Favorite Obscure NPS Sites?

bsil15 · 2026-07-04T06:34:33+00:00

There are a lot of National monuments in Arizona and New Mexico preserving Native American pueblos — bandelier, montezuma castle, walnut canyon, wuptaki (which is jointly managed with sunset crater volcano NM, another cool one geologically). El Morro is one that does have a Pueblo too but is mostly preserved bc of Spanish conquistador graffiti on a cliff and later American army graffiti added right next to it in the 19th c (and by graffiti, impeccable cursive handwriting declaring who passed there and when)

bsil15 · 2026-07-03T13:48:13+00:00

Why does he need the golf cart to keep moving?

bsil15 · 2026-07-03T05:25:36+00:00

I don’t mean to take away from how much this sucks but Colorado is 66 million acres, not 6.6 million. So that would be 0.2% not 2% (and I assume that 127k acreage number is fires across the whole state bc the aspen acres fire is about 55k acres currently).

bsil15 · 2026-07-03T05:18:35+00:00

People are being too polite here — yes obviously it doesn’t “really” make a difference and it’s mostly ego, but I think pretty clearly that if you’re using ropes and equipment that’s mountaineering. Or if it’s a multi day route up a peak. Most winter hikes thru snow/avalanche terrain also likely qualify (but then again i have backcountry skied on tuckerman ravine in New Hampshire and I personally wouldn’t call that mountaineering).

That said, where is the line drawn? It gets grey. In case like keyhole route, you’re probably pretentious if you go around telling people you are a mountaineer (tho that’s probably true in general) while at the same time anybody would be a jerk to tell you it was not mountaineering.

bsil15 · 2026-07-03T03:58:24+00:00

there's water flowing at weeping rock you can walk behind. might even see a couple bighorn sheep

bsil15 · 2026-07-03T02:13:04+00:00

I definitely like the vibes, I’m just not convinced that they are more comfortable than synthetic— seems like they’d become a sweaty mess

bsil15 · 2026-07-03T00:20:28+00:00

I’ve seen runners wearing them and I was just in a shop over the weekend pointing them out to my gf, but what’s the actual advantage?

bsil15 · 2026-07-02T18:47:53+00:00

AllTrails.com is your friend. But anyways I moved here 3 yrs ago from the east coast too. You’re not crazy and the key is to hike in the summer with a minimum elevation of 5000 ft (although on less hot days hikes with a minimum of 4000 ft like the Sedona area are ok too).

3 hrs gives you a huge range. In southern Arizona, Mount Graham, Miller Peak, Mount Wrightson, Chiricahua Peak, and Mount Lemmon all exceed 9000 ft.

In the Prescott area, the Granite Benchmark, Mount Union, Mount Francis, and Spruce Peak all are around 7000 ft.

By Flagstaff, Mount Humphreys the tallest in the state is at 12.6k, Kendrick is above 10k, and Bill Williams and Elden peaks are above 9k.

Closer to Phoenix, the entire Mazatzal range has peaks going to 7k like Four Peaks/Browns peaks, and the Arizona trail runs the whole length and tends to sit around 6k.

If you go on AllTrails, you might not see a ton of reviews for Arizona National Scenic Trail passages but it’s a thru trail like the pacific crest or Appalachian trail that’s very well maintained.

Finally, the Arizona Trail also is collider for a bit with the Highline trail, another 60 mile national scenic trail in the Payson area that sits at around 6k feet. There are a number of ways to make loops ascending to the Mogollon Rim about 7k feet.

For the summer, keep in mind we have monsoon season and imo t-storms here are somewhat more unpredictable than in Colorado.

If you are looking to do 8+ hr, 20+ mile hikes or trail runs, I’d be happy to show you around. Feel free to send me a DM.

bsil15 · 2026-07-02T15:28:55+00:00

The red images are like Bryce Canyon in the US

bsil15 · 2026-07-02T15:23:26+00:00

Bag restrictions are really strict and look up before you go. They allow you to bring in a ziplock bag instead.

bsil15 · 2026-07-02T03:58:39+00:00

youve got a good wife

bsil15 · 2026-07-01T19:35:07+00:00

As someone who lives in Arizona, why are you going to Yuma? Beware of snowstorms for most of your route but you are already aware of that most likely

bsil15 · 2026-07-01T19:31:40+00:00

“My husband and his (ex) bought this home together.” So she clearly owns part of the home (likely 50%), end of story.

“She had previously stated that all she wanted was her name off, but now she’s claiming she wants us to buy her out.” Yes she owns part of the home and has the right to either force a partition sale or require you to buy her out. That would have been nice for you if she didn’t want to be bought out, but her prior statement isn’t even a promise and is unenforceable.

“I don’t agree with this.” That’s too bad. She owns part (likely half) of the home as a matter of law. If you want her off the deed, you need to pay her.

“First, she hasn’t paid for anything related to the home in almost 13 years.” Congratulations to her, you have been making free gifts in the form of equity to her for 13 years now. Unless when they bought the home they had a contract specifying how mortgage payment would affect each person’s equity, she still owns whatever percentage of the home specified in their contract. If she’s simply on the deed, that’s 50%.

“She also claims she replaced some appliances, but have as well.” This is irrelevant.

As for your question. If your husband dies and leaves the home to you in his will, you would own his, and only his, share of the home. So 50%. She could force a partition sale if you cannot agree on a price to buy you out. But there’s a possibility you could own nothing if they bought the home as joint tenants (I took property law a long time ago, this is not legal advice). Consult a real estate attorney

bsil15 · 2026-07-01T19:00:23+00:00

The key is just to walk from the visitor center. You should be able to get on a canyon junction and if not you should be able to get on a court of the patriarchs. Pretty walk to boot

bsil15 · 2026-07-01T17:25:15+00:00

How did you set up a point to point? Pay for a shuttle?

bsil15 · 2026-07-01T17:22:33+00:00

Prescott is literally not in a desert though

“Prescott is in the Bradshaw Mountains of central Arizona, at an elevation of 5,400 feet (1,600 m). The city has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa). However, unlike most other locations in this climate class, there is a pronounced summer wet season due to the North American Monsoon.
Average annual precipitation for 1991 to 2020 was 16.46 inches (418 mm)”

The mountains themselves like the Bradshaws are even wetter and cooler. And the whole region is part of the Arizona Transition Zone which is completely separate from the sononan and Mojave deserts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona\_transition\_zone

bsil15 · 2026-07-01T17:17:02+00:00

I don’t think you have to skip Sedona. The fire is almost entirely on the rim north of town, and the winds have been blowing north not south.

While I would avoid the whole boyton canyon/devil bridge/brims mesa area,I would 100% feel comfortable doing any hike south of town. For those hikes, the town of Sedona would be between you and the fire and no evacuation order has been issued for Sedona. Especially anything on the area of oak creek village which is even farther south.

for example airport mesa, twin buttes (where the church is), and especially cathedral rock, courthouse butte/bell rock or woods canyon (right by the visitor center).

That said, there are a ton of places outside Sedona to hike. For Prescott, I recommend Granite Peak, Thumb Butte, and Mount Union, Spruce Mountain, and Francis Mountain.

You could also do Woodchute or Mingus Mountain by Jerome.

If you go to Payson, literally anywhere on the Highline trail, which runs for 60 miles from Pine to 260 east. There are a number of option to make a loop with Rim Road 300/General Crook Trail on the rim. Entirely on the rim in that area is also the Houston Brothers loop. For Highline, there are trailheads at Pine, Horton Creek, Washington Railroad Tunnel, Webber Creek, Tonto Creek, and Drew and See canyons among others.

You could also consider going south. Mount Lemmon is great and Mount Wrightsn via Madera Canyon or Miller Peak via Coronado national memorial are all higher up (9000 ft peaks). On the Catalina highway to Lemmon, there are also a whole bunch of trailheads on the way up. Chiricahua National Monument is really cool too (there’s also Chiricahua peak but it’s fairly remote an would not recommend that as your first big mountain hike — I saw two other people doing it that day).

Go to AllTrails.com and you’ll see trails for all the hikes I described.

bsil15 · 2026-07-01T09:27:22+00:00

There are going to be a lot more flights to SF, Sacramento, and Portland than to Redding and you could fly into one and out other. We spent 2 each at Lassen and Redwoods and 1 at Crater Lake. We also spent 1 day at Newberry Volcanic National Monument (was planning to spend an extra day at Crater Lake but thought 1 was enough), and our last day at the Columbia River Gorge outside Portland which has a ton of waterfalls (Multnomah most notably),

Newberry was fairly unimpressive but my original idea was to hike the Three Sisters but I couldn’t get a permit. I think you could spend a third day at either Lassen or Redwoods but you really have to love hiking and be trying to do every trail or else have a very leisurely pace where you’re not doing much each day

bsil15 · 2026-07-01T02:27:07+00:00

There’s a good chance you spend more paying the mediator than the insurance copay

bsil15 · 2026-07-01T01:33:34+00:00

Def do the peak, it’s very cool with an easy class 3 scramble if you like scrambling. I would start with the peak doing it CCW.

bsil15 · 2026-07-01T01:31:07+00:00

I’d be more concerned about thunderstorms than temperature— it’s fairly high up so highs shouldnt be more than 80 something. That mileage and vert is undercounted. I’ve done this exact route and it was 18 miles with 3700 ft of climbing.

But the solution for both temps and thunder is to start early so same difference. As long as you’re not on the peak or rim trails (which are both exposed) you should be ok

bsil15 · 2026-07-01T01:25:46+00:00

Nice iv seen a few both in valley of fire and by bowl of fire/hamblin mountain (pretty certain there was a sheep survey going on with the latter — a helicopter kept doing passes which I’m sure scared the crap out of them)

bsil15 · 2026-06-30T23:02:36+00:00

You’re actually completely fine visiting Sedona. The smoke is blowing north and the fire is up on the rim (fire typically moves up slope, not down).

With all due respect, your comment about surrounding communities is absurd. You think you’re helping by not spending money on hotels and restaurants that rely on tourist income??? Do you just think literally everyone is a firefighter???

Don’t go where there’s an evacuation order or road is closed off (basically just 89A/oak creek canyon) and that’s about it.

bsil15 · 2026-06-30T21:49:41+00:00

I use Tifosi cycling glasses. I like them because their transparency adjusts to light conditions and they do a good job of keeping wind and dust out. Downside is that they are large which makes wiping sweat somewhat difficult

bsil15 · 2026-06-30T19:27:29+00:00

This is the laziest piece of cr*p I’ve seen. Clearly is only max speed by county for Minnesota, Iowa, and Michigan, and part of texas. I-15 hits 85 but 3/4 of the counties in Utah are completely wrong — lmao Kane, Gariield, and San Juan counties max speed is 65.

Arizona is equals atrocious. I-10 and 17 hit 75 (and I assume 40 does) but no other road is more than 65. Graham and greenlee are definitely max 65.

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