4 Seasons in One Day - in Arizona
A June Day Trip from Phoenix - Issue #52
As temperatures soar to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) in Phoenix, we look for ways to leave the city.
The beauty of Arizona is that we don’t always need to leave the state to cool down. A mere two hours away, we may get even 50 degrees F cooler. Not always, but it’s added fun when we do.
This time, the added fun was ice-cold rain, dropping the temperature to below 48 degrees (8 Celsius), fully winter weather. We experienced it while hiking in shorts, t-shirts, and I even wore hiking sandals instead of sneakers.
We started our trip in Phoenix, in too-hot summer weather. As usual, when we want to cool down, we head up towards Flagstaff.
While driving north, we tried to decide what we would do in Flagstaff.
“Let’s hike the Kachina Trail,” I suggested, since it is one of my favorite trails in the area.
It starts near Snowbowl and leads through some of the prettiest aspen groves, Ponderosa pine, and Douglas fir, along with areas filled with wildflowers and ferns.
Two hours after leaving home, we were starting our hike.
Birdsong and squirrel chirps greeted us as we stepped on the trail shaded by tall Ponderosa pines mixed with Douglas fir. We passed a field of blooming star-flowered Lily-of-the-Valley before the trail opened up to a fern-filled meadow and past it, a gorgeous aspen grove. As we walked through the aspens, we noticed the sky darkened, and I even felt a few drops of rain.
Like most desert-dwellers I know, we love rain. We often walk outside when it rains, just to get wet, and when the kids were little, they used to play in the rain with the rest of the neighborhood kids. So, a few drops of rain didn’t deter us, only made us enjoy the forest more.
Soon, more and more raindrops joined the first few, and even thunder signaled the seriousness of this storm. Still, we kept going. Why not? We’d just get wet, which is not a big deal in Arizona.
So, we went past the rocky area we knew so well, through a denser area filled with Douglas fir.
That’s when it started pouring to the point where we couldn’t see (we both wear glasses and they don’t come with windshield wipers), so we stopped under a tree. We knew we’d turn back, but tried to wait for the rain to subside, just enough for us to walk through it.
If you have ever tried sheltering from rain under a pine or fir, you know it’s futile. We were still getting soaked, so we decided to just walk through it. Naturally, we weren’t the only hikers on the trail!
Only in Arizona will you meet hikers walking in a forest during such a heavy storm, and greeting each other, laughing. “Rain doesn’t bother me,” was the phrase we all repeated.
Of course, as it got wetter, the trail got more slippery, so we walked slower, watching the rocks and tree roots sticking up so we wouldn’t fall. This trail often trips me; more often than not, I walk out of it with a skinned knee or something similar.
Which, of course, had to happen again. This time, I didn’t slip, but skinned my shin when I tried to walk off the trail to seek shelter in a tiny “cave”, and walked right into a tree branch fallen on the forest floor. Which elicited another burst of laughter, remembering how I promised my daughter not to get hurt this time on the trail. So much for keeping that promise.
As much as we enjoyed the rain, eventually I started getting cold. My hands and fingers were turning numb, and soon so were my toes in my hiking sandals. I did appreciate them, though; they kept me from slipping even once.
By the time we got back to the flower field, the rain was subsiding; it was coming down slower, easier to walk through. As cold as I was, I couldn’t resist stopping to take some photos of them with raindrops on their leaves.
When we got back to the car, we realized it was 48 degrees (8 Celsius) - winter weather, in the parking lot. In the forest, it had to be even colder.
Only in Arizona.
It wasn’t the first time we got soaked and cold in the summer. The first year we lived here, we were camping at Sunset Crater on the Fourth of July weekend, when a hailstorm caught us while hiking Lenox Crater. In a flimsy t-shirt and shorts. This was nothing compared to getting hailed on. Though we enjoyed both experiences immensely.
Eventually, we made our way into town, looking forward to a bowl of hot soup to warm us. In June, in Arizona.
There was no sign of rain in town. After our bowl of hot soup, we walked out of the restaurant to find clear skies and warmer weather.
In no rush to drive back to Phoenix, we took the scenic road through Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona.
We stopped at the viewpoint on top of Oak Creek Canyon, where we walked the trail and spent time on the edge, reminiscing about our first trip through the area, and consecutive ones, with my parents, and with our kids at different ages, from toddlers to teens. The weather was absolutely perfect here. The sun was shining, as a few fluffy clouds floated in the perfectly blue sky.
However, in the valley, it was getting hot already. And by the time we reached Sedona and wanted to take a walk among the red rocks, it was too hot for it.
So, after spending a few minutes at a trailhead, we got back in the car and drove home to Phoenix. We made it back by dinnertime.
Trips like this always remind us why we live in Arizona. In a short day, we went from a hot desert summer to winter-like weather in a pine forest, and everything in between. From giant saguaros to gorgeous red rocks, aspens, and pines, all in one day.
After all these years, we still love our state!
No matter where you are in the world, I hope you have a special outdoor place you often visit, and enjoy it in all the seasons (even if you don’t experience all of them in one day).
Outdoor places ground us. They have a way to lift our spirits, even when they make us uncomfortable. I feel so lucky to have so many different environments at my fingertips, from a low desert to pine forests, and others in between. But no matter where you are, enjoy nature, be it a forest, meadow, waterway, lake, or even desert.
Wishing you all the best! Until next time,
Emese
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Yes! Love Arizona. Do you ever get to Tucson? The UofA has a free downloadable audio driving tour that talks about the different hábitats driving up Mount Lemmon. It's a great drive! So nice to reach the cold area during the summer.
Arizona is so diverse; such a beautiful state.