A quest for autumn colours with Hannah, Dominic, Pauli, and Skippy.

Having read the post and photos the previous day that the colours on Eldon Lookout Trail were peaking, I was a little dismayed arriving in Flagstaff early Sunday morning to see a distinct lack of colour on the peaks!

We elected to head over to the west and north side of the peaks expecting more colour there. Not much to get excited about along FR151 (Hart Prairie Road). Arriving at the Bismark Lake TH at the end of FR627, we trekked over to the "lake" and up to the AZT and headed southwest. An abandoned jeep road took us to higher elevations where we found a large aspen grove in peak colours near the 9300 foot contour. Mission accomplished! See an old GPS post for the route http://hikearizona.com/location_g.php?GPS=752 We also found a couple of elk skeletons in the wilderness area...

Also looped around the north side of the Peaks via FR418 and onto FR420 to Schultz Pass.