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| Hiking | 8.94 Miles |
1,970 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.94 Miles | 3 Hrs 35 Mns | | 2.49 mph |
| 1,970 ft AEG | | | | |
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[ show ]
| no partners | | I think taking a break day after hiking Rogers Lake & Woody Mountain two days ago was a wise decision. I mean, I could have done this hike yesterday, but at 56, no need to push it. Plus, it gave my wife & I a chance to do tourist stuff while things were open around Flagstaff on Saturday.
The temp was a perfect 57℉ when I started. Being at the top of a pass, it was breezy, but not cold. The breeze had what I can only describe as a ‘soft’ quality. It actually felt comforting.
0.75 miles north of Schultz Pass, those ops began with the first patch of aspen. There were young trees, short, with decent fall color. Many of the leaves had already fallen on the trail. 
As I found throughout the day, if the aspen were short, they had decent yellow color. (I never did find any of the elusive red aspen leaves.) If the aspen were medium height, they might have color. The tall, old, aspen were still their normal dark green. I don’t know if elm, maple or oak grow at 9000 ft., but if they do, I did not see them or their fall colors.
I took a quick break at the Kachina Peaks Wilderness boundary, then headed back down Weatherford to the Kachina Trail intersection. There, I met a couple who I would hop scotch up Kachina Trail with for the next several hours.
Whereas on Weatherford Trail #102 I could not spot any named peaks, on Kachina Trail #150 there are multiple great views of Fremont Peak and Agassiz Peak. There were also several spots with good views of Flagstaff. The massive white disk of the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome, NAU’s football stadium, in particular, stood out. when I was attending NAU, I spent a lot of time in the Skydome, either taking photos of basketball games for the university newspaper, the Lumberjack, or working on the sports information department’s football stats crew. Anybody else remember Greg Wyatt and Goran Lingmerth? 
As Kachina Trail #150 wound around the southwest slope of the San Francisco Peaks, the views shifted from Flagstaff to Fort Valley and points west. There was obvious smoke west of Fort Valley, that looked like a prescribed, or at least managed, burn. (Rather than a wildfire.) After looking at my photos back home, the fire was on the far side of the Bellemont prairie, so it was probably the South Zone Rx ( https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5922/ ) prescribed burn on the Kaibab National Forest.
The lupine started becoming more numerous, including a rare white lupine. Two miles south of the Snowbowl, I saw the most amazing lupine patch of my life: Hundreds of colorful flowers in one dense patch. I was so amazed, I took a break on a nearby log to admire them. 
North of the lupines, the otherwise smooth Kachina Trail, started getting broken up, with small boulder step ups and trailside rocky outcroppings. That’s also when the human deluge began. Canine as well. I still enjoyed the forest, but I hike to get away from other people, so it was a bit of a bummer.
I enjoyed the hike, but I think that next year I will visit Flagstaff a week later, for better fall color.
Hike Video: [ youtube video ] |
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Autumn Foliage Observation Light
On 9/30, no color at all in the tall/old aspen. More color as the aspen got shorter/younger. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
I was surprised there were any at all. The variety was decent, but the lupine were EVERYWHERE, including one dense patch of hundreds of plants maybe two miles south of Snowbowl. |
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| _____________________
| http://prestonm.com : Everyone's enjoyment of the outdoors is different and should be equally honored. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
