Navaho Peak 6-10-2012

Navaho Peak

I-90 East, exit 85 to Hwy 970 East.  Turn left  onto the Teanaway River Rd. Drive 13.5 miles to 29 Pines Campground.  Take the right fork.  There is a sign saying "Road is unsafe to drive."   Drive on the dirt road for about 1 mile to the Stafford Creek Road.  Another 1.8 mile to the trail head.  

14.78 miles (normally 12 miles without the road closure), 4522ft elevation gain, 10hours and 47 minutes.

 Stafford Creek Road is closed due to logging.  We climbed over the gate and walked 1.8 miles to the trail head.

Normally we can drive all the way to the trail head.

Another cross country hike, shaving off about 1 mile.  Summer trail is snow covered from the meadow.

After steep uphill, we found the trail.  We are getting close.

Less than a mile left to the peak but more than 1,000ft to go.

Navaho peak is dry and bare.  But it has a great view of Mt. Stuart and Enchantments.

Champ bagged Navaho Peak.

Sly: it's his second hike to the Navaho Peak.

Lady bug colonies at the Navaho Peak.  Surely, some of them must be boy bugs.

We saw Artemisia just sprouting out on the snow-melt area.

That is Earl Peak.  We bagged it last week.

Water falls from melted snow.

Crossing the east fork of Stafford Creek.

Due to the road closure, we had to walk extra 3.6 miles RT.  Next time, we plan to bike the Stafford Creek Road to the trail head.  It was a long day of hiking muddy trail, cross country, snow scramble, and glissade.  We got home almost 9pm.  Next time, we'd better camp the day before and start hiking at 5am.