Solo afternoon trip up into 10,000 ft land.
Chose the counter clockwise route for this day.
Added the out-n-back spur trail at the start.
T shirt weather on the climb up, pullover fleece on top and down Arcadia.
The aspens are a turnin', good amount of summer flowers left, still many raspberries left to pick, Shannon CG creek flowing very well & very green pines throughout.
Wildlife was scarce today producing only 1 white-tail doe sighting.

first visit to the pinalenos
two night car camp with john
drove up saturday morning, and were on the mountain by noon
checked out a few campgrounds, setting up at hospital flat
thought we might have trouble getting a site, but plenty were available in shannon and arcadia
this area has been on my wish list for some time
good timing for getting away from record temps in the valley
picked out a handful of hikes with some input from fellow haz members
started out on this loop around 4:00, taking the trail from shannon campground
good trail up with some nice views to the north
really liked the grassy aspen area near the top
a collection of antennas, a cabin and a fire tower at the summit
no one home, so we went up as high as we could before the locked gate
great views from the tower
took the road down to make the loop
drove down a few miles to hit ladybug peak from the saddle
cute little summit with good views but no ladybugs
headed back to camp
cooled off quickly once the sun went down, so we enjoyed the fire john built
very quiet night, brightly lit by the nearly full moon

Our one and only snowshoe trip of this winter and we almost waited too long to take it!
The Pinalenos' snow has quickly melted in the last 2 weeks leaving our first 2 choices non-doable.
We had to drive up and around to the backside of Graham all the way to Shannon for a continuous trail of snow, Heliograph Peak's service road to the top was today's ticket. Still holding about 95% of the road's snow, we headed up to the top, took in the great views from 10,000ft, rested & refueled, then back down the way we came.
Man ..... I had forgotten what a workout snowshoeing is, I'll be feeling it tomorrow, but we had a great time on this fun, well spent afternoon of play on the Big Island!!!

The trail up is great. It does get a little less appealing near the top where it has suffered some severe fire damage and is currently being overran by New Mexican Locust plants, hopefully the also abundant Aspen win the battle to reclaim this burned area. The top is cluttered with some contemporary stuff and several towers, but the views are solid. I took the road down and a series of old logging roads in order to hit Heliograph Spring for the dogs. The spring had water and we managed to cut some considerable sections of the closed road out of the hike back.

Perfect day on top of the mountain with a trio of good friends!
We started the day with a very nice loop hike of Heliograph Peak.
We then traveled the Swift Trail to it's end on this opening day of the back road.
Then it was down to Riggs Lake for a short loop around this most beautiful (cold) mountain forest lake. Quite a few people fishing & catching limits on day #1 of the reopening.
4 turkeys were spotted along the way.

Thanks Dave, Kathy & Addie - look very forward to the next one!

Wildflowers
Starting to pick up now, mostly yellows.

After doing Grant Hill Loop as a warmup/elevation adjusting Hike, Chad and I were off to Hike the main attraction for the day. Chad thought that I needed to bag at least one peak while I was here, and after he told me about this one, I was all for it. I have not had the opportunity to see a close up of a Fire Tower yet, so seeing one that was on the Historic Register seemed very cool.

We arrived at the Shannon Campground and hit the Trail. I was starting to adjust to the elevation somewhat, and the Trail started out fairly level, so I got more of a chance to suck in some more oxygen, before the uphill began. And it did begin, although it wasn't terribly steep at this point, so life was good...I knew eventually it had to get steeper if we were going all the way to 10,000 feet....

We also ran into a little snow here and there, but it wasn't too bad. The Trail had some deadfall on it, apparently the crews haven't been in to clear it away yet. A few downed trees to go over, under or around, but nothing too awful. (I've already experienced awful deadfall this Spring, this was light by comparison).

After a few sucking wind stops and Photography breaks, we got to a nice overlook area and took a real break to enjoy the views. From Chad's comments, I knew we were getting close and I was really getting excited about hitting this Peak. Finished the break, and started pushing upward again. We arrived at a burn area just before the top and although I wouldn't consider a burn area horribly scenic, it kind of had it's own tragic beauty, especially with the white boulders and rocks encountered in that area as well. And then with one more push, we were there! Walking up to the Forest Service Cabin with the Fire Tower looming overhead was a very cool sight. Let the picture taking commence in earnest....

Not only was the Cabin and the Fire Tower there, but also several other communication towers, one of which Chad stated had to be brand new, as it hadn't been there when he was there before. The new one, was now the tallest structure on the Mountain. It was incredibly high.

Lots of history up there and we spent about an hour going from place to place, tower to tower, and overlook to overlook, as the views off the side of the Mountain were incredible as well. Really enjoyed the visit at the top of this Peak.

Before long it was time to start back down and we took the Service Road all the way back to the Campground. We even had time to stop at another area for some wildlife and sunset viewing, so the day wasn't even over yet! (I'll post a different Log for some of the more scenic, nonhiking stuff).

Great Hike!! Another winner Chad!!! First time I've ever been at 10,000 feet, actually hiking, so it was special in that way as well. Another awesome day in the books....

Pam and I drove up the Swift Trail to the backside of the Pinalenos for a couple of high forest hikes. We first made a brief stop at Ladybug Saddle to accumulate to the altitude a bit before continuing on around to the backside. First up was Grant Hill Loop which we looped clockwise around the outer trails stopping for a break at the 2 big overlooks. Then it was off to one of my Pinaleno favs - 10,022 ft Heliograph Peak Loop. We started from the Shannon CG looping the trail clockwise with a brief stop at the Eagle Rock overlook before continuing on up to the peak. I just love the top of this peak! The historic cabin, meadow, towers and views down to the valley will have me coming back season after season, year after year! The sun was getting low after Heilograph, but we still had a little daylight left to drive down to one of the prettiest little places on the whole mountain, Snow Flat. As we arrived at the flat, we spotted a big tom turkey with 6 of his hens and were able to get a few pics before driving down to the little lake for sunset. After getting our lake pics, we drove back on down to town ending a real nice day spent on the mountain!

Too bad the lookout has signs up that restrict tower access. When I got to the top it was mostly pea soup anyways.

The Arcadia trail starts out great, a wonderful trail for that first mile.

Ripe raspberries all over the backside (burned area). I helped myself to a few. And then a few more! Yum! Figured out I was competing with the bears. Plenty of evidence but none seen.

After lunch with Randal at Chalo's Safford (whose food has gone downhill, by the way ), I drove up into the high Pinalenos for the 2nd time today. I parked at the Shannon turnoff, and hiked the forest road to the top of Heliograph, where I was greeted by numerous flowers, ladybugs, and bluish thunderstorm clouds building all around. Sixty five degrees and cloudy? Yes!!! I took dozens of photos, and watched an increasingly menacing thunderstorm grow to the east, over Safford. That storm rolled in as I left the top, and things got a little wild. With close lightning strikes and heavy rain, I moved quickly down the peak. At the bottom, I took a detour through Shannon Campground to Marijilda Creek, enjoying the peaceful rain soaked surroundings and the dark clouds overhead. Driving down, I paused to enjoy a great lightning show over Safford, near the forest boundary. A nice full day adventure it was.

After doing the Graham trail, I decided to head over to Heliograph Peak. The Shannon campground was still closed for winter, but you can park at the gate and walk through the campground to the trailhead. A few spots where downed trees block the path but nothing too bad until you get higher up where the trail is almost all covered by some downed trees. Snow was present up on the top sections as well. Got to the top and the views were incredible. To the NE I could see smoke rising from a fire in the distance. Looking over at Graham seemed to be further than it should be, then there were great views of Dos Cabezas and the Chiricahuas to the south. Also loved the view of the Galiuro Mountains where I would be the following day. Some good gusts of wind up at top made it nice and chilly. I decided to head down the road to see the other side of the mountain which made the trek a tade longer but not bad. Water running down a channel from the melting snow made for a nice soundtrack to the hike.