Black Mesa/Humphreys Report

I just got back from a week long trip to AZ to visit some friends with my wife. We successfully completed the 8.6 mile hike of Black Mesa in NW Oklahoma on 3/18. We encountered some light rain and snow at the top along the way and saw only one other couple along the way. They were leaving as we were bundling up to begin our hike. This was a long hike even though the total elevation gain was only around 700'. Following the ranch road around the mesa took awhile because there is not much to look at out there! As we finally made our way up the mesa, we thought we could knock out the last mile quickly, but it seemed an eternity until we could make out the 9' monument ahead of us. We made it up in 1 hr 25 min and signed the register and took the customary photos in some light snow. My wife was not obliged to find the NM border some 1300' to the West, so we opted to take off in
case the snow got heavier. The weather for the most part cooperated and we made our way down in 1 hr, 35 min for a total hike time of 3 hrs. I don't know why it took longer to get down. We missed a shortcut at the beginning of the trail which could have saved us 10 minutes each way. It is a foot trail that angles to the left off the ranch road. You will see it in the first 1/2 mile of the hike.
We made our way to Flagstaff Sunday nite (3/19), and things looked good for a summit attempt of Humphreys Peak the next day. The Snowbowl ski resort had not received any snow in the last week and temperatures where in the mid-50's in Flagstaff. We rented some snowshoes and met my cousin at the motel, and drove up Snowbowl road to find the trailhead for the next morning. We took some photos of the sunset and noted that a considerable amount of melting had taken place as the base at the top of the lift had dropped to around 45". As we woke up the next morning, much to our chagrin, a light snow began to fall in Flagstaff. We decided to drive to the ski resort and check the conditions there, and had to turn around as the road was becoming dangerous with the heavy snow with us not having 4 wheel drive. We decided to cancel for the day and encountered the same conditions on Tuesday and Wednesday. They received over 30" of new snow during the 3 days we were there, so we were snowed out for the second year in a row. I guess we haved learned our lesson in trying to predict Flagstaff weather in March! We may try to squeeze a trip in sometime this summer.
We did get a chance to hike in the Grand Canyon on South Kaibab with beautiful conditions as half of the canyon was covered in 5" of snow. We also got a chance to hike/climb Picacho Peak south of Phoenix. This is right off of I-10 and is a very challenging 4.2 mile hike. You have to hold onto cables as there are some very steep, exposed areas. We got to call my folks at the top because there was a Sprint PCS tower nearby. We finished our trip with an easy hike in beautiful Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona.