52 OF THE STATE’S SCENIC WONDERS JANUARY 2018 ESCAPE • EXPLORE • EXPERIENCE EXPLORE ARIZONA´S PUBLIC LANDS P.S. THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND 2 EDITOR’S LETTER 16 OPEN TO THE PUBLIC 52 SCENIC DRIVE For nearly a century, Arizona Highways Agua Caliente Road: With all of the farm- 3 CONTRIBUTORS has been showcasing the scenic beauty land, stockyards and solar panels around Grand Canyon National Park of the forty-eighth state. There’s a lot of Gila Bend, it might come as a surprise 4 LETTERS Jerome ground to cover, and more than a third of that there’s a scenic drive in the area, too, Hellsgate January 2018 it is located on public lands — this land but this historic route fits the bill. Wilderness 5 THE JOURNAL is your land. It’s too much to present By Noah Austin PHOENIX People, places and things from around comprehensively, so we’ve narrowed the Photographs by Jim Marshall the state, including a restaurant in list of great outdoor places to 52 … one Gila Bend Jerome called Grapes — it’s not “another for each weekend of the year. 54 HIKE OF THE MONTH tourist trap,” the owner says; the history Edited by Robert Stieve Tucson behind Bisbee’s $2 million tunnel; and Blackett’s Ridge Trail: The payoff on this Bisbee a former cattle ranch near Tucson that hike is one of the best panoramas in the 42 ROUGH COUNTRY Santa Catalina Mountains. But getting now features luxury casitas, a nature POINTS OF INTEREST IN THIS ISSUE trail and the toy-like squeaks of Gila An Essay by Kelly Vaughn there takes some doing. woodpeckers. By Robert Stieve 46 ARIZONA’S TIMBERED TREASURE Photographs by Jeff Maltzman A story originally published in the June 1959 issue of Arizona Highways. 56 WHERE IS THIS? By Vivien Keatley ◗ Clouds cloak the snow-covered San Francisco Peaks, which are located northwest of Flagstaff. Ted Grussing OLYMPUS E-620, 1/1600 SEC, F/5.6, ISO 200, 14 MM LENS FRONT COVER: Monsoon runoff flows over a slick granite cliff at sunset in Palisade Canyon, located in the Pusch Ridge Wilderness near Tucson. Joel Hazelton CANON EOS 6D, 1/5 SEC, F/8, ISO 200, 16 MM LENS GET MORE ONLINE BACK COVER: An organ pipe www.arizonahighways.com cactus reaches toward a starry sky at Organ Pipe Cactus National /azhighways Monument in Southern Arizona. Mike Sanchez @arizonahighways NIKON D750, 30 SEC, F/3.5, ISO 2500, 14 MM LENS; MULTIPLE IMAGES MERGED 2 OCTOBER 2015 www.arizonahighways.com 1 editor’s LETTER CONTRIBUTORS BRIANNA national parks, which are home to some of Ari- COSSAVELLA JANUARY 2018 VOL. 94 NO. 1 zona’s most scenic landscapes — Grand Canyon, We can’t seem to get enough of Lake Powell, Petrified Forest, the Chiricahua 800-543-5432 Brianna Cossavella, who again worked Mountains. Because the parks get so much atten- www.arizonahighways.com with Arizona Highways this past fall tion, we shifted the focus this time to some of GIFT SHOP: 602-712-2200 after two semesters as our editorial the more obscure and less crowded public lands. intern in 2016. For this issue, she com- Places like Cedar Bench. PUBLISHER Win Holden piled information on Arizona’s national “You’re forgiven if you haven’t heard of the EDITOR Robert Stieve forests, a key component of the state’s We can all fit in a 4Runner. Cedar Bench Wilderness,” Kathy Montgomery ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, public lands (see Arizona’s Timbered DIRECTOR OF Or on a large chairlift. And when we go out to writes in Open to the Public. “Despite its central SALES & MARKETING Kelly Mero Treasure, page 46). “The majority of lunch at the Public Market or Matt’s Big Break- location near Camp Verde, it’s one of the least- MANAGING EDITOR Kelly Vaughn my research was sifting through the forests’ websites, taking note of how fast, there’s always a table that’s big enough. visited areas in the Prescott National Forest. The ASSOCIATE EDITOR Noah Austin many hiking trails, campgrounds and We’re not a big group. Just seven. That sur- trails are not well documented, well maintained EDITORIAL prises some people, who imagine that all pub- or well marked, and most are rated as difficult.” ADMINISTRATOR Nikki Kimbel other recreational opportunities each lishing houses are staffed by dozens of ink-and-paper aficionados huddled It’s not for everyone, but if you’re willing to PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Jeff Kida forest has,” she says. “The assignment in a sterile room with bad fluorescent lighting. That’s not the case at Arizona push your heart rate into the triple digits, the CREATIVE DIRECTOR Barbara Glynn Denney gave me a better understanding of the Highways. Although we do have bad lighting, we’re just seven people. It’s a tradeoff in Cedar Bench is unmatched solitude ART DIRECTOR Keith Whitney number of ecosystems thriving in this small editorial team, but, collectively, we have 188 years of experience. and sweeping views. There’s more of the same in state — and of how much of Arizona MAP DESIGNER Kevin Kibsey To give you some perspective on that, if you were to roll back the calendar Haigler Canyon, Gila Box and the Needle’s Eye I have yet to experience. Let’s just PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Michael Bianchi 188 years, you’d end up in 1830. Andrew Jackson was the president then. City Wilderness. In fact, it’s the common denomina- say I have a very long to-do list now.” WEBMASTER Victoria J. Snow planners were sketching the grid for a place they’d call Chicago. And pas- tor in our cover story, which features 52 places to Before Cossavella came to Arizona Highways, she envisioned a career in the action senger rail service had just begun in the United States. The joke around the hike, bike, camp, fish, hunt or string a hammock. CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Nicole Bowman sports industry, but she says the magazine changed her outlook. “It helped me nurture office is that Jeff Kida was on that first train. He wasn’t, but our photo editor If that’s not enough, you can always point your FINANCE DIRECTOR Bob Allen my relationship with Mother Nature, and it increased my desire to learn about Native has been walking around with a camera for more than four decades. He has 4Runner to one of the forest roads in our seven OPERATIONS/ Americans and other indigenous cultures,” she says. “The more aware I became, the IT MANAGER Cindy Bormanis a lot of professional experience, and so much talent. And so do Barbara Den- national forests. more I realized our environment needs saving and that too many voices are muffled. ney, Nikki Kimbel, Kelly Vaughn, Keith Whitney and Noah Austin. They’re In all, the forests add up to 12 million acres. That’s where I need to pour my energy.” Cossavella also has been writing copy for Mari- CORPORATE OR the talented aficionados who create this magazine every month. That’s plenty of room to explore and find solitude. TRADE SALES 602-712-2018 copa Community Colleges and is working on a documentary about Oak Flat. You may have seen their names on the masthead, or in bylines over the Or, as an official for the U.S. Forest Service wrote SPONSORSHIP SALES years, but I’m adding them to Page 2 this month because I’d like them to in our October 1946 issue, there’s enough room REPRESENTATION On Media Publications Todd Bresnahan stand up and take a bow. Their work is unsurpassed. Superb. Second to “for every Arizonan to be an emperor whenever 602-445-7169 none. And it’s not just the magazine. They also produce an assembly line the mood seizes him. He can roam at will over of acclaimed books, calendars and digital content, along with a long list of this vast, rich, green empire. This is Everyman’s LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] related products, including posters, postcards, puzzles and coffee mugs. Empire.” 2039 W. Lewis Avenue Their first love, however, is this magazine, which in one night last fall won Vivien Keatley used less hyperbole in June Phoenix, AZ 85009 21 international magazine awards, including 10 golds and five silvers. Those 1959, but her point was the same. “There’s some- STEVEN MECKLER awards are because of Barb and Jeff, Kelly and Keith, Nikki and Noah. thing for everyone in the forests,” she wrote in GOVERNOR Douglas A. Ducey Photographer Steven Meckler is a rela- Among the honors were gold medals for Photographer of the Year and Arizona’s Timbered Treasure. “Once the individual DIRECTOR, tive newcomer to Arizona Highways — his DEPARTMENT Writer of the Year. Adam Schallau and Matt Jaffe won those. Another gold learns to develop the appreciation, aptitudes and OF TRANSPORTATION John S. Halikowski first assignment for us was the Eldorado went to Annette McGivney for her story about the water pipeline that runs woodsman’s skills necessary in the wilderness, Suites Hotel, which we featured in The from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to the South Rim. “An amazing, he becomes refreshed, renewed, restored. But Arizona Highways® (ISSN 0004-1521) is published month- Journal in January 2014. “I was so anxious beautiful story, rich in detail and narrative,” the judges wrote about Across whether your vacation means ‘re-creation’ or just ly by the Arizona Department of Transportation. Subscrip- that I got there the night before, set up tion price: $24 a year in the U.S., $44 outside the U.S.