Moments in Dirt and Ink

Coconino National Forest Click for map. I have fond memories of getting lost in the lava tubes of Lava Beds National Monument, but not in any dangerous way because there's a lot of openings to just pop up out of and navigate above ground to where you need to be. I mentioned that to one guy and he said I didn't need to go to the lava river, then. It's just one short segment. It doesn't even go anywhere. Such nonsense. It goes for almost a mile of lava cave goodness! The roads in are rough, but they are well marked for this particular destination. I was coming from the unusual direction and still got a sign to point the way. This is one of Flagstaff's most popular destinations and can see hundreds of hikers in a day. It might have something to do with the fact it's always cold, even in the summer. Annoyingly, someone has gone and locked both bathrooms. Maybe they've decided it is out of season. There's still two other cars besides my own, although ...

Coconino National Forest Click for map. I seem to be collecting fire lookouts, but the inclusion of Wing Mountain on the list of Arizona lookouts on Peakbagger wasn't what got my notice. It was the simple fact that the quad west of Humphreys Peak is named for Wing Mountain. I'm a bit suspicious about it being a lookout because there is not so much as a trail going up it, much less a road that is common for such things. People who have climbed it seem to have just picked a side and gone for it. I picked the side where there is a shoulder called Little Wing Mountain so I could climb and get the benchmark, then move nearly halfway around the crater to the high point. It is a side that looked highly climbable from afar, which seems like another plus. Forest road 222 (Wing Mountain Road) in seems generally maintained, but 519 only happens to be passable for my little car by a bit of luck. I park at 9230C where someone has had a camp site. It is a little way down the hill fro...

Coconino National Forest Click for map. Old Caves Crater boasts a different sort of ruin, from people who made their homes among the small "caves" of gas bubbles in the old lava rocks. Unfortunately, some of the different character of this one is "heavily disturbed", as the kiosk at the start warns me. This was the last known Sinagua settlement in the area, but there are a couple more "excavation-quarry settlements" like this one in the area to the east. Anyway, it's a short trail, so no harm in going to see. I'll tag the peak, too. The settlement is quite close to the top. Kiosk full of information and a trail register full of people who probably won't be getting lost. It's a wide path through the cinders surrounded by ponderosa. There seem to be quite a few extra paths as well. It's generally clear which is the official one. There are signs for the loop around the bottom to the west and later the one to the east. I fol...

Picture Canyon Natural and Cultural Preserve Click for map. Picture Canyon is a little bit of open space developed jointly by the City of Flagstaff and Arizona State Parks. It boasts cultural artifacts and plenty of birding. The Tom Moody Trail makes a loop through the area to take in some of these. It sits at the edge of a couple bits of industry and my nose can't help but tell me that one of those is sewage treatment. Um, I mean "waste water". That won't dominate the whole area, but it is noticed in the wetter spots. A place to start with some parking. Signs include an area map. Ground zero for the stink up ahead, but certainly not the source. That is throughout the city. Trail heads toward the smell past an "outdoor classroom" that is benches and a semicircle of educational signs, then the loop splits. I head left away from the smell and into the trees, but also away from the cultural artifacts. It's an old road through gentle hil...

Coconino National Forest Click for map. I almost went for O'Leary Peak instead of the wanderings I did on the fee free day, but it is actually just outside of the monument and requires no fee, so I came back for it. It didn't take long. Today I'll make my way to the lookout, which has road all the way up, then decide what I feel like stopping by on the way down of the various smaller peaks near the road. Three other cars have beaten me here. Gate and trail sign on the road to the lookout on O'Leary Peak. The road rolls a little, first dropping and then rising, as it wanders the forest toward the base of the volcano that holds the lookout. Trees and cinder and only the slightest undergrowth stretch out every way. It swings northward as it comes to the edge of the Bonito Lava Flow. Little signs march along the imaginary line between forest and monument as it cuts through one corner of Sunset Crater National Monument. Quite the nice road up to the looko...

Coconino National Forest Click for map. There is not really anything about this spot, one of the 600+ volcanoes in the area, to set it apart. I wanted to find five geocaches today and it has five challenge caches I qualify for ringing its top. Although unnamed, its crater bears the name "Walker Lake" on the USGS map. A road once circled this little pond, but vehicles are no longer allowed. The roads to it are a little rough, but I could have driven my little car a bit closer. There just didn't seem to be any point to it since I have time and walking is good for me. The forest low down on the plain seems a little dark and brooding, but it brightens once I get climbing. It's not that far. Following the road in the trees and almost to the top. Faint paths break off right and a little later left as the road reaches the lowest spot on the lip of the crater. The track seems to vanish just past the top, but the rest of it can be seen below and circling the la...

Coconino National Forest Click for map. Enough with common things, time for something a little out there. I think I would have visited Little Eldon on the way had Sunset Trail been open, but I think I could still do it. A nice little loop looks available with a few possible starting places. I pick Little Eldon Spring. From there, I will toddle along the Arizona Trail (as it follows Little Eldon Trail) for a few miles until Heart Trail. That climbs to Sunset Trail, but at that point, I want to start following the ridge on up to the peak, which is on the open side of the trail. Once I've been to the top, I'll follow a different ridge down to Little Bear Trail near its intersection with Sunset, then back down and around on the Arizona Trail again. Someone might think I'm just being sneaky in avoiding the closure of the trail, but with the peak as the goal, it feels totally valid to me. Across from the access road to Little Eldons Springs Horse Camp is a short acce...

Coconino National Forest Click for map. With peak bagging on the mind and the big one settled, my attention turned to Eldon Mountain. Sunset Trail is close to my camping spot and the sign says 4 miles, so I wanted to go there, but the more complete information at the kiosk says there's a forest thinning and controlled burn project going on to try to improve the overall health of the forest. The closure for that work rather blatantly includes most of Sunset Trail. Instead, I'm off to hit the another of Flagstaff's most popular trails: Fatmans Loop. Humphreys Peak and Fatmans Loop are actually the two trails called out as favorites on little pieces of paper in the shoe section of the local REI as some sort of color. (One has a lot of time when glaring at the shoe section wondering why most shoe manufacturers like a toe shape that has nothing to do with the shape of the end of the foot and why none of the few acceptable shoes are in the right size at this store and ho...

Coconino National Forest Click for map. The San Francisco Mountains probably have a more interesting name as they are one of the four sacred mountains that mark off the cardinal directions of the Navajo world. I always liked that directions were so deeply important. There are six including up and down, so it's about more than not getting lost and dying. And I want to visit the mountains. When I got to Flagstaff, not only were the mountains almost entirely free of snow, but the weather at the top would probably be quite comfortable, especially for the time of year. Two routes presented themselves, but the one that is "just around the corner" from camp is also quite long, so I decided to go the more traditional route to climb Humphreys Peak, the high point of the San Francisco Mountains, not to mention the Kachina Peaks Wilderness, Coconino National Forest, Coconino County, and the entire state of Arizona. This starts in the Arizona Snowbowl, a ski area that seems ...