasing when our marker notified us we hit two miles. We couldn't spot the rock formation we knew would create Fat Man's Pass. It had to be large rocks pressed up against each other with a sliver of a pass way to walk through.We keep going.

At three miles, I was starting to feel a little elevation sick and still could not spot any rocks large enough to create a pass. 

We decided to continue because who wants to waste the whole hike we did to not reach our destination in the end.

Half a mile later, sizable rocks rose from the ground to form what we had come for, Fat Man's Pass. 

The pass originally looked too thin for me to squeeze through, but stepping a foot inside eased my concerns and I continued through with no issues!

The feeling of being pressed between massive pieces of earth was exciting and a little spooky. 

The rock was cold and smooth from the countless explorers crossing through.

We turned around and completed the seven mile hike, even though Connor almost had to carry me to the car at the end. 

Now, the weather is heating up, so I will be trying to get in as many hikes as possible before it's above 100 degrees! Follow along for more adventures!