Kendrick Peak was not something I had originally planned to tackle on this trip but it was something that had been on my bucket list for a long time, and since I had given up on the idea of a rim-to-rim-to-rim hike, I had the time. I could not count the number of times I have driven through Kendrick Park and past Kendrick Peak on the way to or from the Canyon and said to myself "I should climb that one of these days." Well, today was that day. And it was a beautiful day for it.

I went up to Kendrick Park yesterday afternoon to take a stroll on the watchable wildlife trail up there. I was actually hoping to see some elk but no suck luck. I wandered off of the main trail and out along some other trails that go along the meadows but still did not see anything. I did heard numerous birds but nothing that would cooperate for photos. While I was up there I decided to take a drive out to the trailhead for Kendrick Peak, just to check out the road and the parking area at the trailhead.

I did not start early this morning as I wanted it to be at least close to daylight for the drive up to Kendrick Park and out to the trailhead. I had a nice relaxing breakfast at home and left the house a little after 600am. It took about 20 minutes to get to the road to the trailhead and then another 20 minutes to drive out to the trailhead.

I started the hike a little after 645am. There is nothing particularly steep or challenging about the hike and most of it is a very gradual climb. It is a little on the long side at 10 miles round-trip but since it's not steep those miles go by pretty fast.

One thing that surprised me was the number of wildflowers that were still in bloom. The lower elevations still had lots of lupines in bloom and those were beautiful. My wife, Robin, and I did a hike on the Widforss Trail up at the north rim back in May and the lupines were just starting to bloom at that time. There were lots of other flowers in bloom as well: paintbrush, asters, penstemon, ... I was hoping to see some aspens in their autumn colors and did manage to spot a few of those as well.

There were a couple of other vehicles at the trailhead when I arrived but I did not see anyone until I was very close to the summit. I encountered a couple of women coming down from the summit while I was taking some photos at the Kendrick cabin and then there was another couple who were just leaving the summit as I arrived. There was also one guys who came up to the summit while I was there and we chatted for a while.

The views from the trail were spectacular. The day was nice and clear with plenty of sunshine. It was chilly at the start with the temperature only in the upper 30s and lower 40s but the day warmed up nicely. It never got truly hot but it was warm enough to be comfortable. The summit was chilly but there was no much in the way of wind. I could even see the north rim of the Grand Canyon from the summit and that was pretty cool.

I was hoping that the fire-tower on top would be open but no such luck there. I inquired about this with the couple I met coming down from the summit and they said it was unoccupied now because of some kind of wilderness rule. They said that even when it was occupied the helicopter that would bring in supplies was not allowed to land and could only hover and lower items to the helipad. Some wilderness rules seem a bit on the extreme side to me. It's a fire-tower for goodness sake, and Arizona certainly has had its problems with forest fires. There are actually some very large burn areas on Kendrick Peak.

Anyway, the hike up took about 2.5 hours, and I spent maybe a half of an hour up on top, eating snack, taking photos, and chatting with the other fellow who was up there. The hike down was also about 2.5 hours.