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Posted trail map
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The
trail we chose was called Gold Digger. We saw on the map that it
would intersect the road that goes to the top of Woody Mt. As the
trail led us gently upward in a meandering fashion, we soon heard a
bull elk bugle. He treated us to two more calls when Gary Jacobson
answered his challenge. But we never caught sight of him or any other
elk. We did sight five fleeing deer on the hike and two mule deer
near the road going in.
Looking
to the north, the hikers could see the cloud shrouded Lowell
Observatory and the San Francisco Peaks (below).
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San Francisco Peaks and Lowell Observatory
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We
ate a late snack when we came to the intersection with the Woody Mt.
Road and then quickly proceeded up the road to the lookout on top. We
were a little concerned about clouds growing darker. At the look out,
we discovered it was open but unoccupied. As it had cleared up
somewhat, we had sunshine and a clear view in a full circle. When we
made this hike six years ago the lake showed water; but it looked dry
this year.
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Rogers Lake from Woody Mountain
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After
lunch we took our group photo (below) at the Woody
Mountain Lookout, with Jim McGinnis' camera which he was able to set
on a timer and join the group.
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| Left to right: Beverly Sass, Gary Jacobson, Daisy Williams, Karl Sink, Ellen McGinnis, Jim McGinnis and Lila Wright. |
Coming
back down the mountain to the intersection of the Gold Digger trail:
we continued on with the trail. Just a few hundred feet down the
trail off a ridge we had been on, we came to a brand new ramada,
picnic table and large water storage tank (below left).
Next to it is a beautiful stand of young and old aspen (below
right) protected by an elk fence.
Karl
chose to go along the Two Spot trail which travels in a straight line
along an old rail line at the edge of the lake. The rest of us
followed the upper portion of Two Spot trail which was away from
traffic noise and which meandered greatly in and out of gentle:
shallow canyons. Karl arrived at the parking lot at one hour before
the meandering group.
Each trail intersection
is well marked as shown by the photograph displayed here (right).
Lila
was attempting to use the Garmin GPS but was unsuccessful in figuring
out the mileage. Thankfully Jim was able to get a mileage of 8.2. Our
intended hike would have been 4 miles: so we doubled that but
thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful trail.
With
a little research the author discovered that in November of 2010
Coconino County acquired 22,250 acres of land in and around Rogers
Lake. Go to Rogers Lake County Natural Area for further information.
Skyliners last hiked the Woody Mountain area in 2010, the same year
the county acquired the land and had no idea what changes were
coming.
At
the end of our hike, we climbed back into our vehicles and retraced
our route on NF231 to the Arboretum which we had driven past earlier
in the morning. Only four hikers went in. Two drove on to their
destination in Flagstaff and one rested in the vehicle. Inside: we
headed for the butterfly house first and were rewarded with three
different species of butterflies in a wonderful habitat. A posted
sign (left) informed us that
butterflies smell With their antennae, and taste with their feet! The
butterfly season is nearly over and of course many more species can
be seen during the summer months. We saw the monarch (below
left) and zebra longwing (below
right) along another one that was
not photographed or identified. The staff was very helpful in
answering our questions.
The grounds of the
Arboretum were awash in autumn colors. The white ash (below
left) was brilliant orange and the
Maximilian sunflower (below right)
was radiant yellow Apart from our group, we did not see another hiker
all day and were amazed we had the whole place to ourselves. We will
have to keep abreast of the county building more trails in this area
in the future. It is definitely an area that offers much.
Report
by Lila Wright
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