HikeArizona.COM

... terrain in Arizona over 10,000 feet, do we? Sure, we have lots of desert, and you don't have to do much more than drive to a neighboring state to find additional area over 10,000', but within our boundaries, we only have a handful of places that exceed 10,000. The Peaks, Kendrick, Escudilla, the Baldy Volcano, and the Pinalenos are it, aren't they? Am I leaving anything out? Living around Flag, with the easy access to the Peaks, gives one a false sense of the state. Until one starts looking for places around Arizona that are over 10,000.

Not a whole lot. It gets better if you push the cutoff down to 8k.

Greens Peak. Not a very exciting peak. Has a microwave forest on top, and a dirt road up it. Nice view from the top, though, very UN-urban view! It's part of the Springerville Volcanic Area, which is a different volcanic event (newer) than Baldy volcano. More cinder cones than basalt.

That whole area is pretty high, so I guess it doesn't take much to get over 10k.

Yes. I am told there is actually a trail up the east side of it somewhere. It would make it more like a real hike if you did that. Last summer I hiked up St. Peter's Dome right nearby. I just liked the name of it. Another cinder hill. It has an elaborate hike register, though. Other people also like the name of it. Green's Peak has the better view, though. When I worked at Hidden Meadow we drove the guests up there on the 4th of July to watch the fireworks which are set off at Sunrise Lake. However, they are so far away I didn't think it was worth it. It was cold up there that night, too! It was fun driving up there at night, though, in a big Suburban.

Until monsoon season starts, that high, dry air can be cold after the sun goes down, even in July. Arizona or not, 10,000' is pretty high. Sure, it isn't like being in the Tetons, or the Cascades, but it's up there. Green's is hardly even noticeable above the surrounding high plateau. I drove past but was not in that area, is it as pretty or prettier than the Escudilla area? I remember the views on Escudilla were great. I haven't been to the White Mountains (other than driving through on my way to and from the Gila Wilderness last May) since 2007. I should go back.

Which states do you think have the most square miles of 10,000+ terrain? AZ might be in the top 5?
Without looking ... Colorado, California, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho?

I believe that New Hampshire is the only eastern state that has any 10k+ at Mt. Washington.

First off, WOW was I wrong about Mt. Washington. Don't know why I thought it was 10k, but it's not even close! Just 6,288.

Anyway, here's some data from googling ...

The National Atlas profile of the U.S. gives an area of 20,230 square miles above 10,000 feet. How is this distributed among the 13 states involved? Map measurements of more than 900 closed 10,000-foot contours comprising more than 97% of those 20,320 square miles leads to the following results:

• State Sq Mi >10,000 ft % of total
  Colorado 11,150 56%
  Wyoming 2,350 12%
  California 1,850 9%
  Utah 1,700 9%
  New Mexico 1,050 5%
  Alaska 650 3%
  Montana 300 1.5%
  Nevada 220 1.1%
  Idaho 210 1.1%
  Hawaii 190 1.0%
  Arizona 55 0.3%
  Washington 15 0.1%
  Oregon 400 acres
  Total 19,740

I was also obviously very wrong about AZs relative amount as compared with other states! Hawaii is more than 3x AZ?

chumley wrote:First off, WOW was I wrong about Mt. Washington. Don't know why I thought it was 10k, but it's not even close! Just 6,288.

Yeah, it's not even the tallest east of the Mississippi, although it's not far off. (http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=149956)

chumley wrote:Hawaii is more than 3x AZ?

Those are BIG mountains in Hawaii.

Interesting I would have thought Alaska would have a higher figure

joe bartels wrote:Interesting I would have thought Alaska would have a higher figure

It's % of each state's total area, and Alaska is HUGE. With all it's peaks pushing 20,000 feet, I'm sure Alaska would have the greatest total area over 10,000 feet, no contest (well maybe Colorado would still beat it).

BTW, upon googling "states area over 10,000 feet", the #9 on the search return was this thread

hippiepunkpirate wrote:

teva joe wrote:Interesting I would have thought Alaska would have a higher figure

It's % of each state's total area, and Alaska is HUGE. With all it's peaks pushing 20,000 feet, I'm sure Alaska would have the greatest total area over 10,000 feet, no contest (well maybe Colorado would still beat it).

I see what Joe means, the total area, not just the percentage, isn't that vast. I think, that despite the high altitude of some of the Peaks in the Alaska and St Elias ranges, most are much lower. 650 square miles is still lot of area, 416,000 acres.

Jim_H wrote:Until monsoon season starts, that high, dry air can be cold after the sun goes down, even in July. Arizona or not, 10,000' is pretty high. Sure, it isn't like being in the Tetons, or the Cascades, but it's up there. Green's is hardly even noticeable above the surrounding high plateau. I drove past but was not in that area, is it as pretty or prettier than the Escudilla area? I remember the views on Escudilla were great. I haven't been to the White Mountains (other than driving through on my way to and from the Gila Wilderness last May) since 2007. I should go back.

I personally like the Green's Peak area. It is a lot of forested cinder cones separated by huge grassy expanses. I would not call it a hiker's paradise, but it's nice to drive around there--miles and miles of dirt roads. You can hike all the cinder cones. Mtn. biking is nice in that area, too. Lots of elk. Always good views in that area. Very nice in July and August, especially NOT on the weekend. You can start in that area and drive or ride a mtn. bike all the way to Show Low on dirt roads without ever touching pavement, if you have a map.

July was kind of wet that year, and it was chilly in the evenings. But as you said, it's cold when it's dry, too.

hippiepunkpirate wrote:

teva joe wrote:Interesting I would have thought Alaska would have a higher figure

It's % of each state's total area, and Alaska is HUGE. With all it's peaks pushing 20,000 feet, I'm sure Alaska would have the greatest total area over 10,000 feet, no contest (well maybe Colorado would still beat it).

To clarify the stats, the percentage figure is not relative to the size of the state, but to the total area of land above 10k in the entire country.

Therefore, Colorado has 56% of ALL of the USAs land that is above 10k. Many websites quote an incorrect stat saying that CO has 75%.

Anyway, the 3% listed for AK is not 3% of AKs land, but 3% of all the 20,000+ sq miles above 10k in the country. Only about 1/10th of 1% (.0011) of Alaska's total area is over 10k.

Colorado is about 104,000 sqare miles, so the area of just CO that is above 10k is about 11%.

Only about 5/100ths of 1% (.0005) of Arizona's land mass is above 10k

excellent clarification

Maybe I'm weird, but I thought chumley was clear enough in his original post. After all, the numbers at up to nearly 100%, so there isn't any other reasonable interpretation.

nevertheless I still would have expected a higher percentage
apparently I don't know Alaska very well

Now I have been to Colorado and despite all of it's followers I find AZ and CA more exciting as there seems to be more prominence. Perhaps CO holds the medal for overall prominence. However there sure seem to be a lot of 14'ers you can almost drive up or not hike very far.

I was most surprised at New Mexico. I didn't realize so much of the Sangres are that high. Somewhere along the research path last night I also read that with some serious effort it would be possible to hike from New Mexico almost all the way to Wyoming without ever dropping below 10k. I nominate Jim.

chumley wrote:I didn't realize so much of the Sangres are that high.

And steep, too, at least in CO. I haven't hiked them in NM yet, but maybe it's about time.

joe bartels wrote:I find AZ and CA more exciting as there seems to be more prominence.

Hawaii has fairly good prominence. Especially if you measure from the sea floor.