We Had a "Hail" of a Good Time at Mt. Graham!

I recently joined the Arizona Outdoor and Travel Club (AOTC) and participated in a camping trip to Mt. Graham the weekend of September 19-20. Mt. Graham is a really special place. Not only is it sacred to the local Apaches, but it is considered a "sky island". I did a little Googling and learned that it is a Hudsonian forest of old-growth trees that is very similar to the rain forests of Washington State.
We camped at the Shannon campsite at an elevation of 9100', which is Black Bear country!! And, yes, we saw a bear during the trip.

We encountered this large Black Bear while driving to pick up a group of trail workers.

My oldest daughter, Cheryl, accompanied me on the trip and took some photos of our excursion.

We're starting our climb up the mountain.

The signs aren't kidding when they tell you there are winding roads ahead.

We couldn't help but notice how cool the temperature was by the time we got to 7000 feet, as evidenced in the next photo.

By the time we got to 8000 feet, the temperature had dropped almost another 10 degrees. With the long hot summer we've had this year, 58 degrees felt awesome!

We spotted quite a few towers near the summit.

A few more folks joined us, but here's the core group of "Happy Campers."

Me doing my hungry squirrel imitation.

Cheryl sitting on one of the bear-proof storage containers, doing her best to stay out of the smoke from the campfire.

Happy Campers, Cheryl and Deb

Cheryl and I took a short discovery hike near our campsite and came across quite an array of flora and fungi. This sponge fungus was huge!

One of the highlights of the weekend was the hailstorm (click the link to see the video I uploaded to YouTube) we encountered on Saturday. While everyone else in our group was out helping to clear trail (Cheryl and I stayed behind to shuttle them back later in the day, and mainly because we both slept like crap due to the cold and the altitude), Cheryl and I took a drive to Riggs Lake.

We encountered a pretty waterfall on our way to the lake.

Deb + Subaru = Debaru

From this photo you can see exactly how high we really were.

There was a large fire on Mt. Graham back in 2004. Here's a shot showing some of the snags left as a result.

In all, a great trip and I definitely want to go back and do it again.

On our way home, we encountered a beautiful double rainbow while driving West through Safford.