I was up in Flagstaff on a solo camping trip to unwind a bit. My girlfriend, being the never-ending fountain of beauty, grace and adventure ideas (She's also my editor) suggested that I hit a peak in the area before driving back to Phoenix. She suggested A-1 mountain might be a good one to tackle. And she was right (of course). The mountain was pretty easy to find, although with no official trailhead marker, I had to guess which road/trail to take. But I figured since I was heading up, I followed the road that went "up". Pretty easy navigation. From there things started getting tough. The road was severely eroded and steep and generally just went straight up the side of the hill. Switchbacks would have been nice, but this road was probably not built with hikers in mind. Still, even a jeep would have a tough time, given the fact that the surface was very loose. But I sucked it up and made my way to the top. Once at the top, I caught my breath and headed down into the crater. This part of the hike was really cool – the crater was obvious since you could see the rim and bottom through the ponderosa pines that cover the mountain and crater floor. I hiked to the bottom of the crater and back up to the rim on the opposite side and then walked the rim back to where I started. The hike back was almost more challenging than the hike up, given the steepness and loose dirt & rock conditions of the trail. A few times I had to step off the trail to get better traction. But I had the place to myself, so all-in-all, a good day.