Las Sendas

Las Sendas means the paths. The community was laid out around them, and they do not stop at the perimeter. Along the upper edge the pavement runs out and the Tonto National Forest begins, and the trail that meets the last block is part of the Hawes Trail System, more than fifty miles of trail. At the low end the Loop 202 crosses the foot of the hill. The community has a freeway at one end and a federal forest boundary at the other.

The setting

North and east, the ground above the streets is Tonto National Forest, federal land that carries the Hawes trail network and runs down to the Salt River. Southeast of that, Usery Mountain Regional Park is Maricopa County, with a nature center, a campground, an archery range and more than thirty miles of multi-use trail. Red Mountain stands north of the community and a little to the west, on the far bank of the Salt. It turns the color of its name at sunset. It stands on Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community land and has been closed to the public since the early 1980s. The name is carried locally by the Loop 202, by Red Mountain High School and by the Red Mountain Ranch neighborhood across Power Road.

Lifestyle

The community has many amenities, including two heated pools with spas and a splash pad, tennis and pickleball, and three parks, Boulder Mountain, Sonoran Heights and Desert Foothills, across about 28 acres. The Trailhead Athletic Club and Spa sits beside the clubhouse. The Las Sendas Golf Club is a Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed desert course, semi-private, offering several membership programs, with tee times open to the public. The Hawes Trail System is mostly desert singletrack inside the Tonto National Forest, built and maintained largely by the Hawes Trail Alliance, a volunteer nonprofit formed in 2018 in partnership with the Forest Service. It counts more than fifty miles today with more still on its plan. Routes are graded by difficulty, from a smooth mile and a half on the Saguaro Trail to upper loops that are rocky and unforgiving. Riders, hikers and runners all use the same tread, so walkers give way on the blind corners. North of that, up the Bush Highway, is the water. The Lower Salt is where the Valley takes paddle boards and kayaks through the summer, and where people fish throughout the year, often within sight of the wild horses on the banks, with Saguaro Lake farther up. Usery Mountain Regional Park takes horses throughout and has staging built for trailers, and the boarding barns are out in the Usery Pass corridor. Day to day the shopping gathers on Power Road just off the western edge, anchored by The Village at Las Sendas, with Bashas’, Albertsons and Safeway on the same road. The Grille at the golf club is inside the community, its dining room open to the public.

Living here

I lived in Las Sendas across two stretches, the first beginning in 1998 and the second beginning when we returned in 2008. We arrived in January 1998, into one of the first houses finished on our block, and the neighborhood came together one family at a time. Las Sendas Mountain was a long way from being built then and the desert still ran to the edge of the streets.

Who it fits

The community runs multigenerational, so children tend to find playmates nearby. Las Sendas sits within Mesa Public Schools and has an elementary school within the community. It suits a household that wants the trail at the end of the street. This is a residential community, and the shopping is a few blocks west on Power Road. If Las Sendas has been on your mind, whether you are looking here or thinking about selling here, I would be glad to begin a quiet conversation.