The Amazing, Spectacular Arizona Trail: MM 39-Telephone Hill

Welcome back to Aspen’s Tracks, thruhiking the Arizona Trail from Utah to Mexico. Today’s entry covers the stretch hiking from MM 39, in the Warm Fire burn scar from 2006, to Telephone Hill, including stretches of both Passage 41, the Central Kaibab Plateau, and Passage 40, the Southern Kaibab. Backpacking south, aspens continue to be the highlight thus far.

In the land of Arizona
Through desert heat or snow
Winds a trail for folks to follow
From Utah to Old Mexico

It’s the Arizona Trail
A pathway through the great Southwest
A diverse track through wood and stone
Your spirit it will test

Oh, sure you’ll sweat and blister
You’ll feel the miles every day
You’ll shiver at the loneliness
Your feet and seat will pay

But you’ll see moonlight on the borderlands
You’ll see stars on the Mogollon
You’ll feel the warmth of winter sun
And be thrilled straight through to bone

The aches and pains will fade away
You’ll feel renewed and whole
You’ll never be the same again
With Arizona in your soul

Along the Arizona Trail
A reverence and peace you’ll know
Through deserts, canyons, and mountains
From Utah to Old Mexico
-“The Arizona Trail,” Dale R. Shewalter

The North Rim tried to kill me last night. I woke up at 2:45 with a frozen left big toe, pulled my shell layer into my bag in an effort to stay warm and managed to do so. Getting up around six when the sun breaks over the trees, I headed south across the burn area, knowing that the best way to warm up will be to get moving as quickly as possible. The wind was brutal, continuing to blow me sideways on the trail in places. More magnificent aspen groves commenced amid the rolling plateau as the Arizona Trail heads southbound once again toward Telephone Hill.

This entire stretch was impacted by the Warm Fire in 2006, leaving little shelter but allowing for the widespread aspen growth, as aspens are one of the first trees to recolonize a disturbed area after a fire. The rolling terrain under the brilliant blue sky provides expansive views of the aspen groves, as well as some views toward Grand Canyon to the east as well.

Telephone Hill provides a great vantage point over AZ-67 reaching south through the hills and valleys of the southern Kaibab toward the North Rim of Grand Canyon. Its intact pine forest provides a welcome break from the wind that has been incessant since last night.

Arizona Trail Passage 40: Kaibab Plateau South

I eventually crest Telephone Hill and reenter the forest, getting a respite from the wind before continuing south on Passage 41, the Kaibab Plateau South. Below, AZ-67 curves among smaller hills and past small alpine ponds as it journeys southward toward our mutual goal: the North Rim. Next time, we’ll cover the leg from Telephone Hill to the day’s final stopping point, Little Round Valley.

Trail Logistics and Passages 40 & 41 Ecology

	Great Basin Subalpine Conifer Forest/Rocky Mountain Montane Conifer Forest
Common Trees/Shrubs	* Corkbark fir * Gambel oak * Quaking aspen * White fir * Blue spruce * Engelmann spruce * Buckwheats * Currants * Dwarf juniper * Elderberry * Fendler’s ceanothus * Greenleaf Manzanita * New Mexican locust * Perry’s rabbitbrush * Raspberry * smooth sumac * Snowberry
Common herbaceous plants	* Bracken Fern * Buckwheats * Cinquefoils * Columbines * Fleabane daisies * Geraniums * goldeneye * Goldenrods * Groundsels * Hairy golden aster * Indian paintbrush * Lotus * Lupines * Meadow-rue * Parry’s bellflower * Peavine * Penstemons * Puccoon * Pussytoes * Thistles * Western & white prairie asters * Wild strawberry * Wormwood * Yarrow * Yellow hawkweed
Common succulents	Prickly pear, occasionally
Aquatic	* Bulrush * Buttercups * Rushes * Sedges * Water plantains