Humphreys Peak Trail

Nine Skyliners hiked on Humphreys Summit (Peak) Trail on 7 June 2012. We met at the Safeway parking lot in Cottonwood and carpooled from there. One of the hikers took Miriam Sterling, Anita Jackson and Betty Wolters and stopped in Cornville to pick up Lila Wright. I took Kwi Johnson and drove to Becky Fowsky's house in Sedona, where we all shifted to Becky's car and then stopped to pick up George Everman. The two groups met at Snowbowl.

When we arrived at Snowbowl, the other group were waiting for us, having already donned their hiking gear. Most of the hikers carried cellphones which work well enough on this trail and we also had two walkie-talkies with us. We thus made no attempt to stay together on the trail during this hike.

From the lower parking lot at Snowbowl, we followed the trail across a meadow, passing under the lift, and entered the aspen forest a little over a quarter of a mile from the trailhead. At first the trail ascended at a gentle slope through the quiet aspen forest. It then became ever steeper as we left the aspens behind, and entered the conifers growing higher up. Along the way, we passed into the Kachina Wilderness Area. 

Near the tree line, we saw a sign (right) that gave the elevation as 11400 feet.

We finally emerged from the treeline and continued our steep climb toward Humphreys-Agassiz Saddle (usually just referred to by hikers as the “saddle”)

Not being constrained by the need to stay together, we had become widely separated, with Becky ahead, another hiker and I swapping places frequently behind her and the rest of the group far behind.

When the other hiker and I reached the saddle, we paused for a while to take in the view looking out over the inner basin, still clinging to patches of snow along the north-facing slopes.

Looking out over the inner basin from Humphreys-Agassiz Saddle

After a short pause, the other hiker continued on toward the peak while I stretched out on the gravel below a rock outcropping for a short twenty-minute nap. I awoke, refreshed, just as a hiker from Phoenix arrived. In training for a forthcoming hike on Kilimanjaro, he wasted no time in heading up the trail (below)

Looking up the trail toward the peak from the saddle

I followed along behind the hiker who was training for Kilimanjaro, eventually overtaking the Skyliner hiker I had been trading places with.

The hiker from Phoenix forged ahead, leaving David and me (now pretty well winded) behind. As we crossed the last of four false peaks (the sort you climb up only to find there is a higher one just ahead), we met Becky on her way back down. She reported that, having been plagued with a swarm of flies, she had quickly signed in at the peak and left. George had gotten sidetracked on a search for airplane wreckage before reaching the saddle. When the rest of the group reached the saddle, Lila, Betty and Kwi headed on up toward the peak, while Miriam and Anita, shown in the following two photographs, rested awhile and then turned back.

Miriam Sterling – photograph by Anita

Anita Jackson – photograph by Miriam

Three other hikers were at the peak when we arrived, but they soon left and we had it to ourselves. As expected the view from the peak was spectacular, and we took several photographs, a couple to show that we were there and several of the beautiful mountains, valleys and plains laid out in all directions below us. The photograph of the author (below) was taken taken at the peak with my camera by a fellow Skyliner hiker.

The Author at Humphreys Peak on 7 June 2012

I took four photo-graphs (below) from the peak to illustrate the views from Humphreys.

Looking east from Humphreys Peak

Looking north from Humphreys Peak

Looking out across Agassiz from Humphreys Peak

Looking west from Humphreys Peak

As David headed back down the trail, I lingered to photograph the Aldo Leopold bench. I am sure the bench is quite new, both from its pristine condition and from the fact that I don't remember seeing it on a previous visit in August of last year.

The Aldo Leopold bench on Humphreys Peak

Leopold worked for the Forest Service in AZ and NM during the early 1900s. The following is quoted from a biographical entry in Wikipedia:

Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac (1949), which has sold over two million copies. He was influential in the development of modern environmental ethics and in the movement for wilderness conservation. His ethics of nature and wildlife preservation had a profound impact on the environmental movement, with his biocentric or holistic ethics regarding land. He emphasized biodiversity and ecology and was a founder of the science of wildlife management¹.

About About two-thirds of a mile from the peak we met Lila, Betty and Kwi on their way up. They told us that George was on a mission to find an airplane crash site and that Anita and Miriam had stopped at the saddle.

Back at the saddle, we stopped for a late lunch and a long rest. After all, there were three hikers behind us and we were not in a hurry. Finally, we did gather ourselves and start the steep, winding descent to Snowbowl. Along the way, we found George, his arduous climb along the rocky slope looking for wreckage having been unsuccessful, sitting on a log alongside the trail waiting for us. He told us that Becky had already passed, followed by Anita and Miriam. Meanwhile, Lila had called to say that she, Kwi and Betty were at the peak, ready to start back.

Left to right: Kwi, Betty and Lila at the peak– photograph provided by Lila

We were all accounted for, and George, David and I continued on down the trail, catching up with Miriam and Anita about a mile from Snowbowl.

By the the time we arrived at the trailhead, Becky had already been waiting for quite a long time and Kwi, who had ridden with her, was still at least an hour away. To get Becky on her way, we arranged for Anita and Kwi to switch so that Anita Rode with Becky and Kwi came home with another driver.

According to my GPS track we hiked 4.7 miles (one way); the maximum elevation was 12615 feet and the total ascent was 3314 feet.

While preparing this report, I learned that the peak was named for General Andrew Humphreys, a Union Army general during the Civil War, and later Chief of Engineers of the United States Army Corps of Engineers

Our GPS track is displayed on the included map (below).

1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldo_Leopold