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Mt. Elden Day Hike
Flagstaff
June 7, 2008
Craig MacDonnell
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Craig, Ted, and Enrique at the Sunset Trail overlook.
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We had a dozen AZ Trailblazers members/non-members join online (or
request) this event. On June 7, nine people actually registered and we
established three carpools. I gave them maps and procedure steps for
driving to our planned trailhead.
But there were issues after arriving in Flagstaff. Proceeding north from Hwy
180 onto FR 557 and then parking at the Upper Oldham trailhead should have
occurred.
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View of Sunset Crater Volcano NM
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Unfortunately, two of our three carpools weren’t found. Although radio
communications and even road searches were tried, only three of us (single
vehicle) had the actual start place. We did see other vehicles, mountain-bikers,
and so on.
FR 557 is paved for a couple miles or so, then becomes a dirt road with
occasionally scary boulders, slots and pockets.
At our start meeting, I also mentioned another strange situation. If our small,
planned/nearby parkings were maxed out, we could even drive to our Mount Elden
Lookout. Such road conditions might have been why those other two carpoolers
took different routes, parkings, etc.
As researched, weather for this hike was to be:
• High temperature of low 70's
• Windy – to 24 or 27 mph
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Fellow hikers look northward.
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Starting about 11 AM, we three took the Upper Oldham Trail to its merge with
Sunset Trail, 1,000' elevation in 1.5 miles. The winds were already VERY strong.
We saw a few vehicles parked there. One might even be of our carpool
companions. Anyway, it was neat to see views from this 8,900' elevation,
even some snow on Humphrey’s Peak. We could see Sunset Crater, too.
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Next was the one-mile hike to the summit of Mount Elden, also labeled as Lookout.
Since this portion was very ridge-like, we faced substantially stronger winds.
Along these trails were various pine trees (some dried out), aspens, and
very creative paths – for hikers and bikers. We were getting closer to the
towers of Mount Elden. Seeing those huge devices was an experience!
Due to those nasty winds, we declined the optional side trip to Devil’s Head.
Our accomplishment climbing Mount Elden was still AWESOME. From there, we could more
easily see US 89, I-40, railroads, major sections of Flagstaff, etc. In addition,
this Lookout has numerous towers – a forest watcher, radios, wireless,
and more. Such findings were great to see and photograph. We took our short picnic
at the summit area and then began the hike’s return to our parking place.
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Another surprise: during our decent of Sunset Trail (yeah, still GUSTY winds)
we found three fellow hikers! They were still hiking up to Mount Elden.
Two were from our Phoenix-based carpool; a third registered member had
taken a different route to Flagstaff.
Enrique, Ted, and Craig finished hiking back on the Sunset and Upper Oldham Trails.
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This tree was a casualty of the fire.
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Nearer to the Mt. Elden Lookout summit, the fire’s devastation.
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Total length was about six miles. It took us less than two hours back from Mount Elden
to parking near 3:30 PM. We couldn’t see or connect with fellow team hikers.
So, we made errand stops in Flagstaff, dinner at Camp Verde, and then returned to
our team stop near Denny’s/Fry’s Marketplace/M&I Bank south of Bell
Rd just west of I-17. Mission accomplished!
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When back home, I found via the Internet that wind statistics in the Flagstaff
area that afternoon were between 28 and 39 mph. No wonder we had a little hiking
scare on Mount Elden with a ridge and the summit!
This initial hike-leading for me was still very successful and informative.
I would expect re-trying Mount Elden at another time, maybe even different
roads/trails, or other future hikes.
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Do you suppose the wind is blowing on the San Francisco Peaks?
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