2015 SUMMER HIKING GUIDE 2015 JUNE

ESCAPE • EXPLORE • EXPERIENCE HIKE. HERE. [Or one of the other great trails inside] — MAURICE HERZOG MAURICE — THE 10 RULES OF HIKING “The mountains were there and so was I.”

WEST BALDY TRAIL

plus: THE SCHULTZ FIRE: 5 YEARS LATER • SYCAMORE TREES • SUNSET CRATER PHOTOGRAPHER LAURA GILPIN • CAFÉ DAILY FARE • THE NORTH RIM PARKWAY CONTENTS 06.15 Grand Canyon National Park North Rim 2 EDITOR’S LETTER 3 CONTRIBUTORS 4 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 56 WHERE IS THIS? > > > Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument Flagstaff Clarkdale 5 THE JOURNAL 42 SIFTING THROUGH THE ASHES Prescott Baldy People, places and things from around the state, including a look back Five years ago this month, an abandoned campfire in one of Peak

at iconic photographer Laura Gilpin, Sunset Crater Volcano National Arizona’s most popular recreation areas exploded into a fast- PHOENIX Monument and the majesty of Arizona sycamore trees. moving inferno known as the Schultz Fire. Although it consumed more than 15,000 acres and completely scorched the forest in Yuma 16 SUMMER HIKING GUIDE 2015 places, scientists are learning a lot from the blaze. Even more Tucson Hiking is a year-round sport in Arizona — desert trails in the winter, importantly, the burn areas are showing signs of life.

mountain trails in the summer and everything else somewhere in BY ANNETTE MCGIVNEY POINTS OF INTEREST IN THIS ISSUE between. This month, our focus is on summer. There are a lot of PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN BURCHAM great trails out there, and some of the best are included in our new book Arizona Highways Hiking Guide. 50 BREAKING THE MOLD BY ROBERT STIEVE Rusty Bowers will be the first one to tell you that he doesn’t fit the stereotype of an artist — he’s too conservative. But that hasn’t 24 ARTIST IN RESIDENCE kept the Mesa native from pursuing his dream of painting, sculpt- For more than two decades, our resident artist has been illustrat- ing and working on projects such as the Arizona Fallen Fire Fight- ing stories about cowboys, Indians, flora and fauna. And every ers and Emergency Paramedics Memorial, an installation that will month, you see his work in our Hike of the Month and Scenic be dedicated this fall in front of the state Capitol. Drive. They’re impressive illustrations, but they run pretty BY NORA BURBA TRULSSON small. So, this month, we’re giving you a closer look. PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK LIPCZYNSKI A PORTFOLIO BY KEVIN KIBSEY 52 SCENIC DRIVE 32 THE LONG, DEEP TRAILS North Rim Parkway: There’s a reason this drive has been designated a National Scenic Byway. Actually, there are many, OF WATER including the grassy meadows, the quaking aspens and the The name Grand Canyon implies that the abyss Kaibab squirrels. consists of only one canyon, a giant crack in the landscape of Northern Arizona. Actually, 54 HIKE OF THE MONTH there are more than 600 canyons, most of West Baldy Trail: Although this trail leads to one of the highest them dry, some harboring small perennial summits in the state, it’s what you see along the way that makes streams. As our writer writes, each one it so special. is exceedingly different from the next: “The canyons are only similar in that they often involve rock and cliffs and some sign of water. That is all.” AN ESSAY BY CRAIG CHILDS

◗ A common yellowthroat sings from a tree branch. In Arizona, the birds are usually found in riparian areas in the southern part of the state. | BRUCE D. TAUBERT CAMERA: CANON EOS 40D; SHUTTER: 1/400 SEC; APERTURE: F/9; ISO: 200; FOCAL LENGTH: 700 MM FRONT COVER Dave Logan and Emilia Anderson hike the West Baldy Trail, which cuts through alpine meadows in the picturesque White Mountains of Eastern Arizona. The trail is this month’s Hike of the Month. | DAWN KISH CAMERA: NIKON D4S; SHUTTER: 1/400 SEC; APERTURE: F/11; www.facebook.com/azhighways ISO: 250; FOCAL LENGTH: 50 MM GET MORE ONLINE @azhighways BACK COVER The Colorado River mean- www.arizonahighways.com @arizonahighways ders beneath the cliffs of Horseshoe Bend near Page. | ADAM SCHALLAU CAMERA: NIKON D800E; SHUTTER: 1/20 SEC; APERTURE: F/8; ISO: 100; FOCAL LENGTH: 24 MM; 11 IMAGES STACKED

PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS AVAILABLE Prints of some photographs in this issue are available for purchase. To view options, visit www.arizona highwaysprints.com. For more information, call 866-962-1191. www.arizonahighways.com 1 editor’s letter contributors

MOLLY BILKER Molly Bilker, our editorial intern for the fall 2014 semes- Watercolors and Wildfires ter, authored many of the nature stories you’ll see in JUNE 2015 VOL. 91, NO. 6 The Journal (see page 5) over the next several months. 800-543-5432 And she authored them quickly, which isn’t typical at a evin Kibsey is an artist. He’s a seen several bears on than 100,000 trees www.arizonahighways.com cowboy, too, and a certified high- the West Baldy Trail, have been planted monthly magazine. “Most of the time in journalism, with K end auto mechanic. Despite his which is one of the under the direction PUBLISHER Win Holden the deadlines and the interview pressure, I feel like I’m in proficiency with calf ropes and half-inch most scenic trails in of Andy Stevenson, a EDITOR Robert Stieve complete peril,” she says. “The lack of intense pressure socket wrenches, it’s his artwork that the Southwest. Mead- silviculturist for the ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, I felt at Arizona Highways was unexpected and refresh- DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING Kelly Mero impresses us the most. And that’s been ows, streams, ever- Flagstaff Ranger Dis- ing. I was able to work at the best pace for me.” Bilker JEFF KIDA MANAGING EDITOR Kelly Vaughn going on for a long time. Kevin has been greens, aspens, black trict. Although he’s one plans to graduate from Arizona State University in May 2016 with two degrees: a bachelor’s ASSOCIATE EDITOR Noah Austin our resident artist for 22 years — his first bears, gray wolves ... of many who wish the in journalism and a master’s in mass communication. But her passion is creative writing, on EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Nikki Kimbel assignment was in February 1993, when this is where you want Schultz Fire had never which she hopes to focus in graduate school. “I’d say my internship at Arizona Highways has PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Jeff Kida he illustrated a story about an Apache to be in June. And if happened, Stevenson been the highlight of my journalism experiences since I came to ASU,” Bilker says. CREATIVE DIRECTOR Barbara Glynn Denney warrior named Chato. Since then, he’s you can’t be on West and his colleagues are done several books and feature stories for Baldy, any of the trails learning a lot from ART DIRECTOR Keith Whitney us, and every month he creates the maps in this month’s cover the post-fire recovery DESIGN PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Diana Benzel-Rice for our Hike of the Month and Scenic Drive. story will do. It’s a efforts. Another silver MAP DESIGNER Kevin Kibsey MARK LIPCZYNSKI The maps are impressive, but they’re collection of day hikes MARKOW PAUL lining is that Flagstaff PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Michael Bianchi Photographer Mark Lipczynski has a difficult more than just maps. Each one is illus- that we’ve excerpted from our new book, voters overwhelmingly approved a WEBMASTER Victoria J. Snow name to spell. That’s our challenge on a regular trated with one of Kevin’s paintings. Arizona Highways Hiking Guide. $10 million bond to support the Flagstaff CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Nicole Bowman basis. His challenge for this month’s issue was Unfortunately, they’re not very big. The first edition of that book came out Watershed Protection Project, which will FINANCE DIRECTOR Bob Allen photographing sculptor Rusty Bowers (see Break- Because of space limitations, what begins in 2011. A few months later, the Wallow thin and restore more than 10,000 acres OPERATIONS/IT MANAGER Cindy Bormanis ing the Mold, page 50), who’s contributing to a as a full-size watercolor gets scaled down Fire burned 535,000 acres in the White in the Coconino. The objective is to pre- Phoenix memorial to Arizona’s fallen firefighters to 1 or 2 inches. It’s not really enough. Mountains. A lot of trails were scorched, vent another Schultz Fire. CORPORATE OR TRADE SALES 602-712-2019 and first responders. “The environment at Bow- That’s why we’re spotlighting Kevin’s including five from the book. Subsequent That’s good news for Mother Nature. SPONSORSHIP SALES ers’ forge is very cluttered and busy,” Lipczynski REPRESENTATION On Media Publications work in this month’s portfolio. fires around the state increased the death It’s good news for our new hiking book, Lesley Bennett says. “I struggled to get a ‘clean’ shot of him Like a lot of artists, Kevin is unassum- toll. Thus the second edition. too, which features several hikes in the 602-445-7160 working on the life-size figures, but every angle ing. “When I was in school, I wanted to Because every trail everywhere is Flagstaff area. It’s also good for plein-air had clutter in it, so I had to reshoot the photos do traditional art in the manner of the unique, it’s impossible to replace the artists like Kevin Kibsey. Of course, Kevin LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] at Bowers’ house in the Usery Pass area east of Phoenix.” Despite the difficulty, Lipczynski 2039 W. Lewis Avenue says he enjoyed the shoot: “Having grown up in the Steel Belt in Ohio, I like industrial stuff. masters,” he says. “At the time, I figured trails that have been lost. However, we’re won’t be painting ponderosas in Schultz Phoenix, AZ 85009 I didn’t have the talent to be a painter or fortunate to live in a place with an abun- Pass anytime soon, but that day will So I was interested in the process of going from a concept to a completed bronze sculpture.” Lipczynski’s recent work includes shoots for Major League Baseball, Dwell and Marie Claire. an illustrator.” dance of great hikes. So, finding replace- eventually come. In the meantime, we all GOVERNOR Douglas A. Ducey Turns out, he had plenty of talent, and ments wasn’t a hardship. In all, there need to adhere to the principles of Leave He also showed two Japanese photographers around Arizona via an exchange program with DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT he quickly found his niche. “After I was are a dozen new hikes in our new hiking No Trace. In spite of Smokey’s warnings, OF TRANSPORTATION John S. Halikowski the nonprofit group Through Each Others Eyes.

out of school and doing freelance work, book. One of the best is the Kachina Trail, all of our worst fires over the past 12 years ARIZONA TRANSPORTATION I went to a two-week course on plein-air which barely escaped the Schultz Fire. have been caused by human carelessness. BOARD CHAIRMAN Kelly O. Anderson painting, which is the traditional way in That big fire began five years ago this It’s a frustrating VICE CHAIRMAN Joseph E. La Rue which the French Impressionists painted month, when a gust of wind turned an reality, but his- MEMBERS Stephen W. Christy ANNETTE McGIVNEY landscapes. That was a turning point for abandoned campfire into a fast-moving tory doesn’t have William Cuthbertson The San Francisco Peaks drew writer Annette me,” he says. “To this day, whenever I inferno that would eventually decimate to keep repeating Deanna Beaver McGivney to Flagstaff two decades ago, paint a landscape, I have to go out on loca- more than 15,000 acres in the Coconino itself. Jack W. Sellers which made the destruction wrought by the tion two or three times and do plein-air National Forest. 2010 Schultz Fire (see Sifting Through the studies before doing a studio-size piece.” “On the first day of the Schultz Fire,” COMING Arizona Highways® (ISSN 0004-1521) is published monthly by Ashes, page 42) hard to watch. “With this the Arizona Department of Transportation. Subscription price: story,” she says, “I knew enough time had One of those landscapes is the open- Annette McGivney writes in Sifting IN JULY ... $24 a year in the U.S., $44 outside the U.S. Single copy: $4.99 U.S. ing spread of our portfolio. It’s a scene Through the Ashes, “I stood in my front Next month, Call 800-543-5432. Subscription cor­respon­dence and change passed that ecological recovery had begun. of address information: Arizona Highways, P.O. Box 8521, Big I wanted not only to witness the recovery from up near Prescott titled Blessings of a yard in downtown Flagstaff and watched look for Jack Sandy, TX 75755-8521. Periodical postage paid at Phoenix, AZ, Cowboy. Kevin calls it his “most personal in disbelief as an orange-and-black mush- Dykinga’s portfo- and at additional mailing office. CANADA POST INTERNATIONAL by hiking into the burned places, but to work,” but he doesn’t have a favorite. room cloud billowed hundreds of feet lio of the Buenos PUBLICATIONS MAIL PRODUCT (CANADIAN­ DISTRIBUTION) understand the processes that were in play.” SALES AGREEMENT NO. 41220511. SEND RETURNS TO QUAD/

“I have many favorites,” he says, “for into the sky. In the years after the disas- Aires National GRAPHICS, P.O. BOX 875, WINDSOR, ON N9A 6P2. POST­MASTER: As McGivney tagged along with scientists on BURCHAM JOHN uniquely different reasons: execution, ter ... I didn’t have the heart to hike there Wildlife Refuge DYKINGA JACK Send address changes to Arizona Highways, P.O. Box 8521, Big the front lines of studying and supporting the Sandy, TX 75755-8521. Copy­right © 2015 by the Ari­zona Depart- design and composition, or the inspira- and witness the devastation up close.” (pictured), along with stories about Wal- ment of Trans­­por­­tation. Repro­duc­tion in whole or in part with­­out peaks’ recovery from the fire, she says she had to be constantly mindful of burned trees that tion provided by the subject matter.” For our story, she finally went back, nut Canyon and the Blue Range Primitive permission is prohibited. The magazine does not accept and is not might be blown over by a strong wind. “The U.S. Forest Service required me to wear a hard hat responsible for unsolicited­ mater­ ials.­ I don’t know how he feels about the and when she got there, she saw some Area. when I was out with the scientists, but that would do little to cushion the blow of a falling tree,” black bear in this month’s Hike of the early signs of life, including thousands of ROBERT STIEVE, EDITOR she says. McGivney is the Southwest editor for Backpacker magazine, and she contributed to PRODUCED IN THE USA Month, but it’s perfect for our map. I’ve ponderosa-pine seedlings. So far, more Follow me on Twitter: @azhighways Desert Water, a University of Utah Press book published in 2014. — NOAH AUSTIN

2 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 3 letters to the editor [email protected] THE JOURNAL 06.15

national parks centennial > history > photography SOMETHING IN COMMON iconic photographers > dining > nature > lodging > things to do Congratulations on your special 90th anniversary issue [April 2015]. Well done. I’m particularly inter- ested because my 90th birthday was January 16, 2015 — I was born the same year (1925) as your magazine. I’m a native of Phoenix and have lived here all of my life (this native is not restless). I just wanted to say happy birthday, and I hope we have many more. Blanche Smathers, Scottsdale, Arizona

April 2015

ANCIENT HIGHWAYS 1974 [page 53]. Mr. Champion passed in I’ve been in receipt of Arizona Highways. Congratulations on your 90th anni- October 2014 at age 76 in Cottonwood. When thoroughly read and enjoyed, it is versary issue. It was a nostalgic look His metaphysical approach to tennis passed on to family members. back at the history and growth through morphed over the years, but he taught Vincent Breslin, Donegal, Ireland words and pictures of our great state. I the sport to legions of people, young and was fortunate to be born and grow up old, until the last weeks of his life. He MUSICAL NOTE in Sedona many years ago — my grand- embodied the youthful spirit of Arizona With a son who majored in music at father was the first white man to settle throughout his five decades here. the University of Arizona, I gained a there. I had the great opportunity to Peter Corbett, Scottsdale, Arizona newfound appreciation as to the unique work as a National Park Service ranger at depth of feelings that musicians create for Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Organ I’m so thankful for the April 2015 edition. their listeners. My personally enhanced Pipe Cactus and other areas. I noted on I love paper maps and all they entail. appreciation of music and its relation- George M. Avey’s 1940 map [back cover, Then, it got even better. The Ed Mell and ship to nature was further enriched by April 2015] that Sedona was so small and Maynard Dixon material was such a treat Nikki Buchanan’s article [Now Performing, unknown that it wasn’t even listed. How on top of all the maps and road-building February 2015]. Unfortunately, here Watering Hole times have changed. images. As an archaeologist, I walked, in Northern Michigan in the depth of Fed by spring snowmelt, a secluded Paul R. Thompson, Duncan, Arizona surveyed and reported on the entire winter, it will be quite some time before waterfall cascades through a natural arch in length of Historic Route 66 and just about I experience the “ephemeral sound of Secret Canyon near Sedona. This spot, which My husband, Theo, and I would like every highway and paved road in Arizona snow melting.” is dry most of the year, is approximately to congratulate Arizona Highways and north of Phoenix. Ron Rinker, Harbor Springs, Michigan 5 miles from the Secret Canyon Trailhead the whole staff on its 90th anniversary. Nathan J. Lefthand, Tempe, Arizona on Forest Road 152. | JOEL HAZELTON Yesterday we received the April 2015 DOWN THE DRAIN For more information, call 928-203-2900 issue, and casting a first glance was a No doubt you will have many responses The good news is that your latest issue or visit www.fs.usda.gov/coconino. true invitation to a walk down our own regarding the Rancho Grande Resort “in is easily and completely biodegradable, CAMERA: NIKON D800E; SHUTTER: 25 SEC; memory lane as well as an ongoing meet- Rio Rico” [page 27, April 2015]. It was, of which is great for the environment. The APERTURE: F/5.6; ISO: 400; FOCAL LENGTH: 28 MM ing with the magical Southwest and its course, in Nogales, and Rio Rico did not bad news is that I discovered this when inhabitants. exist in 1948. My aunt stayed there in the my wife accidentally put the issue into Marcelle van Dijck, Gulpen, The Netherlands 1940s, and it was still functioning when the clothes washer with our laundry. we moved to Nogales in 1959. I’ve loved We were amazed at how quickly and What a historic trip down Arizona’s the magazine since the 1940s; it has a fas- thoroughly your magazine disintegrated. highways in the magazine’s 90th anniver- cinating history. Unfortunately, I hadn’t completed read- sary issue. Our towns have grown up, our Julian Courteol, Nogales, Arizona ing it, so I will have to get my latest fix highways are super, but there is a time- from your website. lessness of the state’s landscapes and the FAMILY VACATIONS Keith Godshall, Souderton, Pennsylvania character of Arizonans that has endured For 40 years, my Connecticut uncle and over the years. As always, the magazine his wife spent their yearly vacation in the contact us If you have thoughts or com- captured those features. You even cap- Southwest. As a college student, I was ments about anything in Arizona Highways, we’d tured the quirky nature of Arizona’s privileged on occasions to accompany love to hear from you. We can be reached at editor@ arizonahighways.com, or by mail at 2039 W. Lewis dreamers by memorializing Baba Rick them. A number of years ago, my daugh- Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85009. For more information, Champion and his yoga tennis from ter and I visited Arizona, and ever since, visit www.arizonahighways.com.

4 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 5 national parks centennial � �

EDITOR’S NOTE: In August 2016, the National Park Service will celebrate its 100th anniversary. Leading up to that milestone, we’ll be spotlighting some of Arizona’s wonderful national parks.

SUNSET CRATER

THE JOURNAL VOLCANO NATIONAL MONUMENT

bout 900 years ago, a volcano erupted on the Colorado Plateau, blanketing 64,000 acres with lava and ash, and scattering the area’s prehistoric people. Even after nine centuries, the area surrounding the cinder cone has barely A recovered and remains mostly barren with scarce water, inhospitable to near- ly all life. However, pockets of desert shrubs, ponderosas, piñons and aspens that have managed to grow provide small habitats for animals such as lizards, bats and birds. Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument is 12 miles north of Flagstaff and can be explored by driving a 34.5-mile scenic loop that also winds through Wupatki National Monument. To protect the delicate environment and its archaeological features, backcountry hiking is prohibited, but a few short trails in the monument allow visitors to get a closer look at lava flows and volcanic geology. The San Francisco Volcanic Field, of which Sunset Crater Volcano is a part, has been dormant for centuries. — KAYLA FROST

YEAR DESIGNATED: 1930 AREA: 3,040 acres WILDERNESS ACREAGE: None ANNUAL VISITATION: 176,723 (2014) AVERAGE ELEVATION: 7,000 feet (approximate) OPPOSITE PAGE: Arizona poet and historian Sharlot Hall, left, tours Sunset Crater Volcano in the early 1900s — long before the site became a national monument. | ARIZONA STATE LIBRARY 928-526-0502; www.nps.gov/sucr ABOVE: The volcano’s eruption 900 years ago left the surrounding area mostly barren. | LAURENCE PARENT

6 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 7 history photography � � � �

Saginaw Lumber Although it’s known today as the “Gateway to the Grand Canyon” and a popular stop on Historic Route 66, Williams got its start as a lumber town, and the first big player was the Saginaw Lumber Co.

he lumber industry in Williams and the facility supplied new jobs and ture would leave Williams a ghost town, dates to 1882, when the town’s even the town’s electricity for a time. but by 1950, six smaller mills harvesting first sawmill opened. But that It remained open through the Great timber on isolated tracts contributed to a T mill didn’t last a year. Almost Depression, except for minor shutdowns. resurgence of the industry. a decade later, two Prescott men set up But as aggressive timber-harvesting More importantly, a new industry, rev- a portable mill about 2 miles southwest diminished the surrounding forest, the ving up since the late 1920s, sustained the of Williams to supply lumber for a rail- company found it increasingly difficult town. Historic Route 66 and a new road way from the Atlantic and Pacific line to to get tracts it could harvest profitably. It to the Grand Canyon allowed Williams Prescott. But it was the arrival of the Sagi- moved the last of its operations to Flag- to harvest profits from a new, seemingly naw Lumber Co. of Saginaw, Michigan, staff in 1942. inexhaustible resource: tourists. that made lumber the town’s principal Some predicted the company’s depar- — KATHY MONTGOMERY industry. The company acquired timber rights to thousands of acres of railroad land in 1893. Within months, it broke ground on a large sawmill and housing for its employ- ees. When the mill and lumberyards burned in 1896, the company went to work rebuilding an even larger mill. At the turn of the century, Saginaw merged with the Manistee Lumber Co., another Michigan-based company with its The gnarled roots of a large cottonwood embrace maidenhair ferns and red flowers along the bank of Fossil Creek. |NICK BEREZENKO own substantial forest holdings. Over the THE JOURNAL years, the Saginaw and Manistee Lumber Co. bought large tracts of timberland. By Behind the Scenes 1928, it was processing more than 30 mil- Photo Editor Jeff Kida and longtime contributor Nick Berezenko lion board-feet a year. discuss the unexpected nature of photography. The mill’s operations swelled the number of residents in Williams, JK: You made this photo in the Fossil Springs for more drama by shooting upward, through the intruded upon. On today’s digital cameras with full- The Saginaw and Manistee Lumber Co. Wilderness. Tell me about it. trees, but this is more of an abstract composition. frame sensors, that would be equivalent to a 50 to mill, shown in the 1930s, helped put NB: This photo really illustrates that when you’re out 60 mm lens. The nature of using a 4x5 camera

Williams on the map. PUBLIC LIBRARYWILLIAMS shooting, you should always look behind you to see JK: Was this an overcast day, or was it open is that it really forces you to slow down and pay what’s there. The springs are on the opposite bank of shade? attention to detail. That’s a huge aspect of this kind Fossil Creek from where this tree was located. I hiked NB: It was open shade, which I prefer for this of work, because you can’t be in a hurry with a huge down to the creek, saw the springs gushing out and kind of shot. I got a bit of light reflected from the camera and tripod. It’s a great lesson for anyone, ARIZONA HIGHWAYS In June 1965, Arizona this ■ The Franciscan Clifton on June 10, mile of Arizona Terri- photographed them. I just happened to turn around nearby creek. That kind of directional light creates even people shooting with smaller cameras. The Order occupies 1903. tory located around Highways took read- to go back up that bank, and I saw this shot. It was openness in the shadows, rather than the darker tree is a little like the mythical tree of life, which is a resident quarters in ■ The Tucson the Casa Grande 50 Years Ago ers on a 10-day just there, right in front of my face. shadows you get with an overcast sky. It gives concept I’ve always enjoyed. This tree isn’t standing month Mission San Xavier Fire Department’s Ruins, is established voyage through things shape and form, and it provides colors you anymore; it was undercut by a flood and fell over. del Bac near Tucson horse-drawn wagons on June 22, 1892. Northern Arizona and JK: The scene looks like something from a wouldn’t normally see. But that’s just nature doing its thing. in history for the first time in narrowly avoid falling ■ On June 29, 1907, a Southern Utah for the 104 years on June 9, into a ditch used as fire devastates a pre- Tolkien novel. What do you like about it? “world’s most colorful 1932. a sewer line as they dominantly Mexican NB: The first thing I noticed was the stab of red JK: I like the different textures in the shot trip,” lingering at ■ Eleven people speed through city section of the mining from the small flowers. Then I saw the delicate — the rough roots, the soft ferns and the drown and more go streets on June 16, town of Bisbee, Lake Powell, Arches maidenhair ferns, and then the roots of the cot- smooth rocks. There’s contrast there, but not missing when two 1910. leaving hundreds of National Monument tonwood coming down to cradle the plants. The too much. hours of rain causes ■ The first prehistoric residents homeless. (now a national park) base of the tree holds your eye and asks the viewer NB: Yes, and nothing is out of proportion. The ADDITIONAL READING flooding in the midst and cultural reserve A gasoline explosion and Grand Canyon to look down and frame the rest of the photo. The dominant element here is just nature itself. I shot Look for our book Arizona Highways of a labor strike in in the U.S., a square started the blaze. Photography Guide, available at National Park. cottonwood is the central actor in this picture — it this with a 4x5 view camera and a 150 mm lens, bookstores and www.shoparizona makes the whole thing possible. I could have tried which allows the scene to just “be” rather than be highways.com/books.

8 JUNE 2015 To learn more about photography, visit www.arizonahighways.com/photography. www.arizonahighways.com 9 iconic photographers � � THE JOURNAL AMON CARTER MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART LAURA GILPIN

n 1903, Laura Gilpin got a Brownie for her 12th birth- Gilpin’s earlier professional photographs were day — a Brownie camera, that is. She combined soft-focused, emotional pictorials influenced by her her newfound hobby with her love for the outdoors, studies at the Clarence H. White School of Photog- I which proved rewarding, as she became one of the raphy. Later, she developed her own documentarian West’s most prominent landscape photographers. style, particularly when photographing Native Amer- Gilpin’s determination to capture the spirit of the ican cultures such as the Navajo. Fellow Arizona land was tireless. “I … am willing to drive many miles, Highways photographer Ansel Adams recognized expose a lot of film, wait untold hours, camp out to Gilpin as having a “highly individualistic eye.” She be somewhere at sunrise, make many return trips to was an avid photographer until her death in 1979 at get what I am after,” she wrote in 1956. age 88. — KAYLA FROST LAURA GILPIN

OPPOSITE PAGE: Laura Gilpin photographed this Navajo woman, identified simply as “the indomitable enduring Navajo,” for the August 1973 issue of Arizona Highways.

ABOVE: Gilpin prepares to photograph Ship Rock, a prominent formation near the Arizona-New Mexico border, in the early 1970s.

10 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 11 dining nature � � � �

Arizona sycamores’ Café Daily Fare flowers bloom yellow When Nancy McCulla moved to Flagstaff to study at Northern Arizona University, in March, April and May. she had no idea she’d end up launching a successful catering business and a popular restaurant on Historic Route 66. But, luckily for Flagstaff, she did.

IF LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS WHILE YOU’RE BUSY Colorado, I raffled off dinners to help pay 25 years ago. Eventually, McCulla and making other plans, Nancy McCulla’s life my tuition. So I’ve literally been working her husband, John Duffy, took over their is Simply Delicious. in kitchens the whole time, putting myself current space on a hill above Historic McCulla came to Flagstaff in the early through school.” Route 66. They opened Café Daily Fare 1980s to study ceramics McCulla has worked in restaurants all as an adjunct to the catering business. It flagstaff at Northern Arizona Uni- over Northern Arizona, including Macy’s became so popular they had to remodel versity, and she ended up European Coffeehouse and Garland’s Oak the dining area to accommodate more with a successful catering business and its Creek Lodge. Yet she always kept a cater- tables. associated restaurant, Café Daily Fare. ing business on the side. She began with Diners come for the made-from-scratch A self-taught chef, McCulla has worked wedding cakes and, for a while, supplied food, primarily sandwiches, soups and in restaurants since junior high. desserts to the Grand Canyon Railway salads, plus specialty dishes like fish tacos “I started when I was 13,” she says. “I and area restaurants. made with wild-caught Hawaiian red They have flower heads worked in a bakery under a master Ger- She started the Simply Delicious cater- snapper and blackberry duck tacos with that grow in man baker. When I went to college in ing company in leased kitchen space about habanero aioli, Fossil Creek goat cheese clusters of and arugula. The trees’ two to four. In winter, the seasonally inspired bright-white specials include McCulla’s popular lamb branches spread in stew, brimming with chunks of lamb and arches. served with a thick slice of multigrain bread from Flagstaff’s Village Baker. “I was going to take that off the menu in the summer, but it has a following,” McCulla says. “I couldn’t stop making it. THE JOURNAL We go through about 5 gallons a week.” RANDY PRENTICE The café occupies an attractive, high- ceilinged industrial space with rough Arizona concrete floors, pale-yellow walls and nature factoid fabricated window shutters that evoke a Sycamores starry sky. Built as an icehouse in 1945, the APACHE CICADAS building served as a foundry for several rowing up to 80 feet tall, lobes and resemble a star or a Most Arizonans will years. Arizona sycamores are maple leaf. The seed pods, prick- recognize the buzz that “It’s been a lot of things,” McCulla says. among the largest ly green-and-brown spheres, rises from trees in late “There were artist studios, sound studios. deciduous trees in dangle from the sycamores’ spring and early summer G — the call of the cicadas. the Southwest. They grow in branches on stalks up to 8 inches It was cheap rent.” Apache cicadas, scien- forested areas or along canyons long. They’re scientifically known When McCulla took it over, the build- tific name Diceroprocta near rivers, where their large, as achenes, which means they ing was in bad shape, but it had power. apache, are adults for sturdy roots help hold the soil are dry, contain only one seed only about two months, Duffy did the remodeling. together and help prevent ero- and don’t split open to release during which time they “My husband is a Renaissance man,” sion. As the trees get older, their that seed when they ripen. reproduce. They spend McCulla says. “He’s an engineer, and huge, mottled trunks tend to rot The species’ scientific name, the rest of their lives as nymphs underground. and hollow out, providing nest- Platanus wrightii, comes from he has a master’s in theater. He’s a play- The most famous wright, a piano player and he’s built ing spots for owls, woodpeckers Charles Wright, a botanical col- cicadas, in the genus several kitchens. And what did he do to and other birds. lector who lived from 1811 to 1885 Magicicada, live for 13 or put himself through college? He was in The bark of the trunk and the and gathered plants around the 17 years, but Apache branches is light gray and will world. These imposing trees are cicadas have a more construction.” — KATHY MONTGOMERY flake off to expose the smooth, common in Sycamore Canyon modest life span of two to three years. They buzz bright-white bark underneath. and can be found in other parts by vibrating membranes Café Daily Fare is located at 408 E. Historic Route 66 in The light-colored bark contrasts of Central Arizona, as well as on their abdomens. Flagstaff. For more information, call 928-774-2855 or strongly with the trees’ green New Mexico and Mexico. — MOLLY BILKER BRUCE D. TAUBERT JOHN BURCHAM JOHN visit www.simplydeliciousflagstaff.com. leaves, which have three to seven — MOLLY BILKER

12 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 13 lodging � � Hit the Trails Now Available — Arizona Highways Hiking Guide In 2011, we published our first edition ofArizona Highways Hiking Guide, which featured 52 of the state’s best day hikes, sorted by seasons. Unfortunately, several major wildfires wiped MARK LIPCZYNSKI out many of those trails. Mescal it their home. They drilled a well, and Ren- Guests often take advantage of hiking So, we’ve updated the nie, an architect, designed buildings that and birding opportunities in the Prescott book with 12 new hikes. Canyon would be heated by the sun in the winter National Forest, which borders the prop- but shielded from it in the summer. The erty, or relax with a massage or a soak Arizona Highways Retreat buildings themselves were made from on the secluded hot-tub terrace. And the Hiking Guide: limestone quarried from Mescal Wash. vegetarian breakfast includes homegrown THE JOURNAL 52 of Arizona’s FOR SOME, “OFF THE GRID” is a buzzword. And while the property once was powered produce, organic grains and eggs laid by For Rennie and Andrea Radoccia, it’s a by, in Rennie’s words, “a couple of solar the Radoccias’ chickens. “Off the grid” Best Day Hikes for way of life. In 1984, the panels and car batteries,” it now features never looked so on target. — NOAH AUSTIN Winter, Spring, clarkdale couple bought a plot two large solar systems that power the Summer and Fall of land at the mouth of Radoccias’ home and Mescal Canyon Mescal Canyon Retreat is located at 1550 Abbey Road Mescal Canyon, far from municipal power Retreat, a B&B the couple created from South in Clarkdale. For more information, call 928- Was $24.95 and water sources, and set about making their now-adult children’s two bedrooms. 634-2067 or visit www.mescalcanyonretreat.com. NOW $16.22 A 35% SAVINGS ITEM #AGHS5 things to do in arizona � � Woof Down Lunch production of the acclaimed efit a radio reading service for activities for children. Informa- June 6, Prescott Stephen Sondheim musical, those with vision impairments. tion: www.visittucson.org Take your canine friend to this which also inspired a popular Information: 928-779-1775 or event on Courthouse Plaza. It 2014 film. The production is part www.azbeer.com/flagstaff.htm Photo Workshop: includes obedience, agility and of the theater group’s 25th- Navajolands & People Order online at www.arizonahighways.com police-dog demonstrations, anniversary season. Information: Día de San Juan Fiesta September 9-13, or call 800-543-5432. Use Promo Code P5F5HG along with raffles, kids activities 602-253-8188 or www.vyt.com June 24, Tucson Navajo Nation when ordering to take advantage of this special offer. and introductions to adopt- The Día de San Juan celebrates Experience the best of Navajo- Offer expires June 30, 2015. able dogs. Proceeds benefit a Beer-Tasting Festival the coming monsoon season land at this workshop with Nava- Prescott animal-rescue group. June 13, Flagstaff and honors St. John the Baptist, jo photographer LeRoy DeJolie. Information: www.united This year’s Made in the Shade the patron saint of water. Visit the Ancestral Puebloan animalfriends.org event comes to a new venue: Highlights of this festival, which ruins of Canyon de Chelly, along Fort Tuthill County Park’s Pepsi is staged at the corner of Con- with the annual Navajo Nation Into the Woods Amphitheater. Sample craft gress Street and Avenida del Fair in Window Rock. Informa- June 12-28, Phoenix beers from around Arizona and Convento, include a ceremonial tion: 888-790-7042 or www. Enjoy Valley Youth Theatre’s the Southwest. Proceeds ben- procession, mariachi bands and ahpw.org

14 JUNE 2015 For more events, visit www.arizonahighways.com/events. HikingSummer

GuideHiking is a year-round sport in Arizona —— desert trails in the winter, mountain trails in the summer and everything else somewhere in between. This month, our focus is on summer. There are a lot of great trails out there. What follows are five of our favorites, which we’ve The Rainbow excerpted from our new book, Rim Trail winds through mature Arizona Highways Hiking Guide. ponderosas as it approaches the BY ROBERT STIEVE Grand Canyon’s North Rim. SHANE MCDERMOTT

16 JUNE 2015 Rainbow Rim Trail Groom Creek Loop KAIBAB PLATEAU PRESCOTT

3 Reasons to a beeline for the rim of the Canyon. 3 Reasons to Hit Hit This Trail: There you’ll see an incredible pan- This Trail: 1. Old-growth ponderosas orama that includes Timp Point and 1. The trailhead is only 15 minutes and Kaibab squirrels. the Powell Plateau. It’s only a tease, from Whiskey Row. 2. You’ll have the trail however, because the trail quickly dips 2. There’s a fire tower at the top. to yourself. back into the forest. Look for Kaibab 3. One of the largest alligator junipers 3. Unfamiliar views of in the Prescott National Forest. the Grand Canyon. squirrels and mule deer. There are mountain lions in the area, too. The FOOT NOTES: This moderate trek is one of the best trails FOOT NOTES: There isn’t a pot of rest of the route continues through the in the Prescott National Forest. Along with a pretty good gold at the end of this trail, but there’s woods and, after about an hour, arrives workout, the loop offers more than its share of scenery, something more impressive: the Grand at North Timp Point. Although it’s the especially from the top of Spruce Mountain, from which Canyon. Despite the visual impact of endpoint for the day hike, you’ll want you can see Crown King, Prescott and, on a clear day, the a pile of money, the views from this to hang out for a while — of the five San Francisco Peaks. About 15 minutes into the hike, you’ll remote trail are even better. The hike scenic lookouts, North Timp is the best. come to a boulder the size of a small Winnebago. Looking begins at Timp Point and winds for around, you’ll notice that the forest isn’t as dense as 18 miles to Parissawampitts Point, with TRAIL GUIDE others you might have hiked. That’s because it’s made up several other lookouts in between. LENGTH: 6 miles round-trip (Timp mostly of alligator junipers, oaks and a scattering of pon- Within the first 60 seconds, the route Point to North Timp Point) derosa pines. You’ll also see some firs as you get higher up makes a 90-degree turn away from the DIFFICULTY: Easy the mountain. What you won’t see are spruce trees. The Canyon. It’s counterintuitive, but that’s ELEVATION: 7,611 to 7,657 feet tree for which the summit is named doesn’t grow in this the nature of the Rainbow Rim Trail. It TRAILHEAD GPS: N 36˚22.913', forest. What the early settlers thought were spruce trees winds in and around a series of small, W 112˚21.379' are actually white firs. Continuing on, the trail gets rocky steep side canyons, and it never seems DIRECTIONS: From Jacob Lake, go and eventually leads to an intersection that can be to be headed toward its namesake rim. south on State Route 67 for 26 miles a little confusing. Follow the arrow for Trail No. 307 and Eventually, however, it gets there. After to Forest Road 22. Turn right onto you’ll be headed in the right direction. Spruce Mountain is about 10 minutes, the trail veers north, FR 22 and continue 10.4 miles to Forest about an hour from this point, and for most of those then east through an open forest to Road 206. Turn left onto FR 206 and 60 minutes the terrain remains about the same. At the a pair of giant, old-growth pondero- continue 4.9 miles to Forest Road 271. top of the mountain, you’ll see some picnic tables and a sas. The first aspen shows up a few Veer left onto FR 271 and continue 7.9 fire tower. From the picnic tables, the loop begins a down- minutes later on the ridge of one of miles to the trailhead at Timp Point. hill run. One of the first things you’ll see is an alligator the many side canyons. The canyons, VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: A high- juniper that’s at least 6 feet in diameter. The rest of the which are a constant along the way, clearance vehicle is recommended. route winds down the mountain, through a small ravine make this trail a lot longer than the DOGS ALLOWED: Yes (on a leash) and back to the trailhead. straight-line distance between Timp HORSES ALLOWED: Yes Point and North Timp Point, the USGS MAP: Timp Point TRAIL GUIDE endpoint for this listing. From a gully INFORMATION: North Kaibab Ranger LENGTH: 8.7-mile loop that’s thick with old-growth trees, the District, 928-643-7395 or www.fs.usda. DIFFICULTY: Moderate trail zigzags uphill and then makes gov/kaibab ELEVATION: 6,400 to 7,693 feet TRAILHEAD GPS: N 34˚28.134', W 112˚26.280' DIRECTIONS: From Prescott, go east on Gurley Street to Mt. Vernon Avenue (Senator Highway, Forest Road 52). Turn right onto Mt. Vernon Avenue and continue approximately 6.4 miles to the trailhead, which is on the left side of the road. NATIONAL VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: None TRAILS DAY DOGS ALLOWED: Yes (on a leash) On June 6, 2015, the American Hiking HORSES ALLOWED: Yes Society will celebrate its 23rd annual USGS MAP: Groom Creek National Trails Day. It’s one more reason INFORMATION: Bradshaw Ranger District, 928-443- to get outside and experience the beauty 8000 or www.fs.usda.gov/prescott of Arizona. To learn more about what’s happening in your neck of the woods, visit www.nationaltrailsday.org. Granite boulders mix with chaparral and ponderosa pines along the Groom Creek Loop.

DAWN KISH DAWN NICK BEREZENKO

18 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 19 Woods Canyon Lake Loop MOGOLLON RIM 3 Reasons to Hit This Trail: 1. It’s easy. 2. It’s easy to get to. 3. It’s great for kids.

FOOT NOTES: This easy trail begins in the parking lot of the lake’s general store. From the pavement, head east and make your way to the Spillway Dam, which is a long, narrow mound of dirt with red rocks on the lake side and green grass on the opposite slope. Hop on the dirt path that crosses the dam, say hello to the many fishermen and head for the woods, which are home to ponderosa pines, Douglas firs, Gambel oaks, bracken ferns and wild roses. Within minutes of entering the forest, you’ll start seeing plastic blue diamonds tacked to the trees. Although it’s virtually impossible to get lost on this trail, which parallels the shoreline for its entire length, the markers come in handy. In addition to the blue diamonds, the forest brings an unexpected measure of solitude. Woods Canyon Lake was built for recreation, and it can feel congested at times, but the noise disappears quickly beyond the dam. The trail continues in a counterclockwise direction with some gentle ups and downs, but the most you’ll ever climb at a time is the equivalent of three flights of stairs. About 45 minutes in, the trail winds to the end of a slough where you’ll see a small creek that feeds the lake. The rest of the route continues around the lake, past the Rocky Point Trailhead and back to the general store.

TRAIL GUIDE LENGTH: 5 miles round-trip DIFFICULTY: Easy ELEVATION: 7,534 to 7,574 feet TRAILHEAD GPS: N 34˚20.001', W 110˚56.646' DIRECTIONS: From Payson, go east on State Route 260 past Kohls Ranch to Forest Road 300, where the road tops out on the Mogollon Rim. Turn left onto FR 300 and continue 5 miles to Woods Canyon Lake. Park in the lot adjacent to the boat landing. VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: None DOGS ALLOWED: Yes (on a leash) HORSES ALLOWED: Yes USGS MAP: Woods Canyon INFORMATION: Black Mesa Ranger District, 928-535-7300 or www.fs.usda.gov/asnf The calm water of Woods Canyon Lake reflects the surrounding forest THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF HIKING at sunset. LAURENCE PARENT Never hike Tell someone Carry identi- Before Study the On the trail, Take plenty of There’s no Don’t Adhere to 1 alone. 2 where you’re 3 fication (driv- 4 you leave 5 maps before 6 know where 7 food, and carry 8 such thing 9 overestimate 10 the Leave hiking, the route er’s license, etc.) home, check the you go, and always you’re going and more water than as too much your abilities. No Trace principles you’ll be taking and the name and forecast, and pay carry a compass, where you are in you think you’ll sunscreen. (see page 55). and when you’ll be telephone number attention to the not just a GPS. relation to the map need. home. of whom to call in weather while you’re carrying. case of emergency. you’re on the trail.

20 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 21 LEFT: The name- sake of the Horton Creek Trail cascades down a series of small waterfalls. LAURENCE PARENT

RIGHT: The Abineau-Bear Jaw Loop offers northerly views of SP Crater and other cinder cones in the San Francisco Volcanic Field. TOM BROWNOLD

Horton Creek Trail MOGOLLON RIM

3 Reasons to Hit switchbacks leads away from the creek. Don’t This Trail: be fooled by that. At the 4-mile mark, the 1. The peaceful sounds Horton Creek Trail intersects the Highline Trail. of Horton Creek. Just beyond that intersection is Horton Spring, 2. Roses, wild grapes, ferns which pours out of the rocks about 30 feet and strawberries. Abineau-Bear Jaw Loop above the stream and nurtures the lush sur- FLAGSTAFF 3. It climbs the Mogollon Rim. roundings made up of horsetails, mosses and FOOT NOTES: This trail, which is named for grasses. These are the headwaters of the creek 3 Reasons to Hit you know it, it arrives at a junction the forest and arrive at the high for 15.7 miles to Forest Road 420, the creek that’s named for settler L.J. Horton, and the turnaround point for the day hike. This Trail: where the Bear Jaw Trail splits left point of the hike. You’ll know you’re which is directly across from the begins at the foot of the Mogollon Rim, about 1. The beauty of the and Abineau goes right. Either way there when you see an intersection turnoff to Sunset Crater Volcano 150 feet from the Upper Tonto Creek Camp- TRAIL GUIDE north slope. will work. This listing runs clock- with the Abineau Trail. The scene National Monument. Turn left ground, and follows an old logging road that LENGTH: 8 miles round-trip 2. A bizarre grove of wise, to the left. About 25 minutes is dominated by views of the San onto FR 420 and continue about a “bowing” aspens. parallels the stream. The first quarter-mile or so DIFFICULTY: Moderate HIT THE TRAILS in, the trail crosses into the Kachina Francisco Peaks. From the intersec- half-mile to Forest Road 552. Turn is an easy pine-needle-covered path that cuts ELEVATION: 5,360 to 6,700 feet In 2011, we published our first edition 3. You might see a bear. Peaks Wilderness. A few minutes tion, the loop continues downhill on right onto FR 552 and continue through a grove of ponderosas and aspens. TRAILHEAD GPS: N 34˚20.394', W 111˚05.732' of Arizona Highways Hiking Guide, FOOT NOTES: The first thing you later, it passes a bizarre grove of the Abineau Trail for about 2 miles 1 mile to Forest Road 418. Turn right For most of the hike, you’ll be within a few DIRECTIONS: From Payson, go east on State which featured need to know about this hike is “bowing” aspens. There are hun- through Abineau Canyon, under a onto FR 418 and continue 8.1 miles hundred yards of the creek. By all means, hop Route 260 for 17 miles to Tonto Creek Road 52 of the state’s best that it might be the last one you dreds of them, maybe thousands, canopy of aspens and evergreens to Forest Road 9123J. Turn left onto off the trail, get your feet wet and catch your (Forest Road 289) near Kohls Ranch. Turn left day hikes, sorted by ever do in the San Francisco Peaks. bent to one side by some force of and back to where you started. FR 9123J and continue 0.5 miles to breath. Although this trail is rated moderately onto Tonto Creek Road and continue 1 mile seasons. Unfortu- That’s because it comes with just nature. More aspens dominate the the trailhead. difficult, you will feel the effects of climbing the to the Upper Tonto Creek Campground. The nately, several major about everything, including scenery, landscape on the way to what’s TRAIL GUIDE VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: None face of the Mogollon Rim. At the 1.5-mile mark, trailhead is at the campground. wildfires wiped out solitude and sweat — it’s the known as Pipeline Road, which con- LENGTH: 6.8-mile loop DOGS ALLOWED: Yes (on a leash) you’ll see a monstrous alligator juniper to your VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: None many of those trails. perfect trail. From the trailhead, the nects the two trails included in this DIFFICULTY: Moderate HORSES ALLOWED: Yes left — this tree is to junipers what the General DOGS ALLOWED: Yes (on a leash) So, we’ve updated loop begins as a wide path through loop. It’s a narrow jeep road that ELEVATION: 8,536 to 10,284 feet USGS MAPS: Humphreys Peak, Sherman is to giant sequoias. The surround- HORSES ALLOWED: Yes the book with a grassy meadow surrounded by climbs gradually into an ecosystem TRAILHEAD GPS: N 35˚23.177', White Horse Hills ing maples and Douglas firs are impressive, as USGS MAP: Promontory Butte 12 new hikes. To aspens, ponderosas, black bears of Engelmann spruce, Douglas firs W 111˚40.601' INFORMATION: Flagstaff Ranger well. The nature of the trail stays about the INFORMATION: Payson Ranger District, order a copy, visit www.shoparizona (which you probably won’t see) and and more aspens. Eventually, after DIRECTIONS: From downtown District, 928-526-0866 or www. same until it nears the top, where a series of 928-474-7900 or www.fs.usda.gov/tonto highways.com/books. elk (which you might). Then, before 2 miles on the dirt road, you’ll leave Flagstaff, go north on U.S. Route 89 fs.usda.gov/coconino

22 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 23 A PORTFOLIO BY KEVIN KIBSEY

FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES, OUR RESIDENT ARTIST HAS BEEN ILLUSTRATING ARTIST IN STORIES ABOUT COWBOYS, INDIANS, RESIDENCE FLORA AND FAUNA. AND EVERY MONTH, YOU SEE HIS WORK IN OUR HIKE OF THE MONTH AND SCENIC DRIVE. THEY’RE IMPRESSIVE ILLUSTRATIONS, BUT THEY RUN PRETTY SMALL. SO, THIS MONTH, WE’RE GIVING YOU A CLOSER LOOK.

Kevin Kibsey calls Blessings of a Cowboy, which he made in the early 2000s, “a save of a disaster.” This scene is near Prescott’s Phippen Museum, where Kibsey attended a plein-air workshop. “I did a nice 9-by-12-inch study of it, and it was such a successful piece that I thought I’d try to increase it to 24 by 36 inches,” he says. “It didn’t work compositionally, so I decided to turn it into a Western. The dog and the horse belonged to two friends of mine, and I had them pose the animals while I shot Polaroids from a vantage point that would match the painting. For the cowboy, I had my brother photograph me. Then I used the photographs to paint the figures into the scene.” The cowboy life, Kibsey says, is a bit of a dream of his, “but that wasn’t the intent; the intent was that I didn’t have anyone to model for me.”

24 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 25 A PORTFOLIO BY KEVIN KIBSEY

LEFT: “This red-faced warbler is one of my nicest bird illustrations,” Kibsey says. “It’s really easy to get muddy with watercolor and overwork it. It’s much harder to do than oil or acrylic painting. In some instances, like with my Dr. Bird to the Rescue KEVIN KIBSEY AND ALLEN IVERSON at the time, and I was freelancing as the traditional French method of cap- illustrations, I’ve had two false starts before getting to a finished piece. But on this piece, the color quality wouldn’t get along. Iverson, the former an artist and also working as a swim turing landscapes in the outdoors. It is mature and sophisticated. I also like how the pine NBA star, infamously derided a report- coach,” he says. “It turned out that his helped him learn the fundamentals of needles frame the scene.” er’s question about missing practice. daughter was one of my students, and oil painting, and it also played to what ABOVE: Kibsey will often use multiple photos of Kibsey, though, believes that just like his wife put me in touch with him.” Kibsey considers his biggest strength: one animal while making his illustrations. “On this athletes, artists must work tirelessly to Bennett was impressed with Kibsey’s his ability to compose a scene. prairie dog, I probably used more than one image to reposition his front paws,” he says. “I’ll even go as far hone their craft. portfolio and gave him his first assign- “If there’s one thing that separates the as making subtle anatomy changes to make a great “People are born with a certain ment. In February 1993, his scratchboard men from the boys, it’s the ability to composition.” amount of talent,” Kibsey says. “But if illustrations accompanied Chato the compose,” he says. “Throughout history, ABOVE, RIGHT: Kibsey says this watercolor of a you’re ever going to approach a high Betrayed, a William Hafford story on great art has not just been about being Hereford cow illustrates a key tenet of painting: White is never white. “In the white on the cow, you see level, you’ve got to live it and breathe it.” the Chiricahua Apache warrior. Shortly able to represent something accurately. pinkish tones in some areas where light is reflecting In addition to occasional other thereafter, Kibsey became a regular con- The ability to direct the viewer’s eye to off the ground. In other areas, you have cool shadows projects for Arizona Highways, Kibsey tributor to the magazine. He also illus- a focal point is so important. The focal that are more blue and green tones. When you really look at objects, you can discern different colors and has been illustrating the maps that trated our children’s book Dr. Bird to the point of a painting is like the climax of temperatures in the highlights and shadows.” accompany our Scenic Drive (previously Rescue, published in 2005. a story.” RIGHT: “I get a charge out of reflected light,” Kibsey called Back Road Adventure) and Hike of Kibsey studied graphic design and And knowing how to do that, of says. “I looked at several photos of yellow-headed the Month stories since the mid-1990s. illustration at the University of Arizona. course, takes practice. — NOAH AUSTIN blackbirds for this image. On a number of them, the That relationship, he says, began with a But he says his turning point as an illus- light reflecting on their heads gave them more of a green-blue tone in places, so I incorporated that in my chance meeting at the pool. trator came when he took a two-week To commission work from Kevin or inquire about piece. Yellow is the hardest color to paint with, and “Gary Bennett was the art director summer course on plein-air painting, purchasing a painting, email him at [email protected]. I’m happy with the way this one turned out.”

26 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 27 A PORTFOLIO BY KEVIN KIBSEY

ABOVE: When illustrating a plant, Kibsey usually focuses on a detail, as he did with these yucca blossoms. “If I do a close-up of the blossoms,” he says, “I can render the individual petals and show how light reflects and shadows bounce off them. I can show the intricacies of the flower parts in a way I couldn’t if I painted the whole plant.” RIGHT: Kibsey made Cowboy Photographer a few years ago for an exhibit at Sul Ross State University in Texas. The subject was a student at Scottsdale’s Arizona Cowboy College who was also a budding photographer. “At the time, I was doing a lot of horse-jumping and horse-wrangling, and that’s how I ran into this guy,” Kibsey says. “I set him up with the saddle, and he had this vintage Polaroid camera. The horse was never there; I photographed the horse separately and combined elements of several photos to create the perfect pose. The cowboy was also wearing a different hat, which I changed to a ‘brush popper’ style of hat to fit the show in West Texas. The horse leads the viewer to the focal point, which is the camera.”

28 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 29 A PORTFOLIO BY KEVIN KIBSEY

Awaiting the Anthem re-creates a scene from a charreada, a Mexican rodeo-like event, at Corona Ranch in the ABOVE: This Rainbow Bridge watercolor accompanied the map in a Lake Powell guidebook we published in 2010. Phoenix area. Kibsey attended the event in the mid-2000s and used a few different photos as the basis for this “I don’t normally do landscapes for map illustrations because they don’t reproduce well,” Kibsey says. “This painting. “I don’t do gimmicky things unless I have a reason,” he says, “so I wrestled with the square composition being a full-page map, I had more space to work with. The arch is also an instantly recognizable landmark, which at first. The characters in the image lended themselves to a pyramidal composition, so I chose a square to is why I chose it. I painted this from photos, although I’d love to go there someday and paint it. I may have slightly emphasize that. I tried to position the spectators, the railing and the banners in the background so they would altered the ridgelines in the background to strengthen the composition.” lead the viewer’s eye back to the rider in the foreground.” RIGHT: “Globemallows are small, delicate flowers,” Kibsey says, “and a person might not see them unless there’s a whole sea of them. Although a lot of my watercolors are highly detailed, I try to keep them simple by leaving out certain details and concentrating on focal points.”

30 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 31 Clear water flows through the sculpted strata of Matkatamiba Canyon, a Grand THE Canyon tributary. The narrow slot canyon is a popular hiking destination. LONG, RANDY PRENTICE DEEP TRAILS OF WATER The name Grand Canyon implies that the abyss consists of only one canyon, a giant crack in the landscape of Northern Arizona. Actually, there are more than 600 canyons, most of them dry, some harboring small perennial streams. As our writer writes, each one is exceedingly different from the next: “The canyons are only similar in that they often involve rock and cliffs and some sign of water. That is all.” AN ESSAY BY CRAIG CHILDS

32 JUNE 2015 AVES SPREAD in front of my chest, fanning away and tapping the can- yon walls before purling back. I hold my pack over my head to keep it out of the water. I stop and listen. Silence. The canyon swallows the sounds my partner makes downstream. Ahead, the Redwall limestone curves. It curves again in the opposite direction. Then comes Wanother curve as the canyon slices through solid stone. Its walls are fluted and deeply scalloped by floods. You don’t come in here by mistake. The inner passage- ways of these canyons curve too steeply, lie too remote for you to just stumble across them. Here, you shiver with isolation. In this place, you spread your hands against rock and breathe. Satellites and airplanes could never spot you. All this constitutes a quality of wilderness drawing you to the interior of the Grand Canyon, a place draped into a web of a thousand canyons. The name Grand Canyon implies that the abyss con- ABOVE: Water cascades over sculpted rocks in National Canyon, sists of only one canyon, a giant crack in the landscape located just upstream from Fern Glen Rapids. RANDY PRENTICE of Northern Arizona. Actually, there are more than 600 RIGHT: The Colorado River rushes through Hance Rapids, as seen from Lipan Point on the Grand Canyon’s East Rim. ADAM SCHALLAU canyons here, most of them dry, some harboring small perennial streams. These canyons are tributaries of the Colorado River. Perforating the curve of local plateaus, they fan out like has turned a powdery white. Above that, a steel gray defines the canyon, and farther up — 300 feet over my wings from a 280-mile stretch of river, breaking into head — the stone has absorbed a red stain from the leak- feathers, then into vanes and tines. Tributaries split ing iron oxide of formations 4,000 feet above. The deep- in half and split, and split again. Counting branch by ness of the canyon and the absorptive color of the walls branch, the canyons eventually number in the thousands. work the afternoon light into a dimness no stronger than Few of the canyons have names. Fewer have trails. In a gibbous moon. I tip my head in the half-light and drink from the canyon floor. No need to carry water. most, decades will pass between human footprints. People call this canyon SB, rumored to be a shortened The canyon I’m in widens and tightens as if breath- version of SOB. People who once corralled cattle along one ing. Overhead, ellipsoidal bulges of limestone block of the rims used the term to describe the effort it took to the sky. Several weeks ago, I watched a flash flood get around in this terrain. cascade from the rims and enter this canyon, sending a SB lies on the north side of the Colorado River, in the center of Grand Canyon National Park. To get this far, we dun-colored mist straight up the walls. The floodwater have used almost every piece of climbing equipment we remains. It seeps cold and clear from springs, spilling brought. We’ve built ladders of webbing over boulders through consecutive pools. Some places are filled chin- and clipped rope into firm anchors. Days have been spent deep, while others are left only with swollen, damp seeking routes and returning to camp, climbing narrow sand at the bottom. Boulders, some of them a fine- cracks in waterfalls. When I come around a turn, finally climbing from the grained sandstone from 4 miles away, are lodged in and water and seating my pack over my shoulders, I find my above the water, carried here by the flood. Where pass- partner. He stands straining to see down from the tip of a ing boulders have struck the walls, the limestone boulder. He looks back at me. The way he smiles, I know

EDITOR’S NOTE: This essay was first published in our bookGrand Canyon: Time Below the Rim. The book is no longer in print, but this powerful essay is as good as ever. Find a comfortable chair, make a cup of tea and enjoy the written word.

34 JUNE 2015 we have come to another dead end. The that. But water began trickling down from storms and streams As it left my view, falling water casually conversed with its own boulder, 7 feet wide, has wedged into the That streams on all sides. In their attempt to equalize with the river, 600 echoes, pure as love and unattainable. The longer I sat and lis- canyon floor, creating a talkative water- so small and struggling tributaries have spread through the desert country- tened, the more I felt that I was rubbing shoulders with more fall below. side until canyon space exceeds land. They are still working. If mystery than I could bear. Desire to go on enveloped me strongly, We will have to climb. Again. rare could cut you want to see the true nature of animated, dynamic geology but everything was out of reach. canyons of this in the Grand Canyon, look into the side canyons. Staying awake Two days later, I walked to a rim several hundred feet above for a night in a canyon, you may hear boulders and smaller rocks this place. Still a thousand feet below the highest rim, I was ater, the blade that cut each size makes little tapping and crashing as they fall. The action comes in the dis- somewhere in the middle, walking the broad shelf of Esplanade of these canyons, ranks as the sense. The time tant, unlit places where the landscape will not rest. sandstone. I drank from water holes in the open desert — what- element of consequence here. ever water I could find, brushing away layers of insect bod- There is, of course, the slow frame for this kind ies before touching my lips to the surface. The water would be crafting of wind and grav- of erosion may came here in August to travel for weeks across red benches gone in a day or two. Monstrous stone temples stretched back Wity, the exfoliating collapse of cliff faces of Esplanade sandstone looming over lower levels of can- for miles. Over SB Canyon, a raven soared, making fascinating over time, the tug of tectonics. But water seem staggering. yons. Every 10 days or so on this solo walk, I reached a food designs in the sky. It grumbled and spoke sharply to me. One laid these canyons to their depths. It has But don’t be cache where I would linger for a night, restocking my pack feather was out of place, or was stripped, because each time the given the Grand Canyon its unmistakable with chocolate, rice and potato flakes. Nights were brief and raven swung back, catching the air just so, its feather whined breadth. fooled. Water that Iclouded with stars. Days were long and well over 100 degrees. I like a mosquito. I followed the sound to the edge. On first glance, it might seem that moves over stone spent my afternoons in shade, creeping from one boulder to the From there, I looked into SB, miles down to the narrow crack something the size of the Colorado River next, curling against the cool rock when I stopped, like an ani- that had stopped me days earlier. Now it looked like a paper cut cut each canyon. The highest rims may is staggeringly mal accustomed to sleeping on the ground. Cliff faces baked in in the limestone. The bottom was nowhere in sight. If this were be miles apart, the bottoms so precisely influential. sunlight, heating the surrounding air. I shaved my head. I did not anywhere else, it would be a monument, a place to come and inset, that you might imagine great ice- carry a sleeping bag and often slept naked among the rocks, cov- stare at the terrifying power of nature. A metal railing would age rivers carving their way to the bottom ering myself with a cotton sheet if a breeze picked up. prevent fascination from taunting you right off the edge. of the continent. But walk to the floor of The National Park Service had asked me to write a report on The fact that I could not get inside forced me to look away, each canyon, and you will find a narrow a trail that was supposed to cross this region. After 20 days, I to scheme, to give up and look back in. The raven came so close wash or carved bedrock showing where found only a few cairns and narrow clearings 30 or 40 feet long on its next pass that when I lifted my hand to block the sun, the a stream once flowed. The bed likely will that might have been remnants of a trail. I would return with my bird veered away in surprise. be dry. report: There is no trail, only a route. That streams so small and rare could I reached the top of SB Canyon in September, seeking refuge in cut canyons of this size makes little sense. its inner shadows. Down into the canyon at dawn, my gear left he next time I left the Canyon, I reached a pay phone in Rocks and sparse vegetation line the floor of a steep-walled The time frame for this kind of erosion Grand Canyon tributary. WES TIMMERMAN tucked into the rocks for safekeeping, I followed the deep, bucket- Kanab, Utah, and called Tom Vimont. We had worked as may seem staggering. But don’t be fooled. like depressions that floods had carved from bedrock. The air, guides and instructors for years on the Colorado River, tak- Water that moves over stone is stagger- moist before sunrise, smelled strongly of something like freshly ing our days between trips to wander into the deserts of ingly influential. In lab experiments with running water and a resistant, con- cut herbs. Cottonwood and Western redbud trees, monkeyflow- Southern Arizona. He had once taught mountaineering. He Customarily, the water comes as floods. The canyons formed crete-like substance, lowering the base level constitutes the only ers, and seepwillow shrubs. I stopped for a while to listen to a Tknows how to use ropes, how to get into unattainable locations. from a litany of flash floods over millions of years, not by a few way to cut a good channel. This means lowering the elevation spring. A drop of water fell every 15 or 30 seconds, tapping the I told him about this snip of a canyon that would turn his catastrophic floods. Rarely do floods last more than several of the water’s destination. For side canyons of the Grand Can- surface of a pool I could not see. The sound was so private that world inside out. Instead of climbing up a mountain, we would hours. Sometimes, they last only 20 or 30 minutes. They follow yon, the Colorado River serves as the base level. For the Colo- when I stood and walked ahead, I did not look back to find it. climb down a canyon. We would go until the sky closed over our the whims of isolated storms, coming to a particular location a rado River, it is the Gulf of California. The lowering of the base Deeper into the canyon, formations arose around me. When a heads. I called him at work, told him to meet me at the end of a couple of times in one year or only once a decade. They form in level puts more vertical distance between the top and bottom of light-blue bed of limestone appeared beneath my feet, the canyon 60-mile dirt road and hung up before he could say no. distant tributaries and gain force through the deepening hall- a drainage, and the water pierces the ground in search of equilib- plunged. Now, set within it, a line ran straight into the canyon Broad-shouldered and bulky, Tom likes to bleed, and laugh as ways of inner gorges, aiming for the lowest common denom- rium. The further these lab streams are stretched from their base floor. It was another canyon, dark as a cave even as the sun came the blood flows. I’ve emptied first-aid kits on him after scram- inator — the Colorado River. The river, sunk into the Kaibab levels, the more they form channels resembling miniature por- up. I walked the edge, looking down. The passage 50 feet below bling through cracks and loose rock. Talking to him is like hav- Plateau, forms a base level to which all surrounding water must tions of the Grand Canyon. did not look accessible. As far as I could see, it deepened. One ing confetti thrown in your face. His voice is loud, his words travel. Floods have marked their passages to the river, leaving the You can lower the base level or raise the land with the same hundred feet, 200 feet, and tight as a church aisle. I climbed in pointed. He does not fear what people think. I sat with him once land a scarred complexion. results. For about 10 million years, the Kaibab Plateau and a where I could, taking handholds in the limestone until my boots in the desert and, after a long time of saying nothing, he looked The flood I witnessed here weeks ago threw boulders and number of neighboring humps of land have been rising out of touched the canyon floor. Polished, flood-burrowed limestone over to me. trees down the throats of canyons. Relentlessly, the water drove the earth like whales, and across their backs flows the Colo- rounded into a small creek. I swam in the deeper stretch where “You know, I wouldn’t mind being a cave man,” he said. “Eat- deep into the canyon like columns of pounding cavalry horses. rado River. As land rose, the river dug harder into the continent water had pooled. Maidenhair ferns crowded at small waterfall ing and hunting and having sex and sleeping. That is a good life.” During three hours of rising and falling, the flood utterly rear- to lower itself to base level. The river, having a far more constant springs, the kind frequently exposed in the Redwall limestone. At various times, he worked as a three-star chef in Chicago, an ranged the floors of several canyons, dropping boulders miles flow than its mostly dry tributaries, cut quickly toward equi- My presence set into motion a clockwork of pools below. Match- exotic dancer in some other city, a climbing instructor for Out- from their previous locations. The place filled with violence, with librium, leaving hundreds of tributaries teetering at the edge of ing exactly the volume of my body, water spun down a chute, ward Bound and a singer for a punk-rock band. Our histories an industrial howling of mud, water and stone. Then, as the beds a deepening gorge. With their base level pulled out from under topping the next reservoir and spilling over again. The repercus- have little similarity. This allows us to travel well together. He drained and dried, absolute silence descended. them, these smaller canyons have struggled to catch up. They sions of my act sent word into the canyon. seems to be afraid of nothing. But even coming with a partner, This was one of the million brief etchings that, like a sin- have disemboweled themselves at every occasion of flash floods, I could go only so far. A boulder choked the narrow passage, I feel a solitary fascination from the days I stared down off the gle word added to the rest, combine eventually to tell the story. trying to flatten their gradients to the river. and, for me, SB stopped. I crawled onto the boulder’s back and rim. We only need each other to stay alive. This is how we often When you look into these canyons, keep this in mind: Water has These forces shaped the Grand Canyon. The Colorado River looked over. I didn’t even try to go farther. My body would never have traveled together, sprawling beneath stars at camp after dif- crafted what you see. alone would have carved one 200-foot-wide chasm and left it at be found if I made a mistake. I sat, staring as far as I could see. ficult days and telling our stories back to each other.

36 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 37 He has bread maker’s hands, his fingers strong and meaty on a Monocline, which runs more than 150 miles from a point near rope. At the boulder that has stopped us, he unravels some web- Flagstaff to Utah. It has 5,000 feet of displacement — that is, one bing and ties loops into it. Even if we pass this point, we do not side is 5,000 feet higher than the other. But displacement of oth- know if we can find a way down. Only one piece of webbing ers — less than half a mile long — may be only the width of a remains in our gear, and so far each piece of equipment has been finger. I have traced massive rockfalls to faults, walked behind necessary. Tom shrugs at the possibilities and sets the webbing. the tilted back of a collapsed 200-foot block and found there an This thin lifeline dangles down the crack between the boul- exposed axis of a fault. der and the wall. I enter first. My strength quickly wanes as I Looking at a surface geology map of the Grand Canyon, you tip backward, shifting various small muscles to hold my body will see that nearly every side canyon, and even minor tributar- in place. The space is not quite large enough. My chest jams ies, follow faults, most of which predate the Canyon by millions, between boulder and wall, and I exhale to squeeze myself fur- if not billions, of years. Unrelated canyons can be lined up with ther. The boulder has been wedged so long that it has been a ruler because underneath, like an underground passageway, carved by floods. I groan and reach down, dropping notch by lies a connecting fault. Like interlocked fingers, a side canyon of notch, the walls slick and not taking to my fingers. Unkar Creek points directly into the head of Asbestos Canyon. I lower myself into a pool and wade across to watch Tom work The upper arms of Vishnu Creek are parallel with each other and his way down. We intend to reach the Colorado River, then with the canyon on the opposite side of Krishna Shrine. Walking climb back along these same routes. But the river may as well up Stairway Canyon near Toroweap, you can stop halfway and not exist. There is nothing but this canyon. I feel as if I must hold turn to see the slot of Mohawk Canyon on the opposite side of my breath as I walk through. The walls swing from side to side, the river, both canyons aligned over a straight fault that crosses forming overlapping waves that look more like water than rock. the river. Nearly every small canyon has a trailing twin nearby. There is no true floor, only a depression of water and gravel or This is not routine behavior for canyons cutting with various a curve of scoured bedrock. The limestone exhibits structural forces into differing rock. It implies that below is a key to the soundness, especially when compared with the higher slopes of entire layout of the Grand Canyon. Hermit shale or the cliffs of Coconino sandstone; it will not cave If a canyon severs a fault, rocks on either side of the fault are in as it is incised. It braces into position, allowing this canyon weakened and collapse. So, as floods spill into a fault, they cut to wind deeply. As it resists floods, the limestone takes peculiar downward, rending the fault’s support. The walls then fail, shapes. Walls turn smooth like bone, as intricate as vertebrae or and floods carry the debris out. Debris adds abrasiveness to the the ball of a femur. floods. Thus, they cut deeper into the faults, severing them again and opening the canyons even further. That phenomenon compares to a roadway being cut into a omeone once asked if I grow bored with canyons, if the steep side of a valley. Construction likely will sever a fault, caus- repetition of drainages wears on me after months. I could ing landslides to repeatedly blanket the road, leaving engineers not find words to explain. I merely said no. To express an cursing and wondering why nature plagues them so. eternal fascination with them would peg me as a starry- Upstream in the Grand Canyon, Marble Canyon follows the eyed naturalist loping merrily from canyon to canyon. But southwest-trending grain of local faulting. Few faults run per- Seach canyon inscribes a signature so descriptive that it is difficult pendicular to the river along this upper stretch, so there is little to talk about more than one at a time. I will be very clear about interference with the river canyon, leaving fewer side canyons. this. The canyons are only similar in that they often involve rock The river then takes an unprecedented swing to the west. It lays Shinumo Creek pours over a waterfall and polished and cliffs and some sign of water. That is all. only small ephemeral creeks. The canyons are simple, rarely faults open to the sky, and side canyons grow into the fissures boulders. The creek begins on the Canyon’s North Rim. The unnamed canyon west of Garnet Canyon turns into a JACK DYKINGA branching more than once or twice. like splintering glass. tight sliver before a 700-foot fall into bands of Bright Angel Meanwhile, across the river, rainfall and snowmelt off the I once hiked with a geologist to this point where the river shale. Haunted Canyon levels into a remote grove of cottonwood extensive North Rim feed long and crowded canyon systems. jumped its tracks. We set camp on the Colorado Lineament, trees, the floor flickering with shadows. A tributary to an arm of profiles that alter over the thousands and millions of years. Their branches flow radially down the curved southern and an ancient and deep basement structure that runs from here to Tuckup Canyon has a scoop that could seat a symphony orchestra The Grand Canyon stretches across a plateau that dips steadily western flanks of the Kaibab Plateau. Wyoming and keeps the river in its course nearly back to the but instead holds five strands of maidenhair ferns, each releasing south. Its highest rim is the North Rim — more than 1,000 feet Interestingly, floods from the curt and declivitous South Rim Colorado border. The area, down Tanner Canyon, is a mess. We small slips of spring water. Various portions of the Grand Can- higher than the South Rim. North Rim canyons flow down the canyons produce larger, more rocky debris than do the wetter, saw growth faults, thrust faults, reverse faults, anticlines, mono- yon between Lees Ferry and Pearce Ferry have vastly different dip and linger beneath long ridges. South Rim canyons, which longer North Rim canyons, suggesting that the steepness on the clines, synclines, folds, warps, slump blocks, unconformities and terrain. Side canyons with mouths facing each other at the river must work against the grain of the dip, plunge off the rim, hitting south side sustains higher levels of erosion. chevron folds in twisted solid rock. Looking north, we could — one on the north, the other south — bear, in their interiors, the river quickly. There are influences that will turn a canyon into a sine wave, see up the line of Marble Canyon. West showed where the river distinctions as pronounced as differences between a midnight The eastern portion of the South Rim near Desert View has few causing it to hollow out amphitheaters or giving it a gentle, stair- turns out of the Colorado Lineament and rattles over a wash- sky and a sunrise. canyons because of low rainfall, low runoff and rock layers lean- step descent. But the highest authority on canyon-forming stems board of faults all the way to Nevada. Compared to the variety of side canyons, the river’s canyon ing away from the river. A little west, as you walk along Coman- from geologic faulting. The entire underside of the Grand Can- The river should continue south to Phoenix, but instead, it ranks as elementary. The Colorado River often burrows straight che Point and its surrounding saddles, canyons will open under yon is loaded with faults. Most of these cracks in solid, underly- takes this heroic run the other way across the Kaibab Plateau, through structural, geomorphic controls such as faults and your feet and plunge directly to the river. Slightly farther west, ing rock trend northeast with a few skirting at odd angles. The opening the stage for hundreds of side canyons to pour into the regional dips in the strata. The river gives little preference to what weak shales are exposed, allowing numerous broad canyons slipping of the faults has left impressive forms and many colorful newly exposed faults. it erodes. But side canyons, with less stream force, must contend to form. And even farther west, deeper, narrow canyons drill names: Crazy Jug Monocline, Dragon Fault, Blue Moon Graben, This geologist stood looking straight up the Colorado Linea- with the slighter nuances of geology. Side canyons are engrossed through newly exposed Vishnu schist that lies solidly in the floor. Eminence Fault. ment, into Marble Canyon, grinning as if he were standing on in pivoting and pushing through formations, creating intricate Most of the canyons falling off the South Rim are dry or hold There are formations of substantial length, such as the Kaibab the line where the continent soon would split in two. He said it

38 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 39 might someday. The lineament is part of longer, deeper systems that extend The canyon beyond to Canada. Sometimes it is wide enough to occupy an entire mountain range falls from my grasp. It and here creates swarming fault systems to feed the Grand Canyon. In a way, the Grand Canyon was formed because the river resisted the is dusky and curved, grain of the lineament and took a dive to the west. This turn, where the inner drawing water gorge rebounds off Palisades of the Desert and Tanner Canyon, sent the river into a nest of faults and fractures. The underside of this landscape must look into subterranean like a spiderweb. Across its surface, canyons fall into place like insects caught shapes just out of on strands, outlining the invisible web below. view, down where This is why I cannot tire of these canyons. the stream echoes walk deeper and the half-light turns to quarter-light. Few signs of life around boulders. The show themselves down here: a tree frog, pale and still as a river cobble; several desert-rock nettles grown from cracks well out of the flood zone, enigma down there hanging 30 feet off the floor; a dragonfly after prey with the grace and is raw. It is a clear quickness of a cutting horse. II come to the next obstacle, another array of rocks jammed between two and perfect reminder walls. One of these chock stones lies low on the floor, building waterfalls of what is out here, through its seams. Another is left suspended where a flood once jammed it between walls. This second boulder, 4 feet high, hangs 30 feet off the floor. what the land is The arrangement looks as if it were hand-placed by someone with a sense of made of. Secrets are order and artistry. Below is a pool. Bottomless, as far as I can see. The curve of the route is everywhere, and difficult, the length of the drop daunting. Tom stands beside me and we meant to be kept. look down, hoping to see a handhold or some small crack that can aid in getting us up and down. There is nothing to say. The final piece of web- bing is brought out. Loops tied. Anchored and lowered into place. It does not reach the water. We will have to go to the end, then drop. Coming back, we’ll have to swim under it and reach, in hopes of snatching the line. Sounds impossible. For 10 minutes we look into this water. A 40-ton boulder hangs before our heads. “I’ll be the scapegoat,” Tom finally says. “I don’t think I can do this.” I study his eyes. I don’t think I can do it, either. The canyon has ended. Tom has ideas about how to get to the end of this canyon. They involve some other time, coming in with a certain amount of rope, pulling it down behind us to use on the boulders ahead, finding a route out from the river, perhaps up Kanab Creek or Tuckup Canyon. Staring into the water, he unravels his plans. He asks me what month would be good and, man, it would have been something to have reached the river, wouldn’t it? I am looking into the same water. The canyon still is not mine. Never will be mine. The satisfaction of this is rich and inexplicable. With understand- able reluctance, Tom reels the webbing back up the rock. It catches a cou- ple of times between boulder and wall, and he snaps it loose. When the last few feet are slithered up, he unclips the carabiner, and the canyon beyond falls from my grasp. It is dusky and curved, drawing water into subterranean shapes just out of view, down where the stream echoes around boulders. The enigma down there is raw. It is a clear and perfect reminder of what is out here, what the land is made of. Secrets are everywhere, and meant to be kept. At night we set a meager camp on stream cobbles a quarter-mile upstream. We listen to the ornate, etching sounds of water over small rocks. Above us, a series of escape ledges provide space where we can scramble if a flood should come down the canyon. But we give little thought to floods tonight. Just thoughts of this canyon. Green plants flourish We do not have sleeping bags or pads. Only sand and delicately rounded near a perennial pool at the bottom of a stones. We each find a place to sleep. Tucking hands under my head, I curl secluded side canyon. into the rocks, again like an animal. Stars gather in the narrow cleft of sky, WES TIMMERMAN and I swear that if I reach up, they will spill, powdering my face.

40 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 41 IRST THERE WAS THE FIRE. Then there was the flood. Even in Arizona, a state that has expe- rienced more than its share of devastating fires and floods, this was a natural disaster of almost biblical proportions. On June 20, 2010, the embers from an abandoned campfire in Northern Arizona’s Coconino National Forest took flight and ignited surrounding brush. When the first fire crew arrived at the location near Schultz Tank north of Flagstaff, the blaze encom- passed 2 acres. But 50 mph wind gusts soon overpow- ered the crew, and the fire jumped the road, caught the Sifting Through The crowns of trees and exploded into a fast-moving inferno as it barreled across the San Francisco Peaks’ steep eastern flank. By nightfall, the Schultz Fire had grown to approximately 8,000 acres. And by the time the blaze was fully contained 10 days later, it had consumed more than 15,000 acres of national forest in the heart of one of Arizona’s most popular recreation areas. But the fire wasn’t the worst of it. On July 20, an epic monsoon storm dumped 1.78 inches of rain on the peaks in 45 minutes. Nearly 1 inch fell in 10 minutes. The veg- Five years ago this month, an abandoned etation and topsoil on the mountain normally act like ASHEScampfire in one of Arizona’s most popular a sponge that soaks up rain, but the unnaturally hot fire had cooked the surface and turned once-luscious recreation areas exploded into a fast-moving meadows and forests into a water-repellent parking inferno known as the Schultz Fire. Although lot. Some 30 million gallons of water, along with a tor- it consumed more than 15,000 acres rent of ash, debris and boulders as big as Volkswagens, rolled off the peaks and into residential areas below. and completely scorched the forest in The flash flood engulfed homes that had been evacuated places, scientists are learning a lot from during the fire just weeks before, and, most tragically, a the blaze. Even more importantly, 12-year-old girl walking along a normally dry drainage in the forest was swept away and drowned. the burn areas are showing signs of life. “The whole mountainside came apart,” says Dan By Annette McGivney Neary, a research hydrologist and soil scientist with the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Sta- Photographs by John Burcham tion. “It was a monumental erosion event that had not occurred on that scale in 1,000 years.” Neary estimates

A lupine sprouts in front of a tree charred by the Schultz Fire, which burned more than 15,000 acres near Flagstaff in 2010.

42 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 43 Forest Service contractors and volunteers have individually planted approximately 100,000 around deep gullies that were carved by flash floods in July and August 2010. In one place, a narrow gash cuts down 4 feet ponderosa-pine seedlings and is filled with microwave-size boulders that tumbled down in the devastation zone. The the mountain. Higher up on the peaks, where the slopes are effort began immediately nearly straight up in some places, the erosion is even worse. In these severely burned areas, the topsoil has completely washed after the fire. away and gullies slice deep into the mountain, eroding all the way to bedrock. In the years after the fire, volunteer trail crews worked the last time the San Francisco Peaks were reshaped on the diligently to restore the Weatherford, Little Elden and Little level of what happened during the summer of 2010 was before Bear trails, which had been washed out and littered with nearby Sunset Crater Volcano erupted in the 11th century. charred, fallen trees. “This used to be a giant boulder field On the first day of the Schultz Fire, I stood in my front yard until the volunteers moved the rocks,” Stevenson says as we in downtown Flagstaff and watched in disbelief as an orange- walk over a newly constructed drainage crossing. (While all and-black mushroom cloud billowed hundreds of feet into the the trails were reopened, a 2013 monsoon event washed out sky. In the next few years after the disaster, when I drove U.S. the Little Bear Trail, which now is closed again until funding Route 89 past the peaks, I could barely stand to look at the gap- to restore it is secured.) ing wound on the east side of the mountain. No matter the sea- Climbing up a hillside, we are surrounded by black snags son, the slopes were always brown. And I didn’t have the heart that look like telephone poles, but the ground is profusely to hike there and witness the devastation up close. green, filled with invasive weeds, native grasses and the But I could stay away for only so long. By the summer of occasional wildflower. Stevenson explains that the heat from 2014, as I drove on the highway and studied the peaks from a a fire — even an unnaturally intense one — releases nutrients mile away, I glimpsed tiny patches of green amid the brown. from the soil, which jump-starts the revegetation process. I thought of one of my favorite quotes from Helen Keller: “The grasses are coming back here more than I’ve seen in the “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the past,” he says. “Right after the fire, pronghorns even came overcoming of it.” Could there possibly be something good, I into this area from Sunset Crater to graze, which I have never wondered, arising out of something so terrible? I would have to seen before.” get much closer to the suffering to find out. However, Stevenson points out that the fire hit ponderosa pines especially hard. The slow-growing conifers are designed HE LITTLE BEAR TRAIL, on the northeast side of Mount to tolerate moderate-intensity fires that move through the Elden, is about a mile from the Schultz Fire’s ignition forest floor without disturbing the forest crown. Ponderosas point. Soon after the blaze started, the fire charged were decimated in the 4,000-acre, high-severity hole left by the through the wind tunnel of Schultz Pass and came Schultz Fire, so Stevenson is carrying out an ambitious replant- down hard here, devouring nearly 100 percent of the ing program. Forest Service contractors and volunteers have vegetation around the upper reaches of the trail and along individually planted approximately 100,000 ponderosa-pine nearby Schultz Pass Road (Forest Road 420). seedlings in the devastation zone. The effort began immedi- “On the first day, the fire cooked the mountain,” says Andy ately after the fire, with Forest Service staff growing trees in Stevenson, a silviculturist with the Coconino National Forest’s greenhouses from seeds collected years before the blaze. It Flagstaff Ranger District who has been heading up landscape- takes a full year of tending in just-right conditions to coax the restoration efforts after the fire. “The heat was so intense, it seedlings to the stage where they’re ready for planting. And cracked rocks.” once they’re in the ground, there are other challenges. Much of what burned that day was an unnaturally hot “high After our hike, Stevenson and I check on some of the pon- intensity” inferno that destroyed everything in its path and, derosas planted in 2013. Each seedling is covered with a 2-foot- in the words of Stevenson, left a “totally denuded, 4,000-acre tall plastic cone intended to give the baby pines a fighting hole” in the forest. chance against elk, which are enjoying the bounty of greenery Under a cloudless sky one morning in August 2014, I am fol- after the fire. lowing Stevenson into the hole. We are hiking the Little Bear “Oh, man! Here’s a dead one!” says Stevenson as he pulls Trail and donning hard hats to guard (at least a little) from up a cone to find a tiny, brown tree. He blames this death on falling trees. Before we get to the burn area, Stevenson points gophers eating the seedling’s roots from underneath. Accord- out what he considers the signs of an unhealthy forest that con- tributed to the highly destructive nature of the Schultz Fire. The trees are spindly and closely spaced, and the forest floor is A damaged tree trunk frames ponderosa pines in filled with dead and downed trees — like a rag soaked in gaso- the Schultz Fire burn area. The burned trees, at risk line, waiting for a flame. of falling in heavy wind, can be dangerous to those As we make our way up the trail, we repeatedly scramble aiding the area’s recovery.

44 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 45 BELOW: Students from Flagstaff’s Ponderosa High School help restore the Schultz Fire burn area using ponderosa-pine seedlings grown in the school’s nursery.

ABOVE: Wildflowers and other vegetation contrast Lou Fairweather, a Forest Service plant pathologist who is the ground that is marked with pink flagging tape. Each regen- with scorched ponderosas based in Flagstaff and has been studying aspen mortality in eration plot is a hundredth of an acre, and every fall she mea- on a misty morning in the Arizona for more than two decades. Since 2003, Fairweather sures the height and health of every aspen seedling and sapling burn area. has gathered data annually from more than 50 plots established in that area to gauge change from one year to the next. in aspen stands on the San Francisco Peaks. She originally Before the Schultz Fire, Fairweather’s data showed a pattern started monitoring the plots to study the effects of drought and of steady decline. There was little new growth on her plots, try to determine why aspens were in precipitous decline on and 90 percent of the saplings were not getting taller than the mountain. But after the Schultz Fire burned through 14 of 1 foot. None was taller than 3 feet. In 2009, she counted an 18 plots in a stand there, she also began monitoring the aspens’ average of 1,361 trees per acre. After the fire, in 2011 and 2012, ing to Stevenson, about half the ponderosa seedlings planted NLIKE PONDEROSA PINES, aspens are designed to sur- response to the blaze. that number grew to 10,000 trees per acre. This explosion is after the fire have died, mostly from gophers, elk or lack of vive — even thrive — after high-severity crown “I was excited about the fire because I knew I would get the aspens’ normal response to fire. Even if the tree is burned moisture. fires through their ability to regenerate quickly all this new data,” says Fairweather. It is October 2014, and I to the ground, its root system produces profuse suckers during “We’ve got a live one!” he says with a smile as he pulls up through root suckering. Along Waterline Road (For- am hiking with Fairweather up a steep, aspen-covered slope the two years after the blaze. another cone to reveal a 1-foot-tall ponderosa that is making a est Road 146) on the upper slopes of the peaks, toward her plots. The study area occupies 40 acres above and Fairweather expected the sucker growth, but what sur- go of it amid a dense field of mullein, an exotic weed species where mixed-conifer forests were devoured by fire below Waterline Road, east of Schultz Peak. It is located in a prised her was the high number of aspen seedlings that began that has overtaken the area. “This one has really sprouted up.” and topsoil was swept away by flooding, about the only things mixed-severity region of the Schultz Fire, which left parts of sprouting up. Born from copious amounts of seed dropped Nearby is a cone that has been fortified with a circle of growing four years after the burn are aspens. Even in higher the forest disturbed but not burned completely. We scramble after the fire, these new trees will establish their own root rocks, and inside we discover another healthy pine. Steven- elevations that experienced moderate fire damage, the level of over downed aspens and through pockets of coal-black snags. systems, and Fairweather believes they could be critical to sav- son notes that the trees planted by volunteers have a greater aspen regeneration is surprising Forest Service scientists. Fairweather holds her GPS device in front of her to home in on ing aspens on the peaks because they increase genetic diversity survival rate than those planted by Forest Service contractors. “Individual aspens are relatively short-lived and die so they plot-location coordinates. and forest health. That is, if the seedlings and saplings are not “The volunteers put more into it,” he says. can regenerate through the same root system,” explains Mary “Here we are!” she says as we arrive at a 6-inch-tall stake in eaten first.

46 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 47 Pull quote goes here Although it may be a Henture conestrumqui century before the worst sed eos volorem part of the Schultz burn consect emquis area returns to the scenic nis ut alibus evelici ponderosa-pine forest simet exped et, offici that it once was, there consequo berum is a phoenix rising from quiam, quiae doluptas The abundant aspen growth has provided an all-you-can-eat the ashes in the form repelessit, sam laborro buffet for elk. Fairweather’s data documents heavy — some- of volunteers who are quae. Ilis mintoria cum times devastating — browsing in her plots. “I haven’t found on a mission to help one yet that isn’t browsed on this plot,” she says as she mea- faccuptatur, sures a stem that is about 1 foot tall and has been stripped heal the land. of its leaves. Arizona Game and Fish Department managers have responded to the elk’s increased browsing of aspens since the fire by increasing hunting pressure in high-elevation areas. They established a new sub-unit in 2011 within the larger Unit 7 East hunting area. Over the last four years, elk permits issued in the sub-unit have been increased, from 200 in 2011 to 585 in 2014 and 2015, as a way to reduce the population and minimize aspen browsing. While Fairweather still views elk as one of the biggest threats to aspen health, she has seen the browsing in her plots decrease slightly since the new hunting regulations were put in place, from 77 percent of all trees munched in 2013 to 62 per- cent in 2014. But even more promising is that some saplings are growing taller than what she observed before the fire. In areas of the burn that are not inviting to elk — on very steep slopes, amid barriers of fallen trees or along Waterline Road — aspen saplings are 7 feet tall and thriving. “These are so adorable,” says Fairweather. “I’ve never seen seedlings in such abundance here until after the fire.” We have trudged up to the highest plot and the last one she will measure for the season. A handful of baby aspens with tiny green leaves are pushing through black soil. Nearby, a mature aspen stand untouched by fire is in full autumn splendor. We sit on a carpet of fallen leaves to catch our breath as a gentle wind unleashes a shower of shimmering gold discs that swirl all around us.

HILE STEVENSON WISHES the Schultz Fire never happened, he says Forest Service scientists are learning a great deal from post-fire recov- A 2-foot-tall plastic cone protects a newly planted ery efforts. They’re also learning that the Among the most dedicated of this group are the students at ponderosa-pine seedling from elk, which have slowed the fifth such event the students have carried out as part of the disaster served as an important wake-up call Ponderosa High School, a Flagstaff accommodation school that Schultz Fire recovery efforts by eating new growth. Forest Service’s long-term recovery efforts. Stevenson hopes to for the citizens of Flagstaff. In November serves at-risk teens and others who benefit from a non-tradi- plant ponderosa seedlings on an additional 1,000 acres in 2015 2012, Flagstaff voters overwhelmingly approved a $10 million tional learning environment. with the help of Ponderosa High students and other volunteers. bond to support the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project. It is On October 2, 2014, I join the students for their Service remove a rock and make room for the new plant. She gently Down the road from Feather and Isaac, a student named one of the first municipally funded forest-restoration efforts in Learning Day project: planting 100 ponderosa seedlings in sets the seedling in the ground and pats dirt around it. Alex is putting great effort into digging the perfect hole. He the country, and it will facilitate thinning and controlled burns the scorched earth around Schultz Pass Road. After receiving “We take pride in what we do,” adds another student, wants to make sure the seedlings have a good home. Alex says on more than 10,000 acres of Coconino National Forest land instruction from Stevenson on how to plant the seedlings, Isaac, who is relishing the sense of accomplishment that this after graduating from high school, he plans to become a per- around Flagstaff to prevent another Schultz Fire kind of disaster. the students don hard hats and carry shovels and cartons project brings. sonal trainer and open his own gym. But right now, he is find- Although it may be a century before the worst part of the of seedlings into a field of jagged black snags and green Since 2011, Ponderosa High students have tended seeds col- ing joy and purpose in bringing life to the ailing forest. Schultz burn area returns to the scenic ponderosa-pine forest mullein stalks. lected from the burn area in the school’s nursery. They have “It took us over a year to grow these,” he says of the seed- that it once was, there is a phoenix rising from the ashes in the “These seedlings will survive. We’ve taken good care of watered and nurtured the plants with compost from food lings at his feet. “It feels good to finally get them in the form of volunteers who are on a mission to help heal the land. them,” says a student named Feather as she swings a pick to waste collected from area restaurants. This latest planting is ground.”

48 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 49 BREAKING THE MOLD Rusty Bowers will be the first one to tell you that he doesn’t fit the stereotype of an artist — he’s too conservative. But that hasn’t kept the Mesa native from pursuing his dream of painting, sculpting and working on projects such as the Arizona Fallen Fire Fighters and Emergency Paramedics Memorial, an installation that will be dedicated this fall in front of the state Capitol. BY NORA BURBA TRULSSON | PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK LIPCZYNSKI

N A SUNNY MORNING, Russell “Rusty” Bowers is deep inside Bollinger Atelier, a Tempe foundry, putting the final touches on a heroically scaled clay figure of a firefighter, which is about to be cast in bronze. It’s one of five figures he’s sculpted to be part of a new memorial that will be dedicated later this year at the state Capitol. Bowers, who has a solid, tall physique that befits a former high-school and college basketball player, is also sporting a vivid scar on the side of his head, the result of a headfirst dive while hiking with his son near Superior. “My foot,” says Bowers, a lifelong member of the Mormon

Ochurch, “got caught in the branches of a Mormon-tea Not long thereafter, Bowers framed and sold a shrub. Irony noted.” painting through an art show at Goldwater’s depart- Within minutes, Bowers has revealed his profes- ment store: “I got $125 for it. That’s when I realized I sion, his hobby, his faith and a sly sense of humor. But could make money at this.” just when you think you have him pegged, you find Bowers received a scholarship to Brigham Young out there’s more: He’s also a politician. He’s been an University, but soon, life and love intervened. He live among the remote Tarahumara Indians. Inspired Both allowed him the flexibility to pursue his art- executive and a school administrator. He’s an Eagle came back to marry his high-school sweetheart and by a fellow artist, Bowers trekked to the bottom of work, including his part of the Arizona Fallen Fire Scout. And, oh, yeah, the Mesa native is a beekeeper start a family, which grew to seven children. After Copper Canyon: “Much to my wife, Donetta’s, hor- Fighters and Emergency Paramedics Memorial, a and an orchardist. taking art classes at Mesa Community College, he ror, I drove to Mexico and down 150 miles on dirt $1.7 million installation to be dedicated in October at Art, however, has been the common thread in Bow- went to Arizona State University but found that, in roads to the bottom of the canyon. It was a wild place, Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza in front of the Capitol. ers’ biography. The great-grandson of Mormon pio- the 1970s, ASU’s art department was “a little too remote and isolated, dangerous. But the culture of Tucson sculptor Paul Olesniewicz will add five other neers who settled St. Johns and Nutrioso in Eastern touchy-feely for me.” He went back to BYU. “The art these indigenous people just blew me away. It was my figures to the memorial, which commemorates the Arizona in the 1870s, Bowers — one of seven siblings program there was more like an art boot camp,” he main inspiration for oils, watercolors and bronzes for lives of Arizona’s fallen firefighters and paramedics. — admits to being “a hellion” as a young boy. “My says. “It was, ‘Today, we’re learning to grind pigment.’ many years.” Until recently, Bowers was content to pursue his mother would give me pictures of those Breck girls in I needed that structure.” Along the way, politics seeped into Bowers’ life. “I professional work and his artwork, which he creates the shampoo ads and made me copy them in church,” A bachelor’s degree launched Bowers into the art am very conservative,” says Bowers, “which, I know, at a shop at his Mesa home and at a larger studio on Bowers recalls. “It kept me quiet, and that’s how I world, more as a sculptor than as a painter or water- is a weird thing for an artist. But I’ve always been his family’s ranch in the Pinal Mountains, where he learned to draw.” colorist. He began sculpting lifelike bronzes and active in the community, and people knew me.” In also keeps bees and tends his apple orchard. Bowers graduated to copying images culled from busts of notable Arizonans, including ASU football 1992, he was elected to the state Legislature, serving Last year, though, he felt a calling to get back into photographs published in Arizona Highways. It wasn’t coach Frank Kush, supermarket magnate Eddie Basha, first as a representative and then as a senator. politics and was elected again to serve his Mesa until his senior year of high school, though, that Bow- state legislators Polly Rosenbaum and Burton Barr, “I have definite political views,” he says, “and there district in the Legislature. “I know it’s a different ers took his first formal art class. “Right after the ses- and state Senator Jake Flake. He’s also done larger are people who probably hate my guts, but I under- ballgame now,” he says, “but I’m bringing a different sion started, the teacher wanted to see me after class,” sculptural projects, such as the entry memorial at the stood that you have to work with people to get things background and experience than most of my peers. I he says. “I thought I was in trouble, but the teacher Mormon Battalion Historic Site’s visitors center in San done. Back then, politics was tough, but we respected hope to go in and help fix things.” told me I never had to come to class. Instead, she told Diego, and a Wyoming memorial commemorating the each other. At the end of the day, we were friendly.” Art and family, though, remain his mainstays. me to copy everything from Ted Kautsky’s book Ways rescue of a group of Mormon pioneers from an 1856 He quit politics in 2001 and went to work, first as “When people ask me what I do, I say I’m a sculptor With Watercolor. Each Friday, I showed up with paint- snowstorm. Bowers’ work also has appeared at several director of the Arizona Rock Products Association, and a painter,” Bowers says. “But when they ask me ings, and she critiqued them. I thought I had it made Scottsdale galleries. then as director of external affairs for the East Valley what I like to do, I tell them I like to play with my — I never had to go to class.” In the 1980s, Bowers began traveling to Mexico to Institute of Technology. grandkids.”

50 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 51 scenic drive

There’s a reason this drive has been designated a National Scenic Byway. North Rim Actually, there are many, including the grassy meadows, the quaking aspens Parkway and the Kaibab squirrels. BY ROBERT STIEVE | PHOTOGRAPHS BY JACK DYKINGA

f you’re wondering where Mother about anything else you’ll need to know. About the time you’ve finished your Nature spends her summers, this is It’s also a good place to stock up on first lemon-zucchini cookie, you’ll see the I it. The Grand Canyon, the vast mead- maps and Smokey Bear logo wear. Buy a remains of the Warm Fire, which was ows, the evergreens and aspens, the cool T-shirt. It’ll be a good reminder that only started by a lightning strike on June 8, breezes, the quiet … there’s nothing quite you can prevent forest fires. 2006. In all, it burned nearly 60,000 like the Kaibab Plateau and its 44-mile Although this drive technically acres between Jacob Lake and DeMotte parkway, which begins at Jacob Lake. begins at Jacob Lake, the approach to Park. Despite the loss of life, a new gen- Named for Jacob Hamblin, a Mor- that point is pretty impressive, too. eration of aspens is quickly taking over. mon pioneer known as the “Buckskin From Flagstaff, the route winds north It helps mitigate the damage. Apostle,” Jacob Lake is home to the old- over the Navajo Nation, crosses the Col- Moving on, the plateau gradually est existing ranger station in the United orado River south of Page, parallels the rises to a point where Douglas firs and States. It’s also home to the Jacob Lake spectacular Vermilion Cliffs and eventu- white firs take over. The dense mixed- Inn, a small place that’s big on making ally climbs into the pines at Jacob Lake. conifer forest is an ideal place to spot cookies. The chocolate-chip and peanut- From there, the road heads south for wildlife. Be on the lookout for mule deer, butter cookies are as good as any cookies a few miles through a gorgeous stand wild turkeys, chukars, coyotes, Kaibab anywhere, but if you’re up for something of ponderosa pines and quaking aspens. squirrels and maybe even a California different, try the lemon-zucchini. Cook- There’s something comforting about a condor. Animals, animals, animals … ies are a must, and so is a visit to the Kai- drive in the trees. Whatever it is, you’ll Teddy Roosevelt was so impressed with bab Plateau Visitor Center. It’s located get that feeling along this stretch. The the nature of things around here that he Game Preserve in 1906. This might even at the North Rim of the national park, course, one of the seven natural won- next door to the inn, and it offers parkway, by the way, follows an old officially named it the Grand Canyon be where he picked up his big stick. which features some great hikes, picnic ders of the world. No wonder Mother information on the surrounding national livestock trail that was used by Mormon Heading south, the forest changes areas, the Grand Canyon Lodge and, of Nature spends her summers here. forest, Marble Canyon, the Kanab Creek settlers and early visitors to the Canyon, BELOW: A small pond reflects the colors of sunrise once again near Crane Lake. Here, at DeMotte Park along the North Rim Parkway. and Saddle Mountain wilderness areas, some of whom carved their initials into OPPOSITE PAGE: Young ponderosa pines and Engelmann spruce and subalpine firs camping, hiking, pine cones and just the defenseless aspens. mature aspens grow near the road. rule the roost. Perhaps even more enjoy- able, though, are the large, grassy mead- ows. If you haven’t made any photos up to this point, get your camera ready. This is where the deer and the antelope play — so to speak. Also, if you have the time, head off on one of the adjacent for- est roads. They make spectacular side trips, and some of them will take you all the way to the various rims of the Canyon. Back on the parkway, near the border of the Kaibab National Forest and Grand Canyon National Park, you’ll come to the remains of another fire. The damage from the Outlet Fire is less evident than what you’ll have seen back at the Warm Fire site, but it’s enough to make you glad you bought that Smokey T-shirt. From there, you’ll eventually arrive KEVIN KIBSEY

SCENIC tour guide DRIVES Note: Mileages are approximate. National Park. The rim itself is 14 miles farther south. of Arizona’s Best Back ADDITIONAL READING: 40 Roads LENGTH: 30 miles one way (to the park entrance) VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: None For more adventure, pick up a INFORMATION: North Kaibab Ranger District, 928-643- copy of our book Scenic Drives, DIRECTIONS: From Flagstaff, go north on U.S. Route 89 for which features 40 of the state’s 110 miles to U.S. Route 89A (25 miles south of Page). Turn 7395 or www.fs.usda.gov/kaibab most beautiful back roads. To left onto U.S. 89A and continue 55 miles to Jacob Lake. Travelers in Arizona can visit www.az511.gov or dial order, visit www.shoparizona The scenic drive starts on State Route 67 at Jacob Lake and 511 to get infor­ma­tion on road closures, construc­tion, Edited by Robert Stieve highways.com/books. and Kelly Vaughn Kramer continues for 30 miles to the entrance of Grand Canyon delays, weather and more.

52 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 53 hike of the month

Baldy Wilderness. Looking around, you’ll understand why this area was Although this trail leads to one of the highest summits in granted the ultimate protection. Of West Baldy Trail the state, it’s what you see along the way that makes it so course, that also makes this one of the special. BY ROBERT STIEVE busiest stretches of the trail, but as the hike gets a little tougher, the crowds thin out. saturated meadow, sun-shaped in the sky. It’s a great place for hikers, places in the Apache-Sitgreaves National After about an hour, the trail enters and jewel-small; a circle scarcely too, especially the West Baldy Trail. For Forests. a thick forest dominated by spruce, ‘ ‘A wider, than the trees around peak-baggers in Arizona, this hike is one The first 2 miles of West Baldy cut firs and aspens — other than a few were tall.” Robert Frost had a way with leg of the Triple Crown — along with through a series of wide alpine meadows small meadows, the trail won’t break words. He also had a knack for finding Humphreys Peak near Flagstaff and Escu- and follow the West Fork of the Little out of the timber until the top. At the Mother Nature’s simple beauty. As a New dilla Mountain near Alpine. For every- Colorado River, which is dotted with 90-minute mark, you’ll cross a stream Englander, most of his inspiration came body else, it’s an easy way to sample the beaver dams. You’ll get your first glimpse and begin a series of steep switchbacks from places like Vermont and New Hamp- best of the backcountry. Corkbark firs, of the water after about 15 minutes. Five — overall, the hike won’t kill you, but

shire. Had he spent a little time in Ari- ponderosa pines, white firs, Engelmann minutes later, you’ll enter the Mount the altitude and the distance do have an DONALD C zona, he might have found a similar muse spruce, 5 miles of trout streams, lush effect. Moving on, the trail continues its in the magnificent White Mountains. meadows, black bears, deer, mountain BELOW: The West Baldy Trail follows ascent to a hillside covered with fallen the West Fork of the Little Colorado River

Like rural New England, the White lions and a cool, wet climate (the tem- logs. Big logs. Lots of logs. Imagine ROBERT G. M through wide alpine meadows. Mountains are an inspiration for poets — perature rarely tops the 70s in the sum- OPPOSITE PAGE: The trail offers views of what it would look like if Paul Bunyan plenty of meadows and trees and birds mer) make this one of the most beautiful White Mountain Apache Tribe land to the south. had spilled a giant can of giant Lincoln Tribe boundary. The summit of Baldy top are spectacular. It’s more of Mother Logs. That’s what comes to mind, but in Peak is on tribal land, and it’s open only Nature’s simple beauty. Sit back and reality, the dead trees are the victims of to tribal members. You’ll be tempted enjoy. That’s what Robert Frost would bark beetles, which clobbered the area to “sneak” to the top; however, this is have done. during the height of the drought in 2002 sacred land, and it must be respected. and 2003. Bears seem to like this area, Trespassers who ignore the boundary too. Be on the lookout. are subject to fines and could have their From there, the switches continue packs confiscated. ADDITIONAL READING: For more hikes, pick up a copy of through an endless stretch of gorgeous If you’re a peak-bagger, here’s the good our newest book, Arizona High- evergreens, which are interspersed with news: The highest point of the ridge isn’t ways Hiking Guide (#AGHS5), which features 52 of the state’s boulders the size of station wagons — Baldy Peak (11,403 feet) but an unnamed best trails — one for each one looks like Abe Vigoda. Eventually, area (11,420 feet) on Forest Service land to weekend of the year, sorted by seasons. To order, visit www. West Baldy merges with the East Baldy the north. If you’re not a peak-bagger, the shoparizonahighways.com/ Trail near the White Mountain Apache news is even better: The views from the books.

trail guide LENGTH: 14 miles round-trip DIFFICULTY: Moderate ELEVATION: 9,287 to 11,420 feet TRAILHEAD GPS: N 33˚57.888', W 109˚30.071' DIRECTIONS: From Eagar, go west on State Route 260 for 18.7 miles to State Route 273. Turn left onto SR 273 and continue south for 8.6 miles to the trailhead at Sheeps Crossing. VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: None DOGS ALLOWED: Yes (on a leash) HORSES ALLOWED: Yes USGS MAP: Mount Baldy INFORMATION: Springerville Ranger District, 928-333- 6200 or www.fs.usda.gov/asnf LEAVE-NO-TRACE PRINCIPLES: • Plan ahead and be out all of your trash. prepared. • Leave what you find. • Travel and camp on • Respect wildlife. durable surfaces. • Minimize campfire • Dispose of waste impact. DAWN KISH DAWN KEVIN KIBSEY properly and pack • Be considerate of others.

54 JUNE 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 55 where is this?

TO PHOENIX Win a collection of our most popular books! To enter, correctly iden- tify the location pictured at left and email your answer to editor@ arizonahighways.com — type “Where Is This?” in the subject line. Entries can also be sent to 2039 W. Lewis Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85009 (write “Where Is This?” on the envelope). Please include your name, address and phone number. One winner will be chosen in a random drawing of qualified entries. Entries must be

NICK BEREZENKO postmarked by June 15, 2015. Only the winner will be notified. The Dead Ringer correct answer will be posted in our August issue and online at It’s been nearly a century since this school bell summoned children to class. These days, it seems to attract www.arizonahighways. woodpeckers. The historic building atop which it sits was made from Mogollon Rim pine logs and featured com beginning July 15. an organ and a wood-burning stove. It’s been restored and is open to the public on summer weekends.

56 JUNE 2015