Mingus Mountain, Prescott National Forest, Arizona
We drove to Mingus Mountain on Sunday and set up camp in the Mingus Mountain Campground’s tent-only loop. Batya and I had told Shaina that the other families camping there wanted to spend time with their families and she should leave them alone, so naturally she ignored that and immediately went to befriend two nearby groups. At least they were nice to her.
The campsite was okay, though there are no tent pads, and it was a bit challenging finding flat ground for our tent. In the end, there was a slight slope in the north-south direction, so we had our heads on the high ground, which was fine. In the east-west direction, I think the ground I selected was flat for Batya and Shaina, but under my side of the tent it was sloped, so I felt as though I was rolling against the side of the tent.
At least the weather was very pleasant at 7,500’, dropping into the 60s at night, whereas it was still 100 degrees at night in Phoenix. Another great thing was that there were no mosquitoes attacking us or getting into our tent.
This was our first opportunity to use our new Mountainsmith tent. I liked the tent, though it was shipped with the cheap tent stakes that bend easily. Mountainsmith used to sell stronger tent stakes with a V-profile, and in fact I previously bought some to use with my other tents, but they no longer seem to sell those V-stakes.
The next day was Monday, Labor Day. At 9:00 am, Shaina and I walked to a nearby Scenic View, where we were rewarded with a beautiful view of Cottonwood, about 4,000’ below us.
A tonemapped view:
Shaina and I returned to the campsite, where Batya had been making lunch for us and getting ready for our hike. We cleared out of the campsite and first drove the short distance to the Scenic View so that Batya would experience it, and then drove to the parking area for our hike, a loop of trails 105, 105A, and 106.
I had a bit of confusion with the map, walking along Forest Service Mingus Mountain Road, a continuation of FR 104, thinking it was the start of Trail 105. Other maps show that there was a piece of Trail 105 to the right of the road, but we missed that. About halfway up the road, we noticed a sign to the left of the road indicating Trail 105.
10:26 a.m.: Instead of immediately turning onto Trail 105 to the left of the road, we continued on the road, soon reaching the end of it, a launching spot for hang gliders:
The launching platform itself:
A side view of the launching platform:
To the left of that was an open area that was perhaps also used for launching gliders. A large group of young adults, perhaps from a church group, was coming from a trail in that direction, and of course Shaina had to go talk to them.
I went to say hello and asked them what trail they had been on, and where it went. I didn’t get a clear answer, so we backtracked up the road to where we had seen the sign for Trail 105, and we turned onto that trail.
10:54 a.m.: The ground was flat in this area.
We saw Foxtail barley (Hordeum jubatum).
The trail soon led us right back to the field where we had seen and spoken with the youth group, and in fact they were still there. There was a sign in the area from which we had come calling out Trail 105, but no indication of where it continued. I speculated that the unmarked trail at the end of the field, from which the young adults had emerged, was the continuation of Trail 105, so we continued on.
We eventually came to a fork in the road, with no signage anywhere. We continued to the right, as I knew that we were eventually going to begin a descent of about 1,000’ down the ridge to our right.
11:31 a.m.: That proved to be the correct choice, as we soon came to a set of switchbacks.
The descent was challenging, especially as Batya and I haven’t hiked in quite a while, and it was new for Shaina. But the scenery was beautiful.
The trail itself was pretty, whether flat or on an incline:
There were also many wildflowers along the entire route. This included Pineywoods geranium (Geranium caespitosum)
The white/green flowers are Knotweed (Polygonum), while the purple flowers are Mustard (Brassicaceae).
Globemallow (Sphaeralcea):
We also saw Indian paintbrush (Castilleja) and fountainbush (Russelia equisetiformis).
12:02 p.m.: The trail was typically dirt, but a few places were rocky, and we had to cross talus. This happened while going down the switchbacks, so that we had to encounter the talus zone first on one switchback and then later on the next one or two switchbacks.
12:08 p.m.: At one point the trail passed right in front of a beautiful stone wall. It was hard to photograph it from only a few feet away, but I took quite a few photos and attempted later to stitch them together. I didn’t notice it on the hike, but looking at the photo, I see that the wall had been defaced by “Finch Family.” I hope they are proud of themselves.
12:16 p.m.: A snag overlooks the Verde Valley. The red rock cliffs stretching across the horizon are the Sedona red rocks / Mogollon Rim escarpment. The small cluster of buildings and roads visible on the valley floor in the mid-distance could be part of Clarkdale or Tuzigoot.
1:20 p.m.: We had stopped for a long lunch, before resuming our hike. The flat flat-topped mountain at left of this view is probably Woodchute Mountain, in the Woodchute Wilderness Area.
1:33 p.m.: I was growing concerned with how long the hike was taking, and didn’t understand why we hadn’t already arrived at the junction with Trail 105A. Batya pointed out that we hadn’t seen any other intersections, so we were still in the right place (assuming that the unmarked trail we had gone on from the hang glider area was indeed the continuation of Trail 105). At this point we noticed a small knob ahead of us:
1:43 p.m.: The junction with Trail 105A appeared before the knob. Here there were actually signposts, confirming that we were where we thought we were. Trail 105 continued toward the northwest, while Trail 105A went southeast.
We turned right onto Trail 105A. This looked about half as long as the section of Trail 105, but it did not take us very long before we reached the junction with Trail 106. There were also signposts at this junction, though the Trail 106 sign was very faded. We turned south onto Trail 106.
2:35 p.m.: Trail 106 provided beautiful views of the Verde Valley with Cottonwood and Sedona.
3:29 p.m.: Since leaving the church group near the hang glider launch point, we had not seen any other people. At this point, a man and woman appeared on Trail 106 behind us, also heading south. The man was carrying a dog. We let them hike past us.
Another view of the Verde Valley from Trail 106:
Trail 106 was where we had to ascend about 1,000’ to make up for the descent on Trail 105, and it was rough at times. While the temperature was not too hot, the sun was beating down on us. We had not brought sunscreen, and my arms definitely picked up some color.
3:56 p.m.: Here are Batya and Shaina hiking through sunflower goldeneye (Viguiera dentata).
This hike was about a 4.3-mile loop with about 1,100 to 1,200 feet of total elevation gain. As noted above, we missed the part of Trail 105 that was to the right of the logging road.
It is considered a moderate hike, and the average (in shape) hiker can do it in 2-1/2 to 3 hours. It took us twice as long, but we made it.
This was Shaina’s longest and hardest hike, and we were proud of her. It wasn’t always easy: there was some complaining that she wanted to go back to the car, that she fell and got hurt (a couple of times), that her hand brushed against a small cactus and she got glochids in one finger, and I had to use the tweezer from my first aid kit to remove them. But there were other times that she said she loved it, and that she was happy to be there, and she couldn’t believe that she had previously wanted to quit, etc. So we hope that she will be happy to go on future camping trips and hikes. My dream is that she will continue in my footsteps, someday write a few blog entries herself, and maybe even take over the blog after I’m gone. But I hope that I’ll have many miles to travel and hike before then.