The Lookout is located 2.5 miles from Tom's Thumb Trailhead in McDowell Sonoran Preserve. The Lookout offers panoramic views across the McDowell Mountains, Verde River Valley and McDowell Mountain Regional Park. Visitors will also enjoy distinct rock classes and geological features highlighted by Tom's Thumb along the way.

Granite rock gardens on the initial climb formed as magma intrusions cooled near the earth’s surface and lithified

Looking across the eastern slopes of McDowell Regional Park from the Lookout (3,858')

Prickly pear fruits are edible and healthy, offering vitamin C, fiber and flavonoids

Raptors save energy and gain height by riding warm air columns that rise up the slopes of mountains

Colorful piles of quartz top the Lookout, which contrast sharply with lightly colored granite on the hike in

Spheroidal erosion has rounded once-jagged and jointed edges of the granite boulders comprising Tom's Thumb

Much of the trail runs on grus - finely eroded granite that can be slippery and contribute to the instability of slopes

Weavers Needle is a 4,553' volcanic remnant in the Superstition Wilderness that can be seen from great distances

Rhyolite and sandstone in this area was buried deep, heated and pressurized into meta-rhyolite and quartzite, which make up most of the McDowells today

Looking east across the Verde River Valley, which originates outside of Flagstaff and flows 195 miles into the Salt River near Fountain Hills

Looking down on the Windgate Trail, which climbs 3.8 miles from The Gateway to Windgate Pass (3,031')

The McDowells steep rock walls funnel water east into a particularly rich bajada expanse

Where ancient magma cooled slowly, large crystals formed that give rock a coarser grain

The nearby Marcus Landslide Trail features some of the area's most dramatic examples of spheroidal erosion

After a steep initial climb, travel moderates on high ridges with a good look down secluded valleys