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| Hiking | 13.30 Miles |
3,330 AEG |
| | Hiking | 13.30 Miles | 7 Hrs 3 Mns | | 2.06 mph |
| 3,330 ft AEG | 35 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | Bruce and I opted for a day of hiking near Flag before avoiding each other for the next six weeks. First on the list was Kendrick Peak. We headed up the main trail, which had less shade on the lower part than is used to have. I was quickly reminded of how little higher elevation hiking I’ve done this year, ugh. Summit views were nice, and it was comfortably breezy most of the time. The fire tower was empty, but has some broken windows, and someone has trashed the place. On the descent, we left the main trail and headed down a ridge towards East Newman Hill while Bruce looked for signs of the old route the lookout staff used. No luck there, but the offtrail was easy and scenic. Saw several deer. At the bottom, we contemplated hiking up Newman Hill, but decided to save that for another day. Ate lunch while we walked the road back to the trailhead.
From Kendrick, we drove over to the Lava River Cave. It was busy, as expected. We grabbed some lights and made our way to the tube, where a family who would have absolutely exceeded the GVWR of even my largest truck was blocking the entrance. The journey from the parking lot had exhausted their monthly activity allotment, and they were frozen in place in the chill air, fighting for oxygen. Bruce and I picked our way around them, avoiding patches of ice and wet rocks and made it into the tube without incident. Once inside, we had some long stretches of solitude, finally reaching the crowds in the back third or so of the tube. A large group of disadvantaged youths from Tucson were enjoying the wonders of northern AZ. They were well behaved, but a big group, so we timed our exit to avoid them. Hiking through the tube is interesting, with neat geology, and worthy of a visit.
Our next stop was Wild Bill Hill. No specific agenda on this one, other than wanting to see the hoodoos. We parked along the road, crawled under a fence, crossed a meadow, and made our way to a draw on the northeast side of the hill. As we ascended the draw, the hoodoos came into view. The lower part is easy, but it quickly got steeper and steeper. Terrible footing on the pea gravel. Amazing geology though. We climbed high enough that we didn’t want to scoot back down, so instead committed ourselves to finding a way to keep climbing this steep gravel with no handholds. We awkwardly made our way to the top, where just a few hundred feet of travel was by far the toughest exertion of the day. Relieved to be standing upright again, we debated descent routes. The ridge immediately to the east of the hoodoo ampitheater looked to be a good option, but we wanted to explore more, knowing we could backtrack if needed. We ventured west on a use trail to check out the ridge to the west. It would have been a perfect option, except for a treacherous 20’ section. We decided that section wasn’t worth the risk, and kept following the use trail. It was a great trail for a while, then got rough and was taking us the wrong direction. We bailed down a drainage on the NNW side of the hill. Not too steep, and the soft ground made for good footing. Once down, we cut across the meadow, enjoying the cloudy afternoon and even a few sprinkles of rain.
Good trio of hikes for the day. And reasonably good traffic on the 17 for both directions. |
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| Stop crying and just go do the hike. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
Took the big camera, flash, and tripod for some great pictures.
