We braved the monsoons and headed to the beautiful White Mountains for the weekend. We were rewarded with a surprising amount of wild flower blooms and even some trout coming out to play!
In the summertime, we do our best to spend as many weekends away from the scorching valley as possible. This weekend we hit up the White Mountains, the most un-Arizona-looking place in the state, we think. Christmas trees everywhere!
We chose to hike the Thompson Trail on a bit of a whim. We didn’t really have any firm plans thanks to the ever-present threat of the monsoons. Cory had fished the West Fork of the Black river that runs along the trail 2 years ago and got skunked (albeit this was in late October), so we weren’t too optimistic about the fishing. But we thought why not check it out during a different time of year…
If you plan to fish, read the rules and regulations posted along the beginning of the trail. There is no fishing between the barriers (they keep the brown trout from getting into the native Apache trout habitat upstream in the meadow) and within 100 yards of the last barrier. It’s also catch and release; barbless flies and lures only.
We were fully expecting the trout to be no-shows or very stubborn… and then Cory catches a fish on his first cast! We were tossing nymphs under an indicator all day because laziness. All the fish along the Thompson Trail are wild brown trout. They are pretty small, all the ones we caught were between 4-7″. But they were feisty little guys!
Not only were we surprised by the fish – but the wild flowers!!! They were OUT. We’ve never seen so many wild flowers on a trail in Arizona. Not just quantity, but variety.
This trail was hit pretty heavily by the 2011 Wallow Fire. The little valley is still lined with charred dead trees. We imagine it was even more lush and shaded.
Regardless, we’ve become big fans of this little trail. Even if you’re not fishing, it’s an easy, gorgeous trail with surprisingly low traffic, and with decent fishing to boot!
