Looking east toward the highest point in Arizona, Mount Humphries. That’s Dogtown Reservoir in between.
6 AUG 2022 W7A/AE-018
| Elevation: | 9,255′ |
| Route: | Drive-up |
| Hike Distance: | n/a |
| Elevation Gain: | n/a |
| Navigation: | Easy |
| Steepness: | n/a |
| Vehicle: | High clearance SUV recommended |
| Road: | Dirt |
| Cell Coverage: | Good (Verizon) |
Cassie and I planned a layover in Flagstaff on Saturday on our way back from North-Central New Mexico to Topanga Canyon. I couldn’t decide on Bill Williams Mountain or A 1 Mountain, so I ended up doing both fairly easily. Cassie and I had attempted this drive-up last year in her VW Jetta and about 3/4 of the way up she vetoed that idea. If anything, the road was even worse after the winter rains this last season. I met SOTA Goat Ray W7USA on the summit in a totally random encounter and he said he had never seen the road this bad. I was glad to have Whitedog – a Tacoma 4×4 – but any decent, high clearance SUV would be okay.
The summit is a massive cluster of microwave and repeater towers. I didn’t have any trouble with the RF saturation, but I had no contacts above HF. I declined to go up into the fire lookout tower and was amazed that it was still manned by the forest service. I’m sure the RF exposure up there exceeded safe limits.
KG6MZS 