Flatiron trail head is located in Lost Dutchman’s State Park. Which is ~35 miles from Phoenix airport or ~21 miles from the Phoenix/Mesa gateway airport. There is plenty of parking and there is a fee to enter with your vehicle. On April 2017 the fee was $7 per car.

We left the parking lot for the trailhead at 6:15am. We were in a group of 6. Ages ranged from 17 years to 48 years. Experience levels raged from afraid of heights to hiked this trail multiple times a year.

Each person brought water, snacks, and lunch. I brought 2 L of water and used every drop. Tip:  bring sunscreen, a wide brim hat, and wear long sleeve and light colored pants. These help with protection from the sun. The long sleeves and pants help to minimize scratched from climbing boulders, and scratches from shrubs thorns. Pants also protected my butt when I was sliding down with my hands and feet in a crab walk to feel like I was in control of my rapid decent.

There were many beautiful flowering plants and breathtaking views. Not only did we reach the top of Flatiron we went up to the next highest peak.

We did stop at both the top of Flatiron and the peak for about 10-15 mins each. We reached the parking lot at 1 pm. Coming back down was a lot faster than going up.