AUGUST 2017

ESCAPE • EXPLORE • EXPERIENCE

EXPLORE THE SAN FRANCISCO PEAKS

Special Collector’s Issue � 2 EDITOR’S LETTER 32 ARIZONA’S TIP TOP 46 HART IS WHERE THE HOME IS 52 SCENIC DRIVE A story originally published in our August 1954 issue. For more than a thousand years, people Chevelon Canyon Lake: The Mogollon Rim gets 3 CONTRIBUTORS Grand Canyon By Weldon Heald have been flocking to the western flank of busy this time of year, especially at Woods Can- National Park Photographs by Josef Muench the San Francisco Peaks. First it was the yon Lake. However, not far from there, along a 4 LETTERS San Francisco Peaks Cohonina people, who hunted the area scenic road lined with giant ponderosas, is an 5 THE JOURNAL 38 WHERE THE WILD ORCHID GROWS around A.D. 600. Later came Frank Hart, for isolated lake that’s every bit as beautiful. Flagstaff whom the prairie is named. He was followed By Noah Austin August People, places and things from around the The number is counterintuitive, but Arizona ranks Chevelon Canyon Lake by the Dillmans, the Wilsons and, eventually, Photographs by Nick Berezenko state, including a history of the Bee Line third in the nation in terms of plant diversity, with PHOENIX The Nature Conservancy, whose Hart Prai- Alpine Dragway; roadrunners, which are members nearly 5,000 different species. Of that number, rie Preserve is home to the world’s largest Mesa of the cuckoo family; the Toasted Owl in more than 800 grow in the San Francisco Peaks, 54 HIKE OF THE MONTH grove of Bebb willows. 2017 Flagstaff; and a flashback to Sheeps including Franciscan bluebells, mountain monar- Joe’s Canyon Trail: Of the five trails in Coronado Willcox By Kathy Montgomery Crossing in 1967. dellas, monkeyflowers, graceful buttercups and an National Memorial, the best is arguably Joe’s Coronado orchid commonly known as hooded lady’s tresses. Canyon, which winds through waves of grama National Memorial 16 THE BIG PICTURES: There’s a lot to see in the mountains, so we sent grasses that dispel stereotypes and come alive our writer and photographer out to have a look. with the summer rains. POINTS OF INTEREST IN THIS ISSUE THE SAN FRANCISCO PEAKS By Annette McGivney By Robert Stieve A Portfolio Edited by Jeff Kida Photographs by Eirini Pajak 56 WHERE IS THIS? 28 FROM A DISTANCE An Essay by Kelly Vaughn GET MORE ONLINE www.arizonahighways.com

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◗ A desert tortoise makes slow and steady progress in Florence, southeast of Phoenix. Eirini Pajak CANON EOS 5D MARK II, 1/400 SEC, F/5.6, ISO 100, 220 MM LENS

FRONT COVER: San Francisco Peaks illustration by Chris Gall

BACK COVER: Government Prairie, a verdant grassland northwest of Flagstaff, offers a view of the distant San Francisco Peaks. Shane McDermott NIKON D3S, 1/6 SEC, F/16, ISO 100, 19 MM LENS

2 OCTOBER 2015 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

ANNETTE McGIVNEY is out in the wild, in search of the real thing. He Annette McGivney has lived AUGUST 2017 VOL. 93 NO. 8 has a reputation among naturalists in the South- in Flagstaff since 1996 and west for hiking far and fast — and for disproving 800-543-5432 says the San Francisco Peaks widely accepted assumptions about Arizona’s www.arizonahighways.com were part of what drew her plants.” GIFT SHOP: 602-712-2200 there. “I hike often in the This trip was no different. Almost immedi- Peaks — almost daily in the ately, in Lockett Meadow, the guerrilla spotted PUBLISHER Win Holden summer months,” she says. an orchid, and another flower he’d never seen EDITOR Robert Stieve But before tackling Where the For the most determined before. Later, they powered into the Inner Basin, ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, Wild Orchid Grows (see page DIRECTOR OF mountaineers, conquering the “Seven Summits” where they found and photographed Franciscan SALES & MARKETING Kelly Mero 38), McGivney wasn’t all that

is an irrepressible obsession. Mount Everest, bluebells, mountain monardellas and monkey- MANAGING EDITOR Kelly Vaughn familiar with the plants that grow on the mountains. “I wanted to get the insider’s view of the Peaks from the botanists and indigenous peoples who have an intimate connec- Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Mount Elbrus, flowers. But what they really wanted to find was ASSOCIATE EDITOR Noah Austin tion to the plants,” she says. “I was surprised to learn of the tribes’ complex rituals and Vinson Massif, Carstensz Pyramid ... those are a graceful buttercup. EDITORIAL the prerequisites for being considered an elite “With its alluring name and delicate yellow ADMINISTRATOR Nikki Kimbel beliefs surrounding the plants on the Peaks. I knew the tribes viewed the plants — and climber. They’re the seven highest mountains on the world’s seven continents. flowers,” Annette writes, “the graceful buttercup PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Jeff Kida the mountains — as sacred, but I didn’t realize the extent to which that relationship

“There is a queer urge in some people,” Weldon Heald wrote in our August has become something of an obsession for me. In CREATIVE DIRECTOR Barbara Glynn Denney impacts them. It’s as if the plants are a relative they must visit at certain times of year,

1954 issue. “To see a mountain is to want to get to the top of it. I am one of all of Arizona, it grows only in a few places high ART DIRECTOR Keith Whitney and care for in a certain way, for their own well-being — and for that of the plants.” these eccentrics with a bad case of mountainitis. The only known cure is a on the San Francisco Peaks.” McGivney’s spiritual place on the Peaks is a meadow high above the Kachina Trail. “It’s MAP DESIGNER Kevin Kibsey diet of high camps, vast panoramas and lofty summits against the blue sky.” Mountainitis. an off-trail slog through hip-high ferns and grasses,” she says, “but the view is spec- PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Michael Bianchi Our writer was being seduced by the San Francisco Peaks. Turns out, While Annette was searching for a holy grail tacular, and I always have it to myself.” McGivney has two books coming out later this WEBMASTER Victoria J. Snow there are seven summits up there, too. However, there’s no club of elite in the Inner Basin, Kathy Montgomery was on the year, one on a murder at the Grand Canyon and the other on building wood fires. mountaineers intent on climbing them. In fact, with the exception of map- other side of the mountain, on the western flank CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Nicole Bowman makers, forest rangers and maybe a few locals in Flagstaff, I doubt there are of the San Francisco Peaks, seeking out another FINANCE DIRECTOR Bob Allen many Arizonans who can even name all seven. The one everyone seems to unique plant. Hers, however, was easy to find. OPERATIONS/ IT MANAGER Cindy Bormanis know is Humphreys Peak, the highest point in the state. The other six are For more than two decades, Hart Prairie Pre- Agassiz, Fremont, Doyle, Schultz, Abineau and Rees. serve has protected what is thought to be the CORPORATE OR As a whole, Mr. Heald wrote in Arizona’s Tip Top, “the San Francisco Peaks world’s largest and southernmost grove of Bebb TRADE SALES 602-712-2018

exert a special allure to mountain addicts, for they rise abrupt and isolated willows. The Nature Conservancy, which owns SPONSORSHIP SALES more than a mile above piney Coconino Plateau and they look down upon the preserve, first learned about the bushy trees REPRESENTATION On Media Publications Todd Bresnahan everything else in the state. Wherever one goes in the Canyon Country, each in the early 1980s. Back then, the prairie was 602-445-7169 sweeping view includes the stately outline of this huge, old, peak-topped vol- owned by Dick Wilson, who, as a dutiful steward cano, its summit snows often appearing to float in the sky like a silver cloud.” of the land, agreed to protect the plants. Then, in LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] Ironically, despite the story’s headline, Mr. Heald never actually writes 1994, he took it a step further and donated the 2039 W. Lewis Avenue about the highest point in the state. The “tip top.” And it’s not clear whether entire property to The Nature Conservancy. Phoenix, AZ 85009 he ever made it. He does, however, make it to the timberline, which he In Hart Is Where the Home Is, you’ll learn more describes as “an exhilarating no-man’s-land between the familiar world of about the willows, and also the colorful human GOVERNOR Douglas A. Ducey vegetation below and the fascinating and mysterious arctic realm of rock, history of Hart Prairie, which served at differ- DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT snow and ice of the high peaks.” ent times as a hunting ground, a potato farm, a OF TRANSPORTATION John S. Halikowski “But the regions above timberline,” he adds, “are by no means as deso- sheep pasture, a cattle ranch, a stagecoach stop EIRINI PAJAK

late as they first seem, and I came upon many diminutive gardens of bright and the state’s first Arabian horse breeding facil- Arizona Highways® (ISSN 0004-1521) is published month- Arizona Highways readers mostly know Eirini Pajak for her stunning photos of Arizona’s alpine flowers, grasses and ferns in the lee of sheltering rocks. They grew ity. Today, it’s mostly quiet. A living laboratory ly by the Arizona Department of Transportation. Subscrip- plants. That made her a natural fit forWhere the Wild Orchid Grows (see page 38), tion price: $24 a year in the U.S., $44 outside the U.S. which explores the botany of the San Francisco Peaks — a place Pajak has visited only four to six inches high, and the largest covered a few square feet, but where a lucky few get to sit in Adirondack chairs, Single copy: $4.99 U.S. Call 800-543-5432. Subscription they were as lush and verdant as if they were daily cared-for and irrigated.” watch the seasons change and contemplate the cor­respon­dence and change of address information: Ari- several times to photograph wildflowers. “Although I majored in photography in col- Although it’s counterintuitive, Arizona ranks third in the nation in terms seven summits of the San Francisco Peaks. It’s a zona Highways, P.O. Box 8521, Big Sandy, TX 75755-8521. lege, after I graduated, I stopped taking pictures and started trying to learn everything Periodical postage paid at Phoenix, AZ, and at additional of plant diversity, with nearly 5,000 different species. Of that number, more remarkable experience. But it’s risky, too: To see a mailing office.CANADA POST INTERNATIONAL PUBLI- I could about the nature around me, especially plants,” Pajak says. “I read about the than 800 grow in the San Francisco Peaks. To get a sense of the diversity, mountain is to want to get to the top of it. And if CATIONS MAIL PRODUCT (CANA­DIAN DISTRIBUTION) ethnobotanical uses of every plant I found, and when I moved to Arizona from Cali- we sent writer Annette McGivney and photographer Eirini Pajak up the you sit in those chairs too long, you might come SALES AGREE­MENT NO. 40732015. SEND RETURNS TO fornia, one of the first things I did was try to learn all the plants that grew around my QUAD/GRAPHICS, P.O. BOX 456, NIAGARA FALLS ON L2E mountain. Their guide was a nontraditional botanist from Northern Arizona down with a bad case of mountainitis. Beware. 6V2. POSTMASTER­ : Send address changes to Arizona new home.” And when Pajak picked up her camera again in 2010, plants were her main University. Highways, P.O. Box 8521, Big Sandy, TX 75755-8521. Copy­ focus. For this month’s story, she accompanied writer Annette McGivney and botanist right © 2017 by the Ari­zona Department of Trans­­por­­tation. Glenn Rink on what she calls “the most strenuous hike I had ever done,” to the Peaks’ “Glenn Rink is a guerrilla botanist,” Annette writes in Where the Wild Repro­duc­tion in whole or in part with­­out permission is pro- Orchid Grows. “While more traditional scientists are in their labs, staring at ROBERT STIEVE, EDITOR hibited. The magazine does not accept and is not respon- Snowslide Spring. Shortly thereafter, she tackled the Humphreys Trail on her own. computer screens and studying DNA models and species databases, Rink Follow me on Instagram: @arizonahighways sible for un­solicited ma­ter­ials. “I was unused to the altitude and all loaded up with gear,” she says. “It took me all day. I’m not sure I’ve learned my lesson yet, but I’ve been thinking a lot more about travel- PRODUCED IN THE USA ing with less.” — NOAH AUSTIN

2 AUGUST 2017 PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL MARKOW PHOTOGRAPHS: EIRINI PAJAK (2) www.arizonahighways.com 3 LETTERS [email protected] THE JOURNAL

The Big Pictures: AFTER OUR MANY YEARS LAKE POWELL A PORTFOLIO EDITED BY JEFF KIDA of wonderful boat-camping trips on Lake Powell, my wife thought it was time to pay back the lake. She was a volunteer on True GRIT houseboat trips. She also was a volun- An afternoon thunderstorm looms over Lake Powell’s Padre Bay. When full, the lake is 186 miles long and has nearly 2,000 miles of teer on Trash Tracker trips, during which shoreline. Gary Ladd the volunteers cleaned up old campsites and the shoreline of the lake. After 54 years of marriage, my wife passed away in January of this year. She would have enjoyed your May 2017 issue about Lake Powell. An afternoon thunderstorm looms over Lake Powell’s Padre Bay. When full, the lake is 186 miles long and George Cannon, Prescott, Arizona has nearly 2,000 miles of shoreline. Gary Ladd

16 MAY 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 17

May 2017

n regard to your column [June 2017], I literally drop what I was doing to look reconsider tossing us directly into the recycle bin. am sure you know that the oldest trees inside. I’ve watched a lot of changes in If not, please know that cover photographs will I (4,000 to 5,000 years old) in the world, recent years — some necessary, others be back in January. which were discovered by University of merely capricious. But, please, please Arizona scientists, are called bristlecone stop with the cartoon art covers. With n late June of 1968, a friend of mine and pines, and they are located in the White the thousands of real places to pho- I were driving back to New Orleans Mountains of California. tograph and the interpretation of the I from a two-week stay in California. Gil Thibault, Ph.D., Laguna Beach, California photographers who do such incredible We stopped on an Arizona back road work, please give us back real cover to get some sleep. We got up before ’ve just read the great articles in the photographs that impel us to open dawn — it was still pitch black — and June 2017 issue [Explore the Santa the magazine. These cartoony things made coffee. The desert silence was I Catalinas]. In a straight line, our Tucson really just lead me to toss the maga- haunting. Above us were thousands and home is less than 12 miles from the top zine aside — sometimes directly into thousands of stars. For a long while, of Mount Lemmon. About 20 years ago, the recycle bin. there was nothing, then a dark gray researchers from the University of Ari­ Brenda Harman, Sandy, Utah became deep purple turning into scarlet- zona’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research crimson. Then orange became bright found a living Douglas fir that began life EDITOR’S NOTE: Thank you for your feedback, gold. The stars had by then vanished in the Catalinas around A.D. 1320. Ms. Harman. Although I can understand why only to reappear as sparkling diamonds Jim Zuelow, Tucson you might prefer photographs, this isn’t the first in the mountains. I have never forgotten time we’ve featured artwork (not cartoons) on those moments — a wonderful memory s a collector of old, classic Arizona our covers. We have a long and distinguished recalled by a good friend in Mesa who Goodnight Highways issues, I was glad that I fol- history of featuring some of the West’s great- was so kind as to give me a subscrip- A lowed up with a subscription for 2017. est artists there, including Maynard Dixon, Ted tion to Arizona Highways. Being grateful Moonscape My heart doctor has a long-standing DeGrazia and many more. In addition, in our for one’s life and loving friends is the The colors of Coal Mine subscription in his office. Would you experience, we’ve learned that doing the same only true attitude to life. Of course, you Canyon’s lunar landscape believe I couldn’t wait for my next office exact thing month after month after month have to slow down to see, hear and feel come to life at sunset. Visit- visit? It was in his office that I saw the bores most readers. Not you, it seems, but most. where you are to find out who you are. ing or camping at the canyon, promotion for the forthcoming special Furthermore, when you’ve been around for 93 Congratulations to you and your staff on located east of the Navajo collector’s issues. Chris Gall’s cover years, as we have, it’s important to mix it up at a superb magazine. Nation town of Tuba City, artwork will make this series “the col- times. At least, that’s what we think. So, we’re The Rev. Victor John Gustitus, Marburg, Germany requires a permit from the lectibles of the 21st century.” doing something a little different with our cov- tribe’s Cameron Visitor Center to the southwest. For more David P. Miller, Rochester, New Hampshire ers in 2017. But only the covers. The inside pages If you have thoughts or com- contact us information, visit the Navajo haven’t changed at all. They’re still filled with ments about anything in Arizona Highways, we’d Parks & Recreation website, ’ve been a subscriber since 1987. the regular mix of great stories and stunning love to hear from you. We can be reached at editor@ arizonahighways.com, or by mail at 2039 W. Lewis www.navajonationparks.org. Sometimes just looking at the cover photographs. In fact, I think we have close to Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85009. For more information, CANON EOS 60D, 1 SEC, F/16, ISO 100, I could soothe tension, and I would 50 photographs inside every issue. I hope you’ll visit www.arizonahighways.com. 11 MM LENS

4 AUGUST 2017 PHOTOGRAPH BY JOEL HAZELTON around arizona J

Willcox Playa

NOAH AUSTIN

About 15,000 years ago, during the most recent ice age, Willcox Playa — shown here shrouded in fog at sunrise — was Lake Cochise, which covered 140 square miles and was more than 40 feet deep. These days, with only about 18 inches of precipitation per year, the lakebed’s sur- Visitors explore the face water is limited to shallow ponds that monument near Faraway Ranch in form after heavy rains or snows. But those the 1920s. ponds attract a variety of wildlife, such as thousands of sandhill cranes, which migrate to the Willcox Playa Wildlife Area and other Southeastern Arizona sites for the fall and winter, then return north in the spring. The cranes are the centerpieces of the Wings Over Willcox festival, held every January in nearby Willcox. But even if you miss the sandhill cranes, the scenery is nice, too: The Dos Cabezas Mountains, which loom over the playa, are named for the twin peaks atop the range, and their history includes a mention in Rex Allen Jr.’s Arizona, the alternate state anthem.

NEAR WILLCOX www.cityofwillcox.org

6 AUGUST 2017 PHOTOGRAPH BY RANDY PRENTICE www.arizonahighways.com 7 J history photography J

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

■ Frederick A. Tritle, governor of the Arizona Territory from 1882 to 1885, is born in Pennsylvania on August 7, 1833. ■ On August 9, 1909, a party that includes pro- fessor Byron Cummings becomes the first white men to see Betatakin Ruin on the Navajo Nation. The ruin is part of Navajo National Monument. ■ Tucson conducts its last legal public execution on August 14, 1908. The A racer burns rubber on the Bee Line Dragway near Mesa in the 1960s. hanging of Edwin Hawkins, a convicted murderer, is Bee Line Dragway delayed so Hawkins can receive a reply to a tele- Built in 1963 on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the Bee Line Dragway gram he sent his wife. hosted some of the sport’s most famous racers. But its time as a racing hub was short: ■ On August 24, 1929, By the early 1980s, it had lost its lease and was shut down. a woman in Willcox is reported to have killed 13 NOAH AUSTIN rattlesnakes in her yard Under the watchful eye of Karen Shell (far right) and other professionals, Kids in Focus participants learn using a shovel and a hoe. the tricks of the photography trade. ntil recently, motorists on State Association’s Winternationals in January. In Q&A: Karen Shell Route 87 just north of Mesa could a film about the 1965 “Winternats,” nearby PHOTO EDITOR JEFF KIDA see a decaying, graffiti-covered peaks, such as Sawik Mountain and Mount structure south of the highway. McDowell (commonly called Red Mountain), 50 YEARS AGO IN ARIZONA HIGHWAYS You wouldn’t know it today, but are clearly visible. “The scenery is quite dif- JK: Your organization, Kids in JK: How does the program work? years, I’ve bought all the cameras. PHOTO U Focus, pairs at-risk children with KS: During the program, our men- I want the kids to continue with that building marked the site of the Bee Line ferent,” the narrator notes, “but the track’s WORKSHOP Dragway, a key component of the Valley of the the same: straight.” He adds that “the nation’s professional shooters to teach tors devote one afternoon a week photography after the program, so Sun’s auto racing history. top cars, drivers and mechanics assembled them about photography. Tell us to working with kids. We have they keep the cameras. I’m hoping In 1963, local entrepreneur and drag racing to compete for cash and merchandise awards about Kids in Focus. one mentor for every two kids, so to eventually partner with a cam- champion Jim Rodgers built the quarter-mile totaling more than $90,000.” KS: I’ve been working with at-risk there’s a lot of one-on-one learn- era sponsor. drag strip on land leased from the Salt River But the Bee Line’s time as a racing hub was kids for almost as long as I’ve been ing. We go out on field trips to do Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. With short: By the early 1980s, it had lost its lease making photos. Kids in Focus grew some shooting, and at the end JK: How does learning photogra- Ranching seating for 2,000 spectators and a pit area big and was shut down. Newer racetracks, such out of work I did with a group of of the program, the kids’ work phy affect these kids? Arizona enough for 300 cars, it quickly became the as Avondale’s Phoenix International Raceway students at the Pappas School, appears in a public exhibition. As KS: I’m truly amazed at the differ- October 19-22, Phoenix area’s premier racing destination, and Chandler’s Wild Horse Pass Motorsports which is now Children First Leader- the program has grown, we’ve also ences I see. Kids who previously White Mountains hosting events on summer Saturday nights Park (formerly Firebird International Race- ship Academy, in Phoenix. All the been able to display their photos were anxious and angry are sud- Photographer Scott and winter Sundays. way), took over, and today, the Chandler facil- The August 1967 issue of students there are at or below the at other locations in the Phoenix denly a lot calmer, because they Baxter, whose career has focused on the Arizona Highways focused poverty line, and most of them are area, including the state Capitol have a healthy way to express Legendary racers, including Don “Big ity hosts the Valley’s drag races. American West, helps Daddy” Garlits and Don “The Snake” Prud- The building that remained visible from on the Navajo Nation and homeless. I would do whatever I and the airport. themselves. Kids who were dark participants capture homme, burned rubber at the Bee Line. But SR 87 was the Bee Line’s timing tower, used its inhabitants’ connection could — hang out in class, try and and withdrawn are a lot more the authenticity of locals got in on the action, too, as Rodgers, to gauge the speed of those old GTOs and to their “harshly beautiful” help them learn to read — and JK: Where does the camera gear open and connected. I see a lot of the land, livestock and people at the who also managed the facility, told The Arizona Impalas. But it became a popular canvas for land. The issue discussed eventually, I thought, I want to try come from? improvement in their confidence X Diamond Ranch, a Republic in 2010. “There were a lot of people graffiti artists, and in the fall of 2014, it was artists who had found teaching them photography. That KS: We tried using disposable and in how they view themselves working cattle ranch from Mesa racing” their muscle cars, includ- torn down. inspiration in Navajoland; group of kids was my first Kids in cameras and donated point-and- and each other. It’s transformative. near Greer. Informa- tion: 888-790-7042 they included Ted DeGra- Focus group. I formed the non- shoot cameras, but those didn’t ing Pontiac GTOs, Chevrolet Impalas and Ford That left only a weathered patch of dirt To learn more about Kids in Focus, visit www or www.ahpw.org Mustangs, he said. and asphalt, visible in satellite photos, as a zia, whose painting of a profit organization in 2012. work very well. For the past few .kidsinfocus.org or email [email protected]. The drag strip hosted major events, such reminder of the days when Mustangs — the Navajo weaver graced the as several editions of the American Hot Rod mechanical ones — ran wild in the desert. magazine’s front cover. To learn more about photography, visit www.arizonahighways.com/photography.

8 AUGUST 2017 PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF J.R. BLOOM PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP, LEFT JASON GRUBB TOP, RIGHT BRYAN KINKADE ABOVE, RIGHT SCOTT BAXTER www.arizonahighways.com 9 J from our archives [May 1967]

The theme of Arizona Highways’ May 1967 issue was Let’s Go Fishing in Arizona, and photos of the state’s fishing locations included Darwin Van Campen’s shot of an angler along the Little Colorado River at Sheeps Crossing in the White Mountains. Other featured spots included Sycamore Creek, the East Verde River and Lake Mead. In addition to Van Campen, longtime Arizona Highways icons such as Ray Manley, Dick Dietrich and Robert B. Whitaker contributed to the portfolio.

10 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 11 J dining nature J

The Toasted Owl focus instead on healthy, fresh ingredi- ents. The breakfast tacos, for example, Although the Toasted Owl’s décor is wonderfully mismatched — every table, pack a punch with minimal yet flavor- chair, plate and coffee cup is different — the food is consistently delicious. In ful ingredients such as black beans, soy Bobcats particular, the breakfast tacos and chai-spiced pancakes. chorizo and house-made salsa. For people Bobcats (Lynx rufus) are found through- with hollow legs, there are chai-spiced out Arizona — this one was spotted near ANNETTE McGIVNEY pancakes as large as dinner plates. A Happy Jack, between Payson and Flag- staff. They’re notorious for wandering lunch menu features burgers, sandwiches into backyards on the outskirts of urban THE THREE THINGS Cecily Maniaci vaguely reminiscent of the 1970s and and salads. Pastries are made fresh every areas in search of shelter, water or a food says she loves most in life are owls, food with a handwritten price tag attached, morning, and gluten-free, dairy-free, source, such as small pets or livestock. and vintage furniture. She used to joke hang from the ceiling. Every table, chair, vegan and vegetarian breakfast and lunch Healthy bobcats, which top out at about with friends that her dream was to run plate and coffee cup is different. “I have options are available. 35 pounds, pose almost no threat to a business somehow involving all three been finding treasures for the restaurant The restaurant is also kid friendly, humans, according to the Arizona Game passions. In November 2015, that dream everywhere I go, which brings me such with bins of toys and owl books that and Fish Department. If you do need to became an unlikely reality when the happiness,” she says. “We sell a lot of children can take to the table while their make a bobcat leave your property, use Toasted Owl restaurant opened in down- lights, plates, and salt and pepper shak- parents enjoy a mimosa from the full loud noises or a spray from a garden hose town Flagstaff. ers to people who come here to eat.” bar. And a large, dog-friendly patio faces to scare it off. Otherwise, just enjoy its Located along the original align- And Maniaci isn’t the only person who Mike’s Pike Street, formerly part of Route visit. — Noah Austin ment of Route 66 in Flagstaff’s historic is owl crazy. Restaurant patrons bring 66. On sunny summer afternoons, the Southside neighborhood, the restaurant her all kinds of owl décor, including patio is filled with customers sitting in is unique not only for its owl theme, but vases, lamps and figurines, which line tacky lawn furniture, basking in the sun also because it doubles as a vintage store. shelves above windows covered with owl and, shall we say, toasting the owl. The It’s furnished with pieces Maniaci has curtains. The restaurant also recently business has been so successful, in fact, collected from antiques shops — along held an owl art contest, and customers that Maniaci opened a second location on with a wide assortment of owl knick- voted to select the winners. the east side of town in February. knacks — and everything is for sale. The Toasted Owl’s décor is wonder- “I have to pinch myself every morning Maniaci says she sought to create a fully mismatched, but the food is consis- when I wake up to know that this is not space with a “homey and eclectic atmo- tently delicious. Breakfast, served all day, a dream,” Maniaci says. “It just goes to sphere.” But that’s an understatement. reflects Maniaci’s culinary tastes, which prove that if you do what you love, then Some 25 different chandeliers, each one steer away from greasy Tex-Mex fare and everything else will follow.”

FLAGSTAFF The Toasted Owl, 12 S. Mike’s Pike Street, 928-774-5326, www.thetoastedowl.com

12 AUGUST 2017 PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN BURCHAM PHOTOGRAPH BY KATHY RITTER www.arizonahighways.com 13 J lodging

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Alpine Inn Bed & Breakfast Ann recalls. “We said, ‘You know what? We’re going to do this.’ ” Even the name sounds inviting, but what’s inside is the real draw, including The Mastersons remodeled the inn’s comfortable rooms decorated with European antiques and a breakfast menu three guest rooms, updating the bath- that features a flatbread dish made with smoked sausage, roasted peppers, rooms and expanding the showers. They caramelized onions, an egg and a sweet chile sauce. bought high-quality linens and towels, installed antiques they brought back KATHY MONTGOMERY from Germany, and spent several days in each room, discovering things that ANN MASTERSON WAS 8 when she 19th century home, with 9-foot ceilings, didn’t work and making changes. decided to eat her way across Europe. a porch and bay windows. Under their ownership, the inn devel- After she grew up, she did. That’s Ann and her husband, Burke, both oped a loyal clientele of mountain bik- quickly apparent to anyone who sets retired Army vets, had no intention of ers, birders, nature photographers and foot inside the Alpine Inn Bed & Break- becoming innkeepers. They were looking anglers, even after the Wallow Fire dev- fast, where photos of those culinary for a small seasonal cabin where Burke’s astated the Alpine area’s tourism during Houseboat/Powerboat Rentals Lodging adventures pepper the walls. father could spend his summers. But their second year. Antelope Point Marina, Lake Powell, AZ Grand Canyon Lodge – North Rim, AZ It’s also apparent from the inn’s every property they pursued fell through. The most popular guest room is the Callville Bay Marina, Lake Mead, NV Parry Lodge, UT breakfasts, which include made-from- Their real estate agent insisted they Noble Mountain Suite, overlooking the Cottonwood Cove Marina, Lake Mohave, NV 877.386.4383 scratch breads and muffins, as well as look at the B&B. They loved the early mountain for which it was named. The 800.255.5561 Mormon Lake Lodge, AZ 928.354.2227 Ann’s unusual signature dish: flatbread 20th century post-and-beam barn and large, comfortable room contains a king- spread with cream cheese and chives, fruit cellar constructed with wood from size sleigh bed, private balcony, writing Rafting and topped with smoked sausage, historic Fort Bush. But the large, well- desk and seating area with matching Black Canyon River Adventures, NV roasted peppers, caramelized onions, an equipped kitchen clinched the deal. recliners. 800.455.3490 egg and a sweet chile sauce. The Mastersons still weren’t sure Since hosting their first guests, the Situated just off U.S. Route 180 in the they wanted to run a B&B when they Mastersons haven’t looked back. Now, remote White Mountains community hosted their first paying guests — two from April through Veterans Day, they of Alpine, the inn is an easy walk from returning couples who had met on a host people from all over the world who the small town’s shops and restaurants. previous stay — on July 4, 2010. To their enjoy the fruits of their labor — not the ForeverResorts.com Built as a B&B in 2001, the two-story surprise, they loved it. least of which are some of the best building was designed to resemble a “We had the best weekend ever,” breakfasts in town. facebook.com/travelforeverresorts

ALPINE Alpine Inn Bed & Breakfast, County Road 2053, No. 3, 520-678-5043, www.alpineinnaz.com Forever Resorts is an authorized Concessioner of the USDA Forest Service, the National Park Service and the Department of Interior to serve the public in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Antelope Point Marina is owned and operated by Antelope Point Holdings L.L.C., an authorized Concessioner of the National Park Service, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. 14 AUGUST 2017 PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN BURCHAM The Big Pictures: THE SAN FRANCISCO PEAKS A PORTFOLIO EDITED BY JEFF KIDA

Amid lightning strikes, an opening in the clouds illuminates the San Francisco Peaks, as viewed from a field of wildflowers north of the mountains. Guy Schmickle 16 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 17 Evening light illuminates blowing grasses on Fern Mountain, a small hill in Hart Prairie. In the background are the San Francisco Peaks’ Humphreys Peak (left) and Agassiz Peak. Joel Hazelton

ABOVE: The leaves of a thick stand of aspens display their autumn hues along the Aspen Loop Trail. This easy hike begins at the Arizona Snowbowl parking lot. Shane McDermott

RIGHT: Clouds and rain shroud the distant Peaks on a summer evening. This view is from a wetland on Anderson Mesa southeast of Flagstaff.Tom Bean

18 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 19 Evening light illuminates blowing grasses on Fern Mountain, a small hill in Hart Prairie. In the background are the San Francisco Peaks’ Humphreys Peak (left) and Agassiz Peak. Joel Hazelton

Ponderosa pines grow amid purple and red wildflowers on a hillside in the Peaks in summer. Shane McDermott

20 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 21 Evening light illuminates blowing grasses on Fern Mountain, a small hill in Hart Prairie. In the background are the San Francisco Peaks’ Humphreys Peak (left) and Agassiz Peak. Joel Hazelton

AMERICAN CONSERVATION EXPERIENCE American Conservation Experience is a nonprofit organization that recruits and trains volunteers to work on environmental restoration projects in America’s national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and other public lands. Founded in Flagstaff in 2004, it has since expanded to bases in California, Utah, North Carolina and American Samoa. The work, however, takes place all across the United States. In all, ACE offers four programs. The largest, which is based on the conservation corps model, is open to young Americans ages 18 to 25 who are considering land management as a career path or a potential course of study. Corps members are supported during their three- to 12-month service terms with cost-of-living stipends, food on projects and free common housing on off days. More importantly, most members will have an opportunity to work side by side with professionals from the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other stewards of our national public lands.

For more information, call American Conservation Experience at 928-266- 6960 or visit www.usaconservation.org.

ABOVE: With the Peaks in the distance, the calm water of a wetland reflects nearby evergreens and the colors of sunrise. The mountains are the eroded remains of a stratovolcano that last erupted hundreds of thousands of years ago. Shane McDermott

ABOVE, RIGHT: American Conservation Experience volunteers learn to use a crosscut saw in the shadow of the snow-capped Peaks. Keean Ruane

22 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 23 Evening light illuminates blowing grasses on Fern Mountain, a small hill in Hart Prairie. In the background are the San Francisco Peaks’ Humphreys Peak (left) and Agassiz Peak. Joel Hazelton

LEFT: Lupines grow beneath a starry sky in Hart Prairie, located west of the Peaks. Claire Curran

ABOVE: Beneath the Peaks’ iconic profile, elk enjoy the vegetation at Kachina Wetlands south of Flagstaff. The wetlands, fed by treated waste­ water, also attract a variety of bird species. Douglas W. Koepsel

24 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 25 Evening light illuminates blowing grasses on Fern Mountain, a small hill in Hart Prairie. In the background are the San Francisco Peaks’ Humphreys Peak (left) and Agassiz Peak. Joel Hazelton

The cinder-covered landscape of Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument offers a view of the Peaks during a monsoon storm near sunset. Shane McDermott

26 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 27 FROM A DISTANCE AN ESSAY BY KELLY VAUGHN

Lightning strikes between the distant San Francisco Peaks and Lomaki Pueblo at Wupatki National Monument, located northeast of the Peaks. Guy Schmickle

28 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 29 he rain started as a mist. It ended that way, too. In shoe, ski-mountaineer, so they became a place of opportunity. between, though, it was something so violent, the moun- Years since, and so much older now, I’ve neither skied nor T tains seemed to huddle and shrink beneath it. snowshoed nor ski-mountaineered in Arizona. These are the Although nature teaches us that water is elemental softness, things for the list in my head. For now, I run to the Peaks in when it pairs with a hammering wind and the energy of light- other seasons. And always, from that highway moment I see ning, it becomes the slicing, abrasive blade that renders sweet, them rise over the rest of the landscape or peek through the beautiful lines against Earth’s skin. Canyons. Valleys. The start clouds, my head clears a little. of something long ago and future still. One August, I joined a small group of old and new and now This was a wild late-September storm — built, it seemed, long-lost friends for my first hike to the summit of Humphreys from the belly of the sky. A great rumbling thing, I’d have to Peak. Cresting a hill on Interstate 17, I saw the Peaks beyond drive through it if I hoped to get home to Phoenix before dark. the burnt-orange mesas of Sedona. Even from that distance, my It frightened me. heart began to race again. I knew that the trail ahead of me Still, I went, because the idea of home was stronger than the would be difficult, despite having trained for it — climbing to weather. I had been to the Vermilion Cliffs and Marble Canyon, an elevation of 12,633 feet requires lungs I wasn’t sure I had. had explored the long reaches of the state, had eaten too little Hours later, I learned I did, crossing beyond the tree line in too many days. In short, I was done with it. and up into the swirling fog that danced from Doyle Saddle to Evening light illuminates blowing But the rain was just beginning. the summit. From the top, the world below looked so much grasses on Fern Mountain, a small hill in Hart Prairie. In the background are For hours I drove south and west a little. Bold pellets of bigger than it does when you’re standing in it, and I smiled the San Francisco Peaks’ Humphreys water pounded the windshield. Visibility was just an idea. The when I realized we were above the birds that circled a few Peak (left) and Agassiz Peak. sky rattled and shook. And the car pushed against the squall. hundred feet below. Joel Hazelton Northeast of Flagstaff, though, somewhere on the Navajo As we made our way down the trail, feet and knees feeling Nation, the clouds and I rested. I pulled off the highway and the push, the group was mostly quiet. But when we re-entered onto a wide spot and watched as the sky spun itself semi-clear. the forest, switchbacking down toward that lush summer After a few minutes, there was a lull in the metronomic meadow that signals the end of the journey, a woman from tempo of the windshield wipers. And I could see — miles away, another group screamed into her cellphone, and her mother still — the rise of the San Francisco Peaks. yelled back. Finally, I barked at her, and the woods were Home. Home. I am nearly home, my thoughts as the road hushed again. Birds only, the dull echo of footsteps and breath. opened up. If you wouldn’t yell into a receiver in a cathedral, you shouldn’t yell into a receiver in the wild. Being there is akin, to IN REALITY, IT’S A LITTLE more than 150 miles some people, to being in a place of worship. from my house to the roads that lead to the Peaks — Hum- phreys, Agassiz, Fremont, Abineau, Rees, Schultz, Doyle. Still, IN THE TIME SINCE that first visit to the Peaks, I’ve and from that great distance, I consider the mountains a sort returned often: to camp at Freidlein Prairie; to journey with my of spiritual home. Not in the sense that they are to Arizona’s children along the segment of the Arizona Trail I first ran with Native people, who believe the Peaks to be sacred, ceremonial, a famous endurance athlete; to climb again alone, and with the home of their Katsinam, but rather in the sense that they family and friends, that peak I first saw decked in snow. are, for me, where I woke to the idea of marrying my life to Each time I’m there, I feel a change in my body, in my brain. wilderness somehow. It’s an opening, an awakening, a new sense of calm. A reason That happened because I saw them — when I was so much to return. younger than I am now — topped with the whip of winter snow. Just recently, I was driving again. A long loop around North- I hadn’t seen the white stuff in so long, having been bred Central Arizona. I could see the Peaks from I-17, of course. of the Arizona desert, of New Orleans, of Texas. And I don’t From Lake Mary Road. From State Route 89A. On Interstate 40, remember why I was going to Flagstaff or where I was going gusts of wind blew thick clouds of dirt across the windshield, after, but I do remember how that snow made me believe that and I could taste sand. I was stressed and tired, racing once maybe the Peaks were a place to visit when I needed to breathe, more against the dark. that maybe I could do things there that I couldn’t do in the city. Then, near Winslow, I saw them. And remembered that the I learned later that you could ski within the Peaks, snow- road home wasn’t so long.

During a monsoon storm near the San Francisco Peaks, wildflowers grow at Government Prairie west of the mountains. Shane McDermott

30 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 31 FROM OUR ARCHIVES: Originally published in August 1954 Ariz–on a’s TiP Top By Weldon Heald photographs– by josef muench

here is a queer urge in some people — to see a mountain is to want to get to the top of it. I Tam one of these eccentrics with a bad case of mountainitis. The only known cure is a diet of high camps, vast panoramas and lofty summits against the blue sky. That is the best reason I can give for spending five days atop northern Arizona’s San Francisco Peaks. There I played Zeus upon Olympus, far above the busy world of men, and came down satisfied — until the next mountain rose skyward before me, beckoning. But the San Francisco Peaks exert a special allure to mountain addicts like me, for they rise abrupt and isolated more than a mile above piney Coconino Pla- teau and they look down upon everything else in the state. Wherever one goes in the Canyon Country,

EDITOR’S NOTE: Weldon Heald was a frequent contributor to Arizona Highways in the middle of the 20th century. He also wrote poems, plays, screenplays and several books, including Yellow and purple wildflowers The Arizona Scenic Guide and Sky Island. Although Natt Dodge sprawl beneath the cloud- first conceptualized the phrase “sky island” in a story he wrote cloaked San Francisco Peaks in for us in March 1943 (the Chiricahuas are a “mountain island in summer. Northern Arizona a desert sea”), it was Mr. Heald who popularized the term, which University Cline Library describes an isolated mountain surrounded by a radically dif- ferent lowland environment. Ironically, the San Francisco Peaks are not considered a sky island, but Mr. Heald embraced the Northern Arizona mountain range just the same.

32 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 33 East of the snow-capped Peaks, piñon and ponderosa pines grow amid the cinders of Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. Northern Arizona University Cline Library

each sweeping view includes the stately outline of this huge, old, pack, and faced the barren summit of Agassiz Peak, looming sion and I expect I did too. We looked at each other for a few ing grunts. Neither of them saw me, but apparently Papa had peak-topped volcano, its summit snows often appearing to float three thousand feet above. moments. Then the bear decided to leave and he slid down warned his family that a dread human was in the offing and in the sky like a silver cloud. It was a pleasant walk up the sloping, sunny meadow in the the tree with the speed of a fireman on a brass pole, chunks to get going. Having heard at my mother’s knee and elsewhere It was inevitable. I had to go. fresh morning air. But near its head I cut up through a somber of dead bark flying in all directions. At the bottom he took to that it is wisest to let mama bears and their cubs transact the So I started from Flagstaff one early morning in July and spruce forest to the west ridge of Agassiz Peak. It was here that the woods and lumbered off at top speed, grunting like an business of living undisturbed, I stayed perfectly quiet. Little drove the winding road which climbs through pine, fir and I began to realize that this was going to be a long, tough pull enormous pig. He was a big fellow with a light cinnamon coat, by little the cub made his perilous descent, crying all the while, aspen forests to the Arizona Snow Bowl, winter sports center, and I went into low gear, plodding slowly up the ever-steepen- weighing maybe 350 pounds, and as I plodded along upwards until he finally reached the ground and hastily followed Mama 9,300 feet up on the western flank of the peaks. Now it was a ing ridge. I was just as pleased that he had voted to leave this part of the into the heavy spruce thickets. It looked as if my sojourn into long, green, aspen-fringed meadow slanting down the moun- After an hour I stopped in an opening at about 10,500 feet to mountain to me. the San Francisco would be far from lonely. tainside to the plateau below. Butterflies were busy among rest and enjoy the tremendous view westward over the plateau But I hadn’t gone a quarter of a mile when I was brought up At 11,000 feet the heavy spruce-fir trees began to thin, the the blue lupines, and rock squirrels frisked about collecting below. Suddenly I heard a loud scratching sound behind me. I sharply by a sound like a baby crying. I cautiously moved for- trees became stunted, and five hundred feet higher the final groceries for a long, hard winter. As I parked the car a cool, looked around and saw what I at first thought was a porcupine ward and soon spotted a little bear cub far up in a spiry alpine treeless, chocolate-brown cone of Agassiz Peak rose into the mountain-scented breeze stirred the aspen leaves in an excited high in a dead spruce. But it wasn’t. It was a bear’s head peer- fir. He was wailing piteously in a voice so human it was star- deep blue sky. To mountain enthusiasts timberline is an exhila- whisper. I took a deep breath, shouldered my thirty-pound ing at me around the trunk. The bear had a startled expres- tling. Below stood Mama Bear looking up and giving encourag- rating no-man’s-land between the familiar world of vegetation

34 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 35 overturned and the cinders dug into whatever rarefied mice or cast their polka-dot shadows on the land beneath. But it was insects live in that lofty spot. Here I ate my lunch as if perched late afternoon when I dropped down into Doyle Saddle and in an observation balloon. made camp. The panorama was utterly magnificent, sweeping in every I couldn’t have picked a more delightful spot. Here, between direction over mountains, forests and deserts to the rim of Agassiz and Fremont, at an elevation of 11,250 feet, were the the world, 150 miles away. South was busy Flagstaff, like a toy greenest of meadows spread with wildflowers and dotted with village, 5,400 feet below, and beyond stretched the vast pine groves of spruce and fir. The mountain dropped steeply on woods and prairies of the Coconino Plateau. The Santa Fe Rail- both sides, giving tree-framed vistas of peaks, valleys and the road and Highway 66 were thin lines lightly scratched across wide-spreading plateau far beneath. The only thing this high- the country. Far to the north the Grand Canyon showed as a perched Elysium lacked was water, but I soon found a frozen great gash, and further east the round, blue hump of Navajo supply in a lingering snowbank a couple of hundred feet below. Mountain dominated the varicolored buttes, mesas and pla- For four days this was home, and I slept under the stars, teaus of the Indian country. Eastward lay the entire expanse of cooked my meals, and sat by my evening campfire in that perfect the fiery-hued Painted Desert, backed by New Mexico’s distant peace that is found only in Nature’s unspoiled places. At such Chusco Mountains. Roundabout swept the semicircle of the times we mountain addicts experience a sort of sustained, dis- San Francisco Peaks, with soaring Humphreys Peak, 12,611 feet embodied elation that is perhaps akin to the effect of a drug. [sic], Arizona’s highest point, rising a mile and a half to the Our senses and mental perceptions become keener and infinitely north, and Fremont Peak, 11,940 feet [sic], the third of the trio, more pleasurable than in the heavy, humanity-charged atmo- below to the east. But the previous winter had been exception- sphere below. Possibly this explains mountainitis, possibly it ally dry and the usual extensive July snowfields were com- doesn’t, but all lovers of the high places will know what I mean. pletely lacking. Only a few tiny snow patches lingered under Each day I explored the summits and wandered the lofty shady, north-facing cliffs. ridges of the grand semicircle of peaks, and dropped down The San Francisco Peaks form a climatic island in the sky through the forest to inspect the once-fiery heart of the moun- differing greatly from the semiarid region below. Here are ani- tain at Core Ridge. One night, too, I sat atop Fremont Peak in mals, birds, plants and flowers typical of northern Alaska or the frosty, crystal-clear air and watched the moon rise and Greenland, and from Agassiz’ summit I could look down over flood the world with a spectral silver radiance. Three times I five of western North America’s seven life zones, compressed met my bear friends, and they came to accept me as a harm- into the space of a few miles. The weather up top is truly less fellow mammal — inspecting me calmly and unhurriedly arctic-alpine, with deep winter snows and freezing nights going about their business. throughout the summer. The last morning, as I was packing my knapsack, I heard The immense, isolated mountain is a dead volcano which a call, and a man approached the camp. He carried a shiny probably once rose 3,000 feet higher than now. Countless .30-06 high-power rifle almost as long as he was. He broke into centuries of erosion have scored its slopes with ravines and a torrent of Spanish, patted his gun proudly, and pointed into gouged out a deep valley into the heart of the old cone from the woods. My Spanish is of the California real estate variety, the east. Round the valley’s head the volcano’s rim has been mostly consisting of such phrases as Mar Vista and Loma Alta, cut into a horseshoe of ragged summits which form the present but I did catch the words oso and carnero as they flew by. I San Francisco Peaks. In the depths of this great gash is Core gathered that he was a Mexican sheepherder out to get a bear Ridge, consisting of the four former volcanic vents that built that had been bothering his woolly charges. That my moun- the mighty mountain. During the Pleistocene Ice Age a small taintop bears had done any such thing I didn’t believe for a glacier flowed eastward down the valley from the rim of peaks, moment, and I suspected the little man simply wanted to have and its moraines can still be seen for a distance of four miles. some sport with his new rifle, for which he must have paid six The last event to disturb the serenity of this secluded valley months’ wages. was a disastrous fire which destroyed a magnificent stand of Had I seen any bears, he demanded. Engelmann spruce in 1876. A new forest is beginning to clothe Yes, I admitted, I had. Early-autumn snowfall on the Peaks is reflected in a pond surrounded the slopes with aspen thickets and thousands of pointed- Where had I seen them? he asked excitedly. by wildflowers.Northern Arizona University Cline Library topped young spruces. I saw them on the east slope of Fremont Peak. And I care- A couple of Cassin’s purple finches — I think they were fully pointed to the spot. — visited me and hopped about chittering a lively song, and “Gracias,” he grinned, showing all his teeth. He started up below and the fascinating and mysterious arctic realm of rock, verdant as if they were daily cared-for and irrigated. Among several yellow butterflies fluttered up the west side and over the ridge, then turned and held up the rifle. “Boom! Boom!” snow and ice of the high peaks. My spirits rose as I slowly the flowers, I was particularly surprised to find the light-blue, the summit. Otherwise I had the mountaintop to myself. Just he shouted. “Oso muerto!” The little man laughed heartily and tracked past the last windblown spruces, some of them bent cup-like clustered blossoms of the sticky polemonium, or Sky by chance I spotted Papa, Mama and Baby Bear, looking little disappeared. almost flat among the bare lava blocks. Pilot. This is a far-distant southern outpost for this hardy bigger than brown ants, crossing the rocky saddle under I shouldered my pack and started down the mountain. Sure, But the regions above timberline are by no means as deso- inhabitant of the high Rockies. Humphreys Peak. They were probably returning home after I saw my friends, the bears, over on Fremont Peak. But that late as they first seem, and I came upon many diminutive At last the grade slacked off and a few easy steps brought me a day-long, cafeteria-style meal on the west side of the moun- was three days ago. I knew they were now on the north side of gardens of bright alpine flowers, grasses and ferns in the lee to the barren, stony summit of Agassiz, 12,340 feet [sic] eleva- tain. I don’t know how many hours I lingered there watching Humphreys Peak in the opposite direction. of sheltering rocks. They grew only four to six inches high and tion, second highest of the San Francisco Peaks. The bear fam- the kaleidoscopic change of colors over mountain and plateau, Dead bear! I should say not! I thought as I dropped rapidly the largest covered a few square feet, but they were as lush and ily had beaten me to the top that morning, for rocks had been while little cotton-white puffy clouds floated overhead and down from the high places back to civilization.

36 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 37 Hooded lady’s tresses (Spiranthes romanzoffiana) are one of several orchid species known to grow in the San Francisco Peaks area.

WHERE THE WILD ORCHID GROWS The number is counterintuitive, but Arizona ranks third in the nation in terms of plant diversity, with nearly 5,000 different species. Of that number, more than 800 grow in the San Francisco Peaks, including Franciscan bluebells, mountain monardellas, monkeyflowers, graceful buttercups and an orchid commonly known as hooded lady’s tresses. There’s a lot to see in the mountains, so we sent our writer and photographer out to have a look.

BY ANNETTE McGIVNEY PHOTOGRAPHS BY EIRINI PAJAK

38 AUGUST 2017 LENN RINK IS A GUERRILLA BOTANIST. While more traditional scientists are in their labs, staring at computer screens and study- ing DNA models and species databases, Rink is out in the wild, in search of the real thing. He has a reputation among naturalists in the Southwest for hiking far and fast — and for disproving widely accepted assumptions about Arizona’s plants. Rink’s old-school, boots-on-the-ground approach to botany has led to the discovery of new plant species and expanded known ranges for others. And he doesn’t just study plants; he experiences them. “I hike to look at plants,” Rink says as photographer Eirini Pajak and I traipse behind him. We are approaching a pond in Lockett Meadow where Rink suspects some BELOW: Deezchiil Benally, age 7, orchids might be hiding outside their usual habitat. joins her family on a trip to the San It’s the third week in August, and the high meadows in Northern Arizona’s San Francisco Peaks to collect plants for G Francisco Peaks are in the ecological equivalent of the over-full condition humans use in Navajo medicine. experience following Thanksgiving dinner. After two months of steady monsoon rains BELOW, RIGHT: Whipple’s penstemons and a nonstop pollen fest, the bees are in a food coma amid a profusion of spent flow- (Penstemon whippleanus) can be found in the Peaks’ alpine and ers and lush grasses bending under their own weight. subalpine zones. Once at the pond, Rink kneels in the grass and cups his hand around the delicate OPPOSITE PAGE: Below Snowslide white flowers he spotted at a distance. “Spiranthes romanzoffiana,” he declares — an Spring, botanist Glenn Rink stops to orchid commonly called hooded lady’s tresses. “But I have no idea what this is.” Rink take in the view, which includes the is now focused on a nearby flowering plant. He takes off his worn daypack and pulls Inner Basin and O’Leary Peak. out his “plant press,” a low-tech affair composed of two pieces of cardboard, some twine and newspaper. He places the mysterious plant between sheets of newspaper and sandwiches them between the cardboard. He’ll study it later. On this day, our quarry is the graceful buttercup (Ranunculus inamoenus), an elusive plant I’ve wanted to see for years. With its alluring name and delicate yellow flowers, the graceful buttercup has become something of an obsession for me. In all of Arizona, it grows only in a few places high on the San Francisco Peaks. And while species databases report its exis- tence, none of my many scientist friends in Flagstaff have ever seen it during their hikes. Unlike the common paintbrush and lupine, the graceful buttercup is stealthy. Its growing season is short, and it blooms during the peak of the monsoon, when hiking up to the plant’s possible hiding places is treacherous due to lightning danger. Yet the hazards don’t seem as daunting as the fact that even if I get to where the field guide says the graceful buttercup exists, I might not be able to recognize it. Despite two decades of hiking in the Peaks, my ability to identify the area’s plants is sorely lacking. I want to get to know this and other unique flora on the mountain. And, fortunately, the guerrilla botanist has agreed to help me. From Lockett Meadow, Rink, Pajak and I hike up a staircase of switchbacks toward the grassy bowl of the Inner Basin. Stands of closely spaced aspens form a ceiling of green leaves overhead, and the multitude of white trunks are dappled with shadows and sunlight. Rink frequently wades through knee-high ferns in the aspen stands to look at a flowering plant under a hand lens he carries around his neck. “It’s hard to get anywhere with a bota- nist,” Rink jokes when we’re back on the trail. Rink, 59, is far too absorbed in his sur- roundings to keep up with his reputation for speed hiking. After working two decades as a Grand Canyon river guide and studying geology in college, Rink changed gears and got a master’s degree in botany from North- ern Arizona University. “I liked to hike, and I wanted to know what I was looking at,” he explains of his fascination with South-

40 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 41 described six distinct ecological zones in Arizona that were defined by elevation and latitude. The San Francisco Peaks contain the upper four zones, each with its own distinct vari- ety of plant life. On our hike, we started in the ponderosa pine western flora. When he’s not out in the field, tracking down species, Rink is at NAU’s forest, then moved into the mixed conifer forest, and now Deaver Herbarium, cataloging the many specimens he’s collected. In the Southwest, we’re gasping for air as we climb to the top of the subalpine Soon enough, we stop to look at another plant: creeping Oregon grape (Berberis conifer forest. Making our way up a gulley of sharp volcanic repens). Its vines are draped over a lichen-covered cliff along the trail. There are plump the Peaks are an rocks, we look for signs of flowing water. In a place so close to berries growing next to the plant, and we pop a handful in our mouths. Rink points the treeless alpine tundra, a spring seems impossible. out that the creeping Oregon grape is a popular traditional medicine for the South- ethnobotanical But I spot increasingly large patches of green in between west’s Native American tribes, several of which have long used a decoction of the the rocks ahead and start to feel hopeful. Soon, we hear water plant’s roots to treat everything from bladder infections and venereal disease to scor- treasure chest unlike trickling over rocks and find ourselves standing amid a lush pion stings. carpet of yellow monkeyflowers. We stick our hands in the icy In addition to roving field botanists like Rink, those most familiar with the many water and follow the narrow stream toward its source, perched plant species on the San Francisco Peaks are members of the 13 Native American any other in the just below the tree line at the base of Agassiz Saddle. tribes that hold the mountains sacred. The plants not only comprise their traditional “Could there be a skunk up here?” I ask Rink, perplexed by a pharmacy but also are a tangible connection to their spiritual stronghold. Of the United States. sudden musky smell that fills my nostrils. more than 800 different vascular plant species growing in the “No,” he laughs. “It’s the Primula.” We are surrounded by area, 237 have medicinal or spiritual uses for surrounding tribes. Parry’s primroses (Primula parryi), which have beautiful hot- That’s according to a 2006 study by New Mexico-based ethno- pink flowers that emit a noxious odor. botanist Kristin Henningsen, who researched the connections We also come across mountain monardella (Monardella odo- between Peaks plants and Native American tribes for her mas- ratissima), an herb that smells refreshingly minty. Rink says it’s ter’s thesis at NAU. Henningsen’s extensive survey found more used by the Hopis as a tea and food spice. The Paiutes use it as than 1,300 applications of the area’s plants for all manner of a cold remedy and for indigestion. physical, emotional and spiritual ailments, as well as for cultural “Try this,” Rink says as he pulls fat green leaves off a plant ceremonies. with tiny lavender flowers. He puts a leaf in his mouth and “The San Francisco Peaks’ ethnobotanical … significance is offers another one to me. “It tastes like spinach,” he adds. unparalleled in the Southwest,” Henningsen writes, “and as The Franciscan bluebell (Mertensia franciscana) not only tastes lar pilgrimages to the Peaks to gather wild tobacco, flowers such, deserves the same reverence today that native peoples like spinach, it’s also a powerful plant used in traditional and spring water for ceremonial purposes. “Pilgrimages hap- have shown for thousands of years.” Navajo ceremonies. It serves as a fumigant to treat various ail- pen year-round, even in winter,” he said. But one of the most Many modern medicines trace their origins to plants. Aspirin ments and is rubbed on the body to protect against witches. important gathering rituals on the Peaks is the Home Dance. is based on a compound found in the perennial herb meadow- But so far, there’s no sign of the graceful buttercup. While Men meet in the village kiva to pray and then journey to the sweet, and morphine and codeine are still made from poppies. Rink walks around hunting for unusual species and Pajak Peaks to collect spruce boughs for the dancers to wear during Plus, many new anti-cancer drugs are derived from plants. Eth- makes photos of flowers, I sit on a rock next to the spring the ceremony. They adorn themselves with the alpine essence nobotany, the study of how plants are used by indigenous cul- and look east, upon the vast expanse of the Painted Desert of the mountain. tures for medicines and other purposes, is often associated with far below. Islands of pastel colors extend all the way to the During the Home Dance, I stood at the edge of the crowded the ecologically rich rainforests in the Amazon. But in the South- horizon, where the Hopi mesas sit like tabletops against the village square while others sat atop flat-roofed houses to get west, the Peaks are an ethnobotanical treasure chest unlike any blue sky. Just behind me, Humphreys Peak rises to 12,633 feet a good view. Dancers wore handmade sacred objects called other in the United States. and dark clouds congregate around its summit. A hawk circles Katsina friends, along with feathers and fox pelts. Wreaths of When we reach the Inner Basin, at an elevation of 10,000 feet, overhead as a soft, slow thunder sounds like drumbeats ema- spruce boughs were wrapped around their necks, and spruce it looks more like fall than summer. The flowers are few and far nating from within the mountain, rather than above it. I think branches protruded from armbands. The dancers shook gourds between, and the meadow is thick with tufts of green grasses about what Leigh Kuwanwisiwma told me a few weeks earlier intended to sound like rain and threw gifts of fruit and bread starting to turn gold. “The grasses are coming into their own,” during my visit to the Hopi village of Hotevilla-Bacavi atop into the audience to symbolize prayers for a plentiful harvest. Rink notes. He explains that all seed-bearing plants have flow- Third Mesa. The Hopis believe the rain allowing them to dry-farm in their ers. “Grasses are flowers. They’re just not very showy,” he says. “Our relationship with the Peaks is ancient,” he said. “We high-desert home emanates from snow on the Peaks. And it “When I first started fooling around with plants 20 years ago and have been utilizing the plants and all the resources of the doesn’t happen by accident. noticed that all plants had flowers, it opened up a whole new mountain for more than a thousand years. It is where the Katsi- “The Peaks are all about praying for rain,” Kuwanwisiwma world to me.” nas and the cloud priests live, and we pray to them for rain. said. “If we petition the cloud priests with respect and humil- The rest of our route will be off the trail, as we climb another We pray to sustain our way of life.” ity, our prayers will be answered.” 1,000 feet to a tiny oasis called Snowslide Spring. My extensive When the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort began making online digging turned up a few reports of the graceful buttercup UWANWISIWMA, THE HOPI TRIBE’S longtime cultural artificial snow from reclaimed water in 2012, Kuwanwisiwma being spotted here in July a few years ago. But Rink is worried preservation director, invited me to the Home Dance cer- said, it “put a dagger into Hopi spirituality.” For more than a ABOVE: Jones Benally explains the medicinal uses of some of the emony in late July in Hotevilla-Bacavi. The annual dance millennium, the tribe had maintained a sacred relationship that in our attempt to wait out the monsoon and avoid light- San Francisco Peaks’ plants to his granddaughter, Dyathi; his ning danger, we might have missed the window for seeing this Kis held in communities across Hopi land and is a ceremonial with the mountain so the cloud priests would reward it with son, Clayson; and Clayson’s infant daughter, Zonnie. Benally has sneaky plant, assuming that it was ever there at all. made traditional Navajo medicine his life’s work. send-off for the Katsinam — spirits that live on the Hopi mesas lifesaving moisture. And now, that miraculous moisture was Part of what makes the Peaks so ecologically diverse and OPPOSITE PAGE: The raggedy-looking San Francisco Peaks for part of the year, then return to their home on the Peaks. being churned out by a machine using water from Flagstaff’s unmatched as an ethnobotanical resource is their many “life groundsel (Packera franciscana) has been found high atop the Kuwanwisiwma said there are 12 ceremonial shrines on the toilets. But the pilgrimages to the Peaks, the ceremonies and zones.” In 1889, biologist Clinton Hart Merriam famously Peaks — and nowhere else. Peaks where Hopis give prayer offerings. He also makes regu- the prayers continue. The mountain still has medicine.

42 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 43 When I was watching the Home Dance, I kept my eye on the if it is OK to be picked. The plants know their purpose.” Peaks some 100 miles away, where the summits were cloaked As he watches his granddaughters walk through the in heavy, gray clouds. The dancers’ songs were like an echo meadow, looking for lobster mushrooms to put in their bas- that traveled uninterrupted from Third Mesa to the mountain kets, Jones leans on a tree root he’s using for a walking stick. and back. By the time I was walking to my car that afternoon, He looks up at Fremont Peak, where puffy rain clouds hug the it seemed the prayers had been heard. A curtain of rain drifted summit, and it occurs to him that I’m probably thinking too up from the south and across the Painted Desert to Hotevilla- narrowly about the concept of medicine. Bacavi. Fat, wet drops fell from the cloudless sky. “The medicine is for the wildlife, too,” he says. “Even the bees. We all use it.” RADITIONAL NAVAJO HEALER JONES BENALLY has been gathering plants from the Peaks for most of his HE MAGICAL OASIS OF SNOWSLIDE SPRING is a hard 80-something years. He’s not sure exactly how old he is, place to leave. But increasingly ominous skies above and Tbecause he was born in the Navajo community of Big Mountain below us, along with a chilly wind, are bringing our guer- before the days of birth certificates. Trilla botany expedition to a close. Despite hunting for the “I know I was born in the winter and on a Sunday,” he tells graceful buttercup for several hours, Rink, Pajak and I have me as we walk toward Schultz Tank at the base of the Peaks. had no luck. But Rink has collected, in his plant press, several I’ve joined the Benally family on a collecting trip to learn more interesting species he’ll study back at the herbarium. And Pajak about their connection to the mountain’s plants. With us are has infused her clothes with the skunky smell of Parry’s prim- Jones’ wife, Berta; son, Clayson; daughter, Jeneda; and three roses by lying on them to photograph other plants. grandchildren. Before hiking down, we eat a late lunch while looking out on When he was a boy, Jones learned how to use plants from the Painted Desert. From our 11,000-foot perch, we have all six his mother and grandfather, both medicine practitioners. He’s of Merriam’s ecological zones in view. Storm clouds seem to devoted his life to working as a traditional healer, offering slide down the Peaks and out onto the desert floor, where they plant medicine, prayers and ceremonies to patients. He came drift and dance, pulling a gray veil of rain behind them. out of retirement to treat patients at the Winslow Indian “I love being up here in this place on the planet,” Rink says. Health Care Center. He’s also internationally acclaimed for As we put things in our daypacks, sunlight pushes the performing hoop dance ceremonies. Now, Jones is passing the clouds apart between Rees and Doyle peaks below us. And knowledge on to his children and grandchildren. suddenly, a ribbon of color appears between these distant But it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the Benally fam- summits, giving us a rare view of a rainbow from above. ily to find undisturbed places on the mountain where they can We arrive at the Inner Basin at sunset, and the meadow carry out their traditions, due to numerous fires on the Peaks grasses are electric with golden light. There is no more time to and the snowmaking at Snowbowl. linger looking at plants if we want to make it back to the trail- “We are nervous to pick, because the medicine could be head before dark. But just before we head down into the aspen poisonous,” Jeneda says of places where fire retardant was stands, Rink sees something that stops us in our tracks. dropped on the landscape. And they believe the reclaimed “There it is,” he says. “Ranunculus.” The graceful buttercup. water used to make snow contaminates the plants on a spiri- The plant contains just a few green leaves on a tiny stem tual and physical level. But the family feels comfortable in areas rising from dead leaves along the side of the trail. There are of the Peaks that remain undisturbed by fire and development. no tiny yellow flowers. Rink says it looks like an elk ate the Evening light illuminates blowing Jones tells me how he’s used plants he gathered from the blooms. And it doesn’t surprise him that the plant is not where grasses on Fern Mountain, a small hill Peaks to effectively treat patients who were not helped by the computer databases say it’s supposed to be. Such is the in Hart Prairie. In the background are modern pharmaceuticals. I ask him what plants he used, imag- nature of guerrilla botany. the San Francisco Peaks’ Humphreys ining some obscure species in an inaccessible place. At dusk, we’re still about a mile from the trailhead, and it’s Peak (left) and Agassiz Peak. “Everything,” he says, motioning to what look to me like almost dark in the dense aspen stand. I see something black Joel Hazelton weeds along the road. “This is medicine. The medicine is every- moving between the trees. Rink and Pajak see it, too, and we where.” But, he says, the higher a plant is on the mountain, the stop to discern the creature in the fading twilight. more powerful its medicine is. I think of the graceful buttercup. It is a fat, adolescent black bear, leisurely walking through When we reach the far edge of the tank, the family spreads the woods about 100 yards away. We stand frozen and silent, a blanket in the grass. As they sit, Clayson pulls his traditional watching in fascination. The bear catches our scent and pauses drum out of a bag. Jeneda’s two daughters cradle Navajo bas- momentarily to stick its nose in the air. But it’s unconcerned. kets to hold what they gather. But first, they will sing as part of The bear drops onto its back and scoots across the ground, their ritual. pushing its snout into flowers and ferns, getting its fill of the “You have to pray before you get the medicine,” Jones says. mountain’s medicine. Then it scrambles back onto all fours and “And you can’t yank the plant out of the ground. You must ask it ambles down a hillside, into the darkness.

The Rusby’s milkvetch (Astragalus rusbyi) is known to grow only in two locations, both in the Flagstaff area. Its main population is on the south and west sides of the San Francisco Peaks.

44 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 45 Evening light illuminates blowing grasses on Fern Mountain, a small hill in Hart Prairie. In the background are the San Francisco Peaks’ Humphreys Peak (left) and Agassiz Peak. Joel Hazelton

Evening light illuminates blowing grasses on Fern Mountain, a small hill in Hart Prairie. In the background are the San Francisco Peaks’ Humphreys Peak (left) and Agassiz Peak. Joel Hazelton

Hart Is Where the Home Is For more than a thousand years, people have been flocking to the western flank of the San Francisco Peaks. First it was the Cohonina people, who hunted the area around A.D. 600. Later came Frank Hart, for whom the prairie is named. He was followed by the Dillmans, the Wilsons and, eventually, The Nature Conservancy, whose Hart Prairie Preserve is home to the world’s largest grove of Bebb willows.

46 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 47 CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Adirondack chairs in front of CRUBBED BY AN OVERNIGHT RAIN, THE AIR AT Hart Prairie Preserve’s Mariposa Lodge offer a stunning The Nature Conservancy’s Hart Prairie Preserve feels clean view of the San Francisco Peaks. Mark Skalny and crisp. Wet aspen leaves, like spent confetti, dot the Bebb willows (Salix bebbiana) are among the preserve’s porch at Mariposa Lodge. Before me, an island of aspens ecological wonders. The grove of the plants found here floats in a sea of tawny grasses. Upslope, an early-morn- is thought to be the largest and southernmost such ing cloud wreathes Humphreys Peak. On Agassiz Peak, community in the world. Tom Bean sunshine glints off Arizona Snowbowl’s chairlifts like The preserve’s old cabins are a testament to Hart a heliograph. Prairie’s extensive human history. Mark Skalny Mariposa Lodge stands at the heart of what is remarkable about this place: To the left are a cabin and outbuildings built by 19th century German homestead- ers, and to the right is the Bebb willow community the sanctuary protects. Even the lodge is on the National Register of Historic Places. Hearing a red-tailed hawk, I scan the sky but see nothing. Then, a Steller’s jay glides to the ground from a nearby aspen. I realize it must be the impersonator I heard about. Things here often are more than they appear. Yet Hart Prairie’s rich, layered history is on dis- play everywhere — if you know how to look for it. Located on the western flank of the San Francisco Peaks, Hart Prairie Preserve shelters a high-altitude meadow dotted with aspen groves and flanked by ponderosa pine forest. Its boundaries include what is thought to be the world’s largest and southernmost grove of Bebb willows and an unusual variety of scarlet gilias — showy strumpets of flowers that change color as the season progresses to seduce a shifting parade of pollinators. Generally closed to the public except for guided summer nature walks, the preserve is a living laboratory protected by The Nature Conservancy and is used to develop practices for managing the area’s natural resources. But Hart Prairie also records a span of human history that extends thousands of years. It served as, among other things, a hunting ground, a potato farm, a sheep pasture, a cattle ranch, a Hart Prairie records a span of human history that stagecoach stop and the state’s first Arabian horse breeding facility. Ancient hunters and Basque sheepherders left their marks here, and extends thousands of years. It served as, among at least one developer tried but failed. Frank Hart broke ground on Hart Prairie’s first permanent struc- other things, a hunting ground, a potato farm, a ture near the base of Fern Mountain in 1877, but he never finished sheep pasture, a cattle ranch, a stagecoach stop the one-room log cabin. Its four walls stood open to the heavens until 1882, when sheep rancher Augustus Dillman Freudenberger and the state’s first Arabian horse breeding facility. finished it and moved in. In the years he lived there, Dillman and his family — who dropped the Freudenberger name during World War I — built onto the home and added a barn and a root cellar. A blacksmith by trade, Dillman owned a Flagstaff brewery for a time but sold it to run OBBY JENSEN HAS LIVED AT HART PRAIRIE for decades and served as U.S. Forest Service archaeologist Peter Pilles says this area cattle and farm potatoes and hay at Hart Prairie. the preserve’s first manager. With a flowing silver beard, is rich with archaeological sites. The presence of potsherds From 1892 to 1901, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway apple-round cheeks and startlingly blue eyes, Jensen looks suggests this one was likely used by the Cohonina people, who ran a tourist stagecoach from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon. Begin- a bit like Kris Kringle. And with its harsh, snowy winters, hunted at Hart Prairie beginning around A.D. 600. Hunting ning its 12-hour ride from the Bank Hotel, the coach made the first Hart Prairie feels, at times, like the North Pole. parties may have stayed for a month or two — gathering obsid- of three stops at Dillman’s Fern Mountain Ranch to change horses. BStill, Jensen’s affection for the place is obvious as he gives ian at Government Mountain, then refining the stone into Dillman’s wife, Lena, a former housekeeper for the Babbitt family, me a tour of some notable spots, including a cluster of basalt sharp points and tools at the campsite. These boulders would served sandwiches and cold buttermilk to the passengers. boulders that marks the remains of a camp likely used by have supported branches to create a shelter. But while these early settlers became Hart Prairie’s first perma- Native American hunters. Hart Prairie’s other gems include dendroglyphs, or tree nent inhabitants, the area’s human history began much earlier. “There are smoke stains down here where they built a fire carvings, left by Basque shepherds who drove sheep through for warmth,” Jensen points out, explaining that he’s also found the area into the 1970s, and children’s forts in the central aspen potsherds, obsidian flakes and bones. grove — likely built up and modified over generations, much

48 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 49 Aspens with golden leaves frame an autumn view of Hart Prairie. Derek von Briesen

for a few years, Jensen ran the homestead as a retreat. Mean- while, The Nature Conservancy learned about the Bebb wil- lows and approached Wilson about protecting them. Named for 19th century biologist Michael Schuck Bebb, the small, bushy trees are not usually found so far south or in such great numbers. Wilson, who in the early 1980s had sold Muleshoe Ranch in Southern Arizona to The Nature Conservancy, agreed to safe- guard the rare trees. Then, in 1994, he took it a step further and donated the entire property — not just the acres containing the willows — to The Nature Conservancy. Jensen stayed on as preserve manager until his retirement in 2002.

OUNG AND FIT, BLAIR FOUST looks like the river guide and ski patroller he once was. Foust volunteered at Hart Prairie for five years before signing on as preserve manager in 2013. Today, his work includes maintaining and restoring the land, as well as caring for the historic structures. YElk grazing has made it difficult for the willows to repro- duce, so The Nature Conservancy recently collaborated with the Forest Service to plant 300 seedlings propagated at North- ern Arizona University. It’s also restoring the meadow where, after more than a century of fire suppression, ponderosa pines have encroached. “Each one is like a straw sucking up water from the ground,” Foust explains. Upslope pines could draw as much as 80,000 gallons in the course of a growing season, according to one estimate. A recent project removed more than 1,000 young trees from a corner of the preserve, with the goal of restoring pre-European- settlement conditions and increasing available groundwater for other plants, including Bebb willows. It’s too early to tell how the project affected groundwater, but the understory has responded well. “It used to just be litter and pine needles,” Foust says. “Now, we have grasses and all as their parents added to Hart’s cabin. Grand Canyon, Sunset Crater and Oak Creek. At the end of the Flagstaff via a 40-mile route. sorts of native flowers.” Jensen came to Hart Prairie through his connections with summer, each guest contributed a rhyme. One begins: “She realized if they knew it was only 16 miles to town, they The Nature Conservancy is now working with the Forest the Museum of Northern Arizona. Its founder, Harold S. wouldn’t stay, ’cause they had an outhouse they had to use, Service to extend that work beyond the preserve. Colton, bought the property from Dillman’s son in 1928 and I don’t mind answering dinner bells, and to heat water for a shower took all day,” he says. The organization also opens Hart Prairie to scientists and transferred it to Colton’s sister Suzanne. She and her husband, I don’t mind laying fence Dick Wilson, a University of Arizona professor, returned graduate students, including those from NAU’s Merriam- Robert T. Wilson, summered at Hart Prairie. They bought a And mucking in Fern Mountain wells to Hart Prairie one summer in the early 1970s to learn that a Powell Center for Environmental Research (named for biologist celebrated Army Remount Service stallion named Ribal and Makes just a grain of sense developer had quietly gotten initial approval to build a ski vil- Clinton Hart Merriam and explorer John Wesley Powell), to raised Arabian horses, making Fern Mountain Ranch the first lage on 327 acres nearby. Summit Properties’ plans included study how plants might respond to a changing climate. in Arizona to do so. But somehow, it is just a crime town houses, a shopping area, a golf course and a new ski lift. A pioneering eco-scientist, Merriam studied the area’s plant The Wilsons built Mariposa Lodge in the 1930s and invited When one’s brain needs a rest Wilson hired a lawyer and assembled a coalition — mem- and animal life from a nearby base camp to develop his theory friends to spend summers. Their guests helped with building To struggle to produce a rhyme bers of the Navajo and Hopi tribes, which consider the San of life zones. So, in a way, The Nature Conservancy has brought projects, including the cabins that dot the property. A photo At cruel Suzanne’s request Francisco Peaks sacred — to oppose the development. The Hart Prairie full circle, continuing the scientific inquiry Mer- album kept from 1934 to 1950 documents these visits with pho- highly public dispute raged for years. Ultimately, “Snowbowl riam began here in 1889. tos, sketches and verse. Jensen came to Hart Prairie after the Wilsons’ son, Dick, Village” was never built, and Summit Properties sold the land The Wilsons gave their Eastern friends a Western experi- and his wife, Jean, inherited the property. But he heard plenty to the Forest Service. For more information about Hart Prairie Preserve, call 928-779-6129 or visit ence — teaching them to rope and ride, and taking trips to the of stories about “Aunt Susie,” who brought her guests from Wilson hired Jensen in the late 1970s to act as caretaker, and www.nature.org/hartprairie.

50 AUGUST 2017 www.arizonahighways.com 51 scenic DRIVE

CHEVELON CANYON LAKE The Mogollon Rim gets busy this time of year, especially at Woods Canyon Lake. However, not far from there, along a scenic road lined with giant ponderosas, is an isolated lake that’s every bit as beautiful. BY NOAH AUSTIN / PHOTOGRAPHS BY NICK BEREZENKO

sive ponderosas line the road, which watch out for loose rocks along the way. the lake’s cool water and enjoy the views. soon begins to twist and turn as it gains After about 20 minutes, you’ll reach the The hike back up to the campground is elevation. After 12 miles on FR 169, you’ll north end of the lake, which the Arizona no joke, so this is also a good time to turn right onto Forest Road 169B, and Game and Fish Department created by enjoy some beef jerky or a Clif Bar. But here, you’ll realize why a high-clearance damming Chevelon Creek in 1965. Pon- don’t eat any roots, no matter how tasty vehicle is required for this drive. The derosa pines cling to the steep walls of they look. rolling, deeply rutted road will put your Chevelon Canyon, which cradles this suspension to the test if you’re going too roughly 200-acre reservoir. fast, so take it easy — the trek on this Because of the hike required to reach SCENIC road is less than 2 miles to Chevelon it, Chevelon Canyon Lake draws only the DRIVES of Arizona’s Best Back Canyon Lake Campground. most determined anglers, but those who 40 Roads ADDITIONAL READING: For more adventure, pick up Park at one of the dispersed campsites, do visit find rainbow trout (which are a copy of our book Scenic then walk down the old road (closed stocked twice a year) and brown trout Drives, which features 40 of the state’s most beautiful back to vehicles) that leads to the lake. It’s a (which are wild). If you’re not in the roads. To order, visit www.shop Edited by Robert Stieve steady descent of less than a mile, but mood for fishing, just dip your toes in and Kelly Vaughn Kramer arizonahighways.com/books.

TOUR GUIDE Note: Mileages are approximate. ometime in the 1800s, the story ideal summer destination via a leisurely Here, the road turns to dirt as it LENGTH: 22 miles one way (from State Route 260) goes, a trapper and scout by the 22-mile drive, and a bit of a hike, through winds through thick forests of ponderosa DIRECTIONS: From Payson, go east on State Route S name of Chevelon found himself at Rim Country. pines. You’ll see aspens, too, including a 260 for 29 miles to Forest Road 300. Turn left onto a creek that ran through a narrow canyon From State Route 260 east of Payson, big stand of them around Mile 5.5. Keep FR 300 and continue 8.3 miles to Forest Road 169. Turn right onto FR 169 and continue 12 miles to Forest Road on present-day Arizona’s Mogollon Rim. go north, then west, on Forest Road an eye out for elk and black bears, along 169B. Turn right onto FR 169B and continue 1.7 miles He also found some roots that looked 300 (also known as the Rim Road). Three with Abert’s squirrels, which you might to Chevelon Canyon Lake Campground. From there, it’s a moderate hike of about 0.8 miles to Chevelon tasty. And maybe they were, but they vistas along the road provide spectacular see darting across the road. Canyon Lake. also were poisonous. So he died. Right views off the Mogollon Rim, and on a At Mile 8.3, turn right onto Forest VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: A high-clearance vehicle is there on the bank of the creek. clear day, you can see the Hellsgate Wil- Road 169, which passes several campsites required. That’s according to Lorenzo Sitgreaves, derness, the Sierra Ancha and even the spaced between designated wildlife WARNING: Back-road travel can be hazardous, so be aware of weather and road conditions. Carry plenty of who learned of Chevelon’s plight during Four Peaks to the distant south. After areas, where camping is prohibited. Mas- water. Don’t travel alone, and let someone know where his 1851 expedition. It’d probably be little a few miles, you’ll reach the turnoff for you are going and when you plan to return. consolation to the ill-fated trapper, but Woods Canyon Lake, and on a summer ABOVE: Chevelon Canyon Lake is the payoff to INFORMATION: Black Mesa Ranger District, 928- today, both the creek and the canyon weekend, most of the traffic will likely a pleasant drive and short hike on the Mogollon Rim. 535-7300 or www.fs.usda.gov/asnf OPPOSITE PAGE: Forest Road 300 winds between Travelers in Arizona can visit www.az511.gov or dial are named for Chevelon, as is Chevelon be headed that way. Instead, continue on ponderosas and a stand of aspens on the way to 511 to get infor­ma­tion on road closures, construc­tion, Canyon Lake — a secluded reservoir and FR 300 as it curves to the north. the isolated lake. delays, weather and more.

52 AUGUST 2017 MAP BY KEVIN KIBSEY www.arizonahighways.com 53 HIKE of the month

JOE’S CANYON TRAIL Of the five trails in Coronado National Memorial, hummingbirds, an elusive Mexican species that shows up in the summer. the best is arguably Joe’s Canyon, which winds through waves of grama The park has coatimundis, too, but the grasses that dispel stereotypes and come alive with the summer rains. chances of seeing any are slim. After 30 minutes of overall hiking, BY ROBERT STIEVE you’ll arrive at the ridge. From there, the climb continues, but it’s more gradual as the trail moves past an impressive alliga- oronado National Memorial isn’t and Mexican period miners and ranchers, you’ll see a saddle-like ridge that sepa- tor juniper, crosses a wash and arrives at the smallest national park in the Native Americans, early Anglo-American rates the east and west ends of the trail. a high point. Look south. The spectacular C state, but compared with some of mining entrepreneurs and homesteaders In the space between, you’ll pass chollas, views will make you wonder: Is that really the others — Organ Pipe, Petrified For- crossed paths.” manzanitas and waves of grass punctu- Mexico? It’s so green. It looks more like Ecua- est, Grand Canyon — it’s definitely on Although its history is colorful, the ated by wildflowers. dor. Indeed, it’s hardly the stereotype the smaller side. What it lacks in acreage, park itself is quiet, with just over Just beyond the turn, the trail crosses that misrepresents the terrain along the however, it makes up for in history. And 100,000 visitors a year. Most of those a narrow wash that feeds a string of border. it begins with the name: Coronado. folks are drive-throughs. And some are hardy Arizona white oaks. That’s fol- Moving on, you’ll get a glimpse of the The location of the park, Joseph P. San- hikers. lowed by a series of long zigs and zags. narrow road that winds through the mountain mahogany. Agaves, yuccas and historic parks, this one is without arti- chez writes in his book Coronado National Of the five trails in the park, Joe’s Can- The track here is rocky, and as you park and come to an intersection with sotols grow on the rocky hillsides. And facts or visible remains. So, instead, you Memorial, “was predicated on a route yon is arguably the best. It begins near approach the ridge, you’ll skirt the base the Yaqui Ridge Trail, which descends in every direction are the grama grasses contemplate history. You squint your determined by historians to be near the the visitors center, along a well-main- of a steep wall. Look for Mexican jays, steeply for 1 mile to the U.S.-Mexico bor- that come alive with the summer rains. eyes and try to imagine Coronado and place where explorers of the Coronado tained track of dirt and rock. The climb which are rare in the U.S., and Lucifer der. You’ll know you’re there when you It’s so green. his legion of men making their way to expedition (1540-42) entered present-day starts with your first step, and within a reach International Boundary Marker 102. The final push to Montezuma Pass Arizona. Or, if that doesn’t interest you, United States from Mexico.” Thus, the few more, you’ll see Montezuma Peak to The old post marks the starting point of takes about 15 minutes. From there, it’s you can simply enjoy the view. The vistas park. The history, though, goes deeper your right — at 7,676 feet, it’s the highest BELOW: Tall grasses flourish along the Joe’s Canyon the Arizona Trail. If you have the time, another 600 yards to Coronado Peak, from the peak are unsurpassed. Trail at Coronado National Memorial. Jeff Maltzman than that. According to Sanchez, the area point in the park. About 10 minutes later, OPPOSITE PAGE: Blooming chollas punctuate an it’s a worthwhile detour. which, at 6,864 feet, is the highest point was also a “focal point where Spanish the trail veers slightly left, and up ahead, eastward view from the trail. Randy Prentice Back at the intersection, the trail con- on the trail. It’s also the turnaround tinues northwest toward Montezuma point for this hike. However, unless ADDITIONAL READING: Pass. Looking around, you’ll get a good there’s lightning in the sky, you’ll want For more hikes, pick up a copy sense of the botanical diversity of the to linger. The peak is perhaps the best of Arizona Highways Hiking Guide, which features 52 of the park. The low valleys are dotted with place to think about the man for whom state’s best trails — one for each fairyduster shrubs and honey mesquite the park is named. And, frankly, that’s weekend of the year, sorted by seasons. To order a copy, visit trees. Higher up are the open oak wood- as close as you’ll ever get to Francisco www.shoparizonahighways lands that shelter silk tassel, sumac and Vázquez de Coronado. Unlike other .com/books.

TRAIL GUIDE LENGTH: 6.2 miles round-trip DIFFICULTY: Moderate ELEVATION: 5,231 to 6,864 feet TRAILHEAD GPS: N 31˚20.761', W 110˚15.218' DIRECTIONS: From Benson, go south on State Route 90 for 31.7 miles to Hatfield Street in Sierra Vista. Turn left to stay on SR 90, which later becomes State Route 92, and continue 13.5 miles to State Route 83 (South Coronado Memorial Road). Turn right onto SR 83 and continue 4.7 miles to the Coronado National Memorial visitors center. VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: None DOGS ALLOWED: No HORSES ALLOWED: No USGS MAP: Montezuma Pass INFORMATION: Coronado National Memorial, 520- 366-5515 or www.nps.gov/coro 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 impact. • Dispose of waste • Be considerate of properly and pack others.

54 AUGUST 2017 MAP BY KEVIN KIBSEY www.arizonahighways.com 55 WHERE IS THIS?

FOCUS ON PHOTOGRAPHY 2017 Photo Symposium Your path to better photography begins here! November 4-5, 2017 Phoenix, Arizona

Two Days * 20 Inspirational Speakers * 30 Educational Sessions Professional Portfolio Reviews * Photo Contest * Vendor Expo

Solemn Beauty The view from this bench is worth celebrating, and so are the reasons the bench is here: the men who died while protecting a nearby Arizona community. Their lives and ultimate sacrifice are memorialized here, at a newly created state park. © Suzanne Mathia © Suzanne

June 2017 Win a collection of our also be sent to 2039 W. Lewis Entries must be postmarked Answer & Winner most popular books! Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85009 by ­August 15, 2017. Only the To enter, correctly identify (write “Where Is This?” on winner will be notified. The Lochiel School- the location pictured above the envelope). Please include correct answer will be posted house. Congratula- and email your answer to your name, address and in our October issue and tions to our winner, editor@arizonahighways phone number. One winner online at www.­arizona Kathy L. Smith of .com — type “Where Is This?” will be chosen in a random highways.com beginning Goodyear, Arizona. in the subject line. Entries can drawing of qualified entries. September 15. For details, visit www.ahpw.org

56 AUGUST 2017 PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP REBECCA WILKS ABOVE, LEFT DEREK VON BRIESEN Tel: 602.712.2004 | 888.790.7042

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