Backpacker Magazine – August 1997

Heat Relief Up High

While the desert sizzles, Arizona's Kachina Peaks are cool and comfortable.

by: Annette McGivney

Tags:
• Arizona
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• Adventures
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• Weekends
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• Secret spots
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If you haven't experienced a summer's day in Phoenix, you're lucky. Four hours ago, it was so hot outside my home I couldn't walk barefoot down the driveway to retrieve the newspaper without burning the bottoms of my feet. But now, at a height of 9,000 feet in San Francisco Peaks, I'm yanking a fleece sweater out of my pack. Elevation is nature's air-conditioning.

Compared to other Western mountain ranges, the San Francisco Peaks are relatively puny in terms of acreage, but they're every bit as imposing. Several summits top 12,000 feet, including 12,633-foot Humphreys Peak, and with that elevation come all of the amenities: giant fir and spruce trees; abundant aspen; broad, wildflower-covered meadows; rare tundra plants; herds of elk; and the risk of snow falling any month of the year.

As we hike along the Kachina Trail through a dense stand of white-barked aspen, a canopy of fresh green leaves rattling overhead, I relish the feeling of being cold in the middle of summer. Our plan is to complete an 18-mile loop through 19,000-acre Kachina Peaks Wilderness Area via the Kachina, Weatherford, and Humphreys trails. From the trailhead next to the Snow Bowl Ski Area, Kachina Trail rolls 5 miles across fairly level-albeit lofty-terrain, where dark forests of mixed conifers and aspen alternate with sun-splashed meadows.

By late afternoon we have the place to ourselves, and we make camp on the edge of a meadow overflowing with red, purple, and yellow wildflowers. Tomorrow we'll tackle the rigorous switchbacks of the Weatherford and Humphreys trails, climbing from 8,800 to 12,000 feet. If no thunderstorms threaten, we may go for the summit of Humphreys Peak, just to be on top of Arizona for a few moments. For now, though, I'm content watching the setting sun turn the meadow gold and the snow-capped peaks pink, and lowering my surface body temperature before returning to the sizzling desert below.

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