Desert Mountain Club: Blazing Trails with the Interactive Trail Guide

Desert Mountain Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., has unveiled an innovative technology that provides hikers critical information for selecting and enjoying the club’s 20-mile private trail system—via QR code. Members and their guests take more than 12,000 hikes each year on Desert Mountain’s trails. The Desperados—a group of Desert Mountain members who are outdoor enthusiasts focused on advancing the club’s outdoor recreation to the next level—raised the money to build the trails and announced the installation of an innovative Interactive Trail Guide.

The Interactive Trail Guide is a ruggedized and weatherproof, 55-inch touchscreen monitor that is mounted at the trailhead. Hikers are able to select a hike by distance, degree of difficulty or even based on which hike provides for the best views of the sunset. Once the hike is selected, a customized map is created and can be scanned from a QR code and onto the hiker’s mobile device. Thirty-one trail routes and accompanying GPS data are pre-loaded into the system to assist in selecting each person’s ideal hike. The Interactive Trail Guide also has the capability to check current weather, view an informative species guide, scan interesting facts, and recommend specific hikes. Photos submitted by members from recent trailhead events are also on display.

Through the technology, “hikers, without ever having stepped a foot on a Desert Mountain trail, can sort and choose the ideal hike based on either distance, time or elevation gain,” said Desperados member Troy Gillenwater.

Innovations like the Interactive Trail Guide offer just one of many outdoor experiences that can enhance the club experience beyond golf. “As a premier golf and outdoor recreation community, this type of technology and amenity is one the golf industry is just now starting to explore, and we have fully embraced,” said Damon DiOrio, CCM, CCE, ECM, Desert Mountain’s CEO. He adds about an early 2020 event, “Desert Mountain served as host to 50 golf club managers from around the country to showcase this and other outdoor amenities that are geared toward providing a variety of health and wellness opportunities for the golf enthusiasts and their families.”