Peterson Highpoints: Humphreys Peak AZ

In what was later to become a cherished tradition we broke the tent trying to set it up at the Chaco Canyon campground. While pushing the pole through the tent sleeve the metal joint caught the sleeve and ripped it from the tent. While this allowed our tent to emulate a wind sock, it did not provide suitable shelter. After the tent raising folly we ate dinner and went to a park astronomy program and looked at Venus and the moon in the mini observatory.

The next morning we checked out the ruins and petroglyphs. They had little brochures along the way that told the history of the site and a very informative visitors center. Did you know the people there kept semi-domesticated turkeys by breaking one of their legs?

The final bit of road leading to Chaco Canyon was quite rough. The kind of washboard that feels smoother as you go faster. Thus as we made our way to and from at a good clip while our suspension was put through it's paces. Upon reaching Mesa Verde we parked and I heard a sound, I turned around and worked my way toward the hissing. I squatted down and there I found the inner portion of the rear tire had peeled away. The tire was rapidly deflating, but as luck had it we were safely parked. We had a full size spare, full of air, that I put on then and there.

After a tour or two we went to the campsite. As it turned out we got our campsite for free. It must have been destiny. So we camped, showered, and did laundry at long last. Then we traveled to Flagstaff on the spare tire as tire selection in Cortez was not even fair. A new set of four tires made the trip much more expensive. The alignment was also out so we camped at a horse camp after getting an appointment for repair the next day. We awoke early and twiddled our thumbs till the auto repair place opened, and unloaded the entire vehicle so the alignment would be correct when it wasn't stuffed to the gills. We took a picture to make repacking easier.

Then we drove up to the base of Humphrey's Peak as if going to the snowbowl. We met a deaf young man who was not only highpointing, but apparently had decided to run all the peaks as well. It was very pretty on the way up. As we neared the top and got out of the trees we turned up a ridge, the top is not shown in the picture, but farther along.

Gnats appeared and became thicker and thicker with each step toward the summit. The dry volcanic soil did not seem like it could support them, but they were so thick breathing seemed impossible without a protein infusion. Perhaps the steady stream of fools capering along the path nourished them. On top we paused long enough to take a quick picture before trying to escape.

We had a fun time running on the way down some of the way. Tiffanee took some lovely photos of irises and we made tracks for the Grand Canyon where the promise of a shower pulled us like a magnet.