Trip Planning Gone Awry:

Superstition Mountains becomes Flagstaff becomes just trying to drive through a blizzard to get to the airport

A month or so ago I gave a presentation about trip planning at the Quiet Adventures Symposium. A major point was the ability to be flexible and pivot. This latest trip has been a case in point to that end, and it hasn’t even begun!

Last fall, my hiking buddy Jim posted some gorgeous pictures from the Superstition Mountains near Phoenix, which reignited an interest I’ve had in visiting. I did a little research about the best times to go (some friends had snowfall mess up their hiking plans there in February a few years ago) and I decided on mid to late March of 2026. I started collecting a group of fellow adventurers, we booked plane tickets, reserved campsites at Lost Dutchman State Park, and started researching which trails we wanted to hike.

Everything looked awesome until about a week ago, when the forecast for our days there indicated high nineties to low one hundred degree temperatures. (70’s are the norm for daytime this time of year.) “Maybe it’s that dry heat I’m always hearing about,” I consoled myself, while Googling “hiking Arizona in 95-degree temps.” Turns out, it’s such a bad idea they sometimes close the trailheads to keep people from doing stupid things.

Our group chat blew up with ideas–wait it out to see if the forecast changed, switch locations, pray, etc. As our date of departure grew nearer and the forecast held steady, it became clear that a Plan B was needed. We scoured maps of Arizona, checking the forecast in search of cooler temps for each area with hiking trails, and hoping not to travel too far north, as we have an early flight home and wanted to avoid a long drive in the morning, or the expense of a hotel room. Up near Flagstaff, half of the campgrounds are still closed for winter. (How the heck can it be too hot to hike in one place but three hours away be closed for winter?!?! But I’m not all that familiar with Arizona, so maybe that’s legit.) The campgrounds that were open near Flagstaff were booked up, unless we wanted to pitch our backpacking tents in between RVs on a concrete slab, which did not sound all that great.

We checked into HipCamps, considered turning this into a backpacking trip… but it seemed there was some sort of barrier at every turn. After about a thousand messages in our group chat, and a Zoom meeting, we finally arrived at the decision to rent an airbnb in Flagstaff and go day hiking.

Other than the logistics of trying to find an affordable hotel for Friday night before our 9:00 a.m. flight out of Mesa Saturday, I thought we were doing pretty well.

Hotel rates were crazy expensive, which led to discussions of staying in a hostel, using one night of our Lost Dutchman State Park reservation to tent camp in spite of the high temps, and finally, the decision to stay at Superior Suites Hotel. (Please look for our bodies there if we don’t make it home!)

So yeah… this is going to be fine, right?

Enter Michigan Weather Gods: “Hold my beer, eh?”

We are coming up on the anniversary of the ice storm that crippled much of Northwest Lower Michigan last spring. Geoff and I were without power for three days, and we got off easy compared to many who were without power for two or three weeks. In light of that anniversary, Nichole and I planned to drive down to Grand Rapids Monday so that we wouldn’t have to worry about our 11:00 a.m. Tuesday flight if the roads were sketchy. It’s about a three hour drive under normal conditions.

This week, one week out from the trip, we had freezing rain Tuesday night, and all the schools were closed Wednesday. Friday a warm, wet snow system moved in, canceling schools again. And then, the forecasts for this Sunday and Monday came in… and that’s where we are now.

My plan is to load my car up with survival equipment, take it slow driving down Monday, and hope for the best. Of course, we’re still hoping that the forecast is wrong, and this storm system will wind down a little earlier than predicted.

Who knew this would be so hard?!