Fall is forever my favorite season.
While I miss spending the entire fall season in central Michigan — Saturday afternoons tailgating my college football games with Fireball in hand, Sunday afternoons wandering through hay mazes and pumpkin patches with apple cider in hand, weekday afternoons navigating my class commute, wading through ankle-deep fallen foliage — I have to admit that northern Arizona’s golden aspen groves make my homesickness just a little easier to deal with.
So, when my friend Jenni invited me to hike up to Lockett Meadow with her this past weekend, my answer was an easy “yes.”
The road up to Lockett Meadow has been closed for the past two seasons due to Pipeline and Tunnel fire damage, so if you’re planning on hiking up, be prepared to add an extra three miles to hike to the trailhead, and an extra three miles to hike back down to your vehicle.
(My friends and I decided to check out Aspen Corner last year due to the fire damage, so this was my first time hiking to Lockett Meadow in about three years.)
The hike to-and-from the trailhead is via a newly paved road, at least — so even though there’s a good amount of elevation gain, it’s a smooth surface.
Our total hike was a little over 10 miles with about 1,600 feet in elevation gain.
And it was very much worth it!
Once you get to the trailhead, you have about a half-mile hike through a burned area before you enter the aspen grove.
I was a little skeptical once I got a few steps off the trailhead. Everything was burned, charred and decimated.
But, once we exited the burn scar, it was pure relief to see the golden aspens shedding their colors all around us.
And, Yukon had a blast!
Happy fall!
