EXPLORE SPRINGTIME IN ARIZONA Wildflowers, ... even Interstate 17 stands out in March

MARCH 2018

ESCAPE • EXPLORE • EXPERIENCE Lees Ferry

Grand Canyon National Park

Flagstaff

Interstate 17 Wickenburg Mazatzal Mountains 2 EDITOR’S LETTER 24 INTERSTATE SECRETS 48 THE SENSORY NATURE OF SPRING PHOENIX At 75 miles per hour, it’s important to An Essay by Kelly Vaughn Tucson 3 CONTRIBUTORS keep your eyes on the road, especially Bisbee March on I-17, which winds through the moun- 4 LETTERS 52 SCENIC DRIVE tains between Phoenix and Flagstaff. Douglas Rucker Canyon Loop: There’s beauty The trade-off, unfortunately, is that POINTS OF INTEREST IN THIS ISSUE 2018 5 THE JOURNAL all along this scenic drive in Southeast- some of the most scenic landscapes ern Arizona, but the payoff is Rucker People, places and things from around are out the side windows — or hidden Canyon, where the views of tall grasses the state, including a look at white- altogether. So, in the interest of public surrounded by peaks and hills are as nosed coatis, which are related to ring- safety, we sent our photographer out to beautiful as any you’ll find in Arizona. tails and raccoons; Zane Grey’s affection show you what you’ve been missing. By Noah Austin for Lees Ferry; and a Q&A with photog- A Portfolio by Joel Hazelton rapher Jacques Barbey, who caught a Photographs by Jeff Kida GET MORE ONLINE lucky break in Bisbee. www.arizonahighways.com 36 THE ADVENT OF SPRING 54 HIKE OF THE MONTH An Essay by Ruth Rudner 16 PILGRIMAGE INTO SPRING Barnhardt Trail: Despite a few curve- /azhighways balls from Mother Nature and the effects A story originally published in the 40 A TOTALLY DIFFERENT BALLGAME of a fire in 2004, the rugged mountains @arizonahighways February 1955 issue of Arizona Highways. It’s called baseball, but the players don’t and spectacular panoramas of the By Joyce Rockwood Muench wear gloves, the pitchers throw under- Mazatzal Wilderness are as impressive hand, and the outfielders are allowed as ever. ◗ Clouds hang over the snowcapped San Fran- to let the ball bounce before making By Robert Stieve cisco Peaks near Flagstaff at sunrise. This view an out. Those are just some of the dif- is from the summit of Apache Maid Mountain ferences at the Copper City Classic, an 56 WHERE IS THIS? to the south. Joel Hazelton exhibition baseball tournament played CANON EOS 6D, 1/8 SEC, F/10, ISO 100, every spring at Bisbee’s historic Warren 200 MM LENS Ballpark. FRONT COVER: Bluedicks (Dichelostemma By Noah Austin capitatum) grow amid grasses near Sunset Photographs by Jacques Barbey Point, a stop on Interstate 17 between Flag- staff and Phoenix. Joel Hazelton CANON EOS 6D, 1/50 SEC, F/18, ISO 320, 16 MM LENS

BACK COVER: Surrounded by sego lilies (Calochortus nuttallii) and fairydusters (Calliandra eriophylla), the blooms of an Engelmann’s hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus engelmannii) begin to open in the Mazatzal Wilderness near Payson. Paul Gill CANON EOS 5D MARK III, 1/20 SEC, F/22, ISO 100, 100 MM LENS

2 OCTOBER 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 1 editor’s LETTER CONTRIBUTORS

RUTH RUDNER Ruth Rudner is the wife of legendary photog- Ruth Rudner returns to the pages of Arizona High- MARCH 2018 VOL. 94 NO. 3 rapher David Muench. And David’s late mother, ways this month with The Advent of Spring (see Joyce Rockwood Muench, was one of our fea- 800-543-5432 page 36), an essay about spring snowmelt. It’s a tured writers in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. She, too, www.arizonahighways.com familiar topic for Rudner, who wrote the following was a poet. And decades later, her words still GIFT SHOP: 602-712-2200 in her 1978 book, Forgotten Pleasures: “One day the read like rhapsodies. ice breaks up, the melting snow swells the begin- In a piece she wrote for us in February 1955, PUBLISHER Win Holden nings of streams that pour foaming and new down one we’re resurrecting this month, she used The EDITOR Robert Stieve the sides of mountains, transforming gentle brooks Canterbury Tales as the basis for a story about ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, into swift rivers, paths into streams and woods into I was 9 when the river broke DIRECTOR OF its bank and trespassed into my backyard. In springtime in Arizona. “My Canterbury would SALES & MARKETING Kelly Mero swamps — a great, wild rush of life. … A sleeping

hindsight, the big flood is just a footnote to my be Arizona, a land vaster than all of England,” MANAGING EDITOR Kelly Vaughn world awakes; everything on Earth is born.” Rudner, an accomplished nature writer, is the author of more childhood, but at the time, it was eventful, and she wrote in Pilgrimage Into Spring. “No need to ASSOCIATE EDITOR Noah Austin than a dozen books, some of which are collabora- it reinforced the power of water I’d seen a year wait for April: Spring comes long before then in EDITORIAL earlier, in The Poseidon Adventure. this enchanted land, awakening at the feet of ADMINISTRATOR Nikki Kimbel tions with her husband, photographer and longtime Arizona Highways contributor David Of course, a surging river isn’t as dramatic as a 90-foot tidal wave, but purple desert ridges; spreading farther with each PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Jeff Kida Muench (whose mother, the late Joyce Rockwood Muench, also is featured in this issue).

for a few weeks in 1973, my brother Jeff and I watched anxiously as the passing day, into lifting mesa lands; to arrive on CREATIVE DIRECTOR Barbara Glynn Denney The two recently sold their property in New Mexico and now live full time in Montana.

water crept unabated toward our back door. First past the tire swing, then schedule in mountain meadows, where forest- ART DIRECTOR Keith Whitney the clothesline, then the bird feeder. Around the time it got to the back covered slopes and rocky pinnacles mark out MAP DESIGNER Kevin Kibsey patio, the high water had also flooded the mile-long dirt road that leads to ‘distant shrines’ against the deep blue sky. There PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Michael Bianchi our home. Other than the river itself, that road was our only access to the would be other wayfarers like myself, seeking a WEBMASTER Victoria J. Snow outside world. Sensing an opportunity, Jeff and I hoped the isolation would cure for ills of the minds we prison away from liberate us from going to school. It didn’t. Instead, our father used one of our healing breeze; from reviving scents of flowers CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Nicole Bowman fishing boats as a ferry, with a car parked on either side of the flood. Dads. and trees; and long looks over open land and FINANCE DIRECTOR Bob Allen Growing up, the river delivered all kinds of adventure to my brothers chiseled panorama of cliff and mountain top.” OPERATIONS/ IT MANAGER Cindy Bormanis and me. There was always something going on, but springtime brought the Mrs. Muench never met Joel Hazelton, but snowmelt. he follows in the footsteps of the wayfarers she CORPORATE OR The Wisconsin River runs for 430 miles from the Lake District in the referred to. He’s a vagabond, a photographer who TRADE SALES 602-712-2018

northern part of the state to its confluence with the Mississippi. Our house roams in directions others won’t go. So, when SPONSORSHIP SALES is about 300 miles south of the river’s origin. In that span, especially in the we needed someone to wander up and down the REPRESENTATION On Media Publications Todd Bresnahan spring, the river picks up and drops off all kinds of treasures for youngsters interstate with a camera, we called Joel. 602-445-7169 to discover. Fishing lures, bobbers, Styrofoam coolers, lawn chairs, wooden “J.K.,” I said to Jeff Kida, our photo editor. “I oars ... most of what we found along the shore would be considered rubbish have an idea. How about a portfolio on I-17? I just LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] by even the most generous assessors. To us, though, it was precious loot, and drove down from Flagstaff, and I’ve never seen 2039 W. Lewis Avenue those scavenger hunts are some of my best memories. it so green. I mean, it’s really green. It looks like Phoenix, AZ 85009 The river, the exploration, the discovery ... that was our definition of Ecuador. Maybe we can get Joel out there. Before spring. For Ruth Rudner, the meaning goes deeper, and it’s more poetic. it’s too late.” GOVERNOR Douglas A. Ducey “I take spring personally,” she writes in The Advent of Spring. “The four Fortunately, Joel was able to hit the road the DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT children in my family, all cousins, were born in the spring. Four of us repre- next day. And the day after that and the day after OF TRANSPORTATION John S. Halikowski senting the birth of the world, four of us believing that we and spring, and that. Ultimately, he’d spend several weeks on JOEL HAZELTON

therefore all of life, began together. We held spring closely, delighting in the project, which turned into one of the most Arizona Highways® (ISSN 0004-1521) is published month- For this issue, photographer Joel Hazelton tackled what might be his most challenging the smell of the damp Earth, the first green shoots, the leafing-out of trees. unlikely portfolios we’ve ever published. And ly by the Arizona Department of Transportation. Subscrip- assignment for Arizona Highways: springtime along Interstate 17 between Phoenix and tion price: $24 a year in the U.S., $44 outside the U.S. Flagstaff (seeInterstate Secrets, page 24). “My job was not to document a destination,” It was not our mothers who fed us, but the breeze, the scent of streams one of the most spectacular. As you’ll see, it’s Single copy: $4.99 U.S. Call 800-543-5432. Subscription newly freed from ice, of pine trees in the forest, the delicacy of the light, the impossible to find words exaggerating what an cor­respon­dence and change of address information: Ari- he says. “Rather, I was forced to ‘stop and smell the roses.’ ” Hazelton was familiar with amazed sun, discovering it was new.” abundance of water can do. In the desert, it can zona Highways, P.O. Box 8521, Big Sandy, TX 75755-8521. the landscape along I-17, but says he unexpectedly became enamored with the rolling Periodical postage paid at Phoenix, AZ, and at additional We knew we’d get poetry when we asked Ruth to write an essay about transform the palette from sandpaper to fairway. mailing office.CANADA POST INTERNATIONAL PUBLI- hills and grasslands between Dugas Road and State Route 169. “My goal became to spring. The adage about a picture being worth a thousand words suggests Or, if you live along a river, it can lead to wonder- CATIONS MAIL PRODUCT (CANA­DIAN DISTRIBUTION) accomplish my vision of this region,” he says. “This was a challenge, because the grass that somehow all words are equal. That a thousand words by any writer ful memories of scavenger hunts, Styrofoam cool- SALES AGREE­MENT NO. 40732015. SEND RETURNS TO in the area was ephemeral, so my time was limited. Finally, on my sixth trip, I was able QUAD/GRAPHICS, P.O. BOX 456, NIAGARA FALLS ON L2E could describe any photograph in the same way. But it’s not about numbers, ers and fishing lures. The power of water. Let’s 6V2. POSTMASTER­ : Send address changes to Arizona to take photos that translated what I saw in this area, and I felt comfortable shifting my and words are not equal. A thousand words by Ruth Rudner paint a much all pray for rain. Highways, P.O. Box 8521, Big Sandy, TX 75755-8521. Copy­ focus farther north.” As you‘ll see, Hazelton found amazing sights all along the I-17 right © 2018 by the Ari­zona Department of Trans­­por­­tation. corridor, but for readers planning a day trip to shoot wildflowers, he recommends the more vivid picture than a thousand words by just about anyone else. One of Repro­duc­tion in whole or in part with­­out permission is pro- the few who measure up, coincidentally, can be found in Ruth’s family tree. ROBERT STIEVE, EDITOR hibited. The magazine does not accept and is not respon- Black Canyon Trail — specifically, where the trail crosses the Agua Fria River just south of If you’re a careful reader and a longtime subscriber, you might know that Follow me on Instagram: @arizonahighways sible for un­solicited ma­ter­ials. Black Canyon City. “During late March, the brittlebush bloom is gorgeous,” he says. “The river should have a light, pleasant flow, and the hiking is easy on a well-groomed and PRODUCED IN THE USA relatively flat trail.” Hazelton is a regular contributor toArizona Highways. — NOAH AUSTIN

2 MARCH 2018 PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL MARKOW PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP DAVID MUENCH ABOVE, RIGHT JOEL HAZELTON www.arizonahighways.com 3 LETTERS [email protected] THE JOURNAL

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC For nearly a century, Arizona Highways has been showcasing the scenic beauty of the forty- eighth state. There’s a lot of ground to cover, and more than a third of it is located on public lands — this land is your land. It’s too much to Thank you, thank you, thank you present comprehensively, so we’ve narrowed the list of great outdoor places to 52 … one for for celebrating public lands for what they are: for each weekend of the year.

everyone [Open to the Public, January 2018]. Allow me BY NOAH AUSTIN, KATHY MONTGOMERY, ROBERT STIEVE AND KELLY VAUGHN to add that the “everyone” includes the special life forms found at these wonderful places. We live in a confluence of riches in Arizona, and we need to not only enjoy them, but also to respect them, from ponderosas to saguaros, rattlesnakes to leopard frogs, solar energy to mineral wealth, and the Grand Canyon to the “sky islands.” All of it is wonderful. Snow covers the jagged cliffs of the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. The mountains are part of the Superstition Wilderness Thank you for pointing it out to us. and the Tonto National Forest. Saija Lehtonen

Carol Brown, Tucson 16 JANUARY 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 17 January 2018

was first introduced to both the awe- was the best I’d ever seen and the first quite taken that we had travelled so far inspiring and staggeringly beautiful time I’d ever requested six additional to visit that part of the U.S. We spoke I landscape of Arizona and your maga- copies of the same issue. briefly, exchanged email addresses and zine at a very young age by my grand- Ian Campbell Lang, Amityville, New York went on our separate ways to enjoy our mother and my mother, both of whom vacations. Not long after we returned lived there and are now deceased. I’ve just finished the December 2017 issue home I received an email from him (his Mirror, been a lover of the desert and a huge of Arizona Highways. I can’t tell you how name is Ed Van Blaricum) and I replied. fan of Arizona Highways ever since. I breathtaking it was for me. I have been Due to the wonder of the internet, we Mirror Your December 2017 issue, “Exploring a subscriber for a long time, but this has have continued this correspondence, A small pool mirrors the Monument Valley,” was absolutely spec- got to be your best issue yet. Thank you. and we exchange small Christmas layered sandstone forma- tacular. I’m 69 years old, and this is the I love Arizona so much, and your maga- gifts, too. Last year, to our delight, he tions of the Sedona area. first time in my life I have ever been zine helps me to enjoy the places that I gifted us with a subscription to Arizona These formations, known as pinnacles, occur when compelled to write a letter to any cannot get to anymore. Highways, a publication we had never fractures in a wider butte Rose Troilo, Apache Junction, Arizona magazine that I’ve had a subscription heard of but have since enjoyed a lot. are enlarged by erosion to, and I’ve had many over the years. This year? Guess what? Another sub- over hundreds of thou- I sat down and read it from cover to wanted to say thank you to you scription to Arizona Highways. sands of years. For more cover this morning without taking and your team for the great amount Charlie and Linda McPherson, information about Sedona, a break. I then went back and spent I of enjoyment my wife and myself get Stonehaven, Scotland visit the Sedona Tourism another 20 minutes or so just looking from the articles and wonderful photos Bureau’s website, at the pictures and exploring my own and illustrations in Arizona Highways bought your “cowboy” puzzle a couple www.visitsedona.com. memories of this place. Your magazine — we never cease to be amazed by the of months ago and decided to save it NIKON D800, 1/25 SEC, F/11, ISO 100, 19 MM LENS is wonderful, and this particular issue splendour of Monument Valley (which I for our first snowstorm. We had that really tugged at my heartstrings. Thank we have visited) and the scenery in storm a few days ago, and I’m so glad you again for the beautiful gift of this Arizona. To be fair to our home coun- that I saved the puzzle to keep me occu- December issue. I will treasure it. I also try, we come from a place not short pied! The puzzle is now on its way to wanted to say that, in my personal opin- of scenery either, but completely dif- Kansas, to my daughter, who loves doing ion, the front cover artwork by Chris ferent from Arizona, which we find fantastic puzzles as much as I do. Thank Gall in 2017 was spectacular — the best breathtaking and so vast compared to you for your excellent magazine and one you’ve ever done. our tiny Scotland. By the way, when my fantastic puzzle! Annie Johnson, Nucla, Colorado wife, Linda, and myself were visiting Gailia Rutan, Providence, Rhode Island Arizona on holiday to celebrate my 60th quick note to thank you for your birthday in 2006, we stopped at the contact us If you have thoughts or com- December 2017 issue on Monument roadside to view the old mining town of ments about anything in Arizona Highways, we’d A Valley, and your spectacular black- Jerome. A stranger was parked nearby love to hear from you. We can be reached at editor@ arizonahighways.com, or by mail at 2039 W. Lewis and-white panorama of Monument doing the same. We struck up a friendly Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85009. For more information, Valley in the November 2016 issue. It conversation with him and he seemed visit www.arizonahighways.com.

4 MARCH 2018 PHOTOGRAPH BY GUY SCHMICKLE nature J

White-Nosed Coatis

NOAH AUSTIN White-nosed coatis (Nasua narica) look like the kind of mammal you’d expect to find in Mexico or Central America, and those areas constitute most of the spe- cies’ range. But that range also includes parts of the American Southwest, such as Central and Southeastern Arizona wood- lands, canyons and grasslands. White- Visitors explore the nosed coatis, also known as coatimundis, monument near are relatives of ringtails and raccoons, but Faraway Ranch in unlike those animals, they’re active during the 1920s. the day. Their long tails come in handy for climbing trees — or agave stalks, in the case of this coati near Madera Canyon — in search of fruits, insects or bird eggs. On the ground, they rely on their snouts and claws to turn over rocks and find snakes and lizards. And while female coatis have a nose for sociability, traveling in loose bands of up to 20, males prefer to go it alone except during the spring mating season.

6 MARCH 2018 PHOTOGRAPH BY SHANE FARMER www.arizonahighways.com 7 J history dining J

THIS MONTH “I always tell my staff, ‘Think of this as IN HISTORY The Garden Café your backyard, and you’re entertaining,’ ” ■ The Colorado River Open from October to May, the Garden Café in Yuma serves breakfast and says Debbie Gwynn, the restaurant’s Indian Reservation is lunch, with a brunch buffet on Sundays, and makes family recipes from owner. established on March 3, scratch, including something called Torture Cake — it’s “torture to resist.” Sanguinetti’s daughter, Rosemarie 1865. Today, the Colorado Sanguinetti Gwynn, came up with the River Indian Tribes’ land is KATHY MONTGOMERY idea of establishing a restaurant on her nearly 300,000 acres. father’s beloved garden. She approached ■ Tucson announces on E.F. SANGUINETTI LOVED HIS GARDEN, taining, and he loved birds, so his descen- her son, Bruce, and his wife, Debbie, March 7, 1922, that its and he had a talent for making things dants created an experience that reflects about taking it on. firefighters will get new grow. his life, down to the family recipes. “[Bruce] worked full time in agriculture uniforms: olive drab, with Arriving in Yuma in the 1880s, Sangui- Arriving at the Garden Café is a little … and I was home having babies,” Gwynn black ties and brass but- netti cultivated an agricultural empire like happening upon a garden party in full recalls. “He said, ‘Oh, she’s got time to tons. The firemen are that made him the largest farm employer swing. Diners chat on the terraced patio, do it.’ And here I am, 35 years later.” expected to pay for the in the state. And, in a way, Yuma’s resi- under a rainbow canopy, surrounded by Open from October to May, the café uniforms themselves. dents still enjoy the fruits of his labors at trees and flowering vines. The murmur serves breakfast and lunch, with a ■ The front page of the the Garden Café, built on the grounds of of conversation mixes with the chatter of brunch buffet on Sundays, making family March 18, 1950, issue of his former home. lovebirds, cockatiels and parakeets con- recipes from scratch. These include Min- the Arizona Daily Star Sanguinetti had a reputation for enter- tained in an expansive aviary. guiches de Jocoqui, offered as a Sunday features a photo of a special; it features spinach, onion and steam engine that jumped cheese wrapped in crepes, smothered the tracks in Tucson. with a cheese sauce and baked. Ham “A beached whale has and cheese strata — a layered casserole Zane Grey and his horse, Don Carlos, pose on the set of the 1918 film nothing on this Southern made with eggs, ham and three differ- adaptation of Grey’s novel Riders of the Purple Sage. Pacific locomotive as far ent cheeses — makes another popular as helplessness is con- brunch item. Zane Grey’s Lees Ferry cerned,” the caption reads. Other distinctive dishes include The legend of Zane Grey runs deep in Arizona, and many of his Western novels featured Swedish oatmeal pancakes, served with his favorite places in the state, including Lees Ferry, which he first visited in 1907. lingonberries, and Kammann sausage. 50 YEARS AGO Unique to Yuma, the spicy German sau- KAYLA FROST IN ARIZONA HIGHWAYS sage is made from a recipe introduced by Walt Kammann in the 1950s and uthor Zane Grey set nearly 60 novels of reverence and unease. He was about to cross celebrated at an annual sausage fry. The in the American West, spinning sto- those turgid waters on a crude, leaky skiff. lunch menu includes quiches, sand- ries of rugged landscapes, courageous “The first sight of most famous and much- wiches and salads, as well as the café’s A cowboys and noble Native Americans. heralded wonders of nature is often disap- signature tortilla soup, another family His 1912 novel Riders of the Purple Sage sold mil- pointing; but never can this be said of the favorite. “We go through so many pots of lions of copies and was part of the Library of blood-hued Rio Colorado,” Grey recalled in his soup every day, it’s crazy,” Gwynn says. Congress’ Books That Shaped America exhibition. journal. “If it had beauty, it was beauty that Then there are the desserts, among Many of Grey’s works were adapted into mov- appalled.” them Chocolate “Killer” Cake, old-fash- ies or television episodes, adding to the lore of Not long after arriving, an anxious Grey ioned soda cake served with or without the Wild West. boarded the loaded skiff with bison hunter ice cream, and Torture Cake, layers of In all the West, Grey’s biggest love was Charles Jessie Jones and pioneer James S. white cake with coconut cream filling almost certainly the Colorado Plateau — many Emett, who had been asked by the Mormon In March 1968, Arizona and whipped cream frosting. The latter is of his best-selling tales take place there. In church to run the ferry and adjacent ranch. Highways took a break torture to resist. particular, Lees Ferry, on the Colorado River, Grey included a vivid description of the haz- from Arizona’s native Arguably the most influential grower endlessly captivated Grey. As the only place in ardous crossing in his 1908 novel, The Last of the plants and animals to in the city’s history, Sanguinetti was hundreds of miles where the Colorado River Plainsmen: “[The river] roared in a hollow, sul- showcase the exotic posthumously named “Citizen of the isn’t flanked by steep canyons, Lees Ferry was len voice, as a monster growling. … The current beasts on display at the Century” by the Yuma Daily Sun in 2000. a key crossing for Arizona’s early settlers. And was as complex and mutable as human life. It Phoenix Zoo. Color photo- So it’s fitting that the restaurant built after Grey’s first visit, in 1907, it also became a boiled, beat and bulged.” graphs of lions, elephants around his garden is superlative, too. key setting in his writing. Over the next couple of decades, Zane and giraffes filled the Yuma’s residents have voted it best for Though the canyon walls ease at Lees Ferry, Grey visited Lees Ferry at least twice more. pages of the issue, which outdoor dining and Sunday brunch year the river was swift and tumultuous. Descend- Although the crossing was remote and the Col- also featured a story after year. ing to the crossing on a steep wagon trail, Grey orado haunting, Grey couldn’t help but return about a horse show held peered down at the mighty Colorado with a mix to this awe-inspiring place. annually to benefit the zoo. YUMA The Garden Café, 250 S. Madison Avenue, 928-783-1491, www.gardencafeyuma.com

8 MARCH 2018 PHOTOGRAPH: OHIO HISTORY CONNECTION PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL MARKOW www.arizonahighways.com 9 J from our archives [March 1957]

The Green Fields of San Xavier, a photograph by Ray Manley, took center stage in Arizona Highways 61 years ago this month. Manley used a 5x7 Deardorff camera to make the shot of Mission San Xavier del Bac, located on Tohono O’odham land near Tucson. The photo was one of many in the magazine’s celebration of Arizona’s stretch of U.S. Route 89, which in 1957 extended from the Utah state line to Arizona’s border with Mexico. Today, the highway near the historic mission has been succeeded by Interstate 19.

10 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 11 J photography

Q&A: Jacques Barbey

PHOTO EDITOR JEFF KIDA

JK: How did this photograph on whatever comes your way. come together? I always try to keep a camera JB: I was in Bisbee after shoot- on me or in the car. ing photos at Warren Ballpark [see A Totally Different Ball- JK: Why did you choose this game, page 40]. I had a terrible composition? sunburn — I looked like I’d JB: I like atmosphere and seen a UFO. I was just walking ambience. It’s telling a story, around, and I’d been hanging but there’s also a sense of out at one of the bars there. place. Bisbee is an Old West On my way back to the hotel, town, but there’s also a Euro- I came across this violinist at pean vibe to it, and the violin is Pussycat Gelato. It was just a so romantic. The open space lucky break. When I saw it, my around the violinist suggests only thought was: You’ve gotta solitude — like he picked this be kidding me. spot for a reason.

JK: Are you always looking JK: Several of your assign- for photos? ments for Arizona Highways JB: I’m always going. It’s a have been more like photo- chance to be in the arena. You journalism, rather than going might as well pull the trigger in with a game plan. How much planning do you do for those assignments? PHOTO WORKSHOP JB: I like to use the analogy of fly fishing: You get a sense of what they’re biting on, and then you look for the good pockets. I try to do a little research ahead of time, but I don’t want to push it. I just try to be open to whatever hap- pens, like with this photo. I was Monument Valley mostly worried about spiking and Hunts Mesa the ISO too much and blowing May 6-10, Navajo Nation out the shot. Photographer LeRoy DeJolie shares the landscapes of JK: Did you say anything to Navajoland during this work- the violinist? shop, which includes some of JB: No, I just kept going after he the region’s most historic and stopped playing. I didn’t want iconic locations — along with to intrude. People have a phys- some that are off the beaten ical space, and a guy with a path. Information: 888-790- camera can sometimes make 7042 or www.ahps.org alarms go off. I never want that to impact the photos. A violinist plays in Pussycat Gelato on Tombstone Canyon Road in Bisbee. To learn more about photography, visit www.arizonahighways.com/photography.

12 MARCH 2018 PHOTOGRAPHS: ABOVE, LEFT LEROY DEJOLIE ABOVE JACQUES BARBEY www.arizonahighways.com 13 J lodging GOING SOMEWHERE? Let us show you the way.

Rio Tierra Casitas in Mexicasa Roca are made with saguaro ribs, while kitchen cabinet doors in Exquisite décor and home-baked goods aren’t the only reasons to visit Rancho Deluxe are faced with willow Rio Tierra. As the name implies, this B&B near Wickenburg offers a rare branches. And then there’s Beewell’s opportunity to lounge next to a river that flows year-round and nurtures homemade banana bread and muffins, Featuring some 300 species of birds. which wait for guests in each casita. hiking, dining, But the exquisite décor and home- lodging, ANNETTE McGIVNEY baked goodies are not the only reasons scenic drives to escape to this gem in the desert. Rio and more RIO TIERRA CASITAS is just an hour’s from the sand up,” says Katy Beewell, Tierra, as the name implies, offers a rare drive northwest of the Phoenix metro who bought the property with her part- opportunity to lounge next to a river area, but this desert oasis nestled along ner, John Marley, in 2002. The couple saw that flows year-round and nurtures some the Hassayampa River is a world away the potential to transform this place 300 species of birds. The newly formed from 21st century hustle and bustle. 4 miles southeast of Wickenburg into a Vulture Mountains Recreation Area Actually, it’s three worlds away, depend- riverside sanctuary that embraced their adjoins the property, and guests can walk ing on which retro casita you choose. love of nature. Marley, a builder, and through a private gate to access a net-

There’s Mexicasa Roca (pictured), Beewell, an avid antiques collector who work of trails leading to the crystal-clear, Arizona Guidebook which offers a trip back to Old Mexico previously owned a New Mexico B&B, ankle-deep Hassayampa River. Chairs are Part One with a vintage turquoise stove and sink, poured their passions into the property. tucked beneath mesquites for those who 6” x 9” Softcover aquamarine concrete floors and Mexican- Although the three casitas were long want to read or simply soak in the won- 160 pages tiled countertops. Just down the path is works in progress, each has reached a der of water in the desert. #ANAG8 Rancho Deluxe, which evokes an early level of perfection that exudes its theme Regular price $24.99 Rare vermilion flycatchers hang out Special offer $16.24 1900s cowboy bunkhouse and is outfitted and time period in every knickknack, along the river from February through with an old-fashioned farm sink, a leather light fixture and bedspread. There are September. “They are one of my great- couch, a corrugated-tin shower, Navajo even secondary themes: In Mexicasa est joys,” Beewell says of the bright-red blankets and a saddle at the foot of the Roca, a bedroom is decorated with par- birds, whose sweet songs greet her as she To order, visit www.shoparizonahighways.com or call 800-543-5432 bed. And tucked in a mesquite grove is rots, while the Bosque Bungalow features walks to the river. • Pricing does not include shipping and handling charges. Use code P8C6TG when ordering. Offer expires 3/31/18. the Bosque Bungalow, decorated in Mid- a bedroom for birders. But if you feel the call of the 21st cen- century Cottage style. Beewell also added creative tributes tury during your stay at Rio Tierra, don’t “We created this bed and breakfast to the natural environment. Pantry doors fret: This oasis also has excellent Wi-Fi.

NEAR WICKENBURG Rio Tierra Casitas, 28507 U.S. Route 60, 928-684-3037, www.riotierracasitas.com

14 MARCH 2018 PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK LIPCZYNSKI

NAZ Guidebook ad_0318.indd 15 1/2/18 2:13 PM PILGRIMAGE INTO PILGRIMAGE INTO FROM OUR ARCHIVES: Originally published in February 1955 BY JOYCE ROCKWOOD MUENCH SPRINGFROM OUR ARCHIVES: Originally published in February 1955. By Joyce Rockwood MuenchSpring

16 MARCH 2018 hrough heavy clouds, which weighed down my spir- reviving scents of flowers and trees; and long looks over open its, a nimble ray of sunlight pointed an accusing finger land and chiseled panorama of cliff and mountain top. at a dusty volume on my bookshelf. While it was I wonder if old Geoffrey, were he living now, might not give embarrassing to be reminded by a heavenly monitor us a new Canterbury Tales, with plants for pilgrims, to add still of neglecting housework, any excuse to leave my desk was wel- more charm to our visit. come. I wiped the book clean and started to replace it. But the Perhaps his noble knight would be the giant saguaro, guard- Tsunbeam had now cleared a larger space in the gray sky, gath- ian of the mysterious Desert and easily most stately of its family. ered some companions to his aid, and was spreading an invit- Choosing the Lower Sonoran kingdom of rocky hills and swoop- ing warmth through the corner of the room, smiling brightly ing valleys for a domain, it grows with immense deliberation on the worn leather binding. from less than an inch at several years to perhaps thirty-five feet, No sooner had I opened the pages of The Canterbury Tales through a two-hundred-year life span. Only in maturity is the than Chaucer’s sprightly array of pilgrims came trouping out of Arizona state flower worn in waxy perfection on rounded tips the 14th century; each one, from Knight to Pardoner, clamoring of irregularly arranged arms. A young saguaro keeps out of sight, for a chance to retell his tales. even of its elders, in the shady care of some shrub, until strong How well that ancient storyteller knew the human heart. enough to enter the lists against the strong sun. Then, for some For while his opening lines: “Whan that Aprille with his decades, as it learns the art of self-defense, these sturdy Squires, shourës soote ...” sound better to our ears as “When April with with unbranched trunks, are scattered through stands of the his showers sweet ...” the same zephyrs would soon be keeping more experienced and often grotesque old warriors. birds awake all night, and the human spirit respond to the call The Yeoman of the Desert might be the yucca, turned out of Spring. Not the errant sunbeam, but my own desires, had with a whole armory of swords and daggers. Some have slen- pointed out the book, hungering to be reassured that still “folk der poniards, others flat blades. From the dainty rosettes of longen to goon on pilgrimages.” small varieties to the great arboreal forms of the Joshua tree, What better guide could there be than Chaucer? With his they all proudly bear panicles of white lilies as if Spring were lines brought up to date, I’d let him lead me, a 20th century their Lady and this her flower. pilgrim, on a journey into Spring. I would like, if we wish to push the thought farther, to assign the part of the tender-hearted Prioress to the paloverde MY CANTERBURY WOULD BE ARIZONA, a land vaster tree, wearing golden robes which swish their color along than all of England. Already, as I felt the age-old quickening, winding dry washes. The barrel cacti might be the merry Friar travelers from far places were heading for its flower trails. No or the full-bodied Monk. Their crown of blossoms, yellow need to wait for April: Spring comes long before then in this to red, seems a jolly sort of joke; a surprise for these drably enchanted land, awakening at the feet of purple desert ridges; garbed figures of the Desert to produce. Would you pick the spreading farther with each passing day, into lifting mesa ocotillo as the thin, sober Clerk? The creosote bush for the suc- lands; to arrive on schedule in mountain meadows, where cessful Merchant? The latter spreads its enterprising varnished forest-covered slopes and rocky pinnacles mark out “distant green coat and gold of flower where many other traders can’t shrines” against the deep blue sky. make a go of business with the arid lands. There would be other wayfarers like myself, seeking a cure Since the Smiling Season begins in Southern Arizona, so for ills of the minds we prison away from healing breeze; from should a journey when Spring is hostess. The traveler will feel

PRECEDING PANEL: Mexican goldpoppies (Eschscholzia californica ssp. mexicana) and Coulter’s lupines (Lupinus sparsiflorus) flourish amid teddy bear chollas and saguaros on a hillside above Bartlett Lake northeast of Phoenix. Claire Curran RIGHT: Cleftleaf wildheliotropes (Phacelia crenulata), also known as scorpionweeds, bloom amid Gordon’s bladderpods (Lesquerella gordonii) and teddy bear chollas at sunset along the Sidewinder Trail at the Phoenix Sonoran Preserve. Joel Hazelton

18 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 19 at home here, for, as in the old Tabard Inn of England, “the dom in its heyday of bloom. rooms were spacious and comfortable indeed we all were The annual flowers: minute sunshine, goldfields, lavender made.” Everyone should be comfortable, for these air- sand verbena, goldpoppy, white evening primrose, are the conditioned living quarters lie in a zone receiving the greatest casual visitors, willing to stay only as long as they are served proportionate amount of sunshine of any area in the nation — enough refreshment. Evidently some accurate weather fore- eighty percent is the published statistic — twice as much as cast, unavailable to humans, gives guarantee before they will some other sections of the country. Coupled with low humid- put in an appearance. They know to a nicety when the rainfall ity, the climate rivals the long-famous Upper Egypt as a place (heaviest in Arizona from July to December and a lighter divi- where the human mechanism functions most effortlessly. No dend from December to March) has been furnished. The gaudy wonder we find it also a gathering place for such a wide variety spring annuals bear witness to the claim, “Spring is a mighty of plants, willing to make any necessary compromises to stay serenade of color and good rains.” In a favored year, the Desert here, enduring the hardships of the hotter seasons to be able to goes wild with color. Flowers appear like magic, almost over- luxuriate in this perfect spring weather. night. They romp over the barren floor, rush up through rocky Science has yet to discern whether plants enjoy more than canyons, and take over the landscape. physical pleasures, but we are convinced man must have Tiny blossoms, pushed up by plants with almost no visible something beyond agreeable climate and proper food. To his stem or stalk; larger ones which seem to be in such a hurry higher requirements the Desert seems specially tuned. All the they discount the usual need for soil to root in. Blossoms pop ingredients of the sublime in scenery are supplied in generous out on shrubs, dead-looking a few hours before. This surge measure: breadth and bulk; endless open spaces upon which of life, so determined it might be frightening if these weren’t the elemental mountain forms are drawn to a scale hardly to our gentle flowers, bursts into color and deluges the earth. be grasped at first. In the Desert’s Book of Hours, each is newly It’s impossible to find words exaggerating the display when painted in colors shifting from bold to subtle; pure or so mixed unusually plentiful rainfall has come and every condition is that words can scarcely hope to follow their abstract flights propitious. Each year the pattern of moisture, winds and tem- of fancy. Against the magnitude of sunrise and sunset, rolling perature varies and the flower show takes its cue accordingly. in great symphonies of hues, the smaller frets of our days lose Never canceled, it is merely held in less general areas in even significance and peace enfolds the spectator. the driest of years. Using some cosmic ticker-tape, the word is spread that reservations are required. Goldpoppies sign on NO DOUBT A MASTER SUCH AS CHAUCER would have for this hillside or that rolling valley; prickly poppies take a cleverly brought these facets of the spring landscape to the lien on another area; owl’s-clover joins forces with lupines or attention of his readers and invited our plant pilgrims to point other bright relatives for a choice corner, and globemallows or out how man comes to terms with the world about him. It’s four-o’-clocks settle themselves for a short stay along roadside easy enough to trace our own virtues and failings, our contem- shoulders which take their liking. porary attitudes in their responses to fundamental problems. Of this same gregarious company are spring bulbs. Deepset, Each one could offer tales of the triumph of the flower king- they respond in great numbers when a big show is held. One

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: Arizona’s wildflower species include desert globemallows Sphaeralcea( ambigua), in the Phoenix area; desert globemallows and fringed redmaids (Calandrinia ciliata), in the flatlands near Gila Bend; and spreading fleabanesErigeron ( divergens), at Watson Lake near Prescott. Left to right: Dianne Dietrich Leis, Paul Gill, Michael Wilson RIGHT: Teddy bear chollas rise from a sea of Mexican goldpoppies and Coulter’s lupines near Bartlett Lake northeast of Phoenix. Claire Curran

20 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 21 did middle ground. The saguaro is nowhere on the horizon and pine-covered rims are still just a faint dark line above. Foothills enfold the visitor, and wide plains, sliced to indi- viduality by arroyos or rock canyons, drop off at the side of the road to give a special flavor to the landscape. Sunshine is just as bright, but breezes temper its enthusiasm. A sudden shower blows away, leaving the scent of sage and, if you’re in Indian Country, there may be the haunting odor of piñon smoke. Sniff it a few times around a Navajo camp and you acquire a fond- ness for the pungent smell which years can’t entirely efface. The mesas of Northern Arizona are, in more than one sense, a land apart. Among the junipers and piñon pines, flowering shrubs have a durable beauty not found among the flighty annuals, to be accepted more wholeheartedly than the spiny cactus clan by most folks. Probably the cliffrose is the prettiest shrub of all. Surprise it at the edge of the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, or any mesa set- ting, when leaves and branches are hidden by the creamy five- petaled flower with gold center, looking like a tiny rose and smelling like an orange blossom, and you’ll agree. Later, the twisted habit, shaggy bark and general disheveled effect will be apparent, but it’s the flowers we remember. Serviceberry blooms almost as effectively but sooner. If you prefer more color, watch for the pink of waxflower; the purplish red of the redbud; greenish yellow of Mormon tea and grease- wood; or the yellow of hollygrape, squawbush or groundsel. These levels (roughly 4,500 to 7,500 feet above sea level — the Upper Sonoran Zone) have their own particular annuals as well, looking far too pretty to pick and very happy in their surroundings. The ground daisy, baby aster, yellow coneflower and perkysue are among the number, and for a dainty stab of red, the bright red gilia, which keeps on flowering from May clear to September. There’s nothing very strange about the fact that mountains are the last kind of country you think of when talking about Arizona. People came first to the Desert (since it’s our youngest state, almost all the white inhabitants were newcomers once) and could never tear themselves away. Those who do filter up to mesas and canyons, or who head like an arrow on visits to the fantastically eroded and framed vistas from plateau lands, year they seem to be everywhere and the next you must hunt and putting on clean ones if it should happen to rain again. In volume of water could be wrung from a saguaro weighing see no reason for leaving those solid satisfactions, either. them up in only the more luxurious resorts to pay your respects. Spring, some properly clothed in apple green and hiding the perhaps 8 tons, there’d be a pool big enough to swim in on the But don’t forget the mountains. Spring is there, later and per- But whatever the clouds have done in the way of preparation, spines, the rest in tight-fitting “jeans” (a green scaly bark), hottest of days. haps in more sober mood. Western blueflags spread out a carpet these early comers are soon on their way again, like rainbows wear on every tip a cluster of the brightest red flowers and Every family, human or plant, has its housekeeping prob- in wet meadows, and wild geraniums, a matting of tiny phlox before the hot sun. They run and hide, in seed or bulb, having wave them about to be sure they are seen. Then it seems appro- lems. Our interest is more apt to be in what it has to show for along the roads, and hosts of others carry the banner of color. no taste for lengthy litigations on water rights. Always wel- priate to address them by the full title Fouquieria splendens and the effort. A blossom is a badge of accomplishment and prizes come while they are with us, and remembered happily, we for- salute this member of one of the rare plant families. don’t always go to the biggest competitor. Tiny barrels and FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOPS, crags of the Chiricahuas, the give them for being a little frivolous — fair-weather friends. We can’t but admire those of our flowered friends who hedgehog cacti, the whole plant fitting into a man’s hand (but forested Grahams, the meadow and wooded expanses of the Made of sterner stuff, some desert dwellers refuse to escape neither run off nor try to evade the issue, but simply grin and watch the spines!), may put out a miracle of design bigger than lovely White Mountains, to just begin the list, all roads lead from the threat of thirst and the overpowering possessiveness bear it. Knowing the days of drought are as sure as “death their whole bodies. down. The pilgrim must now go back, reading with interest the of the sun. Certain barrel cacti simply turn their back on the and taxes,” they put something by. We speak of saving for a In contrast is the agave, laboring for years to store up enough second tales told on the route. And if, like Chaucer’s own chron- unpleasant fellow, growing on the shady side and developing a rainy day; they do it for the dry ones. Ribbed cacti expand and food to erect a bloom stalk maybe twenty-five feet tall and con- icles, some are left to hear, there will always be another spring. habitual lean toward the south, until we can count on them for contract like an accordion; prickly pear pads wrinkle or fill tent to die after this platter of flowers is served up in the sky. When the work at your desk, whatever it be, grows dull, you a compass. out; and other foresighted ones fashion a home-made reservoir have only to listen to the call of Arizona’s awakening. Close The ocotillo undresses in the dry heat, tossing off its leaves underground in swelled roots. If the ninety-eight percent by FASCINATING AS THE DESERT IS, our spring pilgrimage your eyes and see the breezes tousling the heads of flowers on should take us higher. There’ll be no sudden change and many the Desert; evoke the smell of piñon smoke, and catch the glim-

ABOVE: Brittlebushes (Encelia farinosa) surround teddy bear chollas and saguaros beneath the craggy peaks leafed and ribbed companions accompany us. In fact, you may mer of sun on some distant peak. Then open them again and of Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in Western Arizona. Paul Gill only notice, when you’re well into the mesa lands, this splen- start off — on a pilgrimage into Spring.

22 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 23 milepost 269

With the Bradshaw Mountains in the distance, the light of sunset strikes INTERSTATE prickly pear cac- tuses and rolling hills about a mile southeast of Inter- state 17. This view- SECRETS point is north of the At 75 miles per hour, it’s important to keep your eyes on the road, especially freeway’s Dugas Road exit. “For me, it epitomizes the on I-17, which winds through the mountains between Phoenix and Flagstaff. character of I-17 between Black Can- yon City and Camp The trade-off, unfortunately, is that some of the most scenic landscapes are Verde: green grass, rolling hills, clean out the side windows — or hidden altogether. So, in the interest of public light and expansive views,” photogra- pher Joel Hazelton safety, we sent our photographer out to show you what you’ve been missing. says. “This is my favorite image from the assignment.” A PORTFOLIO BY JOEL HAZELTON

24 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 25 Joel Hazelton gets out there. In the relatively short time he’s been photographing for Arizona Highways, he’s made a habit of reaching hard-to-find vantage points. That made him a natural for this project, for which he made several trips to areas along Inter- state 17 — some of which required a recreational permit from the Arizona State Land Department. “My strategy was to drive and find what looked promising,” Hazelton says. “When I had estab- lished a mental inventory of what I wanted to capture, I would go home and stare at maps and satellite images, trying to figure out how to get where I needed to be to document the scenes.” That brought him to one of his main challenges: access. “There were a few shots I wanted but couldn’t get,” he says, “simply because access to hills immedi- ately adjacent to the highway is surprisingly diffi- cult to achieve.” We think you’ll agree, though, that what Hazelton did get was well worth the effort.

Fairydusters bloom on the New River Mountains “I first spoke to [Photo approaching storm a hill above I-17’s Bloody (left) and the Bradshaw Editor] Jeff Kida about system. He was right: milepost 259 Basin Road exit at sunset. Mountains. “I captured this it the day before, and he I enjoyed beautiful light This view is looking south, image on my first trip of suggested I get started all afternoon.” and in the background are this project,” Hazelton says. right away because of an

26 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 27 milepost 306

Morning light illu- minates the red rocks of the Sedona area, including Courthouse Butte and Cathedral Rock (center). Hazelton made this photo atop Apache Maid Mountain (7,306 feet) to the south- east; I-17 cuts through the scene but is hidden by Table Mountain in the middle ground. “The land- scape along this stretch is mostly flat piñon-juniper country, which means less-exciting foregrounds for my style of shooting,” Hazelton says. “The solution was to get to a high point to capture an over- view of the land- scape.”

28 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 29 mile milepostpost 283123

WithBeriti I-17 rehenis in the re, optumbackground, estisquo volorhedgehog sit acesequas cactuses growsim et amid molluptas boulders onsunto an unnamedvolorerum exerspitaepeak in the re Black modiHills. Thisbea simusspot overlooksat plam aliquis the free - wayilit, consecuptis as it descends intoipsam the simi, Verde ut Valley.quos dem Hazelton rerum verrumfound it venissum on Google reEarth ium and resciis planned dolo disto hike undunduntium to it, but quamusa friend whonation had perrovidrecently boughtque non et quoa four-wheel-drive in rem esequo ettruck aliquis offered quo to vendaesttest it on thequament rough officroute temup the laut peak. “Theullabor drive rae was vendaes eventiusape more rspitatent, brutal sitthan labo. I anticipated Hentis —es steep, mint. rockyUntibus and derumqunarrow,” Hazelaspicatur,- quisquoton says. dignimendi “After derspereiurour wild, lengthy, am, sustreacherous most eos back - countryeum doluptia drive, we doloreperatemerged at aque view ace- point a few hundred feet above one of the busiest roads in the state. I had to laugh.”

30 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 31 milepost 306

The green meadows and forested hills of the Coconino National Forest stretch to the east- ern horizon at sun- rise. Like the photo on pages 28 and 29, this one was made atop Apache Maid Mountain, which is southeast of Sedona and just east of I-17. “I camped a very short and restless night at the base of the mountain, then drove up a well- graded dirt road to a gate just shy of the summit,” Hazelton says. “I then was able to hike to the proper summit and get awesome views of the surrounding landscape.”

32 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 33 Blooming ocotillos and of Black Canyon City and a trip to the Black Canyon the river runs through this brittlebushes punctuate a half-mile west of I-17. City area to capture an stretch of the highway and milepost 242 a view of the Agua Fria “During the second week of epic brittlebush bloom,” that I could combine all River. Hazelton made this this project, my hiking bud- Hazelton says. “After doing the elements for a unique shot about 1 mile south dies insisted that I dedicate some research, I realized scene.”

34 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 35 A seasonal waterfall known as Massacre Falls flows over a steep cliff in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. In the background are the sunlit Goldfield Mountains. Joel Hazelton THE ADVENT OF SPRING AN ESSAY BY RUTH RUDNER

A seasonal waterfall known as Massacre Falls flows over a steep cliff in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. In the background are the sunlit Goldfield Mountains. Joel Hazelton

36 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 37 Saguaro-covered hills flank a shallow creek in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. Laurence Parent

bank? Or nothing if I notice the absence emeter was furious. Discovering her daughter, country spring. It is a process of the Earth, of course, but it is of butterflies? Is it nothing if I fantasize Persephone, had been kidnapped by Hades, king of also the very personal process of watching. Although change that a Mexican wolf will come to the the underworld, she took revenge by inventing win- is constant, changes in our lives so often happen without our stream to drink? Does spring invite us ter. As goddess of agriculture, she had the power noticing they are happening. But here, at the edge of spring, to idle in the year’s new, still-fleeting Dto make crops wither and the Earth barren. Then, in no watching, we’re in for a payoff. We need only watch to see. warmth? I certainly feel its absence uncertain terms, she blamed Zeus — king of the gods, and Pockets of snow melt, then freeze, form delicate edges of when, suddenly, the sun leaves, as if Persephone’s father. Realizing he’d better do something, Zeus ice. Tiny ice stalactites form, hold on for an instant, until, it had been only illusion or, perhaps, worked out a deal in which Persephone would spend a third hit by sun, they elongate, liquefy, slide off onto the recently spring fever. of each year with Hades, returning to the upper world for the exposed ground, onto the first green shoots. Along streams fed The wide-spreading Wallow Fire of remaining months. Her return brought new life, new growth. by mountain snow, transparent, narrow ledges of ice hold on, 2011 began in the Bear Wallow Wilder- Spring. The beginning of everything. daring the stream to take them. Ice sculptures molded around ness. This means it is now necessary to I take spring personally. The four children in my family, all limbs and twigs and rocks at the stream banks let go their be especially aware of burned trees that cousins, were born in the spring. Four of us representing the forms drop by drop, moving into the stream until the stream usually start falling about eight years birth of the world, four of us believing that we and spring, and swells and tumbles, rushing, down its bed, feeding Earth, after a fire, as they do throughout the therefore all of life, began together. It never occurred to us that feeding larger streams, ultimately — in Arizona — feeding West. The fact that fascinates me is the other people began somewhere in the middle. We believed all the Salt, Colorado and Little Colorado rivers. Winter is trans- speed with which the area has been people were born in spring. How else could they begin? formed by sun, by warmth, by the revolving of the Earth. renewing itself since the fires ended. We held spring closely, delighting in the smell of the damp Unfortunately, winter is also being transformed by climate Descending from the trailhead, you ground, the first green shoots, the leafing-out of trees. We change. Maybe we should rush to snow while we still have it. may well start out in snow, then find believed the yielding Earth waited for her mate, the rain. Would spring have the same meaning without winter? What the beginning of wildflowers by the Cousins — we were cousins to the Earth. It was not our moth- would happen in these mountains without snow? Would cold- time you reach the creek. The route is an ers who fed us, but the breeze, the scent of streams newly freed weather trees disappear? How would that change the rest of easy one, except for a plethora of down- from ice, of pine trees in the forest, the delicacy of the light, the flora? What would happen to wildlife that chooses a world falls (present even before the fire), some the amazed sun, discovering it was new. where winter exists? of which may still be covered with snow Had we been born in Arizona, we would have begun with Hiking up mountains from trailheads in valleys where early in spring. two springs: the desert spring of February and March, and the spring is already deeply underway, I head backward, as if, While the descent into Bear Wallow mountain spring of April and May. Poor Persephone. In Ari- somehow, seasons were reversed. Here, near the trailhead, are is insignificant compared with hiking zona, she would be cut in two. spring wildflowers, a trail without mud, the beginning green into the Grand Canyon, what they share The desert spring’s arrival is world famous. A good year of deciduous trees and bushes, birdsong. Creeks, free of ice at is that the seasons are in the right order. summons photographers (and the rest of us) from everywhere. their banks, are faster and higher than usual. But I climb. My Once, hiking the South Kaibab Trail Fields and hillsides are golden with acres of Mexican goldpop- goal is not spring, but its advent. No full-on onslaught for me, down to Phantom Ranch in early March, pies, desert marigolds, brittlebushes, and touched with the but a beginning, a move from winter into spring by walking we started in snow on the South Rim colors of violet-blue lupines among the poppies, red firecracker from spring into winter: a creek raging with the fullness of a and ice on the top section of trail. I was penstemons, globemallows and probably a hundred others, the winter’s snow; a trail that, in places, still presents me with ice; grateful for instep crampons on the first air redolent with their scent, all of it offering a glorious refuta- mud that sticks to my boots so that my boots become heavier part of the descent. Extra baggage, of tion of all the trouble Hades caused. Topping it off is the flam- with each step, or mud that slides my foot away from me, giv- I can sit by a spring stream on Baldy Peak in April, watch it flow course, before long, but a gift at the start. Once you get to the boyance of cactuses, coming later in the desert spring. ing me the opportunity to gloat because I am still standing. At swollen with runoff from the mountain’s snow, imagine all it bottom, it isn’t (to me) really spring anymore, with tempera- Still, it is the mountain spring that draws me, the time of the the top, a patchy snow, wind-sculpted drifts and icy hardpack carries, marvel at the movement of mountain water, its journey, tures that can go into the 80s, although it does beat summer end of deep snow glittering like diamonds where sun hits or where snow has melted by day and frozen over and over by its eternal newness. I dawdle in a Baldy meadow, where wild- bottom temperatures in the 100s. moonlight falls. It’s an edgy time. I’m reluctant to lose the win- night. There are spots clear of snow long enough that the first flower carpets are already beginning their spread. Lunch in What is spring, though, is the river. Fed by springs and ter moon that casts a light so beautiful it makes your heart ache. wildflowers bloom, so that the colors of purple, blue, pink, vio- such a meadow sometimes takes all day. While I love hiking to creeks along the Canyon walls, the Colorado runs muddy and Sometimes, when that happens, if you are in the right place, a let and yellow alter the sense of time — tiny, brave wildflowers the tops of mountains, spring offers a different rhythm. fast, its color closer to the color it once was, before the intro- wolf howls and you know you have been present at a miracle. seeking out the edge of snow to bloom in their diminutive defi- Southwest of Hannagan Meadow, the Bear Wallow Wil- duction of dams. So many of Arizona’s streams, like the West But, oh, I welcome the urge toward new life that follows ance of winter. derness has a stream by which I’ve spent many hours doing Fork of the Little Colorado on Baldy Peak, ultimately find their when, in late March, in April, snow begins melting, thinning, I love the White Mountains, the northernness of them. I absolutely nothing. Does spring invite us to do this? Or is it just way into the Colorado that, perhaps, the Grand Canyon is the pulling back into little islands surrounded by a newly revealed love Baldy Peak and Escudilla Mountain and all the country in me? Or do I misinterpret the idea of “nothing”? Is it nothing if culmination of the Arizona spring — and, without question, damp Earth that will offer — soon — the first green shoots. between. The renewal in forests following even the most dev- the water covers more of the stream’s boulders than it does in the perfect place for Persephone to emerge into the upper world. There is, however, a process that happens in the snow- astating fires echoes spring’s own renewal across the Earth. August? Is it nothing if little patches of snow linger on the far So, welcome, Persephone.

38 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 39 A TOTALLY DIFFERENT BALLGAME It’s called baseball, but the players don’t wear gloves, the pitchers throw underhand, and the outfielders are allowed to let the ball bounce before making an out. Those are just some of the differences at the Copper City Classic, an exhibition baseball tournament played every spring at Bisbee’s historic Warren Ballpark. BY NOAH AUSTIN• PHOTOGRAP HS BY JACQUES BARBEY

Erik Haynes of the Phoenix Senators waits for his turn at bat during the Copper City Classic at Warren Ballpark in Bisbee. The annual tournament, played by 1860 rules, raises money to preserve and restore the ballpark.

40 MARCH 2018 players from those teams went on to the majors. One CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Pat Kelly, a Tombstone Vigilantes re-enactor who serves as the Copper City of them, Clarence Maddern, played for the Bisbee Bees Classic’s umpire, dusts off home plate. BJ Myers of before making it to the big leagues with the Cubs in the Phoenix Senators takes a swing. A member of the 1946. He’s the only Bisbee native to become a major Colorado All-Stars holds the vintage-style ball used in the tournament. leaguer. “People can’t fathom that this little mining town, at the far end of the state, was in the same league as Phoe- and watch games in between shifts carving copper ore nix, Tucson, Albuquerque, El Paso and Juarez,” Ander- out of the Mule Mountains. The first teams to compete son says. “It gives you a sense of the prominent role there were sponsored by local businesses and civic baseball played for towns like this.” organizations, and they took on teams from El Paso, In 1989, Anderson and his wife, Judy, moved to Bis- Tucson and other cities. bee — which, not long after his first visit, had traded Before long, though, Warren Ballpark became a copper mining for antiques shops, restaurants and cathedral of the game. Jim Thorpe, Christy Mathew- B&Bs. In past lives, Anderson was a newspaper editor, son and other legends visited in 1913, when the New a social studies teacher and a Pima County Sheriff’s York Giants and Chicago White Sox played at Warren Department employee. He’s retired now, and at age on what’s now known as the Grand World Tour. Buck 64, he walks gingerly and sighs with relief as he settles Weaver and other White Sox players banned from onto a bench in one of the ballpark’s clubhouses. There’s baseball in the Black Sox scandal joined “outlaw league” no shame in saying both he and Bisbee are showing teams that played in Bisbee in the 1920s. And in 1937, their age. after a Works Progress Administration project replaced “This is a mining town without a mine,” he says. the original wooden grandstand with an adobe struc- “There’s no major employer here to provide blue-collar ture, the White Sox faced their crosstown rivals, the jobs. This town struggles to survive. We rely on tour- Cubs, in an April exhibition. By Anderson’s count, ism. The service industry. Government jobs.” 17 members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame have Warren Ballpark is showing its age, too, but most vis- taken the field at Warren. itors to Bisbee wouldn’t know that. It’s near the town’s Minor-league teams played there, too, and several southeast corner, far removed from the Copper Queen Hotel and the Lavender Pit. If tourists find themselves on this side of Bisbee, it’s probably because they’ve taken a wrong turn. And until recently, some passers-by didn’t even know Warren Ballpark was a ballpark. Its exterior — gray and white adobe, with high, shallow windows and a gently sloped roof — evokes an old fair- ground. Or, less charitably, the county jail. Since the 1940s, the ballpark, now owned by the HE PAST IS A FUNNY THING. It doesn’t just show up. You have to look for Bisbee Unified School District, has mostly been used it. And when you find it, you have to make a choice — help to keep it alive, for Bisbee High School athletics. And beyond its electric or let it fade. lights and a few other modern-day improvements, it In the Southeastern Arizona city of Bisbee, you’ll find the past at an old looks as austere as it did in its early days. Its grand- ballfield, unknown to most and forgotten by many. The paint peels from its stand holds several hundred, tops, and its grass seems clubhouses’ adobe walls, a casualty of too many ballplayers kicking dirt off torn between color schemes of “somewhat green” and too many cleats. Its grandstand steps are steep, worn and creaky enough “mostly yellow.” There’s no W.B. Mason sign on the to trigger horror-movie flashbacks. Its lower levels become wading pools when the weathered outfield wall. No hot dog races on the Jum- monsoon brings a summer downpour to this old mining town. But Warren Ballpark, at botron between innings. No Jumbotron, either — just a 109, looks good for its age — like the old baseball glove a shortstop can’t bear to replace. simple scoreboard in left field. The focus is the game. And every April, the past comes alive on its hallowed grounds. Anderson’s focus is the ballpark, and he’s become Here, though, there are no gloves allowed. its advocate and biggest fan. He authored a book, War- ren Ballpark: Images of Sports, and in 2008, he and Judy founded Friends of Warren Ballpark, which aims to IN 1971, A YOUNG STRINGER for the Tucson Daily Citizen visited Bisbee for the first raise money to do what the school district can’t. time, to cover a high-school game. And when Mike Anderson went back to the Old “The district has been a good steward of this park,” Pueblo that night, his heart stayed at Warren Ballpark. he says. “If they didn’t own it, it would have been “It blew me away,” he says. “It’s frozen in time. Even back in 1971, that was pretty evi- torn down and turned into apartments, or offices, or dent. I fell in love with it.” anything other than a ballpark. But the district doesn’t Anderson later learned that Warren predates even Wrigley Field and Fenway Park, have the money for upgrades or restoration. That’s the two oldest stadiums in . Built in 1909 by a subsidiary of the where we come in.” Calumet and Arizona Mining Co., it initially featured a wooden grandstand and a dirt It happens that Anderson has a passion for a particu- field. The simple setting had a simple purpose: to give Bisbee’s miners a place to play lar vintage of baseball — one that’s nearly a half-century

42 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 43 older than this old park. Every April, his group hosts, a welder and a middle-school student. A local seam- way Park erupted. Reds’ fantasy camp and joining his and Judy manages, the Copper City Classic, an exhibi- stress makes their vintage uniforms — white button-up Even if you didn’t watch Game 6 of the 1975 World teammates for reunions in Cincinnati. And he’s been tion tournament of baseball played by 1860 rules. Been jerseys, trimmed in black and adorned with a black Series, it’s likely that you’ve seen the Boston Red Sox an advocate for the game in Tucson: In 1992, he led the working on a wicked slider? Sorry: You’ll be pitching “B” — in the style of the Federal League, which oper- catcher’s iconic moment. It’s equally likely you don’t push for the expansion Colorado Rockies to play their underhand, and slow. Excited to show off your new ated in the 1910s. The Black Sox and other vintage teams, remember the tall, lanky right-hander who threw that spring training games there after the Cleveland Indians Rawlings? Too bad: Gloves are mostly verboten. And if mostly from Tucson and the Phoenix area, play in the pitch. Partly because Pat Darcy’s won left town. It was a no-brainer for Darcy, who remembers your specialty is dropping a bloop single in front of the Arizona Territories Vintage Base Ball League, one of Game 7, and the Series, the following night. And partly riding his bike to Indians games as a kid. He knows left fielder, forget it — if it’s caught on a bounce, you’re many such leagues around the country. The April tour- because shoulder problems ended Darcy’s brief big- what baseball can do for a community. still out. That’s ideal for fielders at Warren, where the nament at Warren concludes the league’s season. league career the following season. “It brings people together,” he says. “Young people get hard outfield yields plenty of high bounces. “Most of the games we play are on city recreational But Darcy thinks about Game 6 a lot. Not just about to go to games and see different teams. You get to see Anderson loves this version of the game because it fields,” Anderson says. “Here, we’re playing on history.” Fisk, but also about the first batter he faced when he the players up close, talk to them, get autographs. And honors the players of yesteryear, but also because it That’s a draw, of course, but a little star power doesn’t entered the game in the bottom of the 10th. “Dwight it really helps the economy, too.” means a guy his age can keep taking his swings. “This hurt. So, before the 2017 tourney, Anderson enlisted the The Rockies did come to Tucson, staying for nearly allows people who would seriously hurt themselves help of a ballplayer with a little history of his own. two decades. The White Sox and Arizona Diamond- playing regular baseball to come out and play,” he says. backs were there, too, but now, all 15 Cactus League “It’s like Samuel Johnson said about a dog walking on teams are in the Phoenix area, and spring training two legs: It’s not that you can do it well, but that you THE SECOND PITCH of the bottom of the 12th was a games are played in relative luxury. “When I was with can do it at all.” sinker, low and inside. got all of it, sent it the Reds, we were in Tampa for spring training,” Darcy On Anderson’s team, the Bisbee Black Sox, players careening into the Boston night. He bounced out of the says. “Our lockers in the clubhouse were chicken wire, range in age from 13 to 70. They include an FBI agent, a box and waved his hands, frantically urging the ball to and after practice or a game, you got a cup of soup. It’s a National Park Service police officer, a psychotherapist, stay fair. It clanged off the left-field foul pole, and Fen- little different now.” Darcy is a little different, too, but even at age 67 and with gray hair, he’s still a tall, lanky right-hander. He looks like a ballplayer. So when Darcy takes the mound at Warren Ballpark, it feels like he’s exactly where he should be.

ROBERT SCHON DOESN’T really look like a ballplayer. He looks like a fan. And that’s why Warren Ballpark is where he belongs, too. Schon is an archaeologist and an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona. Most of his research focuses on the ancient Mediterranean, but Schon also comes from a family of baseball fans. He was one of the few tourists who’ve stumbled upon the ball- park, and he was intrigued by the stories Warren had yet to share. We know a lot about the baseball greats who took the field there, but very little about the people who watched them play. People like him. LEFT: Joe Grace (left) of the Bisbee Black Sox and a sliding Bisbee Bees player have a close “Archaeology can tell us things that history can’t — encounter at third base. that the written record doesn’t provide,” he says. “It ABOVE: A member of the Colorado All-Stars gives us aspects of people’s lives that are more mundane, chases down a grounder. but still very meaningful. What they did. How they spent their time. We have this myth of the Wild West, Evans hit a ball right back to me, and it went off my and of places like Bisbee, where all everybody did was glove and toward foul territory,” he says. “I got to it and drink and gamble and shoot each other. But there were threw it to Tony Perez at first, and hit him right in the families here as well, not just rough-and-tumble folks.” glove. was running past me and said, ‘You Schon leads archaeological digs at the park by Bisbee just made a great play in the World Series.’ I remember High School and Cochise College students. They’re thinking, Did that really happen?” looking for artifacts in places where spectators might Darcy’s time in the majors was short, and he was have gathered, after a hard week in Bisbee’s mines, to on the wrong end of a historic play, but he won a World enjoy a ballgame with their families. That includes the Series. He played for , and with Pete foul lines in the infield, where grandstands once stood, Rose and . And when he was done with and the outfield, where people would park and watch baseball, he came back to Tucson, where he’d grown up, the action from their cars. “By looking at these artifacts, and found success in commercial real estate. we can get an idea of what the fan experience was like,” He’s stayed involved with the game, coaching at the Schon says.

44 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 45 Many of the finds have been what you’d expect. Soda CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: A Colorado All-Stars player bottles, including one from Purity Soda Works, a Tuc- prepares to head for home. James “Seamus” Clarke of the Camp Verde Excelsiors displays his vintage-style son company. Broken glass, possibly from car windows bat. Erik Haynes of the Phoenix Senators tracks the shattered by foul balls. And beer bottles, but only from flight of the ball after his swing. the 1940s and later. That indicates, Schon says, that “this idea of drinking beer at a ballgame is a pretty late development.” Mike Anderson has a spring in his step as he leads a But the oldest artifact was a surprise. It’s a spent tour of the park. As he circles the infield behind home cartridge from a .22-caliber blank, and it dates to the plate, he barks encouragement to those on the diamond. ballpark’s earliest years. Maybe it validates, at least a “That was some bully catch, there!” he shouts after the little, that Wild West mythos: Schon has been told such first baseman makes another cringe-inducing grab. And cartridges were often used for “celebratory gunfire.” after a hitter swings and misses, he slips in a modern Schon hopes to conduct digs at ballpark sites in heckle: “You’ve been watching my batting video!” Douglas, Tombstone and Naco. For now, though, he’s Teams applaud their opponents’ good plays. And focused on Bisbee, where his interest in Warren Ball- after every game, the losing team lines up to salute park put him in touch with Mike Anderson. That led to the winners. “The whole thing, for us, is having fun,” Schon joining the Tucson Saguaros, one of the teams in Anderson says. the Copper City Classic. He plays because he loves the Through donations, grants and proceeds from the annual tournament, Friends of Warren Ballpark has replaced the aging chicken wire behind the plate with professional netting, built a new restroom facility down the right-field line and installed the scoreboard. It also partnered with Cochise College to install a baseball- themed sculpture — three large, intertwined baseball bats — in front of the stadium. There’s no mistaking Warren for the county jail anymore. But there’s plenty more to do for this cathedral. The steep grandstand needs railings to make it safer for spectators. The ticket booth needs to be replaced. And the monsoon flooding, which affects the clubhouses and other areas below ground, must be addressed. So the group’s work continues. And while the ballpark’s ulti- mate fate is up to the school district, Anderson dreams makes you clench your own fist out of sympathy. That of a minor-league team once again calling Bisbee home WHEN YOU GO had to sting, you think. — or even of having the Diamondbacks drop in for a The 2018 Copper City On this sunny Saturday, the wind is gusting, as it game now and then. Classic is April 7 and 8 often does in Bisbee. It’s knocking flat caps off players’ “This has been such a fundamental part of the history at Warren Ballpark, heads and sending lineups skyward from the announc- of Bisbee that we want to make sure it stays in the best located at Ruppe er’s table near the first-base dugout. The smell of dirt condition possible,” he says, “so it can continue to be a Avenue and Arizona and grass wafts into the stands, where it mixes with fundamental part.” Street in Bisbee. Gates the scent of hot dogs and craft beer being sold from After his outing on the mound, Darcy marvels at the open at 9 a.m. each game, but also because baseball teaches us something — a booth near the grandstand. The result is a familiar experience. “I was sitting down in the dugout, looking day, and games are and not just about itself. smell. A baseball smell. Some things, it seems, are just at everyone wearing the old uniforms,” he says. “It was played all day. Tickets “You can trace the history of America through the part of the game. almost like going back in time.” He plans to play again for one day or both history of baseball,” he says. “Especially as an anthro- Pat Darcy, pitching underhand in a special appear- this year. So will Schon, Anderson and dozens of others days are available, and pologist, I think about race relations, corporatization, ance for the Central Arizona All-Stars, can’t turn to a who understand why it’s important to keep this place’s food and drink vendors the rural-urban divide, and how cities and suburbs hard sinker to cut through the gusts. That’s by design: past alive. And they hope others will choose to help. will be on hand. For grew. Those aspects of American culture can be viewed In this version of the game, a pitcher’s job is not to get “There are ghosts out here,” Anderson says. “The more information, through the lens of baseball.” a batter out, but to give him or her a pitch to hit. The Black Sox are here. Honus Wagner is here. Jim Thorpe visit www.friendsof​ wind today, though, has other ideas. hit a home run here. … They’re still here. And we can warrenballpark.com. Robert Schon is in the stands, waiting for the Sagua- connect with them. And we want the fans to connect AFTER A FEW MINUTES in Warren Ballpark’s ros’ game to start. He’s wearing his team’s uniform: with them, too.” grandstand during the Copper City Classic, one thing khaki pants, high socks, a plain white button-up and He’s quiet for a minute, and the wind kicks up again, becomes clear: Baseball by 1860 rules sounds different. a flat cap. He shows off a recent find from the Warren sending a column of dust from Warren’s infield swirl- In this world, the telltale pop of the catcher’s mitt is dig: a 1930s token from the Warren-Bisbee Bus Line. ing skyward. The ghosts of this old ballfield, maybe, decades away, replaced by a thunk as the ball hits the “You can imagine some poor guy who took the bus down making their case against fading away — or just taking dirt behind home plate. And the thwack when a bare- to watch a game, lost his token and had to walk home,” in a game in the afternoon sun. Then, he adds: “It’s not handed first baseman snares a high throw from second he says. just a fundraiser. It’s a religious experience.”

46 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 47 Brittlebushes surround chollas and saguaros on a hillside near Bartlett Lake northeast of Phoenix. George Stocking

48 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 49 ment. Waiting. The hunt. As a teenager, I’d wake often in the middle of the night or in those first few hours of early morning and listen, wondering how far away the packs were and if the owl that sometimes landed in the tree outside my bedroom could But the birds sense the shift see them. In a sense, I suppose before the weather knows it. Their that the coyote call sounds to me a songs start earlier, last longer into lot like home. the pink haze of sunset. It’s funny how sound has roots In the city, where the cars and in memory. the concrete and the minutiae of Memory has roots in sound. everyday life drown out the transi- tion, people have to search in fits I AM WRITING THIS ON NEW and starts for birdsong. Year’s Day, and a Joan Didion In the desert, though, spring quote is pounding in my head. It is touches all the senses. I cannot recall a single spring. the one about how life changes in In a lucky winter, this place Where exactly we were is lost to an instant. is ripe with rain. It greens and me now, but I remember the name If you look long enough at it, a grows and sleeps under alternat- coming from my grandmother. desert spring is a whole life cycle. ing blankets of blue and cloud, She smelled like gardenia when The infant buds, the growth, the and the stars seem so close you she answered my questions about slow wither, death. Summer. start to think maybe you could the plant and its color and how Life changes fast. Life changes in an scoop them from the sky. it grew in a place like this. She instant. You sit down to dinner and life As the desert drinks, the flow- always smelled like gardenia. as you know it ends. A poppy loses ers wake, and come March or Globemallow. It seemed a make- its petals. The desert goes dry. April, the washes and hillsides believe name, and I wanted to Each spring, a gardenia plant and grasses bloom with pink and taste the word. blooms outside my front door. I orange and gold and purple. Peo- Because that’s the way spring should take better care of it, but ple in the city go to the mountains, goes in the Sonoran Desert. I am not the gardener my mother drive long distances to watch the is, or that my grandmother was. poppies wake. NEAR MY PARENTS’ HOUSE — To be honest, I didn’t even know In one memory from my child- we moved there a few years after what the bush was until a certain hood, I can remember seeing the globemallow found me — a spring, when I smelled its blooms another desert plant, globemal- trail runs around and under and and went back to that place in the low, for the first time. Sphaeralcea near the highway. There, behind desert with my grandmother, with ambigua. There were so many quail the saguaros and chollas and the globemallow. nearby, I thought the plant itself inside the trail’s hidden caves, I’ll leave here in March. To a was cooing. Really, though, it just spring sounds like birth. new house on a new piece of des- burst with color. Orange creamsi- The yip and howl of coyotes in ert. The gardenia will stay. But cle blooms on a branch tinted okra. their dens. somewhere, there will be birdsong We were visiting the desert As the sun takes its dive, the and the senses and the remnants from Dallas — a place from where barks get louder. There is move- of so many springs.

ABOVE: A globemallow blooms near Florence, southeast of the Phoenix area. Eirini Pajak RIGHT: A rainbow forms over blooming brittlebushes, chollas and ocotillos at sunset in Palm Canyon at Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in Western Arizona. Paul Gill

50 MARCH 2018 www.arizonahighways.com 51 scenic DRIVE

RUCKER CANYON LOOP There’s beauty all along this scenic drive in Southeastern Arizona, but the payoff is Rucker Canyon, where the views of tall grasses surrounded by peaks and hills are as beautiful as any you’ll find in Arizona. BY NOAH AUSTIN / PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEFF KIDA

been spotted here, and prickly pears and agaves cling to the steep canyon walls along the road. Past the refuge, the road turns north, then east, before it enters Rucker Can- yon, named for an Army lieutenant who drowned in its creek in the 1870s while attempting a water rescue. The view here — tall, windblown grasses surrounded by peaks and hills — is as unspoiled and beautiful as any you’ll find in Arizona. begin your descent out of the mountains. lesser-known scenery of Southeastern You’ll then enter the Coronado National Swede Peak, an imposing granite butte, Arizona on your way back to Douglas — Forest, where the road becomes Rucker is on the left, and Limestone Mountain is where you can get another look at the Canyon Road (Forest Road 74). If you on the right. Once the road curves to the stained glass, and maybe a frosty bever- have a high-clearance vehicle, you can southeast, you’ll see the San Bernardino age, at the Gadsden Hotel. see Rucker Creek via Forest Road 74E, Valley and the Peloncillo Mountains, which branches from the main route which roughly follow the New Mexico at Mile 36 and features several camp- state line. After a pleasant drive past SCENIC grounds. Otherwise, continue past that some more lush grasslands, you’ll reach DRIVES of Arizona’s ADDITIONAL READING: Best Back intersection to explore the ruins of Camp State Route 80 and a return to pavement 40 Roads For more adventure, pick up a copy of our book Arizona Rucker, on the left, via interpretive signs at Mile 52. Highways Scenic Drives, which and marked trails. The last stretch of the loop winds features 40 of the state’s most beautiful back roads. To order, From here, the road gets a little between the Pedregosa and Perilla moun- visit www.shoparizonahighways Edited by Robert Stieve rougher as you enter Tex Canyon and tains. It’s one more chance to enjoy the and Kelly Vaughn Kramer .com/books.

hen it comes to Southeastern Fairgrounds, head north on Leslie an excellent view, to the northeast, of TOUR GUIDE Arizona mountain ranges, Canyon Road, which passes through a verdant grassland cradled by rolling Note: Mileages are approximate. W the Chiricahuas are the a landscape of yuccas and agaves. To hills. Fortunately for you, it’s a preview LENGTH: 80-mile loop main attraction. And they’re best known the east are the oddly shaped Perilla of where you’re headed. DIRECTIONS: From Douglas, go north on Leslie Canyon for the rhyolite hoodoos of Chiricahua Mountains, and to the west are the Mule First, though, you’ll pass through Road, which later becomes Rucker Canyon Road (For- est Road 74), for 52 miles to State Route 80. Turn right National Monument in the northern part Mountains of the Bisbee area. Up ahead Leslie Canyon National Wildlife Refuge, (southwest) onto SR 80 and continue 28 miles back to of the range. But farther south, on an are the Swisshelm Mountains, named for composed of about 2,800 acres along Les- Douglas. 80-mile loop drive with Rucker Canyon 1800s prospector John Swisshelm. After lie Creek. Established in 1988 to protect VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: A high-clearance vehicle is recommended, but the road is passable in a standard as its highlight, you’ll find equally stun- 10 miles, the paved road turns to well- native Yaqui chubs and Yaqui topmin- sedan in good weather. ning scenery, plus a tiny wildlife refuge graded dirt, and you’ll pass Bald Knob, nows, the refuge also preserves a forest of WARNING: Back-road travel can be hazardous, so be and some of the region’s lesser-known an appropriately named granite butte, on velvet ash, black walnut and cottonwood aware of weather and road conditions. Carry plenty of water. Don’t travel alone, and let someone know where mountains. the right. trees. More than 300 bird species have you are going and when you plan to return. Start the drive in Douglas, a border Four miles past Bald Knob, go right INFORMATION: Leslie Canyon National Wildlife Refuge, town that’s home to the historic Gadsden at the “Y” intersection to stay on Leslie ABOVE: Rolling hills cradle a windblown grassland www.fws.gov/refuge/leslie_canyon; Douglas Ranger Hotel and the desert-themed stained- Canyon Road. The road then curves to the along the Rucker Canyon Loop. District, 520-388-8436 or www.fs.usda.gov/coronado OPPOSITE PAGE: Arizona sycamores (Platanus Travelers in Arizona can visit www.az511.gov or dial glass mural in its lobby. From the north northeast and climbs into the Swisshelms. wrightii) are among the trees visible in riparian areas 511 to get infor­ma­tion on road closures, construc­tion, side of town, near the Cochise County As you crest a hill at Mile 16, you’ll enjoy of the drive. delays, weather and more.

52 MARCH 2018 MAP BY KEVIN KIBSEY www.arizonahighways.com 53 HIKE of the month

BARNHARDT TRAIL Despite a few curveballs From the trailhead, you’ll immediately the water isn’t perennial, come to an intersection with the Y Bar when it’s running, the from Mother Nature and the effects of a fire in Basin Trail, which veers left. A minute waterfall is a photo op. later, there’s a gate. Junipers, oaks and Beyond the rocks, 2004, the rugged mountains and spectacular prickly pears fill in the space along the you’ll huff and puff to the panoramas of the Mazatzal Wilderness are as trail. Just beyond the gate, you’ll drop ridge you’ve been eyeing into a small wash. When you pop out, for much of the climb. impressive as ever. BY ROBERT STIEVE check out the views of the Mogollon Rim From there, the trail lev- to the north. The views are nice. els off and heads west. At this point, the ascent is gradual On the distant horizon, f you’ve ever headed north to Payson, Beeline Highway are in a big hurry to get and the trail follows a north-facing slope. you can see the saddle Pine or Christopher Creek, you’ve someplace else. The trail is worth hiking, Down below is a gorgeous riparian area, where the trail ends. In I been past the brown road sign for the though. It’s easy to get to, and it’s a great but you won’t fully appreciate the willows between, the slopes are Barnhardt Trail. Like the brown signs way to sample the Mazatzal Wilderness, and cottonwoods until the hike back, covered with manzanitas for Kaibab Lake, Pole Knoll and other which protects more than a quarter- when your line of sight is less obscured. and young oaks. They’ve places, the Barnhardt sign doesn’t attract million acres between the Salt River and After about 20 minutes, you’ll come taken over much of the many customers — most people on the the Mogollon Rim. to the Mazatzal Wilderness, which was landscape in the wake of designated a forest reserve in 1908 and the Willow Fire, which then a primitive area in 1938. It got its was sparked by lightning wilderness protection in 1964, and now in June 2004 and eventu- it cradles one of the largest backcountry ally consumed almost areas in the state. Beyond the boundary 200,000 acres. are some larger trees, including the trail’s Despite the intensity of the blaze, The final approach to the saddle is a Highway, but you can rest assured they’re first ponderosa. From there, the route much of the chaparral zone has recov- leisurely repetition of back and forth, up out there. winds around a large rock outcropping ered, minus the junipers. Higher up, and down. Then, after about two and a and tightropes a steep drop-off. If you however, the skeletal remains of pon- half hours, the trail ends at an intersec- look down, you’ll get a better look at the derosas are a reminder of how indis- tion with the Mazatzal Divide Trail, ADDITIONAL READING: riparian area. criminate wildfires can be. Nevertheless, which also doubles as the Arizona Trail. For more hikes, pick up a copy Continuing the climb, you’ll start see- what you’ll see up top is a great lesson in To the north is Chilson Spring and even- of Arizona Highways Hiking Guide, which features 52 of the ing manzanitas. The first of many. The ecology, and the hike itself is not dimin- tually Utah. To the south is Mexico. And state’s best trails — one for each trail then crosses an exposed slope and ished by what’s missing — the rugged if you turn around and look to the east, weekend of the year, sorted by seasons. To order a copy, visit zigs back around a deep side canyon. mountains and spectacular panoramas you can see where you’ve been. You can’t www.shoparizonahighways “Circuitous” is a recurring theme on the are as impressive as ever. see the cars whizzing by on the Beeline .com/books. lower half of Barnhardt — so many side canyons. Along one of the zigs (or zags), you’ll pass the trail’s second ponderosa and get a glimpse of where you’ll think you’re headed. That, however, is one of several miscommunications by Mother TRAIL GUIDE Nature on this route — she repeatedly LENGTH: 12.1 miles round-trip takes you in directions you don’t expect. DIFFICULTY: Strenuous What is clear is the elevation gain along ELEVATION: 4,184 to 6,007 feet TRAILHEAD GPS: N 34˚05.575', W 111˚25.329' this stretch. The long switchbacks are DIRECTIONS: From Payson, go south on State Route steep and grueling. 87 (the Beeline Highway) for 12 miles to Forest Road At the one-hour mark, you’ll hit the 419 (look for the trailhead sign on the right). Turn right mile-high point of the hike. You’ll also onto FR 419 and continue 5.1 miles to the trailhead. VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: None see — finally — the pass you’ll be taking DOGS ALLOWED: Yes through the craggy mountain. Fifteen HORSES ALLOWED: Not suitable for horses minutes later, you’ll come to a narrow USGS MAP: Mazatzal Peak side canyon of red rocks, one that funnels INFORMATION: Payson Ranger District, 928-474-7900 water to the riparian area below. Although or www.fs.usda.gov/tonto LEAVE-NO-TRACE PRINCIPLES: • Plan ahead and be out all of your trash. LEFT: Waterfalls fed by spring snowmelt flow in prepared. • Leave what you find. a canyon along the Barnhardt Trail. • Travel and camp on • Respect wildlife. Joel Hazelton durable surfaces. • Minimize campfire impact. OPPOSITE PAGE: The trail offers views of the • Dispose of waste • Be considerate of rugged Mazatzal Wilderness. Nick Berezenko properly and pack others.

54 MARCH 2018 MAP BY KEVIN KIBSEY www.arizonahighways.com 55 WHERE IS THIS?

School’s Out Most students get a week or two off for spring three-quarters of a century. It’s located in a copper break this month, but at this Southeastern Arizona boomtown, now a ghost town, that’s named for an institution, school has been out for more than Irish miner who staked a claim there.

Williams, Arizona has something for everyone. Plan a visit and see why visitors have fallen in love with Williams. ROUTE 66 HIKING RODEOS WILDLIFE ExperienceWilliams.com • (928) 635-4061

January 2018 Answer & Winner Red Hills Visitor Cen- Win a collection of our also be sent to 2039 W. Lewis Entries must be postmarked most popular books! Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85009 by March 15, 2018. Only the ter, Saguaro National To enter, correctly identify (write “Where Is This?” on winner will be notified. The Park. Congratula- the location pictured above the envelope). Please include correct answer will be posted tions to our winner, and email your answer to your name, address and in our May issue and online at Susie Schleppen- editor@arizonahighways phone number. One winner www.arizonahighways.com bach of Paso Robles, .com — type “Where Is This?” will be chosen in a random beginning April 15, 2018. California. in the subject line. Entries can drawing of qualified entries.

56 MARCH 2018 PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP PAT GORRAIZ ABOVE, LEFT JESSICA MORGAN