We decided to take the looong route up Humphreys because it's not hard enough on its own (ha haha). First, the road up to the Inner Basin Trail is extremely narrow and sketchy for a couple miles. It's fine for any vehicle but I would recommend going up the road at a less busy time of day so you're not stuck on the outside edge for the narrow steep passes. The Inner Basin Trail is absolutely gorgeous. The hike gradually climbs through a thick aspen forest with moss canopies covering rocks and bright orange fungus along the trail. Totally something straight out of a forest fairyland story. The trail continues up to a large meadow with yellow wildflowers galore. This is the first place you can get a good view of Humphreys and the elevation you're about to take on. The hike continues up a very rocky old road and then through forest again for a few more miles. We met the Weatherford Trail junction and kept cruising along. It is pretty much a continuous climb with some stretches requiring more exertion than others. Starting at the Inner Basin Trail actually adds about an additional 1,000 ft of elevation gain (and many more miles of beautiful scenery). Once we got to the saddle we were really feeling the altitude sickness and it continued the whole time we hiked the East side of Agassiz Peak. It's a weird feeling. We sat to rest and acclimate and my eyelids were actually closing even though I hadn't previously felt tired. My friend and I both felt woosey like we had been drugged or something. After resting a while we felt well enough to continue. We did stop a couple more times and continued on once the extreme feeling passed. Finally we met up with the more popular Humphreys Summit Trail and had way more company all of the sudden. Surprisingly, there were much fewer people on this beautiful weather day than on our previous ascent which was on a rainy foggy day. Go figure. Also, our altitude sickness magically disappeared! The last stretch to the summit is a unique experience with the alpine tundra landscape and views and is also just a monster to hike up. There is scrambling and rocky steep trail and seems to never end. Finally…the summit!! Yippee! We were lucky enough to enjoy one of those beautiful Arizona days with big clouds hovering and creating cool shadows but remaining high enough to allow for views for miles. It's incredible to look out towards Hopi land and see where the land abruptly changes from green to pinks and oranges. Our total trip time was around 10 1/2 hours (including breaks) and mileage was recorded at 18.5 miles. The aeg was around 4,400 ft so great training hike for our R2R2R next week!