How many more Saturdays do you actually have to float the Salt River this year?
If you live in Red Mountain Ranch and haven't run the math, the answer is five. Salt River Tubing's 2026 season runs through September 30, which means the stretch between now and the last week of the month is the whole remaining window, not a soft suggestion. Once that date passes, the tubes come off the water until next spring, and the shape of a Red Mountain Ranch weekend flips: the river closes right around the time Usery Mountain's trails become comfortable enough to use for more than the first hour after sunrise.
That overlap, five weekends where the river is still running and the mornings are just starting to cooperate, is short. It's also a more accurate picture of the neighborhood's actual outdoor calendar than anything on a golf scorecard.
The river, and how you actually get there
Red Mountain Ranch sits close enough to the Power Road corridor that the most direct route to the water skips the freeway entirely: north on Power Road until it runs into Bush Highway, which is the same stretch that leads to every put-in point on the Lower Salt River.
There are two ways to do this. The commercial outfitter, Salt River Tubing, is headquartered at 9200 N Bush Highway and handles tube rental, shuttle, and forest access pass as one package. Or you go the way a lot of longtime residents do it, with your own tubes, a Tonto National Forest day pass at roughly eight dollars a vehicle, and two cars, one parked at your exit point and one at your launch.
The recreation sites run in order along Bush Highway: Water Users, then Blue Point and Pebble Beach, then Coon Bluff, then Goldfield, then Phon D Sutton at the far end. Where you put in changes both the float time and your odds with the neighborhood's other headline attraction, the wild horse band that grazes the riverbank. Coon Bluff, Goldfield, and Blue Point are the three sites where sightings are most consistently reported, and early morning gives better odds than a crowded midday weekend run.
| Route | Distance/Time | What it's known for |
|---|---|---|
| Water Users to Phon D Sutton | About 2 to 2.5 hours | Shorter, easier float, good for a weekday morning |
| Pebble Beach to Goldfield | Scenic, moderate length | Best reported chances of seeing the wild horses |
| Water Users to Granite Reef | About 4 hours | The full, all-day immersive route |
Whichever route you pick, the deadline is the deadline. September 30 is the last day the season runs, not a date to plan around loosely.
What comes back to life the same week the river shuts down
Usery Mountain Regional Park sits a short drive up the same corridor, at 3939 N Usery Pass Road, and this is the part of the calendar most residents underuse. The park charges seven dollars per vehicle for day use and holds more than 30 miles of trail across difficulty levels that go from a barrier-free stroll to a genuine climb.
Merkle Trail is the easy end of that range, a one-mile round trip loop around a small hill that's flat enough for almost anyone. Blevins Trail steps it up slightly, a three-mile loop over nearly level ground. Wind Cave Trail is the one most people have actually heard of, a moderate 3.2-mile route that climbs into the adjacent Tonto National Forest to a shaded, wind-carved alcove, and it's dog-friendly as long as the leash stays on. For anyone chasing a real workout, the Pass Mountain Trail loops the mountain's full base for just over seven miles and counts as one of the park's most strenuous options.
The reason this matters right now, specifically, is timing. Deep summer makes these trails miserable past 7 a.m. By late August the mornings have started to soften just enough that a sunrise start on Wind Cave or Blevins is genuinely pleasant again, not just tolerable. That's the same week the river is telling you to hurry up. Two outdoor options, same neighborhood, opposite trajectories, and only a handful of weekends where both are working for you at once.
The clubhouse isn't only a golf story anymore
Red Mountain Ranch Country Club still centers on the Pete Dye Signature Course, the only one of its kind in Arizona, and that reputation isn't going anywhere. But the club's identity has been quietly widening for a while, and pickleball is the clearest evidence of it. The club runs six dedicated outdoor hard courts, reservable online, and the program is now built around Stephanie Newton, a 4.5 DUPR-rated player and former college volleyball player who came over from Pure Pickleball and Padel to run coaching and league programming for members of all levels.
It changes the way the club functions day to day. A Tuesday evening that used to mean nine holes and a drink now just as easily means a pickleball round followed by dinner in the Overlook Dining Room, where the draw is less about the food itself and more about the sunset and the panoramic view of city lights below. The Player's Grill is the more casual option for a quicker bite, and reservations are worth making for either room on a weekend.
None of this replaces golf. It sits alongside it, and it means the club now has a genuine reason to pull residents in on nights when nobody's teeing off.
Where the evening actually lands
After a float, a hike, or a round of pickleball, the Power and McKellips corridor is where most of this ends up. Board & Batten and Zona Cantina + Cocina both come up consistently as go-to dinner spots in the immediate area. Lucky Lou's American Grill has built a following as a husband-and-wife-run neighborhood spot, small inside but known for a patio that fills up fast on weekend nights. The Stone House rounds out the options for anyone wanting something a step more polished without leaving the same few miles of road.
None of these are secrets exactly, but naming them matters more than describing "a variety of dining options nearby," because the actual test of whether a neighborhood works day to day isn't the amenity list. It's whether you can string together a morning at the river, an evening at the clubhouse, and dinner five minutes from home without ever getting on a freeway. Red Mountain Ranch, at least for the next five weekends, still can.
After September 30, the river goes quiet and the trails become the whole story until spring. Neither is a downgrade. It's just a different neighborhood for a few months, and it's worth using both while you still have the choice.
If you're weighing what a home in Red Mountain Ranch, or anywhere in the East Valley, is actually worth this season, the team at Avenue 4319 knows this corridor well enough to give you a straight answer. Reach out anytime for a free home valuation.
