The Best Hikes of Arizona County High Points

 Headed out on a frosty morning to continue to strengthen my damaged ankle. To my surprise the trail was chaotic people everywhere it felt like a Saturday so much for a little solitude. My assumption is tourist leaf prepping deciding to hike as many were off trail headed in wrong directions, below saddle. And several looking for trail once on the saddle. Other than diving out of way hiking down it was a lovely day.

 Joe threw out 3 suggestions. He normally ranks them and always seems to have one that he advertises as "You probably won't want to do this one". Quite often I take that as a challenge.

The real colors of the day were on the way up Snowbowl Road. Parking at Aspen Corner and the area around there was packed and rightfully so, the aspens were poppin.

We started with Temps in the 30's at a half filled TH. Humphreys Summit Trail is my least favorite way up. But there are few legal options currently. With it being a Thursday, traffic on the trail was light.

At the saddle, we started up then down Weatherford. My favorite part of the day. Open views with clear skies. The IB trail is rocky, rocky, rocky.

Lunch at the bus stop and we saw our only 2 people in the IB. We had an option to hike further towards Lockett Meadow, but we both decided we'd had enough and would run out of daylight if we ventured further.

So back the way we came. In the Snowbowl meadow, we hit the golden hour almost perfect. There had to be 50+ people hiking or sitting in lawn chairs waiting for the sun to disappear.

 Needing to get back in shape after a bad ankle sprain in London, old baldy was in the mix. Started out around 7:30 am slowly making our way. A couple hours in a few folks were trickling past after turning back due to bear sightings. Deciding to proceed we pushed on. Passing Josephine Saddle we noted bear scat about every 10 to 15 feet and a couple informed us of more bear sightings. This continued along with light rain as we got to baldy saddle where a man excitedly showed us photos of the bear he encountered up on hind legs, more like posing for the photo op than angry. We pushed on to summit enjoying the views and the rain approaching. After chatting with a few folks that came up behind us and sharing snacks we took off back down the trail. Great day hiking with friends and we never encountered any bears.

 Got an early start on the trail and was sort of crowded for the first few miles. Once we got out of the tree line the crowds thinned substantially. The last mile and a half climb to the top was a slog as the wind and low temperature started to slow us down. Made it to the top and only stayed for 15 minutes or so to take some pictures and then head down. The hike down began to drag out but the weather was perfect so I was ok with it.

 Couldn't wait the few more weeks for fall and had to have a look for myself at the damage from the summer. Redrew a familiar loop to play within FS rules, avoiding lower Weatherford and Kachina east of the Spur Trail. The whole mountain is still green, except for upper IB, which is just starting to change. Might be back in a week or two; Inner Basin is staying open up from the Waterline junction.

Was hoping for a day of clouds what with the rain and the cool weather we've been having. Forecast called for fog early, and the plan was sealed. Ended up a near-perfect day. Humphreys 151 same as ever. Passed a half dozen groups from saddle and up, and then another half dozen from summit back to saddle. Lots of folks got up for a sunrise summit and missed out on the clouds.

I had upper Weatherford to myself, as well as everything from Humphreys Saddle to Kachina TH for that matter. Lots of traffic on 151 all day long. Low clouds and great visibility. The Ridge from Fremont Saddle was untouched. Clouds built around the summit as I climbed.

Fremont is the summit with the best view of the damage. From there it appeared that Doyle, Schultz Ridge, Fremont's E ridge to Doyle Saddle were burned entirely. The fire did an astonishingly thorough job. Weatherford Canyon below Doyle Saddle, and it's hard to say for sure, was burned about 95% through. The bottom near Schultz Tank seemed to be okay, but everything in between looked like Doyle's slopes apart from a patch or two. Schultz Peak looked similarly, with only a few areas spared.

After an hour, I headed down the SE ridge toward Kachina. That was burned except the highest reaches. In order to avoid the closure, I stuck to the S ridge which was rather clear and stable but very steep. Dense forest and good aspen stands lower down. Emptied into a meadow above Kachina and for the first time since the 2020 Snowbowl closure had that trail to myself.

Foliage
Just starting in upper IB

 Trial hike to estimate how long it would take to hike both Humphreys & Bright Angel down to the river & back up in one day (driving between the two). Couldn't have asked for a more perfect day to hike Humphreys. The temperature was great from start to finish, little breeze but no crazy winds heading up to the summit, visibility clear to the top & out in every direction & the best part was the number friendly of women hiking with their sweet pups! After all the crazy weather hikes I've had on Humphreys, this really felt like a special day.

 Hiked this classic workout hike with Jim and James. Probably my fastest time of all today. There wasn't any water flowing out of the pipe at Bellows Spring, but I was able to filter some water out of the stream directly below the trail. It was very windy at Baldy saddle, at the peak, and for the upper 0.5 miles of trail. We thought it felt like high 40s or low 50s at the top. We didn't stay on the peak for very long because of the wind. We saw a small rattlesnake 5 feet off the side of the trail coming down probably about 15 minutes from Josephine saddle. It was sliding back to a hole that was about 6 to 8 feet away from the trail. We saw at least 15-20 other hikers all day. It was busier because it was a weekend.

 Started just after sunrise, nice cool summer morning. Lots of wild flowers blooming in the meadow at Snobowl. There was some drainage work being done on the trail due to the recent rains. Nice and quiet thru most of the trail, saw a few deer meandering thru the trees eating breakfast. Up to the saddle I had not seen any other people all morning, a few were already there eating breakfast and taking a break. Bypassing the break I continued up to the summit. Traversing around the north side to the summit trail, I caught sight of a few others in front of me also. Making my way to the summit, I only spent a few minutes due to the cold and wind; but beautiful views all around from the top of Arizona. I will defiantly be back another day to climb this again.

Wildflowers
Too many to name them all

 We started this trail at about 2am and hiked it in the dark. It took about 3 or so hours of super slow hiking to reach the saddle. Once we were at the saddle, we then set up a few hammocks and slept for an hour for the sun to rise, and then hiked up to the peak once it was light outside. Awesome sunrise, would do again, but probable start a little earlier, maybe around 8pm or so.

 After work hike while working in the area. Started late afternoon and moved quickly up the trail. Perfect weather, puffy clouds and cool, with no monsoon threat. Stopped to enjoy the view from atop the hoodoos and then pressed on to the 10,500 contour or so on the last big climb. Too late to summit, though I considered it. Lots of interesting mushrooms and fungi to be seen. Decent wildflowers in the meadows. A few deadfall trees were blocking the trail along the ridge. Passed a couple of small groups of backpackers ascending at sunset while on my way down. Giant mosquitoes at the trailhead. Saw a good many elk grazing along the shoulders of highways 273 and 60 on the drive out at night.