The San Francisco Peaks when you have months, not days

Outdoors · Flagstaff

What's the best way to hike the San Francisco Peaks on a long stay?

The San Francisco Peaks rise directly north of Flagstaff, and Humphreys Peak, the highest point in Arizona, is the summit at their center. On a stay of a month or more, hike them the way people who live here do: acclimatize for two weeks on the lower forest trails, then go high once your body has caught up.

Start with the altitude, because it is the thing almost nobody writes down. Flagstaff sits at roughly 7,000 feet, and the elevation alone takes a week or two to adjust to. For the first few days you will be short of breath walking a flat sidewalk, you will sleep lightly, and you will drink far more water than you did at sea level. The Peaks climb well above the town from there. Arriving one day and attempting Humphreys two days later is how otherwise fit people end up turning around halfway.

Summer here is short, and it comes with a caveat. The mild stretch runs from late spring into early autumn, but July and August bring the monsoon, and that means regular afternoon storms — real lightning, real hail, on exposed ground above the treeline. The rule people who live here follow is simple: be off the high ground by early afternoon in monsoon season. Late June mornings and the first half of September are the most reliable windows for a summit attempt, and September brings the aspen color as well.

From November into April this is a winter mountain. Snow accumulates and stays, forest roads and trailheads can be unreachable, and getting to a trailhead at all may need winter-capable tires or all-wheel drive. That is not a reason to write off the season. Snowshoeing through the lower ponderosa forest on a bright, still January morning is one of the best things about being in Flagstaff in winter. It does change what you pack and what you drive.

The part short visitors skip is everything below the summit. The lower slopes run from open ponderosa pine into aspen and then into meadow, and on a Tuesday morning in September you can walk for an hour without meeting anyone. Because the trailheads sit close to town, this becomes something you do before the working day starts rather than a full expedition — an hour in the aspens, back at the kitchen table by nine. That is the whole argument for having weeks in Flagstaff rather than days: the mountain stops being a landmark you tick off and becomes the place you go on a Tuesday because the light looked good.

If you're here for a month or more

Treat your first two weeks as acclimatization rather than lost time — walk the low forest trails near town daily and let the high country wait. If your stay lands in July or August, put the mountain in your mornings and your errands in the afternoons, because the monsoon storms are reliable enough to plan a week around. And if you are here past November, ask your local manager what the street and driveway look like after a storm before you assume you can be at a trailhead at seven in the morning.