We weren't able to go on our planned camp out Memorial Day Weekend, so we planned an impromptu camping trip in June. James, Brigham and I went to Dogtown Lake which is a few miles outside of Williams. Our adventure started with a blowout on our way out of town Friday night on the 101. We had to stop on the side of the road under an overpass and there was no emergency lane so traffic was backed up behind us. I'm sure people were not happy since it was when everyone was on their way home from work. Luckily the tire that had to be changed was on the side away from the traffic. Then to add to the excitement, James forgot to put the emergency brake on and the truck rolled off the jack. Luckily James didn't get hurt. After we set the emergency brake James changed the tire in record time and we made it to the campground without further incident.
This beautiful flower was in our campsite. It would bloom every morning.
Our campsite - lots of shade.
The hike we selected was Inner Basin Trail located just outside of Flagstaff. Little did we know when we picked this hike that it was smack dab in the middle of where the Schultz Fire took place last summer. When we turned off the main road to the hike we discovered that the road had been closed due to the fire. In order to get to the trail head we would have to hike 3 miles on a gravel road. We figured we could handle that in less than an hour. Ha, ha! We didn't take into account that it would be a 3-mile uphill climb! Here are a few pics of the fire damage and our uphill climb to the trail head.
We finally made it to the trail head. It took us 1 1/2 hours to reach this point. We sat down and rested in the shade and ate our granola bars. We were excited to have made it and were looking forward to the hike. There is fire damage on the south side of the first portion of the trail which is heartbreaking to see. Once past the fire damage the trail is beautiful - the forest is filled with aspen trees. We saw a blue jay and a young elk running through the woods. There was even some snow left on the ground.
This is a natural spring and where we wish we had stopped.
The next 1/3 mile was an uphill climb that nearly did us in!
This little hut is the end of the Inner Basin Trail.
At this point I was not looking forward to the hike back to the car.
We made it back to the trail head! Just 3 miles left to go and its all downhill.
How bad could it be?
The last 3 miles was the worst! It took us 6 1/2 hours to hike 10 miles - the first 5 miles was uphill. We didn't anticipate how difficult this hike would be and thought it would only take us 3 hours. Silly us! We had plenty of water but only a few granola bars for snacks. We did not prepare well for this hike at all. We were all exhausted by the time we reached the truck and definitely cranky! Had we only hiked the 4-mile trail this would have been an enjoyable hike. The extra 6-miles we hiked to and from the trail itself was crazy. Apparently we weren't thinking clearly or we probably would have picked another hike. However, we are not sorry for the experience - we survived the hike and we got to enjoy the beauty which Heavenly Father created for us.
