This is a little pocket park off of a main drag in Phoenix. It is one of many similar parks across…read morethe nation.There are currently 24 parks located in the US and Canada. This and the other park's are the product of the generosity of Richard and Annette Bloch. In case you were wondering, Richard is the R in H&R Block. He was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 1978 and colon cancer in the 1980s, and beat it both times. All the parks are unique and a built around 3 common features, a positive mental attitude walk with 14 bronze plaques, four inspirational and 10 instructional, a sculpture of eight life-size bronze figures and a "Road to Recovery" consisting of seven plaques explaining what cancer is and basic actions to successfully overcome the disease. There is free street parking available within a very short walk from the park. The park is located between CVS and Big Coffee. I would like to consider it a calming and peaceful place, but the traffic on the main drag that it is located off of is very busy, loud and distracting. The park 's sculpture represents a symbolic maze of doorways toward "recovery". The five figures in the back are meant to represent cancer patients and their supporters as they enter treatment. The bronze doorways represent cancer treatment and the three figures in the front represent people who've had successful cancer treatments. The sculpture is the work of Victor Salmones and is titled "Cancer...There's Hope. The sculpture looks great, especially considering that it is over 10 years old, but bronze is very durable. The park's inspirational plaques includes phrases such as "Make a commitment to do everything in your power to help yourself fight the disease" and "Cancer is the most curable of all chronic diseases." I love the park concept and the positivity that it exudes. There is a bench in the front of the park to sit and talk a load off and reflect. My only knock is that the park does not appear to be maintained very well. Anyway, I hope these parks keep popping up across the country.

The homeless have invaded this lovely park. It's not as bad as some of the other parks in Phoenix,…read morebut it's still pretty full of lollygagging vagabonds. I can appreciate a guttersnipe or two now and again, but the City of Phoenix needs to start cracking down on this problem. If your stopping by this park you should also hit up "Giant Coffee" for a cappachino.

Mondo Park is a neighborhood park. The new playground is now open. The new playground includes…read moreshade and a small accessible play area. Other than the play structure, the park is mostly a flat grassy area. There is plenty of space for a game of soccer. The park is surrounded by homes. I would not recommend using the park for a game of baseball. There are trees around the outskirts of the park providing some shaded areas.

This place is located in the neighborhood just West of Kyrene de la Mariposa Elementary School,…read morewhich is West of Corona del Sol HS. There is a big soccer field, covered playground, basketball court, and covered seated area near pickle ball courts. There are two water fountains with dog fountains as well. But no bathrooms. There is a porta potty there but it is locked (see photo), what is the point of that??? Street parking around the park is ample. The grass on the soccer field is a bit long. Overall not a bad park but would helpful if there were bathrooms or at least if porta potty was not locked.

This park is super small but it has a fun little playground, plenty of picnic tables, shade…read morestructure, and water fountains. There's ample parking.

Convenient park if you live close by. its next to the canal on the border of Mesa/Chandler, so…read moreit's a nice stop over if you're walking or biking on the trails. Large open grassy area that is well maintained by the city. Biggest drawback is its right next to Alma School Rd, so you get a lot noise from the street traffic. Also, very few amenities and limited parking.

Went here on a Saturday afternoon. Didn't know this park was here. It is a nice park with 2…read moredifferent playgrounds-1 for big kids and 1 for little kids. Lots of walking paths. Basketball court, soccer field. A couple of ramadas and decent parking.

Not sure if I should be reviewing this listing or the one for the South Mountain Activity Complex,…read morebut I'll do this one since I came here for the Holbert trail. I've been here a handful of times, but not too often since it's pretty far from home. I was planning to stop by a local coffee shop in this area, so I decided to do an early morning hike beforehand. It's pretty easy to get to this trailhead, and their hours year-round are 5am - 11pm (gates open and close). I wish they would open a bit earlier during the summer, but I got there a few minutes after 5 anyways. I'm always surprised at how few people/cars I see in the lot, I anticipate it being busier. They recently completely construction here and there's a beautiful pavilion now. Several restrooms and water fountains, which is great. Last time I came here, they had rerouted the beginning of the trail to the northernmost part of the parking lot, so that's where I thought it would be. Took me a few minutes to orient myself from the map because I didn't realize there were multiple bathrooms. Holbert trail is nice and there are a few switchbacks before connecting to Dobbins Lookout, which can be reached by car and has a parking lot. I decided to make the small detour to the lookout and spend a few minutes walking around; I like the little house they have. I really didn't like all the trash I saw lying around; I picked up a few napkins, straws and bottles. Not sure if it's flying out of the trash cans or people just being lazy, but it made me sad. I continued on the trail to the National trail, and made it a loop by connecting to the Kiwanis trail and finally Las Lomitas back to the trailhead. I ran into maybe a dozen people, tops. There are so many parking spots available here and the only time I've seen it full is when I did the Phoenix Summit Challenge in November last year. There are probably other times when it gets busy, like when there are events and such, but usually it's so empty. Maybe because it's the hottest part of the summer. This is one of the trailheads that will close from 8am - 5pm when there is an extreme heat warning from the National Weather Service, so be aware of that. I do want to explore the National trail more, so I plan to be back.

On a Saturday afternoon, I checked out Holbert Trailhead at South Mountain Park. Finding the trail…read moreisn't super easy as it's a bit hidden but here are instructions on how to get there: enter the park and follow the signs that point you to the visitor's center. After passing by the visitor's center, follow the road until you hit an area under construction. The road will make you turn left and then it will bring you into the parking lot. In the corner of the parking lot by the construction, you'll find the entrance to the trail. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's get to the good stuff. Holbert Trailhead is listed as a "moderate difficulty" trail on AllTrails. By the way, if you don't use AllTrails, I highly recommend that you download the app. It keeps track of where you're at on a trail (to make sure you stay on track) and also keeps track of some cool stats for you like the amount of time you've spent on the trails, the number of miles you've hiked, the elevation, etc. Rating Holbert as a moderate trail is fair. The first half of the hike is at an incline as you're scaling the mountain. You'll come across a lot of uneven rocks so it's not easy. Make sure to bring plenty of water. You'll eventually reach a fork where one path will continue on Holbert and the other will take you to Dobbins Lookout. Take the path on the right to get to Dobbins Lookout which is one of the most spectacular nature views in Phoenix. To get to Dobbins, depending on your pace, it will take you about an hour and a half. Once you arrive, you'll be rewarded with spectacular views of Phoenix and surrounding suburbs. And you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you walked there instead of driving there like a bunch of other people you'll see at Dobbins. From there, you'll return along the same path to get to the beginning of the trail again. The return trip will be quicker as you're going on a decline. It will be harder on your knees and you'll have to be careful with your footing, but it will be less strenuous. All in all, it should take you anywhere between two and a half to three and a half hours depending on how long you chill at Dobbins. All in all, a top hike!

This is such a nice hidden park for this neighborhood. I will say I wish there was a baby swing…read moretho. But I love the fact that the playground is shaded. There's a lot of grass to bring your animal or play in the field. The park has wood chips not sand. A nice Ramada with a grill.