Independence Day 2016 at Carr Lakes

Lots has been going on this summer, so there hasn't been as much interesting hiking/camping and some bigger activities that needed a little more time to setup posts for - so this is a little late...

For the July 4th holiday this year, Kris and I went hiking at the Carr Lakes trails on the Mogollon Rim.  The trailhead is on Forest Road 9530, near the FR9530 campground which is right on the edge of the rim.  This is about a 2 hour drive north from home, and about 30 degrees cooler than Mesa, so it was in the upper 70s that day.  The big draw was mostly level hiking, cooler weather and some woods and new trails to hike on.

The trail started off right away going into the woods - with a warning that the trails were undergoing maintenance and might not be clearly marked.  More on that later...  The Carr Lakes loops are a set of 3 trails with a common trial on the east side, and different turn offs to make loops of increasing size.  We ended up taking the largest outermost trail, which stays just inside the Rim Road, and returned along a portion of the General Crook trail that runs along the rim for about 60 miles.

Starting along Carr Lakes trail 151

The trail starts through pine forest with some meadows, and a clear trail.  Lots of wildflowers along the trail, especially along the meadows.

After about 1 mile though, the trail north became more of an old jeep road, and after about 2 miles we came across multiple clear routes, with no clear trail anymore...  We started down one trail, seeing a family of elk crossing about 150 feet ahead of us - no pictures, the noise I made trying to get to my camera scared them away.  This trail faded quickly, and after some consulting on the map and our location relative to the Rim road, we decided that we should have continued going straight, so a change to follow that we came to the intersection with the outer loop and the middle loop.  A good reason to have a map and a compass - the GPS showed where we were, but didn't show the trails, so we couldn't tell if we were on or off the trail - but working from the map we could identify that we had another mile to the intersection when we lost the trail.  Another reassurance was knowing that there was a road close to the east of us, so we would always be able to find our way back to the car at least.

Tree pose in the trees

A few breaks in the shade as we started south on the west side of the loop, eventually coming to a point right on the edge of the rim and a great view to the south, including being able to see Four Peaks.  The western side of the loop is more exposed and rockier, with fewer trees.

View from the Rim looking south

Turning back east on the General Crook trail, following a creek as it went through meadows and forests, headed back to an intersection near the trailhead.  At one point we scared a heron out of a small pond in a meadow.  (not this meadow...)

All told, 9.2 miles of hiking, very pleasant but a little longer than maybe was planned...  We saw only a few people on the entire hike.  Nice wildlife and flowers.  Not what people may normally think of in Arizona, but the high country can be very nice.  All of this hike was above 7500 feet elevation.