Continued...
I left Las Vegas the afternoon prior, driving to Flagstaff, AZ, another
state closer on my trek across the Western US to Telluride, CO. I planned
to spend a few days in the area tagging some prominence summits around
town. The weather forecast had 70-80% chance of thunderstorms over
these two days, which pretty much means it's only a matter of when
the rain would start to fall, not if. There had been some heavy
rain during the last half hour of driving into Flagstaff, so I was pretty
much accepting that there'd be some wet hiking the next day. And while my
boots and pants got some wetting in the early morning from the
plants, for the most part I did pretty good, drying out soon enough and
then only getting new rain towards the end.
Wing Mtn / Little Wing Mtn
I spent the night camped a few miles west of US180 at the base of Wing Mtn,
on a good Forest Service road with lots of dispersed camping for myself and
the few others I saw on the drive in. Wing Mtn is an old cinder cone with
nearly 1,000ft of prominence and well-forested. One can climb it from any
side, with open covered in duff, easy cross-country but
quite steep. It took me just over half an hour to cover the 0.7mi distance
to the summit where I found a , but no register (none
on any of the summits I visited today). There are some
during the ascent and at the summit (particularly to the San Francisco Mtns
to ), but for the most part the forest cover is complete.
I took a slightly different angle on the way back to visit Little Wing Mtn
which
turned out to be a complete dud. It's almost impossible to discern any sort
of highpoint along the rolling terrain of the which
would
be better description than "mountain". It was pretty much like geocaching
to find my way to the coordinate identified on LoJ, but almost any point
was as good as another.
A1 Mountain
An odd name for another forested cinder cone a few miles SE of Wing Mtn.
Others have reported on PB approaching from the south, but I used a
northern approach since I was already near US180. I parked at a
less than a mile from the summit, but high-clearance
vehicles can drive to cut the distance in half. The hike
was very similar to Wing Mtn - short
but steep up forested slopes littered with forest duff. The highpoint is
found at a small just south of the
(which took a little hunting about to find). Not much in the way of
here either, taking an hour roundtrip.
Elden Mountain
A southern extension of the ,
overlooks Flagstaff to the north. The summit is crowned by
and large array of telecom towers with a
service road reaching it from the west and north. The road can probably be
driven by any vehicle (not sure, since I didn't drive it) but the more sporting
route is from the southeast off US89 via the .
There is a
fairly large TH lot just off the highway, one of half a dozen trailheads around
Elden Mtn that can be used to access a whole network of trails. The Elden
Lookout Trail appears to be quite old, somewhat eroded and very popular. There
were about 10 parties on the trail on a mid-week morning during my visit. The
trail to the summit is 2.5mi in length over which it gains 2,400ft - pretty
steep. And rocky, too, but in a good way. The volcanic rock has good traction
even when wet and with fairly heavy use, most of the loose rocks have already
been uprooted. There are some views of Flagstaff's
along
the trail, but nothing very inspiring. Traffic noises from the highway below
can be heard nearly to the summit - not a wilderness hike, this one.
Reaching
after an hour and 20min's effort, I sat under the lookout
tower to rest and give the sweat on my back a chance to dry. The lookout was
manned and open for visitors, but I decided not to go up as is my usual
practice. I think I'd seen enough people on the hike and was looking for more
solitude. I hiked the various service roads to the north and west
to pay visits to a pair of minor bonus summits.
Both of these had their own set of towers (one in fact was
simply named "TV Hill", and there were technicians working at two different
sites. Neither bump
offered views better than can be had from Elden Mtn. While I was
visiting the last one, Devils Head, the lightning, thunder and accompanying
rain & hail began to start up. I donned my rain jacket as I started back, but
took it off again when the rain let up as I returned to the Elden Lookout
Trail. The rain had let up but the thunder & lightning intensified as I
descended the trail. One guy coming up remarked that "a few more thunderclaps
and I'm heading back," but I doubted that. I think he said it just so I wouldn't
think him crazy to continue. Some of the thunder had been deafeningly loud
following only a split second from the lightning flash, so we both knew it was
directly overhead. I'd have probably done the same thing. After all, what bad
could happen?
Mars Hill
An easy drive up. Mars Hill is the site of the Lowell Observatory erected by
Percival Lowell in the 1890s. He was a world-reknowned expert on Mars, having
"discovered" its canals using his 24" .
Subsequently it has been conjectured that he was seeing the capillaries in the
back of his eye superimposed on the view of mars. Oops. Better, the observatory
was the site of the discovery of Planet X in 1930 which became Pluto which in
2007 was stripped of its title and recategorized a dwarf planet - little better
than a large asteroid. Drats. Adult pay $15 to visit the observatory though one
can enter via other clandestine routes to reach in a
small grassy area next to the telescope. Percival was buried ,
too. The site is open 10a-10p most days and on clear nights provide viewing
to the public through the 24" telescope.
Continued...