Inner Basin Cirque Plus Photoset • joebartels • 2014-10-04 • HikeArizona.COM

Inner Basin Cirque Plus, AZ

	2014-10-04
	12 by joebartels

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Inner Basin Cirque Plus, AZ

Hiking	11.50 Miles	3,200 AEG

Hiking	11.50 Miles	7 Hrs 24 Mns		1.98 mph
	3,200 ft AEG	1 Hour 36 Mns Break	12 LBS Pack

Linked

linked

Inner Basin Trail #29

Inner Basin Cirque Hike

Partners

partners

The_Eagle

This hike has perplexed me for years. What is it all about, what the hell is a cirque?

It was nice to feel chilly air after the most ridiculous humid summer ever in the Valley. Don't buy it... clear skies everywhere today. Returned to the valley, a few clouds. It's all the friggen rain still evaporating!

Plenty of parking options available arriving after 8am. When we left at 4pm 1-2 dozen vehicles were still driving into Lockett Meadow as we followed a small convoy out.

Bruce had a smorgasbord of options planned out. General fatigue, lack of sleep, stress, moon phase, not enough mental relaxation days, too much hiking or something had me screaming not interested in much of anything. Yeah, yeah I sat out a couple of the side trips.

Autumn had it's moments on the way up. Sweet views started rolling into play. The cirque thing was building interest. It faded. The final mile up to the cirque was a slow drag. A slip. A scream. Are we there yet?

Another corner. The pain eased up. The forest parted and cirque du Kachina cast out a hundred and eighty degree riveting view. We quickly snapped photos as if the view might cease to exist a minute later. Only 0.4 mi and 525 ft down from the summit trail saddle we could see and hear hikers above. We lunched at the base of a rockslide on the south end, then toured the cirque on the way out.

Weather was perfect all day. Heading down another slip. A louder scream. Merging back into the trail it was a zoo in the upper Inner Basin all the way down to the trailhead. Crowds don't bother me yet couldn't help but think a few fellow HAZ'ers would have seriously disapproved.

Flora

Flora [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Quaking Aspen

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Humphreys Peak

Meteorology

Meteorology [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Autumn - Color Foliage Sunburst

Autumn Foliage Observation Substantial
A beauty right now! A few green areas remain, a few areas are finished too.

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- joe

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