Arizona's High Point - ""Humphreys Peak"

Arizona's high point is Humphreys Peak at 12,633 feet. This was going to be our first high point over 10,000 feet, and the impact of altitude would be interesting though we had made the point of trying to increase our altitude with each high point we had done so far on this trip to prepare for it.

From Guadalupe Peak in Texas, we drove all day and night passing El Paso near the Mexico border in Texas back up through New Mexico and staying the night in Gallup before arriving in Flagstaff, Arizona at 6pm. Flagstaff is a pretty cool town - plenty of hotels and restaurants and with a college in the town its quite busy compared to other towns we had stayed in. The town is also the gateway to the Grand Canyon South Rim which is about 80 miles north of the town.

At 6am on Thursday 19th June, we left the hotel and made our way to the Arizona Snowbowl (the main ski area in Arizona) about 7 miles from town. Winding our way up the mountain, we arrived at the large parking lot at the trailhead for Humphreys Peak. We were on the trail at 6am - signing in as the first people on the trail for the day.

The hike starts in the trees (which was already surprising, we thought we would be hiking through desert like conditions, not in trees and lusher conditions) on a well marked trail which was easy enough though at 9am we still weren't above the trees which concerned us about the pace we were on. A few people had already past us, including a young women with a small backpack who passed us and disappeared into the distance. Obviously locals who were well used to the altitude we told ourselves as we continued on. Out of the trees, we reached the ridge that runs betweeh Humphreys and its neighbouring peak Agassi around 10am. We were at 11,800 feet and could obviously feel the impact of the thinning air and high altitude with our lack of breathe and slow tiring pace. Sitting down for a break we snacked and appreciated the view around us which showed mountains still with snow scattered across its peaks and mountain sides.

We continued on, hiking in the very dusty and rocky trail which had become very steep and we clambering over rocks continuing up in elevation . The young woman who passed us on the way up passed us on her way back down. Snow was still evident off the side of the trail, many feet deep. My pace was extremely slow which disappointed me but I had to remind myself my body had never been so high before, and never at such altitudes. After three false summits, we finally made the summit just before 12 noon. It was a pretty sight, with a view of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in the hazy distance, and views across the red and yellow Arizona desert as far as we could see. The summit used to be marked with a stick which had obviously fallen over. Now it was just marked with some rocks. A few photos and we were keen to get down. The climb had taken us longer than we had anticipated. We didn't get back to the car until just after 3.3pm...nearly 9 hours after we started. We had read books telling us the peak could be reached in 5-6 hours so the altitude had really knocked our socks off today.

After the hike, we made our way to the Grand Canyon South Rim as Mark had never visited it before. It was packed with tourists, but it was good to see the Grand Canyon in summer (I had only visited it in winter previously). Only an hour away, the Canyon is definately worth the visit.




Grand Canyon South Rim: