Tuesday we hiked Mt Humphreys, Arizona's highest peak.
We started around 9:30 AM, and it took seven hours to finish.
The trail up climbs constantly, but the grade is nice. Most of the trail is on the eastern slope of the mountain, and the snow that fell a couple of weeks ago hasn't melted. In fact, long sections of the trail have packed snow and ice that makes hiking slippery. We both fell multiple times. If I had known, I would have worn different shoes: my hiking boots have hard vibram soles that don't do well on ice. I would have tried snow boots or yak trax over hiking boots.
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| View of Mt Humphreys ridge looking towards the saddle. |
The temperatures were perfect: cool enough to stay comfortable. After the saddle, the wind blowing up the mountain side was cold, around 30 degrees. We used all of our layers to stay comfortable. I loved the views. The San Francisco Peaks stand alone above the plateau. There are views west towards the Grand Canyon and east toward Sedona. The aspens on the foothills have changed color. We kept moving to stay warm until we reached the peak.
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| Mt Humphreys summit |
The descent took longer than I anticipated because of recrossing the icy sections of trail. It definitely felt longer than five miles. But I haven't done any big hikes lately, so maybe I'm just not in hiking shape. I snapped a couple photos of the large bristlecone pines along the trail. We finished around 4:30, glad to be done before temps dropped or the light was gone.
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| Bristlecone Pine |
I loved our adventure and would definitely recommend hiking Mt Humphreys to friends.
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| At the top |
