Made it to the highest point in Arizona!
Last week a buddy and I set out, to hike up, to the top of Mount Humphreys. And what a hike it was!
Last week a buddy and I set out, to hike up, to the top of Mount Humphreys. And what a hike it was!
The trail starts out at the base of the Snow Bowl chair lift and wanders nicely through a meadow at 9,300 feet. The easy stuff ends about a half a mile into the hike. The next, roughly, five miles and 3,300 feet of elevation gain is loaded with rocks, rocks, and oh yeah, that’s right, more rocks!
For those of you familiar with Camelback Mountain, about the last 1,000 feet of elevation gain is similar to that. Climbing over, you guessed it, more rocks.
For those of you familiar with Camelback Mountain, about the last 1,000 feet of elevation gain is similar to that. Climbing over, you guessed it, more rocks.
The view from the top was spectacular, unfortunately, there were more flies than either of us could stand so we didn’t stay long.
Prior to heading up the mountain I had heard about a well preserved, B-24 wreckage, on the side of Mount Humphreys. The B-24 slammed into the side of the mountain on a night training mission from California to New Mexico, tragically killing all eight on board. So, you guessed it, we had to go find it. Turns out it was only about .3 miles off the trail. Sounds easy enough, right? Keep in mind this was a couple of old guys that don’t hike up mountains every day. It took us close to half an hour to scramble over the huge boulders, (no trail), to the wreckage, but I was glad we did it. I sat there for quite a while contemplating what that flight was like and what their final moments were like.
Prior to heading up the mountain I had heard about a well preserved, B-24 wreckage, on the side of Mount Humphreys. The B-24 slammed into the side of the mountain on a night training mission from California to New Mexico, tragically killing all eight on board. So, you guessed it, we had to go find it. Turns out it was only about .3 miles off the trail. Sounds easy enough, right? Keep in mind this was a couple of old guys that don’t hike up mountains every day. It took us close to half an hour to scramble over the huge boulders, (no trail), to the wreckage, but I was glad we did it. I sat there for quite a while contemplating what that flight was like and what their final moments were like.
All in all, the GPS said we covered almost eleven miles, in a little over nine hours. And it still stomped a mud hole in me!
Hope you enjoy the pictures below.
Something very good will come from this…
