At the end of the year McDowell Mountain Regional Park Supervisor Rand Hubbell will begin a new journey into retirement.

For the last 13 years of his 34-year career with parks and recreation he has been the supervisor for McDowell Park, the recreation destination along the northern boundary with Fountain Hills.

“This is an awfully great place to come to work every day,” Hubbell said reflecting on his tenure.

A large part of his legacy will be creating a renowned venue for mountain biking. The park has become a host site for numerous cycling events each year; there were 25 in 2014, according to Hubbell.

“Sixty percent of our visitors are cyclists,” Hubbell said.

Manufacturers like to come to the park events for demonstration activities because of the big turnouts, according to Hubbell.

He has been instrumental in the cycling boom at McDowell Park from the ground up.

When Hubbell arrived in 2002 the park was still trying to recover from the devastating Rio Fire seven years earlier.

He was not working at the park at the time, but was with the county parks and recreation department and was involved in some of the efforts to get the park back on its feet.

“When I came here we had no presence in the park,” Hubbell said.

Offices were located in a maintenance area about a quarter mile off in the desert behind the campground.

In 2005 the county brought in a modular building and set it up along the main road through the park right across from the campground entry.

The Visitors Center has been a great attraction for the park, providing a visible base for staff as well as interpretative programs.

Hubbell said he is told that McDowell Park is next on the list to receive a $2.5 million permanent nature center, but he does not know when that will be funded by the county.

Since he has been at the park they have added about 23 miles of new trails. The majority of those are connector trails creating new loop options for hikers.

There are also new access trails that provide new connections into the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale as well as the trails leading into the park from the Verde Communities and the Sonoran Trail from the Fountain Hills McDowell Mountain Preserve.

“We have developed some great relationships with Scottsdale and Fountain Hills,” Hubbell said.

“The McDowell Park Association provides great support from the neighboring communities.”

Hubbell was born to the outdoors, growing up in Billings, Mont.

He came to Arizona in 1972 to attend Arizona State University and eventually earned his Master’s Degree in commercial recreation. He has been working in recreation since 1979.

Fountain Hills is also a familiar part of his resume. He worked at Club Mirage for a couple of years in the early 1990s. He also served eight years on the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and was chairman of the Tourism Committee.

When he retires, Hubbell is looking forward to participating in the recreation events he has been too busy to enjoy while working.

“It’s an opportunity to get out and enjoy recreation instead of watching others,” Hubbell said.

He also said he will volunteer for some of the people who produce cycling events across the country.

“It’s a chance to get out of Arizona during the summer,” he said.

He will also be spending more time with grandchildren in California.