Red Mountain Park

Fast Flight Facts

Target Species: Bendire's Thrasher

Elevation: 1500'

Habitat: City park highly made up of creosote desert with mesquites and paloverdes; Lake in park surrounded by riparian habitat

Overall Birding Rating: 4

Difficulty: 1 (Easy)

Birding Type: Easy Hiking

Facilities: Parking, restrooms

Fees/Ownership: None/City of Mesa

Closest Town or City/How far from Phoenix: Mesa /23 miles east of Phoenix

Getting there: Two parking areas of the park are easy to get to from Brown Rd.

Overview: Red Mountain Park offers birders a nice place on the east side of the valley to view Bendire's Thrashers. These small Curve-billed Thrasher look-a-likes can be found here reliably throughout the year in this Mesa park that has great habitat for a variety of different bird species. Creosote desert makes up a lot of Red Mountain Park, which also has mesquite and paloverde trees throughout the park. Hints of this desert habitat can be found in the park and there is a large wild desert area that borders the east side of the park. This big desert area has creosote flats with scattered mesquite and paloverde chains. The habitat is excellent for Bendire's Thrashers and other desert birds alike. Besides the desert habitat, this park also has a fairly large lake which is surrounded by good cottonwood and willow habitat in spots. The lake even has a "riparian island" full of cottonwood and willow trees. It would be a great place to check during migration as well as winter for wintering waterfowl. The park has signs in a lot of places stating it's a wildlife habitat area and asking not to disturb the habitat and vegetation. True to the sign, the habitat is amazing and will be satisfying for the birds. Whether coming here to search for Bendire's Thrashers or to bird in general, this park and it's habitats will provide good birding potential.

Birding Tip: Red Mountain Park offers a lot of habitat to search through for different birds. Besides the immediate park and lake area, go to the large desert area on the east side of the park. This creosote dominated desert with paloverde and mesquite is a good place to search for Bendire's Thrashers and other desert birds.

Directions: Red Mountain Park is located in Mesa and the birding area of this park is surrounded by the following boundary roads: Sun Valley Boulevard on the west, Brown Road on the north, 80th Street on the east, and Adobe Street on the south. The park is best accessed from Brown Road, by taking Sun Valley Boulevard south a short distance to the parking lot. If continuing on Brown Road past Sun Valley Blvd. a short distance east, parking is accessed from Brown more at the east side of the park. The closest freeway to this park is the Loop 202 (Red Mountain Freeway). Take the Brown Road exit and then head west on Brown Road for 1.2 miles to Sun Valley Boulevard. For another route, Red Mountain Park is also accessed easily from taking Brown Road east toward the park or Power Road north to Brown Road. Sun Valley Boulevard is only 0.7 miles east of Power Road.

Pages:

Red Mountain Park Maps

Red Mountain Park eBird Data

Scenes and Sights from Red Mountain Park: