About Coconino County

About Coconino County

Encompassing 18,661 square miles, Coconino County, Arizona, is the second largest county in the U.S. but one of the least populated. Our county includes Grand Canyon National Park, the Navajo, Havasupai, Hualapai and Hopi Indian Reservations, and the largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest in the world. Elevations range from 2,000 feet above sea level along the Colorado River to 12,633 feet at the summit of Mt. Humphreys in Flagstaff.

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Back In SAR Action After The Boundary Waters

After two weeks in northern Minnesota, paddling and portaging in the Boundary Waters Wilderness and exploring, I'm back in Flagstaff and ready for more searching and rescuing.

Sounds like there's been some activity while I was away, which I know because as soon as I was in cellphone range again, I received all of the call-out messages there had been: searches for missing hikers, litter-carries, a downed plane. There were messages about technical rescue practice, too. And some of my teammates helped with road blocks at the Grand Canyon during President Obama's visit. There was also another death from dehydration at the Canyon—another young man, 18 years of age. So sad. And so avoidable.

Last night, I got back to practicing my technical skills and I'll be doing more practicing tonight and tomorrow night... if there's no call-out for a mission. The proficiency testing is going to be starting soon, possibly this weekend I heard. Two weeks feels like a long time to be away from practice, especially when many of the skills still aren't well-ingrained in my body or brain. But if last night's practice was any indication, they'll come back pretty quickly.

And now I leave you with some photos from our Boundary Waters trip. If you'd like to read a bit about it, I wrote an article with some more pictures here: A Trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.