Humphreys Peak Trail

Having finally found what looked to be the perfect day for it, we headed out on a hike to Humphreys Peak on Saturday, 06 August 2011. Gordon, Ellis and Kwi met at the Safeway parking lot and drove thru Sedona to pick up George and Akemi. We then drove to Flagstaff and stopped at Denny’s for breakfast. After breakfast we continued on into Flagstaff, took 180 north for 7 miles, then Snowbowl Road (FR 516) for 7.4 miles to the Snowbowl. We parked in the lower parking lot just a few yards from the trailhead and donned our hiking gear. Someone counted and said that there were already 40 cars in the parking lot when we arrived. I guess perfect days are popular.

Getting ready - Left to right: Gordon Bice, Kwi Johnson, Akemi Tomioka 

and George Everman

The trail leads across a meadow and enters the forest about four-tenths of a mile ahead. The way across the meadow is pretty level but soon after entering the forest the trail begins to climb sharply. Something less than a mile (my GPS said six-tenths) from the trailhead it enters the Kachina Peaks Wilderness.

We continued on toward Humphreys-Agassiz Saddle¹, looking forward to the view down into the Inner Basin. That turned out to be somewhere between 3.25 and 3.5 miles from the trailhead. According to Google Earth, we had gained 2535 feet (9277 to 11812) in elevation in those three plus miles.

We took time to rest and enjoy the view out over the Inner Basin before leaving the saddle to continue our way on up to Humphreys Peak.

Looking out over the Inner Basin from Humphrey-Agassiz Saddle 

on Humphreys Trail

George took a picture of the group while we were resting (below) and another showing 36 hikers continuing on up the trail toward the peak (below).

Left to right: Ellis Price, Gordon Bice, George Everman and Akemi 

Tomioka – by George

Thirty-six hikers strung out on the trail leading on up to Humphreys Peak 

– by George

Looking at the trail ahead (see photograph previous page), it would appear that the peak was just ahead. Not so. We climbed three of these and walked along saddles in between before the final climb to the peak.

Atop Humphreys Peak - Left to right: Akemi Tomioka, George Everman, 

Gordon Bice and the author – by George

On reaching the top, we decided to take a short break and then return to Fremont Saddle for lunch. Kwi had chosen to wait for us there and, although the weather had been perfect so far, we were afraid that the wind might pick up if we lingered on the peak.

This is one of the few times when I have found the downhill hike to be more difficult than going uphill had been. The footing was precarious with loose gravel and small rocks scattered among the larger boulders and, worst of all, loose dirt and fine gravel scattered on top of some of the slanting rocks used for footing. I slipped three separate times. Luckily, I was able to set down rather than fall onto the rocks. If there is anything that I am well practiced in, it is the art of falling.

When we arrived back at Fremont Saddle for lunch, I was pretty well tuckered out. However, it was encouraging to remember that the worst part of the trail was behind us. We ate lunch, took a short nap -- at least Gordon and I napped. The others just enjoyed the view and visited with fellow hikers. George took the opportunity to follow Weatherford Trail, which intersects with Humphreys Trail at the saddle, for a short distance to scout it out for a future hike. We plan to hike from the Snowbowl to Schultz Tank using Humphreys and Weatherford Trails.

Gordon asked me to take a picture of the flower shown below, growing well above the treeline. It was located at an elevation of around 12000 feet between Fremont Saddle and Humphreys Peak. None of us could identify it. If you can, please let us know.

Unidentified flower growing on Mount Humphreys at 

around 12000 feet elevation

The rest of the hike was uneventful except that I felt a twinge in my right knee shortly after leaving Fremont Saddle and had to slow down and take great care for the rest of the descent so as to avoid injuring it. By the time we reached the meadow near the end of the hike, the twinge was gone and I have not had any further problems with it.

The total hike distance according to the Forest Service is nine miles round trip. According to my GPS file it was 10 miles.

According to my GPS, the round-trip total distance was 10 miles, the maximum elevation was 12613 feet and the total ascent was 3749 feet.

The GPS track of this hike is shown on the included map (below)

1 This saddle apparently does not have an official name. Hikers on Humphreys Trail just refer to it as the “first gap” because it is the first gap on the way to Humphreys Peak.