Mohave County Highpoint Trip Report

Hualapai Peak (8,415 ft)

Date: April 19, 2006
Author: Mike Murphy

I wanted to spend the Easter break with my daughter camping in Arizona. We camped and birded in the northwestern parts of the state around Kingman. The first day we went to the bottom of the Grand Canyon via Peach Springs Road on the Hualapai Indian Reservation. That night, we camped at Hualapai Mountain County Park (6400-foot elevation), 15 miles south of Kingman. The campgrounds were very nice, it was quiet, had flush toilets, and the variety of bird life was well above average.

The next morning we parked at the highest part of the public campground and walked the route described by Scott Surgent. It was a long hike by our standards but well worth it. The vertical rock climb at the end of the old road was way beyond what we were willing to do to get to the top. If it had not been for the trip report that I had printed and brought with us we would likely not have made the summit.

The structure that was evidently there at one time is gone. The only traces we found of it were scraps of old roofing material. Following Scott Surgents’s recommendation we went back down two switchbacks from the end of the road and hiked up a draw to the top. An interesting thing we observed that was not in any of the previous trip reports was the huge, precariously balanced, house- sized rock near the summit that looks like it could fall at any time (You have to walk right under it). It is visible from more than a mile away. There isn't much keeping it up there. Some day it will join the many other large boulders lower on the mountain.

One other interesting observation was the thousands of lady bugs grouped at the summit. I have seen concentrated groups of lady bugs in Mendocino County, California but not in the quantities we encountered on Hualapai Peak. The top is a large boulder that I was not comfortable standing on, so I sat on it and took a 360 degree panoramic shot with my camera.

We hiked back on the roadway through the Boy Scout Camp (Levi-Levi) and down past the radio towers. Taking the road back down, it turned out, was no easier than returning on the "Potato Patch Loop" which was the trail we took going up to the top.