Photo Gallery: Hitting a High Point - Trekking Escudilla Mountain Arizona's Third Highest Peak

Hiking up the trial to Escudilla Mountain with kids
Some years ago, Arizona Highways Magazine published a challenge of sorts.  They ran an article that listed the highest peaks in each county of Arizona.  My friend Seth set out to do them all.  When he told me that, I blinked once and said, "Dude."

Shortly after, we didn't talk about summiting Mount Graham - the tallest peak in Graham County.  No way, you see, hiking that peak is illegal.  One of the best things about getting older is devulging all the illegal stuff you did as a young punk in a colorful, ripping tale that often includes a few flavorful toppings: a broken down car, a police chase, a combative girlfriend, a bar room fist fight, an unsavory organized crime boss wannabe, a series of empty bottles, or a hustled game of pool gone awry.  Pick any three, you've got yourself a story.  But I wasn't a young punk when we didn't talk about summiting Mount Graham and when we didn't trudge up steep slopes of aspen, through a north facing bowl, and along an abandoned Jeep road.  Nope.  I wasn't so young, and we didn't do that. That would have been illegal.

Chloe like drinking out of a Camelbak
But hitting the highest peaks is still on my list of things to do, and I'm much more domesticated these days.  Escudilla Mountain doesn't make the list of high points in each county because it gets outranked by Mount Baldy; the second highest peak in Arizona that also resides in Apache County.  Escudilla just gets the third highest point in Arizona.  She's 10,912 feet tall and takes up a certain amount of blue sky in Eastern Arizona south of Springerville off the scenic 191.

Chloe, almost a full two years old, rode on our backs in a classic Kelty Back Country child carrier for the 6-ish round-trip miles.  Child carrier backpacks are pretty cool, no doubt.  But geesh, you're dealing with a load that likes to move, lean, twist, kick, holler, drink all of your water and then ask for candy.  You didn't hear this from me, but I'd much rather lug around a 70-lbs pack of bricks than a toddler on my back.

But I'm a dad you see, relegated to a certain aloof form of work akin to that of a burro on a Mexican ranch.  Whipped, unthanked, and tossed the left overs at each meal. If you're not a dad you won't get this, but yeah, it's the best ever. Because later that night, say when you're sacked out in the tent, you'll roll over onto your side and feel that little girl right next to you in her green footy pajamas.  You might wake her with your turn.  You'll notice a slight cramp in your aging leg from that hike, but then she'll sit up and go something like this in a hoarse midnight voice, "Mmmm, 'nuggle papa." and plop her head next to yours.

Yeah.  You'll live for this stuff.  From the top of one mountain to the top of another.