Humphrey's Peak

On August 11, 2011, Jesse Maestas and I decided to hike the Humphrey's Peak Trail, which leads to the 12,643 ft. summit that is the highest elevation point in Arizona. This was Jesse's first time hiking it and my fifth time, although last year (the 4th attempt) was the first time I actually made the summit...the previous three times I got chased off the mountain by storms, only making it as far as the saddle on those first few attempts. We started up the trail fairly late (~11:30am) and made it to the summit close to 5:00pm. Heading up we stopped regularly to catch our breath in the increasingly low-oxygen environment as we climbed in elevation. These stops gave us time to check out the flora, birds, and mammals along the trail, the coolest sighting being a family of Dusky Grouse at ~11,400 ft. Nearing the summit, the smoke was drifting towards us as the wind blew towards the northwest, giving the mountain a beautiful orange glow as the setting sun filtered through the smoke. It was much cooler at the summit, with the temperature seeming like it must have at least been in the 50's (degrees F). As we headed down we thought the sun was still high enough that we would make it back to the parking lot before dusk. HOWEVER, the sun set much earlier and we were hiking in darkness for the last ~1.5 miles of the trail. Luckily I had my headlamp with me, but the batteries started to fade near the end and we used the light of my cell phone to avoid tripping over all the countless rocks and roots for the last 1/8 of a mile. When we hit the large meadow under the sky lifts the full moon had risen high enough that gave us light back to the car. The moonlit scenery was definitely beautiful, but what was also cool was seeing flames from the fire burning in the distance as the smoke settled with a sliver of sunset on the horizon. Got to the car at 8:15pm. Definitely an eventful hike! Here are lots of photos from the trail and its flora & fauna:

Lots of deadfall on the first stretch of the trail:

Monoculture of bristlecone pines (Pinus aristata) along the trail:

View of the Inner Basin from where the trail reaches the saddle, mostly above tree-line:

Stunted growth of trees at tree-line do to harsh conditions endured at this elevation. This zone of dwarf trees is referred to by the German word, krummholz (krumm, "crooked, bent, twisted" and Holz, "wood"):

Fire burning to the southwest of the peaks:

View from the summit (piled rocks are makeshift shelters hikers have made; there is a small ammo box with notebooks and other items hikers have left):

Notice the shadow of Humphrey's Peak down on the Inner Basin:

The sun setting more quickly than we had anticipated....

The full moon, upon reaching the large meadow at Snowbowl. You can barely make out the silhouettes of the trees, including the one large bristlecone pine near the start of the trail:

Dusky Grouse family; this species is historically native to the San Francisco Peaks, but after extirpation (presumably from overhunting and genetic isolation), birds from other populations in the Southwest were reintroduced to the peaks. This was my first time seeing them at this location (and only the 4th or 5th time in my life seeing this species). From what we could see, there were two adults and two juveniles:

Golden-mantled ground-squirrel (Spermophilus lateralis) at the summit of Humphrey's Peak. This individual was clearly used to getting handouts from humans, as it closely approached us while we ate our sandwiches. It kept darting back in forth from crevices in the rock piles and at one point popped out right behind Jesse. It grabbed a bit of tomato from a hiker nearby and gave good photo opp's.

Before leaving, we wrote some observations in the notebook left in the box at the summit for hikers. Below the comments, we decided one of us should do an artist rendition of the ground squirrel. Here is my beautiful drawing (even though using only a black pen makes it look like a bloody skunk). Jealous of my artistic abilities, huh?

gray-collared chipmunk (Tamias cinereicollis):

red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus):

American Pipit, which in Arizona only breeds in the alpine tundra of the San Francisco Peaks and possibly at the tip of Mt. Baldy. In winter they migrate down to lower elevations where they can be seen foraging in agricultural fields and mudflats around lakes. Their breeding plumage is more reddish, but they molt into a streaky pattern with beige coloration:

Red-tailed Hawk:

Cool-looking bumblebee that was visiting flowers on the alpine tundra. Notice its bright orange abdomen:

A dead Pine White butterfly:

redpod stonecrop (Rhodiola rhodanthum, formerly Sedum rhodanthum, Family Crassulaceae), a perennial succulent plant that grows at higher elevations on the peaks:

Parry's lousewort (Pedicularis parryi, Family Scrophulariaceae):

sidebells wintergreen (Orthilia secunda, Family Ericaceae [or Family Pyrolaceae]):

fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium, or Chamerion angustifolium, Family Onagraceae):

golden columbine (Aquilegia chrysantha, Family Ranunculaceae):

Franciscan bluebells (Mertensia franciscana, Family Boraginaceae):

pink alumroot (Heuchera rubescens, Family Saxifragaceae):

San Francisco Peaks groundsel, or ragwort (Packera franciscana, formerly Senecio franciscanus, Family Asteraceae), an endemic species found nowhere else on earth except in the alpine tundra on these peaks; it is also federally listed as "threatened" due to its rarity and the threats posed by recreation:

red baneberry (Actaea rubra, Family Ranunculaceae):

red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa, Family Caprifoliaceae):

Richardson's geranium (Geranium richardsonii, Family Geraniaceae):

mountain parsely (Pseudocymopterus montanus, Family Apiaceae), which has yellow and red-flowered varieties that we saw both of along the trail:

Penstemon species (Penstemon spp., Family Scrophulariaceae):

Parry's primrose (Primula parryi, Family Primulaceae), which is a high-elevation plant that attracts flies as pollinators due to its carrion-like odor:

Mosses, which are among the most primitive of land plants lacking vascular tissue for transporting water and nutrients. The sporophyte stage of their life cycle includes a stalk with a capsule for producing spores, which are the dispersal unit of mosses, liverworts, hornworts, ferns and lycophytes. These plants have not developed seeds like higher plants (e.g. conifers, flowering plants) have. The capsules on these moss sporophytes in the first photo had little sheath-like structures covering their tops:

These larger, spiky looking plants are also mosses, probably in the genus Polytrichum:

We also came across a fern species that was bearing "sori" on the underside of its leaves. Sori (plural for sorus) are clusters of sporangia, the structures that produce spores on ferns:

A fruticose-type lichen growing on a tree. Lichens are mutualisms between ascomycete fungi and green algae (or fungi and cyanobacteria), where both organisms undergo their own separate sexual reproduction, but can fragment asexually into packets containing cells of both organisms. The fungi provides structure and traps in moisture for the algae, while the algae photosynthesizes (creates its own food) which the fungi feeds off of. Both organisms are codependent and have evolved to the point that they cannot survive without each other, so biologists have chosen to describe lichens taxonomically to the species level. This fruticose form is one that is characterized by a more "3D" structure, whereas foliose and crustose forms are more "2D" structures that are flat and spreading across a substrate:

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Also, on our way up to Snowbowl we stopped to gawk at some signs hippies camping at Aspen Corner put up. Damn hippies! : )