Yet another tornado for Northern Arizona

Last week another tornado moved across northern Arizona. The damage produced by this tornado was confined to a small area and was nothing like the tornado outbreak of 06 October 2010.

What makes this tornado interesting is where it occurred. The tornado formed just west of the San Francisco Peaks and then moved up the west flank of Humphreys Peak. Damage was isolated along the early portion of the path at around 9000 feet. As it moved up the mountain, damage increased in intensity and coverage with the peak damage occurring near 9800 feet. Farther up the mountain isolated damage continued until the tornado dissipated near 10500 feet.

The worst damage occurred as the tornado crossed the Humphreys Trail just a short distance from the trail register. In the first few days after the event travel along this section of the trail can best be characterized as challenging. Climbing over and under downed trees — and around others — certainly slows the hiking pace.

Somewhere under all those trees is the Humphreys Trail.
Somewhere under all those trees is the Humphreys Trail.

This is not the highest elevation tornado of record. That belongs to a tornado that occurred in the Sierra Nevada mountains a few years ago with evidence of damage at elevations above 12000 feet.

The  limited damage inflicted upon the mountain might never have been noticed if it had not passed over a heavily used hiking trail. Now that’s serendipity. Or bad luck.

Nobody saw the tornado so all we have to go on is the radar data. And according to that information the event occurred between 5:25 and 5:35 pm on 14 September 2011.

Amazing colors at Petrified Forest National Park

Although I have lived in Arizona for over a decade I have never visited Petrified Forest National Park even though it is only a two hour drive from Flagstaff. We usually drive by the Park entrance while heading somewhere else and promise ourselves that we will visit it someday.

A petrified tree in the Crystal Forest area.
A petrified tree in the Crystal Forest area.

Finally — we visited the Park. And it’s truly amazing. But not just for the petrified remains of 225 million year old trees from the Late Triassic. The colors that can be found here are simply beautiful. Within Petrified Forest National Park, the layers of the colorful Chinle Formation — from which the Painted Desert gets its name — include the Blue Mesa Member, the Sonsela Member, the Petrified Forest Member, and the Owl Rock Member.

Multi-colored vistas of the Blue Mesa Badlands.
Multi-colored vistas of the Blue Mesa Badlands.

The Blue Mesa Member consists of thick deposits of grey, blue, purple, and green mudstones and minor sandstone beds.

The Petrified Forest Member consists of thick sequences of reddish mudstones and brown sandstone layers and the Owl Rock Member consists of pinkish-orange mudstones mixed with hard, thin layers of limestone.

Detail of a petrified tree. Petrified wood at Petrified Forest National Park is almost solid quartz.
Detail of a petrified tree. Petrified wood at Petrified Forest National Park is almost solid quartz.

The Sonsela Member contains brown, cross-bedded sandstone; blue, grey, and purple mudstones and numerous small grey and white sandstone beds; and white cross-bedded sandstone and conglomerate of rounded pebbles and cobbles which contains the logs of the Rainbow Forest.

Petroglyphs at the Puerco Pueblo site in Petrified Forest National Park.
Petroglyphs at the Puerco Pueblo site in Petrified Forest National Park.

And there are also archeological sites including old pueblos and petroglyphs.

Trail running in Sedona

Although we had a lot of snow in Flagstaff and northern Arizona in December, it’s been completely dry since then and the snow has slowly vanished. We’ve taken advantage of the dry weather and done a lot of trail running in Sedona. It’s always warmer there, of course, because of the lower elevations. But even there they received measurable snow in late December and, as a result, many of the trails are still muddy and some still have patchy snow in the deep shadows.

Still, it’s been a great chance to try out some new trails. We’ve been aware of the growing number of non-system trails (i.e., trails that are not part of the Forest Service network) and have been interested in trying some. The Forest Service has also recognized that some of these trails should be brought into the system.

One of these is Aerie Trail which starts from the Boynton Canyon Trailhead and heads in a generally westerly direction, passes by the Fay Canyon Trailhead, then heads towards Doe Mountain. You can connect this trail with Cockscomb and make a nice loop. Although parts of the trail were exceptionally muddy, other sections were dry. These two trails can be combined into a short, ~6 mile loop.

Aerie-Cockscomb Loop
Aerie-Cockscomb Loop

Another loop we’ve done a few times is the Munds Wagon–Cow Pies–Hangover Loop. This loop has some amazing views from the top of the saddle and some great running sections on the Hangover section. Keep your eyes open for mountain bikers!

Mitten Ridge--BearPaw--Hangover
Mitten Ridge–BearPaw–Hangover

So many trails … so little time!

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Correction (10 March 2011): The USFS document referenced above does not include the Aerie Trail in their list of non-system trails.