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| | Matthews Peak - Tunitcha Mountains HP, AZ | | | |
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Matthews Peak - Tunitcha Mountains HP, AZ
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| Hiking | 10.97 Miles |
1,115 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.97 Miles | | | |
| 1,115 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This was a hike to the summit of Matthews Peak (spot elevation of 9,550 feet), the highpoint of the Tunitcha Mountains. This is in far NE Arizona, in the Navajo Nation. I had picked up a Navajo Nation backcountry permit, so I was good to go.
I could have driven all the way to the top on Road 681, but it was a nice day so I decided to park about a mile off of Road 68 and hike the rest of the way on the road. Temperatures were in the upper 40's when I started, and were in the mid 50's when I got back.
The road walk was a good one -- there were lots of yellow aspen leaves, several open meadows, and some nice scenery in general. Once at the peak I climbed on a couple of rock outcroppings, one of which was the high point. There were a couple of buildings up there -- it looked like someone's place for a weekend retreat. Nobody was home though.
I had intended to go over to the "cliff" benchmark that @chumley visited there last year. However, once I was at the summit I could see some dark clouds off to the south that were headed my way. There was a bit of graupel falling, a good bit of thunder, and I could see rain falling off to the south(more on that below). That being the case, I decided to skip the benchmark and descend down to some lower ground.
It never did rain on me, but the sun went behind the clouds so it cooled off a tad.
Once I got back to my vehicle, I got back to FR 68 and headed south to pavement on Route 12. This section of FR 68 was well graded, but I got to a place where the road was wet from rain earlier. This turned out NOT to be an all-weather section of road, and it was really, really muddy. It was almost as slippery as driving on ice, so I stopped and aired my tires down. Then I proceeded very slowly in 4LO. Eventually I got a place not too far from Route 12 where some houses were, and the consistency of the road got much, much better. Once I got to Route 12 I reinflated my tires and the rest of the drive was uneventful.
This turned out to be an enjoyable hike, notwithstanding the drive out -- the weather was super and the aspen leaves were nice . I might go back up there sometime if I am in the area and check out the "cliff" benchmark; if so, I'll pick a day when there is no chance of rain! |
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Autumn Foliage Observation Substantial
There were some nice yellow aspen leaves along the way. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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