They serve as a municipal park and offer hiking, mountain biking and equestrian trails at a variety of different access points.

[2] Generally speaking, the entire Phoenix Mountain structure is an exposed remnant of northeast-striking Proterozoic low-grade metamorphic rock that is thought to be nearly 12-km thick.

This large section of crust was subjected to long scale crustal shortening during the Mazatzal orogeny which formed isoclinal folds and shear zones.

The Arizona State Route 51, near Dreamy Draw, exposes rock that has distinctly slaty cleavage or schistosity which is characteristic of gray metasedimentary phyllite.

No geologic record is retained in the Phoenix area regarding what happened between the Proterozoic until the Late Tertiary sedimentary deposits that exist such as the upper portion of Camelback Mountain (which is an Oligocene aged red sandstone).