The Horseshoe Loop is one of the easiest and most rewarding walks in Scottsdale's McDowell Sonoran Preserve, a gentle 1.7-mile circuit from the Gateway Trailhead that delivers proper Sonoran Desert scenery without asking anything of your legs. There are no hills and no steep sections anywhere on it, which makes it just the right length to get the blood moving without any risk of a desert epic, and an ideal choice for families, visitors and anyone easing into hiking in the heat.

The route links the Desert Park, Horseshoe and Saguaro trails near the Gateway trailhead, crossing a broad desert bajada, the gently sloping apron of debris at the foot of the McDowell Mountains. The tread is mostly hard-packed desert soil with gentle grades, and the surroundings are pure Sonoran: saguaros standing in numbers, a diverse mix of other cacti and low shrubs, and wide mountain views opening in every direction.

Photographers do particularly well here. The cactus-and-mountain landscape is exactly the picture people come to Arizona for, and it's at its best at sunrise or sunset when the low light sets the desert glowing and the saguaros throw long shadows. Spring adds wildflowers and blooming cactus to the mix.

The Gateway Trailhead, at 18333 North Thompson Peak Parkway, is superbly equipped: plenty of parking, restrooms, and drinking water, with no parking or admission fees at all. Hours run dawn to dusk. Everything is well signed, so the loop is easy to follow from the Gateway Loop, and the trailhead serves as the hub for the preserve's much larger trail network if you want more. The Saguaro Loop and Nature Trail, with its interpretive placards, starts from the same place and pairs naturally with this one.

Heat is the genuine hazard in this preserve, not the terrain. Summer daytime temperatures routinely exceed 100 degrees, which puts afternoon hiking off the table entirely, and the standard local advice is to be on the trail between about 5 and 7 a.m. in the warm months and off it before the sun gets high. There's little shade anywhere.

Bring water, a hat and sun protection, and proper shoes for the rocky desert soil. October through April is prime season, when this becomes about as pleasant an hour outdoors as Arizona offers. For an easy, free, beautiful introduction to saguaro country minutes from Scottsdale, the Horseshoe Loop is hard to beat.