Kachina Trail

The San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, AZ rise more than 5,000 feet over the surrounding plateau, which is already at about 7,000 feet in elevation. The result is a surprisingly lush, moist, and chilly subalpine environment––one that you might not expect in Arizona. On the San Francisco peaks, winter brings heavy snow, and summer temperatures remain pleasantly cool, even when other places in the state surpass 100 degrees. In the fall, aspen leaves turn brilliant gold, painting an autumn scene to rival Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.

The best way to experience this colorful forest is, of course, to go hiking. A handful of trails begin from the Arizona Snowbowl ski area, open to hiking in summer and fall. The majority of people go for Humphreys Trail, which makes a zig-zagging ascent to Arizona’s highpoint, Humphreys Peak. There is another trail, however, that’s better for a casual hike in the woods, and that’s Kachina Trail.

The San Fransisco Peaks are also called the Kachina Peaks, which comes from a Native American name for the mountain. Starting at the ski area at an elevation of 9,500 feet, Kachina Trail traverses six miles of the mountain’s south slopes, trending downhill to where it meets Freidlein Prairie Trail at 8,800 feet. There are lots of short uphills on the way, however, some quite steep and rocky. The trail meanders beneath rustling aspen leaves and in the shade of towering douglas fir, through clearings of waist-high ferns, across sunny meadows dotted with wildflowers, and among contorted cliffs of volcanic rock. Views extend down to Flagstaff and up to the barren summits of Agassiz and Fremont Peaks.

Hiking the entire trail as an out and back is just over 10 miles, but most people don’t do it that way. The most popular option is to simply hike a few miles out and back from Arizona Snowbowl, turning around at a point of one’s choosing. You can see a lot that way, but you’ll likely miss out on a major highlight, which is a swath of sloping meadow dotted with tall aspens, against a backdrop of the peaks, located near the end of the trail. This scene is especially beautiful when the leaves change in early to mid October. To see it all, consider leaving a car at Schultz Pass trailhead (along a dirt road, closed in winter) then taking another car to Arizona Snowbowl and hiking the whole trail one way, in the downhill direction. That makes a total distance of about 7.5 miles, including the connection on Freidlein Prairie and Weatherford Trails to reach Schultz Pass trailhead.