At the top of Arizona -- Humphrey's Peak

Although there is considerable disagreement over the actual elevation, Humphrey's Peak is acknowledged as the highest point in the State of Arizona. Depending on weather conditions, hiking the trail to the top is mostly a long walk uphill. There are one or two places where the trail goes through some rocks, but the real difficulties are wind, weather, cold and altitude. The measured altitude of the peak is around 12,637 feet. But a quick search on the Internet will show that the elevation either changes a lot from day to day, or the reports differ.

There are a lot of descriptions of the trail including very large number of pictures. Humphey's is one of the group of peaks known as the San Francisco Peaks, located just north and west of Flagstaff. Since they are visible from most of the Arizona side of the Colorado Plateau, including some locations in Grand Canyon National Park, they are extremely well known to travelers. Most of the fall, spring and winter, the Peaks are generally the only mountains you can see with snow while driving around in northern Arizona.

I have used the trail up Humphrey's as a gauge to determine if I was ready to hike into the Grand Canyon. If I make it to the top without problems, I feel that walking across the Canyon is possible. This is not a solitary wilderness experience, on any given day, with good weather, you might see a couple of hundred people walking the trail. On occasion, sitting room has been a premium at the top. Walking the trail gives you a real mountain experience, since the trail head is deep in an old growth forest and the top is above the tree line. I fully realize that climbing Humphrey's is not like climbing in the Sierra Nevada or Cascades, but this is Arizona, not the Pacific Northwest.


It is interesting that getting to the tree line corresponds with hitting the altitude wall at about 11,000 feet. Just as you walk out of the trees, you start to notice that you can't breathe as well as you did when you got out of your car.

One of Arizona's few ski resorts in located on the southwest facing side of the Mountain, Arizona Snowbowl. One of the chair lifts goes most of the way up the mountains and a ride to the top gives you a good view of the whole San Francisco Peaks area. But the end of the ski lift is quite a ways from the actual top of the mountain.

I especially like the forest on the way to the top. It is old and dark and very untidy, unlike most of the other forests in Arizona, where the Forest Service and logging have turned most of the forest into a left over commercial enterprise. The hike up the Humphrey's trail is worth it, even if you never make it to the top. Reports on the distance to the top also vary considerably. Part of the reason, is that the trail register is located about a mile or so from the parking area below the Snowbowl ski resort. The trail is about 4.5 miles, one way, making the round trip about 9 miles. But there with the hike to the trailhead, you had better count on more like 11 miles round trip.

Because the mountains are so isolated, storms can come in quickly and without warning you can be in extreme danger from lightning. There is no water and there are no facilities on the trail so caution is advised. Coming from Phoenix, you are already experience a considerable altitude change when you are in the parking lot and we have had people with heart conditions decide that they really didn't want to walk past the parking lot.

The mountain isn't quite as crowded as Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, and the views are spectacular.