Friday, we decided to explore Fort Tuthill Park. As the name implies, it was a former military base. Part of the park is still the Luke AFB Recreation Area - we have visited in the past and stayed in one of the rental cabins. The rest of the former base is now overseen by the Coconino County Parks and Recreation Department. Among other things, there are campgrounds, an amphitheater, a horse racing track with grandstand, an archery area, an obstacle course and more.
So we went to the CCPR office first to get more maps than the basic map I had downloaded from their website. We decided to hike the Soldier's Trail, a loop trail around the park which is a bit more than five miles. The CCPR office and where we parked were in the middle of the park. To get to the Soldier's Trail, we had to start on one of the FUTS trails (Sinclair Wash Trail) and headed north to the Soldier's Trail.
The Sinclair Wash Trail was a broad, flat trail, easy to follow as we passed the horse racing track, one of the RV campgrounds, the County Posse grounds and the horse stables. We hiked it for about a mile.
We then turned west on the Soldier's Trail. While it was generally well marked, we were glad to have the extra maps to make sure we stayed on the correct trail. It was all relatively easy trekking through the forested areas, coming at time near the fences the delineated the park from the Coconino National Forest which surrounds the park on three sides. There were hills, twists and turns, but all easy hiking on trails that were multi-use: horseback riders, cyclists, joggers and hikers.
There were still plenty of wildflowers in bloom that provided us with plenty of color as we hiked.
There was an event being held at the Amphitheater - Picking in the Pines. As we passed, we could here the musicians playing the banjos and singing.
The only negative we encountered was when we returned to the parking lot. We parked our car in the shade of one of the large trees in the middle of the parking lot. People parked parallel to us forming a neat row, as well as another row behind us. The problem was that some idiot parked perpendicular to us to get shade from the tree, blocking our car and a couple of other cars as we could not go forward because of that car nor backwards because of the row of cars behind us. Fortunately, the owner of the car diagonally behind us was there. With his and Patty's guidance, I was able to jockey the car back and forth and turn to exit through the man's parking space - we were very thankful for his assistance. He makes me realize that there are nice people who will help strangers.
The hike was otherwise a perfect day - not a cloud in the sky, pleasant breezes and not crowded - a great way to spend several hours hiking in the woods.
So we went to the CCPR office first to get more maps than the basic map I had downloaded from their website. We decided to hike the Soldier's Trail, a loop trail around the park which is a bit more than five miles. The CCPR office and where we parked were in the middle of the park. To get to the Soldier's Trail, we had to start on one of the FUTS trails (Sinclair Wash Trail) and headed north to the Soldier's Trail.
The Sinclair Wash Trail was a broad, flat trail, easy to follow as we passed the horse racing track, one of the RV campgrounds, the County Posse grounds and the horse stables. We hiked it for about a mile.
We then turned west on the Soldier's Trail. While it was generally well marked, we were glad to have the extra maps to make sure we stayed on the correct trail. It was all relatively easy trekking through the forested areas, coming at time near the fences the delineated the park from the Coconino National Forest which surrounds the park on three sides. There were hills, twists and turns, but all easy hiking on trails that were multi-use: horseback riders, cyclists, joggers and hikers.
There were still plenty of wildflowers in bloom that provided us with plenty of color as we hiked.
There was an event being held at the Amphitheater - Picking in the Pines. As we passed, we could here the musicians playing the banjos and singing.
The only negative we encountered was when we returned to the parking lot. We parked our car in the shade of one of the large trees in the middle of the parking lot. People parked parallel to us forming a neat row, as well as another row behind us. The problem was that some idiot parked perpendicular to us to get shade from the tree, blocking our car and a couple of other cars as we could not go forward because of that car nor backwards because of the row of cars behind us. Fortunately, the owner of the car diagonally behind us was there. With his and Patty's guidance, I was able to jockey the car back and forth and turn to exit through the man's parking space - we were very thankful for his assistance. He makes me realize that there are nice people who will help strangers.
The hike was otherwise a perfect day - not a cloud in the sky, pleasant breezes and not crowded - a great way to spend several hours hiking in the woods.
No comments:
Post a Comment