HIKE OF THE MONTH

hike of the month Walk With Ghosts of the Past

WHAT THE TRAIL lacks in trees and shade, ghosts provide. But it takes a while to see them.

The Camp Beale Loop Trail in Kingman leads southwest toward U.S. Route 93, where traffic noise and shadows of concrete keep the ghosts at bay. However, when the trail turns north and climbs along the slouching basaltic shoulder of the low mesa it traverses, the highway and its incessant galvanized rubber hum vanish.

That's when the ghosts appear. They're drawn to Camp Beale's Springs down to the south, where the trees and brush are thick, about 200 hundred yards from the trail. It's now a city park.

Lt. Edward Beale may have visited the springs in January 1858 during the second of five trips through the area to build a wagon road along the 35th parallel. On his first trip through the area the previous fall, his expedition included 25 camels.

when you go

Length: 3.2 miles. Elevation Gain: 476'. Difficulty: Moderate. Payoff: Great view. Location: Kingman. Getting There: From the Mohave Museum of History and Arts at 120 W. Beale St., drive west on U.S. Route 93 approximately 1 mile and turn right onto the Fort Beale Drive. Continue 1 mile to the turnoff to the left to the Camp Beale Loop Trail parking lot. Travel Advisory: Trail access includes mountain bikes and equestrian trail. Parking available for horse trailers at trailhead parking lot on Fort Beale Drive.

TRAILSIDE SCENERY The brilliant

Pink of a strawberry hedgehog cactus, left, decorates the rocky terrain near Camp Beale Loop Trail. Hikers looking north from the trail at sunrise would get a painless eyeful of cacti, above. The view of basalt boulders, above right, looks south toward Kingman and the Hualapai Mountains.

The 3.2-mile hike begins at an elevation of 3,629 feet and requires a moderate and steady climb for about 2 miles to an unassuming summit at 4,107 feet with a metal bench and a wonderful view. The Hualapai Mountains rise to the east, the Peacock Mountains to the northeast and the Music Mountains to the northwest. To the west, beyond the spires and peaks of the Cerbat Mountains, stand the Black Mountains. As for the ghosts, that's the Rose-Baley wagon trainmaking its way to California in 1858, the first immigrants to use the Beale wagon road. They won't make it. The Mojave Indians will kill eight of them and the survivors will return to Albuquerque. From the summit, the descent is steep in places, but the trail soon follows an arroyo for about a half-mile before the final descent to the trailhead. Along the way awaits the ghost of Waba Yuma, a Hualapai chief. His death near here in April 1866, at the hands of a teamster named Sam Miller, sparked the Hualapai War that lasted until 1870. Much of it was fought in these hills. The rewards of this hike are found far away and up close-there is not much in the middle distance upon which to focus your attention.

At sunset, the Hualapai Mountains assume a hue of purple majesty. At your feet you'll find another purple, the filaree blossom. There's no reason you can't hike this well-maintained trail even in the summer if you avoid the heat of the day between 10 A.M. and 4 P.M. Wear a hat and carry plenty of water. Don't get confused by the trail markers. It's easy to follow the wrong trail if you don't keep in mind that this is a climbing hike. Follow the trail leading up hill and you'll be fine-so long as you don't mind walking with ghosts. Al