Michael Humphrey led the hike on October 2 to Strawberry Crater, 20 miles north of Flagstaff. There were only four on the hike with Les, Bill and myself joining Michael.

The extra bonus for me was Les on the trip, because we used to hike together in the Flagstaff Hiking Club, but had not seen each other in more than 20 years.

Strawberry Crater is a small but challenging area. The trail is only about 1.1 miles, but the area was calling on us to explore, so we did. Bill would find the waypoints on his phone, as we went up and down cinder hills, which gave us a great workout even though we only did four miles.

Strawberry Crater is one of Arizona’s 90 wilderness areas, meaning that no motorized vehicles are allowed. It also takes a high clearance vehicle to get to the parking lot before you enter the wilderness area. I was grateful that Michael drove his high clearance truck.

Strawberry Crater was well worth the trip because of the unique geology and Native American history, as this place is special to the Navajo and Hopi.

We also toasted Michael because he was one week away from retirement.

This crater is so named because the top looks like a strawberry.

Walking through the cinders was like walking through sand, so it was a slow go and the cinders entered the boots often. Lots of stops to empty the cinders from the hiking boots.

The many small hills surrounding Strawberry Crater offered great views of the one thousand foot top of Strawberry Crater, as well as the Painted Desert, Hopi Buttes, and other mountains.

Strawberry Crater Wilderness was established in 1984 and covers 10,141 acres. This wilderness area is best known for its cinder cone and lava flow.

Wilderness is an area of undeveloped federal land that appears “to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprints of man’s work substantially unnoticeable,” according to the Wilderness Act of 1964. Wilderness designation from Congress provides the highest level of natural resource protection available in the world. Wilderness areas prohibits motorized vehicles.

To learn more about Arizona’s 90 wilderness areas, go the Arizona Wilderness Coalition website, where you can see a map and list of these 90 areas.

The trees are mainly pinon pines and junipers.