It gains 976 feet in elevation but, remember, 711 feet of that comes in the first two miles on Sunset. Any day now, I figured, the snow would come and Flagstaff trails, especially this loop at 8,500 feet, would be inaccessible without snowshoes. I could see tire tracks and footprints, so I knew that there was no reason not to proceed. In fact, the only real accumulation of snow I encountered was on the Sunset Trail, mostly because it’s canopied by trees and shaded on the north side of the Dry Lake Hills. The combination of the climbing and the snow made what is a taxing ascent even more challenging.

Source: Daily Sun December 29, 2020 13:30 UTC