Third Time Is The Charm, Right? Probably…

So today we attempted to hike to the top of the world in Arizona, also known as Humphrey’s Peak. The trail head is located at one of the Arizona Snowbowl ski area parking lots, 14 miles outside of Flagstaff. To get there, you head north on highway 180 out of Flagstaff for 7 miles, then make a right turn on the Snowbowl Road, and drive 7 more miles until you arrive at the ski resort parking lots. Flagstaff is located at around 7,000 feet elevation, the 7 mile stretch you drive to get to the ski area gains another 2,000 feet, so you start the hike at just over 9,000 feet of elevation.

Flagstaff, AZ

Flagstaff was our “chill out” place. We’d seen so many national parks and monuments and visited two large cities in two weeks’ time, we needed a place to park the trailer and just do nothing for a bit. We also needed a place to plug in the trailer and charge everything back up, as we’d been living off the grid for 5 nights straight. We picked Flagstaff because it was on the way to the Grand Canyon, and offered some decent hiking/biking opportunities.

Arizona Craziness

Did you know that the state of Arizona does not observe Daylight Savings? No? Neither did we. (Or did we miss the memo?) We were thoroughly confused when, after crossing the border into Arizona, the clocks on our phones went back another hour. I conferred the US map, and made sure that I wasn’t wrong on where the next time zone was supposed to be (between Arizona and California), and when I determined that yes, all of Arizona was indeed still in the Mountain Time Zone, I googled it and realized that the whole state had chosen to not participate in the Daylight Savings. What? That’s crazy and horribly confusing to poor travelers like us. But the upside is now we’re on California time! :o)

Arizona, and the Petrified Forest National Park

We crossed the Continental Divide on highway 40. There is a labeled exit off the highway that you can take, that places you right on the divide. There you will find this sign:

The Continental Divide in New Mexico on I-40 

El Malpais National Monument

After winning our big money at the Sandia Casino, we packed up our things and hit interstate 40 west to El Malpais National Monument. We’d called the park service earlier in the week asking about camping opportunities, and they recommended that we stop at the free BLM campground off of highway 117.

We drove in just before sunset, with enough time to find the brightly colored yellow cattle guard that marks the entrance to the Joe Skeen BLM campground. After a short drive down a bumpy gravel road, we circled the grounds and picked out our spot. This campground is very well developed for  its “primitive” status, although there is no water or other amenities.