Arizona Trailblazers - Trip Report

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Inner Basin Day Hike
Flagstaff
July 6, 2013
by Quy Nguyen

by Bill Zimmermann

Left to right 1st row: Eileen, Bill, Quy, Anikó
2nd row: Wayne, Mike, Yanis, Diana, Mark, Sheila, Heather [photo by Bill]

According to the National Weather Channel it will be a 30 percent chance of light thunderstorms on Saturday, July 6. I used to hike with the weather forecast of 40 percent chance of thunderstorms, but nothing happened. Just a few little sprinkles and dark clouds. So I thought it would be fine this time. But this time, it wasn’t fine at all.

We left the meeting place at 6:42 am in two vehicles:

1 - My car: me, Eileen, Bill, Anikó.
2 - Yanis’ car: Yanis, Heather, Diana, Wayne.

With light traffic on the road to Camp Verde we got there at 7:45 am to pick up Mike Houlihan. We also phoned Mark and Sheila to let them know we will leave for the trailhead at 8:00 am. We got to the trailhead around 9:45 am. Mark and Sheila weren’t there. They finally arrived at 10:00 am. After taking a group picture and having quick introductions, we felt a few raindrops. Some stopped to put on raingear.

We started out on the Inner Basin trail. [photo by Wayne]

We climb through a beautiful alpine forest:

The trail climbs steadily up a pine and aspen forest.

Diana and Eileen enjoyed the beautiful trail.

The rain was going hard now. We heard thunder. After 1.5 miles we reached a dirt road. After hiking a little bit we saw green cabins. The rain went hard now. We had to stop to wait for the rain to stop.

Hail.

Talking to biker. [photo by Wayne]

We were soaked and wet. From here to Inner Basin it’s only 0.3 miles.

The rain was light. We continued hiking up to inner Basin.

Bill, Anikó, and Yanis checked out pumphouse #1. [photo by Eileen]

When we reached Inner basin the rain was back, so we ran to the cabin.

The Inner Basin is the middle of the crater of the San Francisco Mountains, Arizona’s only Stratovolcano. Surrounding us are Arizona’s 6 highest points, and 4 highest mountains.

This is only place in Arizona where mountains higher than 11,000 feet completely surround us.

Almost there. We can see Humphreys Peak.
[photo by Bill]

Heather stood at the pumphouse #2
to enjoy the view without getting wet.

Hmmm, it looks interesting inside. [photo by Yanis]

1st row: Quy, Diana, Bill, Yanis
2nd row: Mike, Eileen, Anikó, Mark, Sheila. [photo by Bill]
Wayne and Sheila weren't in the cabin.

Six Peaks from Inner basin: [photos by Wayne]
Panoramic_1

Mt. Doyle Peak and Fremont Peak from Inner Basin. [photo by Wayne]

Mike tried to dry out by using heat from the pumphouse’s engine.

The rain returned and thunderstorms formed quickly. We hurriedly hiked back. At the green cabin, we ran into other hikers. It’s a small cabin with over 20 hikers inside. Only Wayne wanted to hike back in the rain. His raincoat is the best!

Wayne was only one not to take shelter.
He wanted to hike in the rain. [photo by Bill]

In the green cabin.
[photo by Bill]

Looking out at the rain, from inside the cabin.

After 30 minutes the rain almost stopped. We hurried up and hiked back to the trailhead. We started at 10:15 am and got back to trailhead around 2:25 pm.