Kit Carson Mountain, Challenger Point (7/30/09)

Route Name: Willow Creek Approach / Challenger North Slopes / Kit Carson from Challenger
Trailhead Elevation: 8,876
Willow Lake Camp Elevation: 11,492
Challenger Summit Elevation: 14,080 ft.
Low Point Elevation: 13,613 ft.
Kit Carson Summit Elevation: 14,165 ft.
Total Elevation Gain: 5756 ft.
Round-trip Mileage: 14.84 mi (according to my GPS)

Introduction

Kit Carson and Challenger lived up to the namesake of the latter. We'd read quite a few trip reports and were aware of the distance, the elevation, and the intricacies of the Avenue. What we never fully understood is just how long a hike it is, first up to Willow Lake (with 40 lb. packs), and then up the 2000+ feet of Challenger's slopes.

Huron Peak (7/28/09)

Route Name: North Ridge from Clear Creek
Trailhead Elevation: 10,254 ft.
Summit Elevation: 14,005 ft.
Total Elevation Gain: 3751 ft.
Round-trip Mileage: 10.24 mi (according to my GPS, 11 miles according to the books)

Introduction

We took the long route for Huron, that is, we didn't have 4WD and so we walked the 2-mile road (up and down). This is otherwise a beautiful hike. At the 4WD trailhead the trail heads up somewhat steeply through the forest. This ascent takes you up to a beautiful basin on the northwest side of Huron's summit. This gives you a view of Huron for most of the middle portion of the hike. The trail leads through the basin winding east around Huron. It then ascends southeast steeply up the end of the basin to the summit ridge. Once on the saddle below the summit its a straightforward but steep climb through some modest scree to the summit.

WEATHER:

Clear skies most of the morning, small puffballs started to grow around 9am. By 11am skies still in pretty good shape, no impending storms. One shocker for us today was the winds. As we got into the upper reaches of the basin below Huron the winds were howling. This also brought the temperature down a good degree. On the summit the winds were still howling, almost, but not quite enough to knock a guy over.

CROWDS:

This seems to be a growing trend and perhaps worth mentioning. We were surprised at the relatively small amount of people today. I would say we only saw about 20 in total and they were for the most part spread out. We had a good 10 minutes on the summit to ourselves. It was just enough people to not be crowded but yet have a few nice folks to enjoy the scenery with and say hello to.

TRAIL BETA:

No snow anywhere near the standard trail. A few snow patches left on the mountain but not an issue for the regular hiker. Trail was easy to follow from the beginning of the 4WD road. Was a great class 1 hike until perhaps the last 300 feet or so. Then it became a low class 2 scramble to the top.

TIME:

For anyone who is curious about the length of this hike. My brother and I started around 5:20am from the very bottom of the 4WD road. Took about 40 minutes to hike the 2 mile road to the TH. Summited 8:20am (3 hours). Spent 40 mins on the summit. Returned to vehicle at 11:05am (2hr 5 min down). 5 hours 5 minutes roundtrip.

TRACK:

I have two GPX track files from this hike. One for the ascent route, one for the descent route. I have put these into a KML file for download

My Track

PHOTOS:

Here are the photos from this hike embedded in Picasa:

Lava Flow Trail (Sunset Crater National Monument) (6/12/09)

The Lava Flow Trail at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument was a wonderful exploration of the different types of volcanic rock to be seen in this fascinating little park. Sarah and I during our great southwestern trip made the stop in at the Monument on the afternoon after leaving the Grand Canyon. On the drive south to Flagstaff it was a real easy trek off the interstate to hit this great park.

The Lava Flow Trail (LFT) is an easy access trail from a new parking lot along the main road in the park. The first half of it is paved and fully accessible. The latter half is an easy, nearly flat, trail to follow which plenty of great sights. What would have made the trail even more exciting was if it actually climbed the Volcano Crater. However, that trail was closed years ago because of severe erosion on the loose rock.

Track

I did not get a GPX track file from this hike. The trail is listed as being 1-mile in length. We took the better part of an hour enjoying this short stroll and taking pictures.

Photos

Embedded below is my photo album from Picasa. A link is also there to view these photos full-size on the Picasa site:

South Kaibab Trail (Grand Canyon NP) (6/10/09)

Route Name: South Kaibab Trail
Location: Grand Canyon National Park
Start Elevation: 7,190 ft.
Skeleton Point Elevation: 5164 ft.
Elevation Gain/Loss 2,026 ft.
Round-trip Mileage: 6.28 mi.

Trip Report

I awoke up this morning about 5:30am and hopped the shuttle to Yaki Point right around 6am. The shuttle from the campground takes you to the Information Center where you catch a different shuttle to Yaki Point for the South Kaibab Trail. It took the better part of 45 minutes to get to the trailhead. Along the way I saw some elk near the Yavapai Lodge and deer eating breakfast at the Information Center.

I left the South Kaibab trailhead at 6:42am. It was nice cool air and shade for the first part of the hike. Met a few hikers along the trail as I sped down pretty quickly. I made a 5 minute stop at Ooh Aah point. Took an amazing panorama (my favorite of the trip) from this point.

From Ooh Aah Point

Queens Garden/Navajo Loop (Bryce Canyon NP) (6/9/09)

Route Name: Queens Garden/Navajo Combination Loop
Location: Bryce Canyon National Park
Start Elevation: 7,958 ft.
Bottom Elevation: 7,413 ft.
Elevation Gain/Loss 545 ft.
Round-trip Mileage: 3.7 mi.

Trip Report

In the visitor center at Bryce I was curious as to what hikes this unique park had to offer. With the time I had alloted the Queens Gardens/Navajo Combination Loop stood out to me. It was quoted as the "World's best 3-mile hike". Sounded good to me.

I started hiking from our camp along the rim to Sunrise Point where I picked up the trail to Queen's Garden. I was taking quite a few pictures on the Nikon D50 camera when the batteries ran out. I was stuck taking pics on my Omnia phone the rest of the way. The 1-mile hike to Queen's Garden had some great views. I saw the Queen Victoria formation at the end of this trail portion. From there is a forest hike to the Navajo Loop. I took the northern section of the loop. This brought me two a signed split in the trail which pointed right to the two bridges area. It was unclear if this was trail so I followed it up a gulley past the two bridges. I followed this to the top of the gulley where it dead ended at a 50 foot cliff. I turned around and went up the other split which was the real trail. The trail ends at Sunset Point where I took some more pictures. On the walk back to camp I stopped at the General Store and bought some Corona for supper at camp. It was a cold night down in the 30's up at 8000 feet.

VIDEOS:

Here are a pair of videos I took along the hike. The first is towards the eastern end of the loop, near the beginning of the hike. The second is towards the western end of the loop near the very end of the hike at Sunset Point.

TRACK:

I took a KML track file from this hike showing the full extent of the loop. Because of poor GPS reception in the canyon on the way up some of the track is a bit messed up. The rest is great!

My Track

PHOTOS: