Scottsdale Desert Classic Guided Hiking Adventure

Our guide was fantastic. He explained everything. He encouraged us to push ourselves. He had supplies. He took TONS of pictures and airdropped to us. The hike was fantastic.

Wonderful hike and Jennifer is great. Educational experience Beautiful warm sunny day. Provided water

We had a great time with Doug Mangum our guide who was wonderful. Our hike was intermediate and we were able summit Brown’s Mountain, which had incredible views of the valley. Doug brought small backpacks and snacks and water for everyone. We enjoyed his engaging teaching style which was personable, warm, and funny as we learned about the various cacti, trees, wildlife, civilizations, and ranching history of the Scottsdale and Phoenix area.

Doug was an excellent guide. We had an amazing time. The hike was tailored to what we wanted to do. Doug shared all about the history of the area and was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. Would definitely do another hike when we are back in town.

Great experience! Jay was an amazing guide! Highly recommend. He let us and proceed backpacks, cold drinks and snacks.

Doug was our tour guide. He was very personable, knowledgeable, and fun! We spent 3+ hours learning about the desert - plants, animals, and mountain ranges. We had a great time.

Had (another) great hike with Matt and MDT out of the TomThumb Trailhead in Scottsdale AZ. Matt picks the right level, distance and elevation for my age and the conditions. Also Matt is a fount of information about the desert he obviously loves and knows so well. His enthusiasm is contagious. Highly recommend this unique perspective in a large metropolis.

This was just an outstanding day in the Scottsdale Desert with Matt. He provided an excellent overview of the landscape and all the wildlife of the area. He interacted with all of us on the hike and he obviously enjoys his work. I would highly recommend it and would do it again if we were back in Scottsdale.

Really fabulous hike. Great scenery and a great guide. Brown Mountain in the Sonora Desert. Cardinals, desert flowers, and even a snake. Thanks, Curtis!

This hike was such a wonderful way to explore the trails in Scottsdale! Liz was my guide and she was superb! Liz was so accommodating and pleasant! It made for a very memorable and enjoyable activity! I highly recommend this to everyone!

My cousin and I decided to meet 1/2 way and landed in Scottsdale. While we were here we opted to do several guided hikes, since neither of us are avid hikers and didn’t want to seem too out of place and ask too many strangers questions on the trail. After a ton of research and reading reviews we chose Mad Desert Trekking and sooooo glad we did. I spent a little time chatting with Matt about our goals and physical abilities and decided on 2 separate hikes on different days. Our second hike was a guided tour through a much larger desert north east of scottsdale. Jay was our new guide and as soon as we met him we felt like we struck gold again!! Communication was fantastic and we felt prepared for a longer hike with zero worries. We started off at a visitor center, and Jay explained to us exactly where our hike was going to take us. Within minutes we were learning about the terrain and the mountains around us. His catus knowledge was insane and honestly extremely interesting. There was not a question he couldn’t answer, and it’s exactly what we wanted, to learn about the area. The hike itself was on a wonderful kept, easy walking trail until the clime up to our viewpoint, but still easy enough footing to the top. We enjoyed a fantastic view, snacks and conversation at the top , accompanied by a visiting hawk. We were once again sad when the hike was over. Jay was really a fantastic guide. Any visitor looking for a guided hike will not be sorry they picked this company, class act all the way!!

Curtis was a great guide…full of knowledge and stories. He knows the area well, loves his job, and loves people. He also insured our safety through out the hike. We would 100% ask for him again as our guide.

Henry was great very knowledgeable and personable. Would recommend him with 5 stars definately will request him next time we hike

I felt this was overpriced. It was also somwthing i could easily done on my own -very little educational value also the guide was very nice

The knowledge of our guide Jennifer was a welcomed addition to the trail experience.Her energy was great.

We had a great hike. A great mix of easy with some elevation gain after mile 2. Jay was an awesome guide, his knowledge of the local flora and fauna was top notch and made the hike even better (and he took good pictures too) Highly recommend both Mad Desert and Jay

Amazing hike! Jay’s knowledge of the area and flora and fauna made the hike very entertaining. Brown’s Ranch is a beautiful spot for a hike. I highly recommend Mad Desert Trekking and Jay specifically!

Very nice hike in the Sonoran desert.. beautiful scenery with amazing cacti Our guide Liz was very good. She was very knowledgeable and friendly Learnt so much from her

Liz was an awesome tour guide! She is very knowledgeable about the trails. She adjusts her pace to align with her client’s skill level. A great personality, positive, and makes the experience full of fun! Would strongly recommend and would choose her again!

I had an amazing hike. Jay is an exceptional guide. Very knowledgeable about the desert, animals, plants and history. And he really makes sure that you stay well hydrated.

My family and I decided to go on the Scottdale Desert Classic Guided Hiking Adventure with Jay and he was beyond knowledgeable about everything all the way from the history, culture, plants, animals, insects, etc. He was very open and honest with any questions and concerns we had during the time hiking. He went out of his way to bring extra waters - some even frozen so they would stay cold as well as a first aid kit, water to spray on us to help us cool down, backpacks for everybody, and other hiking tools. He was very alert and always ready to pitch in to help somebody. Jay was extremely encouraging and made sure to never leave anyone out or behind. We definitely recommend him as a guide as well as this specific hiking adventure.

The hike itself a very good one but it definitely did not turn out to be what we expected. The description said it would be an educational hike but there was not much information provided… a bit of info but not much. Our guide Madison was very pleasant and loved to be outdoors and in Arizona. We were provided with snacks half way through and she did refill our water bottles also. It was a very good hike but definitely not worth the money that we were charged… we could have done this type of hike on our own for sure.

What a great experience! Matt was easily accessible and happy to make recommendations for our adventure and then followed up with us the day before, making sure we knew the plan. We hiked with Henry, who was FANTASTIC! He was easy to communicate with for planning and meet up purposes-which was great since we had never been to the area. He was easy going, knowledgeable and just an all around great guy. His love for hiking and the outdoors was so genuine and he had a great sense of humor…plus good taste in snacks. Would do it again in a heartbeat!

Jay was an excellent Guide. He was very knowledgeable and shared relevant information with us. He was in-tune with our pace and regularly checked in with us. We highly recommending Jay as your guide.

Had a wonderful 7km hike with an amazing guide Jay around the Sonoran Desert. We were a small group of 3 friends and learned so much from Jay about different types of cactus 🌵 and what the nature had to offer. Really enjoyed the experience and felt very much in good hands and well reminded to hydrate. Lived how Jay had a bag of healthy and nutritious snacks for us, such a lovely touch 👍🏼 highly recommend!

Our tour guide Derek was very knowledgeable and friendly. He provided us with a lot of information about the various plants and cactus along the way. We thoroughly enjoyed having him as our guide.

Derek was a great tour guide. He was so knowledgeable and it was nice having him to ourselves on the hike.

What a memorable day out! Jay our guide was awesome - super organised, starting with texts and emails confirming meeting place and time, to greeting us with iced bottles of water, back packs and a snack bag of treats. He is super knowledgable and through the guided walk told us about the history and environment. It was super fun and lots of great photos to capture the memories.

I hiked with Liz and she was a wonderful guide. We were clippin at such a good pace for our 5 mile hike. We discussed everything from reality tv to cheeseburgers and she had a lot of knowledge about the wildlife in the area.

I booked the Fantastic Half-Day Guided Hiking Adventure on the Mad Desert Trekking website. Together with my guide David, we did the Overlook and East End full loop. The views were amazing and the weather was perfect for the hike. David was a fantastic guide with snacks and electrolyte drinks and extra water. He was also very encouraging and informative pointing out the petroglyphs on the way back. Thank you for the amazing hike!

Tour guide Jay was excellent. We owe our great experience to his knowledge and expertise. He went above and beyond. He was very communicative throughout the whole process. We knew what to expect and he wanted to know about what we wanted so he could cater the hike to us.

Our guide, Jay, was informative, energetic and shared knowledge with us about the area. We highly recommend Mad Desert!

Our tour guides Henry and Jay were fun, helpful, and made the experience really enjoyable! We completed the loop, the views were beautiful, and our guides told us fun facts about the desert we were climbing in.

Great descriptions of plants and nature. Jay was so kind as to give us a lift to the hotel because Ubers were very unreliable.

Laurel was an amazing tour guide. She has a great personality and made my daughter and I feel like we’ve known her for years. She was super knowledgeable about the different types of cactus and plants and pointed out different points of view. She was super easy to get to get to know and we had a great afternoon with her on our hike. Highly recommend Laurel!

Awesome experience! Michael was a fantastic guide- very friendly and knowledgeable about the desert plants and animals. Would definitely recommend this to anyone!

Great hike with a super knowledgeable and experienced guide who went out of his way to make it a fun experience. Provided everything we needed and customized the experience to us.

It was a great hike - just the right level of challenge for inexperienced hikers. Beautiful views and surroundings too. Tour operator was responsive.

Jennifer was very informative and upbeat. The scenery was magnificent. The hike was on moderate terrain. Easy to navigate

Great outdoor experience with a highly knowledgeable guide. Thanks Matt. Highly recommend Mad Desert Trekking.

My husband and I went on a hike with Ryan at 0530 to beat the heat. We had an awesome time learning about the area and other excursions they offer. We pushed ourselves and made it to the top of Brown Sunmit! Ryan was very accommodating to me frequently stopping to take pictures lol

I had never been to Arizona before so wanted to experience a hike with a professional guide. Upon booking, Matt had reached out to me the week of to confirm and provide all details of what to expect. He also went above and beyond, providing me a massive list of suggestions / recommendations for things to do in the area while I was in Arizona including restaurants, bars, other activities. The actual tour, my friend and I had a wonderful experience with Jennifer as our guide. She was knowledgeable and provided fun facts along the hike. She went at a great pace and was so fun to hike with! I would highly recommend this trip to anyone looking for a fun / active thing to do with experienced guides.

Anyone looking to go on a hike NEEDS TO BOOK HERE! My husband and I went down for our very first trip to Arizona and ended up through a variety of connections linking up with Matt. He was incredibly professional, responsive, and easy to communicate with. In no time, we had set up a sunset hike over the weekend. The hike itself was perfect- not too difficult where it wasn’t enjoyable, but just enough that we got our heart rates going and could say we worked out on vacation 😉 It was the perfect length of time for a hike, the sunset was beautiful, and Matt had so much knowledge about the area and landscape. My husband begrudgingly went on the hike with me, and afterwards told me he had loved it! Because we had such a great experience with Matt, I decided to book him for a hiking group of 9 for my sister’s bachelorette that upcoming February. We had another awesome experience! Matt was so accommodating, and we were even able to last-minute push our hike back that morning due to the cooler weather that week that we were there. We met Matt that morning and he had warm coffee waiting for us and was prompt and ready to go! All the girls received a backpack with water bottles and we were off! The girls absolutely LOVED the hike and being able to enjoy some time out in the sun. Again, perfect difficulty level- we had some areas a little tougher but not to the point we had any concerns. I was 4.5 months pregnant and it was perfect for me. We thank Matt too for all the wonderful group photos he captured! It was one of the highlights for my sister of her bachelorette trip!! Thank you, Matt, for everything!

This was my husband and my first time hiking in AZ so we decided to start with a guide. Best decision we made. Matt Kalina was really knowledgeable about the area and communicated really well pre-hike. He gave us the confidence to do several tougher hikes on our own as well as a few great restaurant recommendations. When we come back and decide we want to try something more difficult, I would definitely hire Matt to guide us. Well worth the cost.

Our guide Matt was full of great information. He kept the hike interesting from beginning to end. Beautiful scenery, beautiful terrain, and a great half-day activity.

Viator was great with scheduling our 1st Hike in Scottsdale, all of my questions were answered with patience in an effort to find the best fit for our skill level. Matt at Mad Desert Trekking is an Amazing Guide! He made the hike fun and informational, he brought everything needed for a hike (bottled water, granola, snacks & backpacks) he even brought Apple Cider Sparkle to toast our anniversary!