Humphrey's Peak
Highest Point in Arizona: 12633 feet

October 18, 2003


This was a solo day hike, made on a beautiful day - 100 degrees in Phoenix, but only 45 at the trailhead and hardly a cloud in the ski. Around 75 on the summit. This was a 9 mile (roundtrip) hike starting at 9400 feet and ascending to 12633 at the summit.

As I drove up to the trailhead parking, the road was lined with absolutely gorgeous aspens with leaves turned yellow. Even if that was the only thing I had seen on this day, it would have been worth the drive from Tempe. They were beautiful!

As for the hike, it has two very different sections. The initial portion is on a gently rising trail through tall pines with some aspens mixed in for the first half mile or so. The trail is covered with pine needles and is very soft. On the way back down in the afternoon, the heat of the day had produced that wonderful natural pine smell on this part of the trail. After about two miles the trail starts to open out a bit with some views of the valley and the adjoining Arizona Snow Bowl. The trail also begins to steepen considerably on the last half mile to the "saddle". From the saddle you can see the valleys to the south and north, and also see some of the false summits (see picture below). You cannot see Humphrey's Peak from the saddle. Above the saddle the trail is very steep in parts - not quite a rock scramble, but not far from it. The saddle lies at 11800 feet, and it is about 3 miles from the trailhead to the saddle and then another 1.5 miles to the summit. From the summit there are great 360 degree views, though I thought that the views from the saddle were at least the equal of those from the summit (sometimes lower is better!). A major issue on this hike is the altitude - I definitely had to stop to catch my breath quite a few times, and I was a little bit dizzy when I left the saddle heading toward the top. Luckily that passed after a few minutes. In summary, I spent a terrific 6.5 hours on this hike - definitely hard, but definitely worth it!

Golden aspens

Valley view

False peaks seen from saddle

Trail & valley

Final stretch to summit

Looking east from summit

Looking west from summit

Yep, proof I made it!


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