In October of 2003, Neil F. and I took off for the White Mountains of Arizona to day hike Escudilla Mountain and Mount Baldy. Normally at this time of year I would have been a month into a new school year. But I had retired in May and this was my first time out goofing off when I normally would have been working. It was neat but weird.
Escudilla Mountain is north of Alpine Arizona and reaches an elevation of 10,912 feet. We pulled Neil's tent trailer part way up the mountain to a large meadow called Terry Flat and set up a camp. The aspen trees were showing their full fall colors! The next day we hiked the 4 miles towards the top. When it started to rain, we decided to stop short of the actual summit about a 1/2 mile where there is a fire lookout tower. Before we left the mountain, I retrieved a tent pole that I had dropped when my wife and I had camped there in August.
All of the photos on this page were taken by Neil. After this trip, I put in a request for a new camera.
After hiking Escudilla, we moved our camp west of Big Lake to dayhike Mount Baldy at an elevation of 11,420'. The Mount Baldy area is a popular hiking area. I quickly learned the advantage of being retired and be able to hike in the middle of the week--we saw very few other people. The trip is approximately 16 miles round trip.