SEE IT for YOURSELF — SIR EDWARD COKESIR EDWARD — Explore Arizona “A Man’S House Is His Castle and Man’S Fortress.” “A

IN SEARCH OF HIDDEN RUINS JANUARY 2016

ESCAPE • EXPLORE • EXPERIENCE SEE IT FOR YOURSELF — SIR EDWARD COKESIR EDWARD — Explore Arizona “A man’s house is his castle and man’s fortress.” “A

Keet Seel, Navajo National Monument

plus: ANSEL ADAMS WAS HERE • APACHE CREEK WILDERNESS • GRAND CANYON CASA GRANDE RUINS NATIONAL MONUMENT • THICK-BILLED PARROTS • ROUTE 66 Grand Canyon National Park Navajo National Monument

Wupatki National Kingman Monument Oatman Apache Creek 2016 Agua Fria January National Monument

PHOENIX Casa Grande Ruins Yuma National Monument EDITOR’S LETTER 2 Tucson 3 CONTRIBUTORS 4 LETTERS POINTS OF INTEREST IN THIS ISSUE 5 THE JOURNAL People, places and things from around the state, including legendary photographer Ansel Adams; Casa Grande Ruins National Monument; and the infamous history of Durant’s, one of the oldest steakhouses in Phoenix. 18 REMAINS TO BE SEEN Long before John Smith met Pocahontas, and the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, ancient civilizations had come and gone in the Southwest. In Arizona, remnants of those cultures can still be explored at places such as Keet Seel, Agua Fria National Monu- ment and Crack in Rock Ruins. By Annette McGivney, Robert Stieve & Kelly Vaughn 34 SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW In 2013, we introduced a new photographer 48 WHAT A RELIEF to Arizona Highways. Since then, Adam When the Hassayampa Hotel commis- Schallau has been featured in the magazine sioned famed cartographic illustrator several times. This month, he tackles one of Emory Cobb to create a topographic map the oldest subjects around. “If I could only of Arizona in the 1920s, no one could have photograph one place for the rest of my predicted its ultimate journey — from the life,” he says, “I would probably choose the wall of the Prescott hotel, into the Sam Hill Grand Canyon.” Hardware Co. on Whiskey Row and then GET MORE ONLINE A Portfolio by Adam Schallau into the Phoenix studio of artist Ed Mell. www.arizonahighways.com By Kathy Montgomery Photographs by Craig Smith 44 THICK & THIN /azhighways Thick-billed parrots have a long history @arizonahighways in Arizona. The first documented sighting 52 SCENIC DRIVE occurred in 1583, and the last took place in Route 66 — Kingman to Topock: Although 1938 — by most accounts, hunting, not habi- there are easier ways to go from east to west tat loss, decimated the local population. in Arizona, Historic Route 66 is much more ◗ Winter white contrasts with the reddish- Although an attempt to reintroduce the interesting. Wild burros are just one reason. brown of ponderosa pine trunks at Grand Canyon National Park. Adam Schallau endangered species came up short in the By Noah Austin CANON EOS 5D MARK II, 1/6 SEC, F/16, 1980s and ’90s, supporters aren’t ISO 100, 35 MM LENS giving up. 54 HIKE OF THE MONTH FRONT COVER: Keet Seel, part of Navajo By Matt Jaffe Apache Creek Loop: In addition to solitude, National Monument, is one of the best- preserved Anasazi cliff dwellings in the this remote hike offers rolling hills, granite Southwest. George H.H. Huey boulders, big trees and a perennial stream PENTAX 6X7, FUJI VELVIA, 8 SEC, F/32, that supports elk, mule deer, ringtails, ISO 50, 135 MM LENS mountain lions and black bears. BACK COVER: Eroded sandstone hoodoos on By Robert Stieve the Navajo Nation reach skyward beneath the brilliant Milky Way galaxy. Jack Dykinga WHERE IS THIS? NIKON D4S, 15 SEC, F/1.6, ISO 3200, 56 24 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

and suddenly see a flock of thick-billed parrots EMILY LIERLE swoop into the pines.” Although you may already have seen Emily Lierle’s work

Me, too, Matt. Meantime, we’re lucky to have JANUARY 2016 VOL. 92, NO. 1 on our blog, this month marks the magazine’s first con- California condors up north. They’re rare, but if tributions from our editorial intern. When Lierle started you spend as much time at the Grand Canyon as 800-543-5432 at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of www.arizonahighways.com Adam Schallau does, you’re bound to see them. Journalism and Mass Communication, she connected with our managing editor, Kelly Vaughn, who served as For him, it’s about 70 days a year, which is one PUBLISHER Win Holden reason he’s become one of the Canyon’s premier her mentor. “I’ve always wanted to write as a career,” EDITOR Robert Stieve photographers. That and a lot of talent. In Some- Lierle says, “and I love Arizona, so I figured this was a ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, thing Old, Something New, you’ll see some of his DIRECTOR OF perfect blend of my interests.” In addition to writing for SALES & MARKETING Kelly Mero exceptional images, including a lightning shot The Journal, Lierle will have a feature in the magazine, I was 13 in the summer of ’77. MANAGING EDITOR Kelly Vaughn Star Wars was all the rage back then — like from Lipan Point. “What you don’t see,” he says, later this year, on a planned renovation of Castle Hot Springs, a long-closed resort north of ASSOCIATE EDITOR Noah Austin it is now. So was disco, but I wasn’t into it. “is the lightning that was all around me. While Phoenix. She’s on track to graduate this May, and last year she spent a semester in France, EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Nikki Kimbel Instead, I was wearing out my Hotel California the camera was making 30-second exposures, where she worked on her thesis. Oh, and she says our office reminds her of the NBC sitcom PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Jeff Kida album, trying to figure out the lyrics. When I I was taking shelter under an overhanging boul- Parks and Recreation. To be honest, we’re not entirely sure how to take that. CREATIVE DIRECTOR Barbara Glynn Denney wasn’t listening to music, I was playing Frisbee, der ... it was one of the most incredible experi- ART DIRECTOR Keith Whitney watching Charlie’s Angels and mowing the lawn. I also spent a lot of time ences I’ve had at the Canyon.” MAP DESIGNER Kevin Kibsey building makeshift rafts with my brother Jeff. The Wisconsin River was our The Canyon has a way of creating experi- JACK DYKINGA PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Michael Bianchi backyard, and that’s where we spent most of our time, either waterskiing, ences. I hear it all the time from photographers, This month, Jack Dykinga joins us for a guest column WEBMASTER Victoria J. Snow swimming or exploring what we imagined were desert islands that har- backpackers and people like Bonnie Fetzek, who on how to choose the right camera (see Technologically CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Nicole Bowman bored hidden treasures. It was a boyhood script written by Mark Twain, and wrote a beautiful letter to the editor — you’ll see Speaking, page 10). We’re lucky to have him — and not FINANCE DIRECTOR Bob Allen we were Tom and Huck. it on the next spread — about a trip she made to just because he’s one of the greats. In May 2014, Dykinga, OPERATIONS/IT MANAGER Cindy Bormanis Although reality never caught up with our fantasies, we did find an old the Grand Canyon 30 years ago. “We hiked half- who four years earlier had been diagnosed with idio- boat one time. It was a wooden relic that washed downstream when the way down to Indian Garden,” she says. “Then pathic pulmonary fibrosis, was caught in a sandstorm CORPORATE OR TRADE SALES 602-712-2019 river was up in the spring. You would have thought we’d found a portal to back up. It was the most wonderful experience while leading a rafting trip down the Colorado River. the lost city of Atlantis, but it was just an old boat. Nothing like the treasure of my life.” SPONSORSHIP SALES “It was like someone pushed an on-off switch,” he says. REPRESENTATION On Media Publications that came our way in the summer of ’77. In the long history of the Canyon, the only Lesley Bennett “My lungs just shut down. Suddenly, I was fighting for For four months that year, Treasures of Tutankhamun, which had been person who wasn’t impressed was García López 602-445-7160 my life.” He was rushed to Phoenix and underwent a touring the United States, made a stop at the Field Museum of Natural His- de Cárdenas. That’s ironic, because he’s credited double lung transplant at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s tory in Chicago, about 200 miles from my hometown. To a 13-year-old boy, with being the first European to see it. It was LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] Hospital and Medical Center. He’s since returned to shooting, and in September 2015, he 2039 W. Lewis Avenue the story of Howard Carter and King Tut’s tomb was almost otherworldly. back in 1540, and he was standing somewhere on Phoenix, AZ 85009 returned to the hospital to donate a large print (pictured) of one of his iconic photos for It was the dream of George Bailey. And the imagination of Jules Verne. the South Rim. Although he wrote about the river display in the cardiothoracic intensive care unit. While recovering at the facility, Dykinga

I desperately wanted to see the exhibition. And I wanted to be Howard down below, and his failed effort to reach it, GOVERNOR Douglas A. Ducey would pick out a photo on the wall and use it to gauge how many laps he’d walked. That Carter in the moment of discovery. Forty years later, I’d feel the same way there was nothing in his notes about the spectac- gave him the idea of donating a print “to help inspire other people’s recovery.” Dykinga DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT about Richard Wetherill. ular vista. No nouns. No adjectives. Nothing. OF TRANSPORTATION John S. Halikowski made the photo at Saguaro National Park near Tucson; for him, the saguaro blossoms

It happened when I was hiking to Keet Seel for this month’s cover story. Still, it seems unlikely that he wasn’t astounded. ARIZONA TRANSPORTATION symbolize “a chance at new life.” We’re all thankful he has that chance. I was about 8 miles in — beyond the threat of rattlesnakes, quicksand and Like all explorers who get to be the first — How- BOARD CHAIRMAN Kelly O. Anderson West Nile virus — when I rounded a bend, looked up and thought to myself, ard Carter, Richard Wetherill, Captain Nemo — VICE CHAIRMAN Joseph E. La Rue Well I’ll be damned. I’m sure Richard Wetherill, the explorer who discovered there had to be a moment when he thought to MEMBERS William Cuthbertson ADAM SCHALLAU the Anasazi ruins in 1894, thought the same thing, but he had the thrill of himself: Well I’ll be damned. Deanna Beaver What’s the hardest part of Grand Canyon photography? If you ask us, it’s the rocks! That’s seeing it first. The only thing Jeff and I ever discovered was an old boat. Jack W. Sellers a joke. But Adam Schallau, who’s serious about shooting the Canyon (see Something ROBERT STIEVE, EDITOR In Remains to Be Seen, you’ll learn more about Keet Seel, as well as the Michael S. Hammond Old, Something New, page 34), says the hardest part is adapting to the natural wonder’s Follow me on Instagram: @arizonahighways ancient ruins in Agua Fria Canyon and Wupatki National Monument. Kelly ever-changing light and weather. “I may only have a brief window of opportunity to Vaughn wrote our piece about Wupatki, which is based on her overnight Arizona Highways® (ISSN 0004-1521) is published monthly by the Arizona capture the photo I’m trying to create,” he says. “If I’ve anticipated the moment, then I’ll hike to an old pueblo known as Crack in Rock. Among other things, the site Department of Transportation. Subscription price: $24 a year in the U.S., get the shot.” Schallau lives in Flagstaff but spends about 70 days a year at the Canyon. $44 outside the U.S. Single copy: $4.99 U.S. Call 800-543-5432. Subscrip- is “one of Northern Arizona’s most prized, protected rock-art destinations.” He says his favorite area in which to photograph changes with the seasons, but he loves COMING IN tion correspondence and change of address information: Arizona High- There are other remnants of history there, too, including pottery shards, pet- ways, P.O. Box 8521, Big Sandy, TX 75755-8521. Periodical postage paid at walking along the undeveloped parts of the South Rim rified wood and scraps of flint. Archaeologists have even found the skeletons Phoenix, AZ, and at additional mailing offices.CANADA POST INTERNA- between Grand Canyon Village and Desert View. “There of thick-billed parrots, which were used at Wupatki for ceremonial purposes. FEBRUARY ... TIONAL PUBLICATIONS MAIL PRODUCT (CANADIAN DISTRIBUTION) SALES are still many places where you can get away from the As unlikely as it seems, thick-billed parrots have a long history in Arizona. Next month we add AGREEMENT NO. 41220511. SEND RETURNS TO QUAD/GRAPHICS, P.O. BOX crowds, explore the rim, listen to the wind, smell the forest The first documented sighting occurred in 1583, and the last took place in five more places 875, WINDSOR, ON N9A 6P2. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Ari- and interact with the Canyon,” he says. “When the weather to the Arizona zona Highways, P.O. Box 8521, Big Sandy, TX 75755-8521. Copyright © 2016 and light are just right, a painting is revealed before our 1938. Today, the brilliant-green birds are limited to the old-growth forests Highways register by the Arizona Department of Transportation. Reproduction in whole or in of historic places, of the Sierra Madre. However, organizations such as Defenders of Wildlife part without permission is prohibited. The magazine does not accept and eyes. I can never get enough of it.” Schallau’s work has also including the support the idea of re-establishing the parrots in Arizona. “It may be more is not responsible for unsolicited materials. appeared in Cowboys & Indians and Outdoor Photographer Painted Desert Inn a romantic notion than an environmental reality,” Matt Jaffe writes in Thick magazines, and he’s working on a coffee-table book of his and Copper Queen PRODUCED IN THE USA & Thin, “but some way, somehow, I’d love to one day hike in the Chiricahuas Hotel (pictured). Grand Canyon images. — NOAH AUSTIN

2 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP PAUL MARKOW ABOVE MARK LIPCZYNSKI PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP TO BOTTOM JEFF KIDA (2), SALLY SCHALLAU www.arizonahighways.com 3 LETTERS [email protected] THE JOURNAL

your comments on the Kaibab squirrel [Natu- ral Selections, November 2015] brought back SIR, memories. We were on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in the fall, and I walked into the woods a short way from the inn. Suddenly, an apparition shot from one tree to another. Being from the Midwest, NATURAL SELECTIONS After 90 years of publishing, it’s rare to stumble upon I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. Sure enough, I something big that hasn’t been featured in our magazine, but the National Natural Landmarks Program is new to learned what it was. My first thought upon seeing the us. In fact, until recently, we hadn’t even heard of it. We’re guessing it’s news to you, too. BY ROBERT STIEVE little creature was: Oh, he’s dressed up for Halloween! Chuck Carter, Murfreesboro, Tennessee Willcox Playa | JACK DYKINGA

www.arizonahighways.com 41

November 2015

loved reading about the daily rou- was 38, I traveled to the Grand Canyon 2015] that I felt compelled to express I tine at Phantom Ranch [Desert Oasis, with a much younger roommate. We my appreciation for having an oppor- November 2015] and about the employ- hiked halfway down to Indian Garden. tunity to experience Arizona in such ees who keep it going. But what really Then back up. That hike took a day. an authentic and interesting way. The grabbed me was the anecdote about I was in the best shape of my life. Having magazine was given to me as part of a Willie Nelson and his putting every- gone back to school on a tight budget, retirement gift, and it’s a beautiful gift thing in storage and heading to the I was routinely walking 4 miles a day indeed. The amazing photos of Arizona Grand Canyon with a one-way ticket to with a 20-pound backpack of books on in the fall were a real education to a Arizona. How I wish I’d had the courage my back. I was pretty dang proud of native Pacific Northwester. I will be to do something like that when I was myself at the end of that hike. It was purchasing Hawkeye’s book as a gift young. As we age we regret more what the most wonderful experience of my for my granddaughters, as an inspira- we didn’t do than what we did. When I life. To read that the Phantom Ranch tion for them to explore the talents they employees hike in and out of the Canyon have and share them with others, as this as a routine is truly amazing. I’m afraid father has done for Hawkeye. U.S. Postal Service my time has passed. Now, the five-hour Carolle Ryan, Seattle STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION Title of Publication: Arizona Highways Publisher: Win Holden mule ride seems daunting. At 67, I may Publication No.: ISSN 0004-1521 Editor: Robert Stieve Date of Filing: September 11, 2015 Managing Editor: Kelly Kramer; never make it to the bottom. But I will he photography in Arizona Highways address below Frequency of issues: Monthly Complete mailing address love being at the top. Every visit to the T is spectacular, and I always appreci- Number of issues of known office of publication: published annually: Twelve 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, Annual subscription price: (Maricopa) AZ 85009-2893 Canyon, I stay longer. But the real reason ate the quality and work that goes into $24.00 U.S. one year Owner: State of Arizona I’m writing is to say, to anyone with a the photos produced by your profes- 206 S. 17th Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85007 dream: Be a Willie Nelson. Store your sional staff. I own a Canon EOS 60D, so Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: None junk and take a chance. Or your chance I’m familiar with DSLR equipment and The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes has not changed during preceding 12 months. will pass you by. what it can do. However, I think many ISSUE DATE FOR CIRCULATION DATA BELOW: Nov. ‘14-Oct. ’15 Oct. ’15 Bonnie Fetzek, Eau Claire, Wisconsin amateurs like me are intimidated by the Average no. Actual no. copies each copies of frequent references to camera models, issue during single issue preceding published nearest his is one of those “I love your maga- shutter speeds, apertures, focal lengths 12 months to filing date EXTENT AND NATURE OF CIRCULATION T zine, but” comments. But whenever and ISOs. A lot of us think we can’t take A. Total number copies printed 132,337 129,817 B. Paid circulation 1. Outside-county, mail subscriptions 108,679 107,140 you publish an article about Tortilla Flat, a terrific photo without exotic equip- 2. In-county subscriptions -- -- 3. Sales through dealers, carriers, you neglect to mention the patio and the ment, meters and tripods. Maybe you On the Rocks street vendors, counter sales and other non-USPS paid distribution 10,804 9,020 great band that plays there in the win- could make note to readers that very A patch of dry grass sprouts from 4. Other classes mailed through the USPS 2,177 2,126 C. Total paid circulation 121,661 118,286 ter. The Mark Lucas Band has been there good photos can be made by those who rocks near the rushing water of D. Free distribution by mail 1. Outside-county 162 133 for 13 years, and a lot of people go there aren’t necessarily schooled in the art. Grand Falls on the Navajo Nation. 2. In-county -- -- 3. Other classes mailed through the USPS -- -- Bob Bockrath, Prescott, Arizona The falls’ nickname, “Chocolate 4. Free distribution outside the mail 2,679 2,379 just to see them. E. Total free distribution 2,842 2,512 Falls,” comes from their muddy F. Total distribution 124,502 120,798 Kathie De Boer, Mesa, Arizona G. Copies not distributed 7,834 9,020 water, a result of spring snowmelt H. Total 132,337 129,817 contact us If you have thoughts or com- I. Percent paid circulation 97.7% 97.9% feeding the Little Colorado River. For J. Paid Electronic copies 1,638 1,641 ’ve never written to a magazine before, ments about anything in Arizona Highways, we’d K. Total paid print copies + paid electronic copies 123,299 119,927 more information on Grand Falls, call L. Total print distribution + paid electronic copies 126,140 122,439 but I was so impressed with the love to hear from you. We can be reached at editor@ M. Percent paid circulation (print & electronic copies) 97.7% 97.9% I arizonahighways.com, or by mail at 2039 W. Lewis the Leupp Chapter House at 928- I certify that the statements made by me are correct and complete. article about the 5-year-old photogra- Win Holden, Publisher Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85009. For more information, 686-3227. visit www.arizonahighways.com. pher [Hawkeye Huey Was Here, October NIKON D800E, 1.3 SEC, F/22, ISO 100, 32 MM LENS 4 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY ADAM SCHALLAU J national parks centennial

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

The roof over Casa Grande Ruins National Monument was completed in the 1930s. Casa Grande Ruins National Monument

KAYLA FROST

IN 1892, PRESIDENT BENJAMIN Kino, who first dubbed it Casa Harrison made Casa Grande Grande in the late 1600s. Ruins National Monument the Nobody knows exactly what nation’s first prehistoric and the structure was used for, cultural reserve. But its history but it’s the most prominent goes back much further than building in a compound that that. The Hohokam people — includes smaller ruins, a ball skilled irrigation farmers and court and remains of pottery traders who built villages that survived early souvenir throughout Arizona and north- hunters. Casa Grande Ruins ern Mexico — completed the National Monument is in the “Great House” in the mid-1300s. city of Coolidge, about an hour In the early 1400s, the civiliza- from both Phoenix and Tucson. tion inexplicably vanished from anthropological records. YEAR DESIGNATED: 1924 The Casa Grande, a multi- AREA: 11,985 acres story caliche building, is one WILDERNESS ACREAGE: of the largest prehistoric 10,290 acres structures on the continent. ANNUAL VISITATION: Many explorers and scientists 45,125 (2014) have visited it since it was AVERAGE ELEVATION: abandoned, including Jesuit 6,270 feet Today, the National Park Service missionary Eusebio Francisco continually works to protect the ruins’ eroding walls. COOLIDGE www.nps.gov/cagr

6 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPH: ARIZONA STATE LIBRARY, ARCHIVES AND PUBLIC RECORDS PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM DANIELSEN www.arizonahighways.com 7 J history photography J

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

■ Mountain man and frontiersman Bill Williams is born on January 3, 1787. The city of Williams and the Bill Williams River are named after him. ■ On January 11, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt establishes Grand Canyon National Monument — the prede- cessor of the national park. ■ Yuma is flooded by Jack Durant (in white suit) holds court at his 4 feet of water on January restaurant in the 1950s. More than six decades after it opened, Durant’s remains a Phoenix institution. 22, 1916, when a levee on the Colorado River breaks. Gophers are reported to Durant’s have caused the break by There aren’t many restaurants in Phoenix with more history than Durant’s, and there are even undermining the levee. ■ The first newspaper fewer that have been the subject of an indie film. In Durant’s Never Closes, which opens in Phoenix, the Salt River in 2016, you’ll learn more about the mysterious man behind the infamous steakhouse. Herald, begins publishing An Apache jumping on January 26, 1878. That KATHY MONTGOMERY spider leaps between day, a front-page story aloe leaves. touts Phoenix as a great JACK DURANT WAS AHEAD OF HIS TIME. canopy over the back door, encouraging guests place to do business and When he opened his eponymous Phoenix to enter through the kitchen along a strip of buy cheap land. Q&A: Bruce D. Taubert restaurant on a nondescript stretch of Central red carpet.

Avenue, a dairy farm stood across the street. Eccentric and mercurial, Durant demanded PHOTO EDITOR JEFF KIDA Yet Durant looked at 2611 N. Central Avenue the best from suppliers: He once dumped a 50 YEARS AGO and imagined a restaurant to rival the finest shipment of beef he didn’t like onto the park- IN ARIZONA HIGHWAYS steakhouses in New York and Chicago. ing lot. But he also inspired loyalty from staff JK: How did you get the idea for BDT: This is an Apache jumping high-speed shutter and an infrared PHOTO It was a remarkable vision given the ram- and customers, many of whom remained fix- the above photo? spider (Phidippus apacheanus). photo trap that triggered the shut- WORKSHOP shackle collection of buildings that stood tures for decades. From his stool at the end of BDT: It’s a story of jealousy. Jumping spiders are very agile, ter when the spider jumped. Doing there. Signs outside Wayne’s Midway Inn the bar, he welcomed governors, politicians, I started looking on Flickr, which is highly evolved predators — they this cut the shutter lag down to advertised cocktails, dancing, Italian dinners power brokers and celebrities, including Clark a good place to get ideas for new can hunt down prey and remem- about 5.5 milliseconds. I also had and 25-cent Schlitz on tap. Durant and silent Gable, John Wayne and Lucille Ball. or innovative approaches to pho- ber where their prey is. I got in to practice getting the spiders to partner Jack “Swede” McElroy bought the lot The city eventually caught up and moved on, tography. There were a couple touch with an amateur arachnid jump from leaf to leaf. Finally, one for $26,000 from a bankrupt estate, then began but with its iconic red-flocked wallpaper, red- of fellows from the Netherlands biologist who gave me an idea of night, I found one that was doing Springtime in combining its pieces into a cohesive whole. leather banquettes and classic steakhouse fare, who were doing a fantastic job these spiders’ biology and where what I wanted it to do, and I stayed Organ Pipe Not a man of understatement, Durant Durant’s remained remarkably unchanged long of photographing insects and to find them. But they’re almost up for a couple of hours and got March 4-6, Organ Pipe painted his restaurant pink, perhaps a nod to after the 1987 death of its founder. The restau- spiders. Their secret was going impossible to photograph in the some good shots, including this Cactus National Monument the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, rant celebrated its 65th birthday in 2015, and it In January 1966, Arizona out when it was cold and pho- wild, because once they move, one. I used a 100 mm macro lens Highways opened up a new Photograph vast desert where he worked for a time as pit boss for stands like a colorful and elegant time capsule tographing the bugs while they they’re hard to find again. So I and shot at f/16, a high f-stop. By landscapes, gorgeous world for readers unfamiliar Bugsy Siegel. along the city’s light-rail line. were standing still. That’s hard captured some and brought them powering the strobes down, I was wildflowers and the with Arizona’s vibrant monument’s namesake to do in Arizona, but I wanted to home to photograph them. able to keep the flash duration When Durant’s opened in 1950, the most A modern tribute to Durant and his restau- desert landscape. The cactuses at this workshop, expensive item on its menu cost $2.95. The rant is coming soon: Actor Tom Sizemore plays issue explored the flora make the kinds of photographs very short — around one-30,000th led by instructor Joel combination of quality food and affordable Durant in Phoenix filmmaker Travis Mills’ and fauna that imbue the these guys were making. JK: What went into this shot? or one-40,000th of a second — Wolfson. Information: 888-790-7042 or www. prices proved so successful that business indie biopic Durant’s Never Closes. At press Arizona desert with life and BDT: This was a year in the mak- and freeze the spider’s movement growth, and it also featured ahpw.org soon outstripped available parking. So Durant time, the movie was expected to premiere JK: What made you interested in ing. I put together an elaborate in mid-jump. I hope to keep getting two recommended scenic enlarged the parking lot and placed a maroon locally in early 2016. drives: the Pinal Pioneer this particular arachnid? setup that combined a Cognisys better at this kind of photography. Parkway and the Joshua PHOENIX Durant’s, 602-264-5967, www.durantsaz.com Forest Parkway. To learn more about photography, visit www.arizonahighways.com/photography.

8 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DURANT’S PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP BRUCE D. TAUBERT ABOVE, RIGHT JACK JORDAN www.arizonahighways.com 9 DWH AZ Hiways Nov._Layout 1 10/21/15 1:46 PM Page 1

J photography

Arizona poppies carpet the foothills of Catalina State Park north of Tucson. By using a tripod, Jack Dykinga was WELCOME able to make fine adjustments to this photo’s composition to prevent the poppies in the foreground from merging into each other. TO THE

cameras also dampens destructive vibrations and is essential for great landscape photography. Besides the megapixels of the camera, DAVID WRIGHT there are a host of other considerations that depend on the subject matter. For instance, I have two Nikon D810 cameras (36 megapixels) that are my preferred cameras when photographing landscapes, but when photographing wildlife HOUSE or fast-moving situations, I gladly sacri- fice resolution and use my Nikon D4S (16 megapixels) for its ability to shoot at very high ISOs at 11 frames per second. It’s the right tool for the job. Technologically Speaking The high-megapixel cameras have wonderful resolving characteristics but There’s an adage about “bigger being better,” and in some cases, it’s true — have a limited ability to shoot at the high offensive linemen and cherry pie come to mind. With digital cameras and ISOs required for night skies or fast-mov- megapixels, it’s not that simple. According to one Pulitzer Prize-winning ing subjects in dim light. Again, the D4S photographer, it’s light and composition, not resolution, that matter most. is my “go to” camera when high ISOs are required. The higher-megapixel cameras JACK DYKINGA can work, but the files are problematic due to inherent “noise” (a granular look in ach year heralds an amazing all the resolving power my camera pos- the pixels). parade of cameras that touts an sesses. I could have increased the ISO to Lenses are the real heart of the pro- ever-increasing number of mega- enable a faster shutter speed, but that, cess. Many times, people buy a top-of- E pixels. Reading camera blogs, too, brings a loss of quality. the-line camera but employ a lens that you could assume you’d become the Times like this prompt me to re-exam- can’t match the camera sensor’s resolv- next Ansel Adams if only you had “this ine and recommit to the basics of pho- ing power. Lenses are where I spend my camera.” The new models employ tech- tography. When I rush, I make mistakes. money. Unfortunately, it’s another case of V I S I T F R A N K L L O Y D W R I G H T ’ S nology to reduce vibrations. They auto- When I cut corners, quality suffers. When I getting what you pay for. focus and auto-expose. The biggest and try to do too much, failure is inevitable. Here’s the question to ask when best technology has become the new So, painful as it is sometimes, I tell contemplating the purchase of camera L A S T R E S I D E N T I A L M A S T E R P I E C E yardstick for gauging a photographer’s myself to slow down and be contempla- equipment: “What do I want to do with worth. I plead guilty. tive of exactly what I want to say and it?” For personal use and sending images However, when you step back and what I’m trying to show. online, you can opt out of the megapixel examine all that goes into a successful Then, using a tripod, I create a stable wars. If large prints are your goal, then image, it’s not the resolution that grabs platform to enable me to concentrate on maximizing megapixels is the way to a viewer’s attention. It’s the vision and composition. This really slows me down. go — and you’ll also need to max out your For more information or to arrange a tour, passion of the photographer to record the Using a tripod allows me to fine-tune an credit card. Either way, be sure to take a light and composition of the moment. image, making tiny adjustments to maxi- camera for a test drive before you buy it. visit www.DavidWrightHouse.org or call Lately, as often happens, conditions mize a composition. The tripod dampens Regardless of the price of the camera, conspired to make my amazing 36-mega- vibration and enables sharper images; the constants remain: See better, enjoy 602-689-6140. pixel camera less than ideal. The condi- however, for it to really work, you need the creative process and communicate tion was wind. Yes, a windy day caused to use a cable release to avoid touching your feelings. DavidWrightHouse WrightHouseAZ enough camera movement to negate the camera. Locking the mirror in DSLR Enjoy the visual journey!

10 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY JACK DYKINGA www.arizonahighways.com 11 J iconic photographers

Ansel Adams

KAYLA FROST

t first, he wanted to be a And as an environmental activist, he pianist, but after Ansel Adams’ helped preserve expanses of wilderness obsession with photog- throughout the American West. A raphy took hold, it never Starting with a portfolio of Canyon de ceased. “There were no vacations, no Chelly in 1952, Adams’ works appeared holidays, no Sundays in Ansel Adams’s life,” often in Arizona Highways. In 1975, Adams William Turnage wrote of his friend and co-founded the Center for Creative colleague. Adams became a master of his Photography at the University of Arizona craft, capturing the wildness and beauty with the university’s president at the time, of the natural world he had loved since he John Schaefer. Most of Adams’ archives, was a child. Born in San Francisco in 1902, including photographic prints, negatives Adams continues to be one of America’s and other memorabilia, are displayed at most celebrated nature photographers. the center. Adams died in 1984 at age 82.

ABOVE: “Photography, for me, is just creating an experience that is something I have seen and felt,” Ansel Adams wrote in 1982. “I don’t anticipate anything; I simply come across something which excites me.” RIGHT: Adams’ photograph of Mission San Xavier del Bac near Tucson graced the cover of the April 1954 issue of Arizona Highways.

12 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN SCHAEFER PHOTOGRAPH BY ANSEL ADAMS www.arizonahighways.com 13 J dining nature J Reilly Craft Pizza & Drink If the notion of eating in a former funeral home gives you the willies, you might want to say a Hail Mary and get over it. The menu at Reilly Craft Pizza & Drink is impressive. And so is the ambience.

NORA BURBA TRULSSON

ine at downtown Tucson’s Reilly 1890s, when Ohio native John Reilly came children came up with the something: a Craft Pizza & Drink, and you’ll to Arizona to seek his fortune; he even- restaurant that drew upon the family’s D be tucking into the creamy tually fell into undertaking. The next Italian culinary roots. polenta with wild mushrooms, a speck- decade, he was successful enough to build With Tyler Fenton as chef, Courtney and-egg pizza made with a tender-crispy his own funeral home in downtown Tuc- as manager and Zach doing the book- crust, or maybe the citrus-spiked ricotta son, hiring local architect Henry Jaastad keeping, the family opened the restaurant gnocchi. You’ll admire the setting — a to design a two-story brick building with in 2012 after extensive renovations that historic building with the original floors, the mortuary on the first level. Upstairs included reinforcing the main build- tall ceilings and arched windows. were living quarters where Reilly and his ing and converting the upstairs living But if you suddenly want to burst into wife, Cecilia, raised a large family. Some quarters to offices. The Fentons made an elegy, there’s a good reason. For more 20 years later, Reilly asked another well- tables out of old doors and gears used than 80 years, the building was the Reilly known Tucson architect, Roy Place, to jazz to lift caskets from the basement show- Funeral Home, the last stop on the way to up the building’s exterior to its present room, and transformed the hearse garage kingdom come for many a Tucson citizen. Pueblo Deco look, embellished with zig- and driveway into a beer garden. Most “We get people coming in here telling zags and ziggurats. After Reilly’s death in recently, they revamped the basement’s us they went to their grandmother’s or 1946, his family ran the business until it rock-walled casket showroom into a uncle’s funeral here,” says general man- closed in the early 1990s. cocktail lounge, aptly dubbing it the ager Courtney Fenton. “It’s part of the In 2006, real-estate investor Steve Tough Luck Club. history here, but we see this as a beauti- Fenton bought the building, envision- Against the historic background, Tyler ful, old building and a great space.” ing saving its architectural history and has worked his culinary skills, seeking The building’s history starts in the repurposing it for … something. His three out local farmers and purveyors for ingre- dients, and even scoring foraged wild mushrooms from the forests atop the Santa Catalina Mountains. The lunch menu includes salumeria and roasted-vege- table sandwiches served on house-made bread; the des- sert menu features a chocolate budino as well as a tres leches tiramisu. The historic ambience, the food and the downtown locale keep Reilly Craft packed with University of Arizona stu- dents, downtown workers and residents. Still, there are those who might feel an otherworldly vibe as they have a cold one and a American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) are Arizona’s largest frogs, at 8 inches long, and they Yukon Gold-potato pizza. dwell in streams, lakes, rivers, canals and farming ditches across the southern half of the state. These amphibians remain “We’re a popular stop underwater during winter hibernation, resting atop or burrowing partially in mud. From spring to fall, females lay thousands on ghost tours,” Courtney of eggs. Bullfrogs prey on any fauna they can seize and swallow, including crawfish, worms, insects, other frogs, snakes, says. “We let people think fish, small mammals and turtles. Although bullfrogs actively eliminate pesky bugs, they also emit a loud call that prompts noise complaints. And they’ve driven Mexican gartersnakes and Chiricahua leopard frogs nearly to extinction — earning what they want to think.” them a spot on the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s list of invasive species. — EMILY LIERLE

TUCSON Reilly Craft Pizza & Drink, 101 E. Pennington Street, 520-882-5550, www.reillypizza.com

14 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVEN MECKLER PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN SHERMAN www.arizonahighways.com 15 J lodging

Adobe House B&B doors face the 10-foot-deep pool, which dates to the 1940s and is lined with palm There are many reasons to visit Yuma, including the historic landmarks trees and other greenery. The Oriental and annual festivals. Another reason is the Adobe House B&B, which was Room is located in the main house but originally built in 1938. features its own courtyard. And the smaller Bird Room includes original NOAH AUSTIN wood floors and easy pool access. Wright serves appetizers and wine IN MUCH OF THE U.S., January 5,000-square-foot Adobe House in 1938. after 3 p.m. check-in, giving her a chance involves wearing layers and stocking up The Wrights bought it in 2004, then spent to get acquainted with the guests. “People on antifreeze. Not so in Yuma, recognized four years renovating it. They intended like to tell stories about their own lives,” by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric to use it as their family home, “but then she says. “I want them to feel like they’re Association as the country’s sunniest city. people said, ‘Kim, you love to entertain at home, but also on vacation.” She also It’s also one of Arizona’s warmest: The and you love to cook; you should do a bed uses the time to learn their preferences average high temperature in January is and breakfast,’ ” Wright says. for breakfast, which she prepares each right around 70 degrees. Now, in addition to living at the morning, and offer dinner suggestions. Kim Wright, who runs the Adobe house, Wright rents four rooms, each “I’ve had so many wonderful people pass House B&B, knows a little about winter of which includes a private bathroom, a through that door,” she says. “Everyone’s weather. She’s an Idaho native who came queen-size bed and a flat-screen TV. Each been a delight.” to Yuma from Denver so her husband, room has unique charms, but the Nau- In between meals and conversations, who worked in the mining industry, tilus Room’s transformation may have guests enjoy hiking and mountain biking could help close down the American Girl been the most dramatic. It originally in the Yuma area, along with annual fes- gold mine in California. Like many of was a washroom with a cast-iron tub for tivals and attractions. The Adobe House those in the bed-and-breakfast business, doing laundry, but it hadn’t been used also features an exercise room and a Wright got into it unexpectedly — and in 40 years. Wright gutted it and turned Jacuzzi. But at a time of year when people like many, she says, “I had no idea what I it into a brightly decorated guest room up north are putting on snow chains, you was getting myself into.” with a kitchenette. can’t blame vacationers who simply want The Olberg family, major players For those in need of a little more space, to lounge by the pool and soak up the in Yuma’s produce industry, built the there’s the Serengeti Room. Its glass record-setting sun.

YUMA Adobe House B&B, 1681 W. 10th Street, 928-210-4777, www.theadobehouse.com

16 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK LIPCZYNSKI www.arizonahighways.com 17 LONG BEFORE JOHN SMITH MET POCAHONTAS, AND REMAINS THE PILGRIMS LANDED AT PLYMOUTH ROCK, ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS HAD COME AND TO BE SEENGONE IN THE SOUTHWEST. IN ARIZONA, REMNANTS OF THOSE CULTURES CAN STILL BE EXPLORED AT PLACES SUCH AS KEET SEEL, AGUA FRIA NATIONAL MONUMENT AND CRACK IN ROCK RUINS.

Keet Seel

18 JANUARY 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 19 KEET SEEL NAVAJO NATIONAL MONUMENT / BY ROBERT STIEVE

or the first time in four hours, Rick was at Another reason is to scare hikers just enough to give them a a loss for words. I couldn’t come up with healthy respect for what’s ahead. The warnings are thorough anything, either. Even the wind dwindled and foreboding. I listened and asked a few questions. Then to a whisper, and the piñon jays lowered Nolan started talking about quicksand. their voices, as if out of respect for what “Has anyone ever been sucked completely under?” I asked, was happening. Everything was quiet as flashing back to Gilligan’s Island. “It’s not like that,” he said, Fwe stared through the cottonwoods — a huddle of venerable “but one guy did go in up to his thighs.” sentries that separated us from prehistory. I don’t know what Nolan discussed quicksand with a tone you’d use when I was expecting in that moment, but I wasn’t expecting Keet warning your kids about the dangers of drinking liquid Drano. Seel. I’d passed beneath so many steep canyon walls to that He had my attention, and then he explained what to do if I point, I guess I was expecting just another steep canyon wall. started sinking. I practiced the maneuver (you rock back and But there it was, as it had been for seven centuries, an unimagi- forth) and made mental notes of the other warnings. When the nable monument embedded in the Navajo sandstone. lesson was over, I went outside to find the Sandal Trail. There There wasn’t anything to say. So we stood there. Speechless. are a couple of short trails near the visitors center. The Sandal In awe of the hallowed ground just beyond the big trees. winds for a half-mile to a point that overlooks Betatakin, which is another ruin that can be explored in Navajo National Monu- ment — a third site, Inscription House, has been closed to the I HAD NO IDEA I’D BE SPENDING THE DAY WITH RICK. Until public since 1968. that morning, we were strangers — a couple of solo hikers destined to become comrades, despite the very different routes we’d taken to get there. What we had in common was a desire to see the ancient ruins, even if it meant dodging quicksand, flash floods, rattlesnakes and the threat of West Nile virus. It was 5:41 a.m. when we shook hands for the first time, on the second-to-last day of the season — Keet Seel is open only for a few months in the summer, when the searing high sun deters all but the most determined. I should have met Rick the day before, during the manda- tory orientation, but daylight saving time tripped me up. Ari- zona is one of the few places in our country that doesn’t adjust its clocks. The Navajo Nation, however, does. I remembered that somewhere between Tuba City and Tonalea. When I did, I kicked myself. I knew I’d be an hour late, and my reservation would likely be given to some lucky hiker on a waiting list — only 20 people a day get the privilege of hiking to the ruins. I tried calling the ranger station, to offer a plea, but AT&T was nowhere to be found. When I finally pulled up, the ranger at the front desk looked at me as if I weren’t the first to beg for mercy. “It’s understandable,” she said, politely, as she handed me a stack of consent forms. It took about 10 minutes to fill out the paperwork. In return, I was handed permit No. 4261 and sent to a small, dimly lit auditorium, where Nolan Caudell was tasked with giving me the lay of the land. The National RIGHT: Although it’s been seven centuries since Keet Seel was abandoned, the cliché about the Park Service has any ruins seems appropriate: “It looks as if it had number of reasons been built yesterday.” for requiring the ori- OPPOSITE PAGE: Tsegi Canyon is the primary entation. The most drainage of the eastern part of the Shonto Plateau. The canyon contains three major important being the branches, including Keet Seel Canyon, and protection of the ruins. countless side branches.

20 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPHS: PRECEDING PANEL LAURENCE PARENT ABOVE LARRY LINDAHL RIGHT GEORGE H.H. HUEY www.arizonahighways.com 21 According to the National Park Service, about 30 parties a year visited Keet Seel in the early 1950s. A rare group might camp at the ruin, but most rented a horse and a Navajo guide from Pipeline Begishie, a local Navajo who worked All three ruins are impressive, but Keet Seel (Kits’iil), which, at the park as a seasonal laborer. At the time, in Navajo, loosely translates to “broken pottery scattered the Park Service did not sign the trail or provide around,” is the best-preserved large Anasazi site in the South- interpretation material for Keet Seel, preferring west. Archaeologists believe it was first occupied around 1250 to limit visitation to those who knew the way or were shown there by local Navajos. and flourished between 1274 and 1286. By 1300, however, the Anasazis had moved on, leaving behind few clues as to why they split. The site was left abandoned until the winter of 1894, when Richard Wetherill led an expedition into Navajo country. According to his great-grandnephew, Harvey Leake, Wetherill was camping in Tsegi Canyon when his mule, Neephi, wan- dered off. While looking for the animal, Wetherill rounded a bend in a narrow canyon and found something more important than his wayward mule. Well I’ll be damned, he must IN THIS CANYON, have thought, as he looked THE RUINS LOOM up at the ancient ruins. WITHOUT LOOMING. CAMOUFLAGED BY I’M NOT A MORNING PERSON. I wake up incre- MAN AND MOTHER mentally, like I did when NATURE. I SUSPECT I was 15, and the last thing I want to do before sunrise EVERYONE DOES A is get to know someone. So, DOUBLE TAKE WHEN when I saw Rick loading his backpack at the trailhead, THEY FIRST SEE I wasn’t sure. It was too KEET SEEL. early to be conversational. And the thought of trekking 17 miles with a stranger wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. Still, I was relieved to know that I wouldn’t be out there alone — Nolan had told me that 18 of the 20 permits weren’t being used. It was just Rick and I. I introduced myself, and he said he recognized me from my photo in the magazine. I must have had a doubtful look on my face. “I’m serious,” he said. “I’m a subscriber. In fact, I’m out here because of Arizona Highways. I read the story about ‘rare opportunities’ in your January issue.” That’s cool, I thought. We were off to a good start.

THE ROUTE TO KEET SEEL BEGINS as a narrow jeep road, and for the first three-quarters of a mile, it overlaps the trail to Betatakin. It was chilly when we hit the road. Fifty-three degrees. Ideal hiking weather. About 10 minutes in, we slipped through a weathered gate that leads to a small dirt parking area. Five minutes later, we came to a second gate, one that marks the boundary of the Navajo Nation. The jurisdiction at this monument is unique. Dissertations have been written about it, but here’s the gist of what you need to know: The ruins are on federal land; the space in between is Navajo. Be respectful. Leaving the designated trail without a tribal permit is illegal. Nolan will tell you the same thing.

22 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM DANIELSEN www.arizonahighways.com 23 Despite the change in jurisdiction, keep your eyes peeled for quicksand. I got my first taste at the against some branches. The dominant species are pines and the trail itself looks about the same. second creek crossing. There weren’t any rocks, just sand. And spruce, but there are Gambel oaks, too, which were already And along its edges, the rocky sand is quicksand. As soon as my left foot started sinking, I started showing fall color when Rick and I passed through in early dotted with junipers and Mormon tea. rocking — it was like being stuck in a puddle of oily peanut September. The most impressive trees, however, are the Doug- I was jotting down the names of the butter — and popped out. The entire experience lasted about las firs. There’s an ancient grove that most likely took root vegetation when Rick and I arrived at five seconds. OK, I thought. That wasn’t so bad. Rick checked in after the Anasazis disappeared. Or, who knows, maybe the Tsegi Point. He was telling me about on me, and then we headed for the “giant boulder” that Nolan two colonies overlapped — those magnificent conifers can live his home in Southern California. The mentioned in the orientation. It marks the most important anywhere from 500 to 1,000 years. surfboards and microbreweries seemed intersection of all: the entrance to Keet Seel Canyon. Another distinction of the upper trail is that it winds in a world away as we looked into the From there, it’s hard to get lost. All you have to do is follow and around a series of steep side canyons, which makes the infinite space of Navajoland. And that’s the creek and avoid any natural disasters. Although the air was route longer than the straighter-line distance along the creek. when it hit me: Somewhere out there are cool, the sky wasn’t threatening. Still, we kept looking for high Napoleon would have built bridges, but we weren’t looking for the ruins of a vanished civilization. And ground, just in case. Also, we hadn’t seen any snakes yet, and shortcuts. Just scenery. in a few hours, I’ll be standing among the there weren’t any mosquitoes. The only worry was quicksand. We were enjoying the rocks and the trees when we remains. It was still early in the day, but And even that faded as the many photographs we’d seen of the crossed a small creek and came to a wooden sign for Keet I was wide awake. beautiful canyon started coming to life. Seel Campground. Intuitively, we figured we were getting From the point, the trail switches Like all of the great canyons in Arizona, it’s hard to put Keet close, but we didn’t know. Then, a few minutes later, we were downhill for 1,000 vertical feet into the Seel Canyon into words. Photos struggle, too. It takes all five looking through the old cottonwoods. Speechless. In awe. main branch of Tsegi Canyon. On the senses. You have to look out at the recurring canyon walls, hear way down, Rick kept pulling out his the screeching of peregrine falcons overhead, smell the sweet map. It was a black-and-white photo- scent of penstemons, feel the contrast of rock and sand along WITH MOST AWE-INSPIRING PLACES, there’s some harbinger copy he’d picked up at the visitors cen- the creek, and taste the high-desert air. The words I wrote in of grandeur. At the Grand Canyon, it’s signaled by a queue of ter. “We’re looking for a white post,” he my notebook aren’t printable here. Actually, only the second cars, buses and RVs. At Walnut Canyon, it’s a set of 240 stairs. said. “It should have a black arrowhead word isn’t. The first word was “HOLY.” At Keet Seel, there’s nothing. And even when you do see it, you painted on it.” We were still wide-eyed when we met Randall, a solo hiker don’t. It’s like looking at a wall of rocks along the Bright Angel Rick’s a good boy scout. We found in his 70s, plodding along the edge of the cold water. He’d Trail, and then realizing that one of the rocks isn’t a rock, but the marker and veered left. The trail spent the night at the ruins — that’s an option if you don’t rather a bighorn sheep. In this canyon, the ruins loom without after that turns to beach sand and seg- want to do a marathon day hike. “It’s hard to describe,” he looming. Camouflaged by man and Mother Nature. I suspect ues into a second set of switchbacks. said. “And I didn’t have any issues with snakes or quicksand.” everyone does a double take when they first see Keet Seel. Ten minutes later, we were at Laguna We took solace, said our goodbyes and spent the next hour Although thousands had come before me, I felt as if I were Creek, and the start of a long day of crossing back and forth across the creek. And along the way, the first. It was the Tom Sawyer in me, the dreamer, remem- sidestepping quicksand. we talked. We talked about politics and science and the role bering boyhood stories about Howard Carter’s discovery in the The creek is about 30 feet wide of the National Park Service. We talked about Rick’s corporate Valley of the Kings. I didn’t learn about the Wetherill brothers where the trail first crosses, but it’s not background. And mine as a simple woodsman. We talked a until I started exploring the Southwest in my 20s, but I was a solid sheet of water. There are patches lot, and somewhere during that conversation, I lost count of equally intrigued. And now, having looked through the cot- of wet sand rising up in places. Some- how many times we’d crossed the creek. I’m guessing it was tonwoods, I think I have a sense of what Richard Wetherill times, that’s quicksand. There are rocks, about a dozen. After one of those crossings, we came to the must have felt in 1894. From the big trees, the ruins are only too. All sizes. When crossing, you have “big waterfall.” 500 yards away, but it’s a journey of 700 years. That’s a power- to plot a course, aiming for the rocks. We knew it was coming. It’s in the orientation. Normally, ful notion. And it grows stronger as you climb the long wooden Rick and I considered our options, like something like a 35-foot waterfall in the desert would stop you ladder into the halls of prehistory. SEE IT FOR YOURSELF Hannibal assessing the Alps, and made a run for it. We looked in your tracks, but in this canyon, the whole is greater than the Once there, you see the smoke-blackened walls of dozens of LENGTH: 17 miles round-trip SPECIAL CONSIDERATION: National at each other when we got to the other bank. One down. sum of its parts. In fact, even if this hike ended at a stop sign, rooms, and the massive crossbeam made from an old Douglas DIFFICULTY: Strenuous Park Service fees apply. Reservations I don’t know if it was the relief of making it to the other side, without the prehistoric payoff, it would rank as one of the best fir. You see well-worn metates, faded pictographs, a granary are required. ELEVATION: 7,298 to 6,210 feet or the passing of time, but Rick and I were starting to bond. routes in the Southwest. and multiple kivas. Rick and Caleo John, the ranger on duty, VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: None TRAILHEAD GPS: N 36˚40.983', And by the end of the day, we’d be great friends. Tag-teaming Rick pulled out his map at the top of the falls. We could were talking about the scattered pieces of broken pottery. The W 110˚32.528' DOGS ALLOWED: No DIRECTIONS: From downtown Flagstaff, HORSES ALLOWED: No through quicksand has a way of doing that. either stay along the creek, on what Nolan called the “lower Kits’iil. Somehow, Rick was doing most of the talking. I was go north on U.S. Route 89 for 66.1 miles USGS MAP: Keet Seel Canyon Because there are several canyons that converge in the early trail,” or climb to a terrace and take the “upper trail.” We there, too, but I was somewhere else — in my head — trying to to U.S. Route 160. Turn right onto U.S. 160 INFORMATION: Navajo National part of the hike, you have to pay attention — Mother Nature decided to go up. More shade. No quicksand. imagine what it was like for 125 people to live in this unimagi- and continue 62.7 miles to State Route Monument, 928-672-2700 or nable monument. That’s when I looked down and saw three 564. Turn left onto SR 564 and continue www.nps.gov/nava works hard to keep Although we followed the creek on the way out, I’m glad 9 miles to the Navajo National her secrets. Before you we took the alternative on the way in. The upper trail, which ancient corncobs, at least seven centuries old, at the base of an Monument entrance. From there, commit, look ahead ABOVE: At the height of its occupation in 1286, was restored in 2014, adds another dimension to an already ochre-colored sandstone wall. continue another 0.3 miles to the Keet Seel featured as many as 160 rooms, visitors center. for the next milepost, including living rooms, granaries, storerooms multi-dimensional trail. The biggest difference is the trees. Well I’ll be damned, I thought. study the map and and kivas. After so many miles in the open space, it was nice to brush There wasn’t anything left to say.

24 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID MUENCH www.arizonahighways.com 25 archaeological sites, including the ruins The most accessible of the seven villages AGUA FRIA CANYON and rock art of four ancient villages. is Pueblo La Plata, located within the Adjacent to the monument, on the Tonto boundaries of the monument and at the AGUA FRIA NATIONAL MONUMENT / BY ANNETTE McGIVNEY National Forest’s Cave Creek Ranger end of an easy 1-mile trail. The stone District, are three more pueblos and and masonry structure once consisted dozens of rock-art panels that are part of 80 to 90 rooms, and the residents got of the Perry Mesa complex. their water from nearby Silver Creek. Archaic civilizations that preceded Today, Pueblo La Plata has been ying on a white-sand beach in Agua Fria vandal-ravaged sites you are likely ever to see.” While 19th and the Hohokam in the early first century reduced to collapsed rock walls that Canyon, thawing my winter-chilled body 20th century archaeologists focused their excavation efforts on lived in small encampments along the are 5 to 6 feet tall. Nearby is a graded in the warm sun, I savor the sound of water better-known ancient population centers like Colorado’s Mesa bottom of Agua Fria Canyon, where they surface that looks like an old road but is gurgling over rocks. The soothing serenade Verde and New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, pothunters illegally hunted and gathered. However, around what archaeologists call “the racetrack.” is a delicacy here in the Sonoran Desert — as plundered Perry Mesa. 1100, a far more sophisticated society Although its purpose is unknown, the hard to come by as fresh salmon or fall colors. A river that Finally, in January 2000, the area got the recognition and began to develop as the Hohokam prevailing theory holds that it was a path Lruns through Agua Fria National Monument seems almost too protection it needed when President Bill Clinton established descendants, along with relatives of the used for ceremonial processions. And good to be true when this intermittent stream is flush with icy Agua Fria National Monu- Salado culture and others from Central just like the other six villages on the snowmelt from the high country to the north. I can’t help but ment. The 70,900-acre Arizona, moved on top of the mesa and mesa, the view from Pueblo La Plata — wonder if the scene surrounding my secluded campsite — a monument, located on BELOW: A saguaro rises from a rocky cliff began to farm. Over the next three SEE IT FOR YOURSELF as far as the eye can see — is spectacular. rugged hillside full of saguaros standing guard over a babbling Bureau of Land Manage- face at Agua Fria National Monument. centuries, the people of Perry Mesa From the promontory on the brink of the OPPOSITE PAGE: The monument is home to DIRECTIONS: There are few established trails in Agua brook — is a mirage. ment land, encompasses several rock-art sites that date back nearly built extensive agricultural terraces Fria National Monument, but the wide-open mesa and mesa, Agua Fria Canyon drops away to I’m not the first person drawn to this Central Arizona some 450 prehistoric a millennium. across much of the sprawling plateau river canyon make for relatively easy cross-country travel. the south and west, with the Bradshaw canyon for its rare supply of water. to dry-farm corn and agave in the moist If you want to explore Agua Fria Canyon, go north on Mountains rising on the far western Interstate 17 to Badger Springs Road (Exit 256) and hike On my hike to the river, I pondered a clay soils. Along the edge of the mesa, one-third of a mile down Badger Springs Wash to the horizon. It’s easy to imagine how 1,000 petroglyph panel, at the junction of overlooking Agua Fria Canyon and its river. From there, you can scramble 4 to 5 miles upstream years ago, someone from this vantage or downstream. Either direction offers equally enjoyable Badger Spring Wash and Agua Fria tributaries, they built one-story pueb- scenery and riverside campsites. point would have scanned the skies for Canyon, that offered proof of those who los containing 80 to 150 rooms. These ROCK ART: If it’s ruins and rock art you’re after, go north approaching storms, scouted for enemy had come before. Images etched on the dwellings had no exterior entranceways, on Interstate 17 to Bloody Basin Road (Exit 259), which campfires or marveled at the sunset. is also identified as Forest Road 269. To reach Pueblo patina-covered cliff of human figures, probably for defensive reasons, so the La Plata, go 8.3 miles on Bloody Basin Road, crossing “The wind howled on the mesa, but horned ungulates and swirling geomet- occupants likely climbed the outer walls the Agua Fria River and climbing onto the mesa, to it was a good place to be,” Wood says. ric designs all seemed to celebrate the using ladders. the junction with Bureau of Land Management Road “They put a lot of work into building all 9023 on the north side of the road. Turn left onto BLM bounty and beauty of this desert oasis. “Each of the seven established pueb- 9023 and continue approximately 1 mile to the signed those agricultural terraces that made it Nearly a millennium ago, the Agua los on the mesa is made up of clusters monument parking area. A high-clearance vehicle is possible to live there full time.” Fria River and Perry Mesa, which rises of large ruins, and the communities are required for this final stretch. Other ruins and rock art So, why did they leave? As with the can be reached by continuing on Bloody Basin Road and more than 2,000 feet above the canyon all located a few miles or less from one going down Bureau of Land Management Road 9014 disappearance of many ancient commu- floor, were home to one of the largest another,” Wood notes. “We assume that (Forest Road 14). Cliff faces in Brooklyn Basin contain nities in the Southwest, the answer is extensive petroglyph panels. concentrations of native people in the these villages operated as a cooperative somewhat of a mystery. Wood theorizes SEASON: The Agua Fria River flows in late winter and Southwest. At its peak in the 1300s, unit for farming on the mesa.” Wood spring. Flash floods make the canyon dangerous during that Perry Mesa had become economi- members of what archaeologists call also suspects the villages functioned as the summer monsoon season. cally dependent on trade relationships the Perry Mesa Tradition numbered an a collective “castle” to defend the mesa INFORMATION: Agua Fria National Monument, 623-580- with communities throughout Arizona. 5500 or www.blm.gov/az; Arizona Site Steward Program, estimated 3,000 to 4,000 who lived and from raiders. www.azsitestewardprogram.com; Friends of Agua Fria And when a series of massive floods in farmed year-round in the region. The National Monument, www.aguafriafriends.org the late 1300s devastated tribes in the monument is located just across Inter- Salt River and Verde valleys, it set off a state 17 from Sunset Point Rest Area, and AS DROUGHT PLAGUED OTHER commu- system-wide collapse in much the same most of today’s weary travelers have no nities in Central and Northern Arizona in the 13th century, Perry way that a stock-market crash in the United States or China idea that when they gaze upon the pan- Mesa’s unique geography left it unscathed and the population today causes severe economic repercussions around the world. oramic, undeveloped grassland to the boomed. “The mesa is in a strategic location from a weather Wood says the descendants of Perry Mesa now live among the east, they’re looking at an archaeological standpoint, because monsoon storms track up Agua Fria Canyon Southwest’s Hopi, Zuni and Pima people. treasure trove. and then stall at the 1,000-foot-tall wall of basalt along Perry And even though the urban frenzy of Phoenix is just 40 miles “The 75-square-mile mesa-canyon Mesa,” Wood says. “Rains replenished springs, and the clay to the south, Agua Fria Canyon and Perry Mesa have remained complex contains one of the most fasci- soils held water for long periods. When the Prescott area was remarkably unchanged since their last human inhabitants nating groups of ruins in Arizona and drying out, Perry Mesa remained an agricultural oasis.” Wood walked away six centuries ago. “It is one of the few archaeo- some of the most spectacular rock art adds that archaeologists have found evidence of retention ponds, logical sites in the Southwest that still looks like it did back in the Southwest,” says archaeologist similar to modern cattle tanks, that ancient Perry Mesa resi- in the day,” notes Wood. “Some power lines and stock tanks Scott Wood, who recently retired from dents built to store water. have been added, but it’s pretty much the same landscape as in the Tonto National Forest and has been While it’s possible for an intrepid hiker to scramble up one prehistoric times.” studying Perry Mesa for nearly four of the Agua Fria’s tributaries to get on top of Perry Mesa and On the towering flats of Perry Mesa, the view is just as decades. But Wood also points out that view the remnants of Arizona’s first successful master-planned grand. And down in the granite-walled narrows of the river the remote location is one of the “most community, taking Bloody Basin Road is a much easier option. canyon, the sound of water is just as sweet.

26 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPHS BY ELIAS BUTLER www.arizonahighways.com 27 CRACK IN ROCK RUINS

WUPATKI NATIONAL MONUMENT / BY KELLY VAUGHN

Crack in Rock Ruins, located in a remote part of Wupatki National Monument, has been abandoned since the 13th century.

met the Aura Woman one weekend. Long ago, hands etched her into rust-colored walls, chipped away lines to illustrate her energy and set her like an icon into stone. Hundreds of years later, we came face to face. Mother. Healer. Goddess. She. IAnd I just a visitor to an ancient ruin. During the 13th century, people migrated from Crack in Rock pueblo. But on a Saturday evening at sunset, I climbed through one of its hollow halls and up onto a rocky platform. From there, distant water in the Little Colorado River caught last light, reflecting sky and sandstone and the thou- sand-year struggles of people in a land with little water. And I wondered if I was hearing things that weren’t really there. That happens if you listen long enough to the wind. Echoes of songs. Whispers of stories. Silence in the space of waiting. Desertion has a way of conjuring ghosts, I suppose. Crack in Rock Ruins once was a home. It’s 8 miles deep into what is now Wupatki National Monument, where the Sinagua, Cohonina and Kayenta Anasazi people — collectively, the Hisat’sinom, a Hopi word meaning “those who lived long ago” — built walls and kivas. They grew corn. They raised families and created their stone stories. Later, Hopi and Navajo people moved through. Today, the pueblo is a remnant, a destination on rare, ranger- led backpacking excursions. To find the pueblo, photographer Dawn Kish and I met National Park Service rangers in the parking lot at Wupatki’s visitors center. Eight other hikers joined us, eager to explore one of Northern Arizona’s most prized, protected rock-art destinations. As we loaded our backpacks into Park Service trucks to drive to an unmarked trailhead, I pulled out my reporter’s notebook and began scribbling. When the hike — a 16-mile, rugged, overnight excursion — was through, I realized that the notes had become something more.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2014

9:15 a.m. I’m jammed into the back of a Park Service truck that carries five other people. Ranger Janice Richmond, who grew up in Tuba City and jokes about a “long and checkered past” with the Park Service, explains that the portion of Wupatki National Monument that we’ll be visiting is known as “rock art central.” She adds that the Park Service hosts six hikes to the pueblo each year: three in April and three in October. Three rangers oversee a maximum of 12 participants during each out- ing. Why three rangers? In case someone has to be hiked out.

28 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY DAWN KISH www.arizonahighways.com 29 THERE ARE PIECES OF PETRIFIED WOOD, SCRAPS OF FLINT. TRACES OF EARLY WEAPONRY, OF FIRE- STARTING. SURVIVAL.

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Horseshoe Mesa, a stop on the Crack in Rock hike, is 9:27 a.m. The truck struggles over terrain that’s become 9:36 a.m. Janice’s Leave No Trace presentation ends, and she known as “textile petroglyph central.” vice mayor of Carefree, Today, as Janice says, “you have to be an expert to live out Kelly Stehman, top, and Donelle Huffer increasingly crunchy, and I’m reminded of a long-ago journey reminds me that the portion of Wupatki we’re about to enter navigate the namesake of Crack in Rock Arizona, has had the pack here.” Patches of asparagus-colored Mormon tea contrast with into the Pine Mountain Wilderness on a road that made my has been closed to the general public since the early 2000s. Ruins. Backpackers gather around the for decades and seems the salmon-scaled strata of Moenkopi sandstone, and the occa- insides rattle. Junipers provide the only greenery across a Park Service rangers have led regular guided hikes back to remains of a Navajo structure during more than relieved when sional burst of Apache plume catches the wind. It and we are the landscape that’s otherwise dominated by rock and dirt and Crack in Rock and nearby pueblos since the 1980s, and, for the the hike. it’s repaired. As we walk only things moving since the rabbit outpaced us moments ago. distant glimpses of structures that must be ruins. “I feel like most part, the landscape we’re about to traverse is pretty pris- along a sandy wash, a rab- I’m in an Indiana Jones movie,” says Amy Linback, a Southern tine. So, too, are the shards of pottery that we’ll likely encoun- bit darts from a patch of 10:25 a.m. After a brief climb, we stop for snacks beneath a California native and recent graduate of Northern Arizona ter. With some limitations, Janice tells us, we’re free to pick up brittlebush, maneuvering a slight incline before we do. sandstone overhang, and my back is grateful for the reprieve. University who’s joined the trek for a dose of exploration. and examine the pieces, so long as we put them back exactly Rabbits likely were a common sight back before the people Bobby explains that there are more than 75 types of pottery where we found them. I’m known to drop things, to be more who lived near Wupatki became ghosts. Snakes. Raptors. The in Wupatki. The vast majority in the Crack in Rock area has 9:30 a.m. “We’re here,” Janice says, and the truck eases to a than a little bit clumsy with breakables — glass and rules and hawks and eagles that spirits move into when spirits leave been traced to the Anasazi in the Four Corners area and traded stop on a dirt bluff that overlooks miles of scrub and rock. We feelings. I’m not sure if I’ll be picking up any pottery. bodies. Ravens. Souls to sky, bodies to dust. between people and over great distances. I walk out of the unload our packs, and I’m feeling uneasy. This hike requires And the dust that remained after the eruption of Sunset Cra- shade and spot a shard. It’s at the base of what the rangers call water, and lots of it — the Park Service recommends at least 9:45 a.m. Ranger Bobby Wallace has repaired John Crane’s ter Volcano in A.D. 1040 proved life-giving to the people of the “wall fall,” which is exactly as it sounds — the remnants of one 2 gallons per person — and that means my 75-liter pack is even external-frame pack. One of the straps snapped, but with a pueblo — they could farm in it. Great stalks of corn grew in of the structures that pepper this route. The shard is cream heavier than it normally is. little bit of MacGyvering, it should hold for the trip. John, the the cinders that covered the landscape, and the people thrived. with black markings, and I decide to pick it up, tagging its

30 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAWN KISH www.arizonahighways.com 31 LEFT: Crack in Rock Ruins is part of Wupatki National Monument, which I awoke before first light to capture the sun rising behind the once served as a home for the Sinagua, Cohonina and Kayenta Anasazi people. mesa opposite the ruins. A narrow, black-and-white snake BELOW: A petroglyph panel, one of many darts beneath a bush, and I remember the pottery I held yester- at the ruins, tells a creation story. day. It and the snake share a pattern. The geometry of nature transcribed to man.

3:50 p.m. This is our first view of Crack in Rock Mesa, atop 8:20 a.m. We arrive at the mesas that neighbor Crack in Rock which the remnants of our destination pueblo lie. Ten minutes and drop our packs in preparation for a three-hour tour. I wish later, we arrive at camp. Dawn and I pick a site atop a small I’d brought a daypack and have to balance my notebook, water plateau, unpack and rest for a while, preparing to trek to the and a few other small supplies. Within minutes, we’ve climbed ruins without the burden of our big packs. to the top of Middle Mesa, scrambling up an incline slick with shattered sandstone. There’s a pueblo here, but we don’t enter NIGHTFALL. WE’VE RETURNED TO CAMP for dinner and chatter it as we did last night. around a fire. Pack rats scurry. We wait and watch for constella- This is where I meet the Aura Woman. “Maybe she’s giving tions to brighten against a night sky unblemished by city lights. birth,” says John, whose pack has made it without snapping You’re probably wondering what happened to my journal. The its strap again (we trade emails a year after the hike, and John part at Crack in Rock must be the good part, right? Of course. tells me that JanSport was kind enough to send him replace- But walking among those ruins can only be described ment straps shortly after the Crack in Rock hike — he’ll use through the lens of experience. There are rocks, naturally. Pot- the pack for years to come). For Janice, though, the woman is a tery shards. The outlines of people and animals and astrologi- message. “Everything is one,” she says. “She blends character- cal symbols scratched into stone. You’ll climb up through the istics of all life. Everything can be related, can become some- pueblo’s namesake crack and out into sunset, sandstone and thing else.” the wailing of an ancient wind, and you’ll wonder where the people went. When I ask Janice why the pueblo was aban- 8:53 a.m. We round a corner into a wind so vicious it lifts doned, she reminds me that “abandonment” isn’t the preferred our hats and knocks us sideways. But there are textile glyphs, term. Repopulated. Reorganized. But not abandoned. It’s likely hunting scenes, conversations about the five-legged animals on that environmental factors drove the people away, but where one wall. and how they repopulated or reorganized isn’t exactly clear. When we walked away from the pueblo that night, I knew I’d 9:45 a.m. The spiral glyph that appears on Crack in Rock SEE IT FOR dream it, watching satellites arch over its outline in the dark. T-shirts and patches adorns one of the walls here. It is, the place in the dirt with my pen so I can return it exactly where from a can, and another rangers say, an attempt at determining solar alignment. I found it. Despite its size, the piece is heavier than I expected, has packed hummus. I YOURSELF SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2014 and I imagine that whatever bigger vessel it must have been daydream about pizza. DETAILS: The National Park Service 10:20 a.m. We’ve reached the top of Horseshoe Mesa, “textile part of would have been substantial. offers ranger-led hikes to Crack in Rock 8 a.m. We’ve broken camp and prepared to begin hiking again. petroglyph central,” as Janice calls it. Archaeologists have Ruins during weekends in April and Back goes the piece, up goes my pen, and on the group goes. 2:30 p.m. We are single October. The rugged, 16-mile (round-trip) A fitful wind stirred us throughout the night, but Dawn and placed small green flags to designate study sites, and we’re There is more wall-fall rubble at Wupatki Site 2371. Bobby file on the trail for a while, hikes are limited to 12 people, ages 10 or careful to avoid displacing anything. There’s sand in older, and are booked through a lottery says this likely dates to between A.D. 1100 and the early to passing an old Navajo system. Participants are required to carry our teeth and dust in our eyes as, minutes later, we mid-1200s. We talk a lot about cobbles, the lovely smooth river sweat lodge so small it a 30- to 40-pound pack that includes at approach a panel in four quadrants — a creation story, stones that have found their way here from the Little Colorado seems impossible for a least 2 gallons of water. The cost is $75 and the grand finale of our petroglyph tour. per person. River. There are pieces of petrified wood, scraps of flint. Traces person to have nestled DIRECTIONS: From Flagstaff, go north on of early weaponry, of fire-starting. Survival. inside. The Navajos, of U.S. Route 89 for 12 miles to the turnoff WE LEAVE THE MESAS with the wind at our backs, use course, lived here long for Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki juniper trees as landmarks and begin the slow, steady national monuments. Turn right and 1:25 p.m. Hiking has become so much a part of me that I crave after the Anasazis, but continue 21 miles to the visitors center. march back to the trucks that took us to the trailhead. it, but this journey is more than a hike. It’s a reminder that, they, too, have moved on. INFORMATION: Wupatki National Most of us are quiet as we walk — tired, maybe. Or as much as I tell myself to look up and around me on the Desert buckwheat blooms Monument, 928-679-2365 or www.nps. wrapped up in our own thoughts about the pueblos, trail, there is so much beauty on the ground — the colors and in white rosettas, and we gov/wupa the ruins, the mesas. We take a group photo beneath a crumbs of human evolution. Hours pass as we walk past kivas, catch our first glimpse of natural arch within a half-mile of the trailhead, regroup fragments of Tsegi pottery under rock ledges and Long Lintel Cinnamon Mesa. Named at the trucks, then say our goodbyes when we return to House, which park archaeologists believe may have been the for Steve Cinnamon, a longtime resource manager at Wupatki, the visitors center. We disperse on a small scale. Some center of a very large community. The people who lived there the mesa’s rocks look like blocks in a giant Jenga puzzle. We of us will hike to Crack in Rock again someday. Others made their entry through the roof, which was constructed find a thriving tobacco plant at a rock-art site and eventually won’t — leaving for good, as the people of the pueblos from timber beams carried from as far as 30 miles away. The enter a section of the park composed more of limestone than of did. For me, there’s a certain sadness in it all, but grati- wind blows, and we arrive to our lunch spot late. Here, at sandstone. Rock alignments on the mesas would have related tude, too. Wupatki Site 812, a stone outcropping provides shade, and the to agriculture, the rangers say, as planned crossways to pre- The wind picks up again, and, somewhere, an echo. rangers tell stories of tourists. One of the hikers eats sardines vailing winds. The Aura Woman, maybe, come to call.

32 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAWN KISH www.arizonahighways.com 33 IN 2013, WE INTRODUCED A NEW PHOTOGRAPHER TO ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. SINCE THEN, ADAM SCHALLAU HAS BEEN FEATURED IN THE MAGAZINE SEVERAL TIMES. THIS MONTH, HE TACKLES ONE OF THE OLDEST SUBJECTS AROUND. “IF I COULD ONLY PHOTOGRAPH ONE PLACE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE,” HE SAYS, “I WOULD PROBABLY CHOOSE THE GRAND CANYON.”

Clearing clouds reveal the Grand Canyon’s Isis Temple. Photographer Adam Schallau made this photo near Mather Point in 2009, when he was living in Grand Canyon National Park as an artist- in-residence. “I’d been hoping for a winter storm to come through, and once it did, I stood on the rim for three hours with no view of the Canyon,” he says. “Finally, the view opened up for all of about 30 seconds. That was my introduction to winter photography at the Canyon.”

34 JANUARY 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 35 “I made this in the Desert View area,” Schallau says. “That day, there was a storm in a very small area of the park. We had almost a foot of snow at Schallau made this nighttime shot on his first visit to Toroweap Point. “I wanted to create something unique,” he says. “This was a long exposure, Desert View, but 2 miles away, there was nothing on the ground. I decided to hope for a break in the clouds to create that ‘cloud on fire’ effect. It was which enabled my camera to record light and color that I couldn’t see with my eyes. Standing on the edge of Toroweap by myself, under that sky, more of what I like to do: chase weather and be there as storms clear.” with just that bit of visibility was a wonderful experience.”

36 JANUARY 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 37 Sunset illuminates the tops of the Grand Canyon’s buttes. “This was at Mohave Point on the Hermit Road,” Schallau says. “It’s just a classic Grand Canyon scene: great clouds, great light and the Colorado River below.”

38 JANUARY 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 39 “I love to be present as the Canyon reveals Itatum ulparibusae landusda et itself,” Schallau says. “This was a day of flat repella ceruntotatur aspel ipsam light, but I could see that once the storm soluptatur sus, enientintor maximi, cleared, we’d have something special. I used sus volorerum que excea si niae a 300 mm lens to isolate and compress the laceatiae conseditio tenissit et Canyon’s ridges. It gives you an impression of untotae cessus volut adit eius re this sea of ridges, like waves on the ocean.”

40 JANUARY 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 41 Lightning from a monsoon storm strikes the rims of the Canyon, as viewed from near Lipan Point. “What you don’t see is the lightning that was all around me,” Schallau says. “While the camera was making 30-second exposures, I was taking shelter under an overhanging boulder — partly because of the rain, and partly out of fear. It was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve had at the Canyon.”

42 JANUARY 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 43 Thick-billed parrots once were plentiful in Arizona, but today, the state has only six — all in captivity. This pair lives at the Arizona- Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson. THICK & THIN Thick-billed parrots have a long history in Arizona. The first documented sighting occurred HAT A GLORIOUS RACKET IT MUST HAVE BEEN. What an incredible clamor filled a Chiricahua Mountains forest one August day in 1904, when a flock of as many as 1,000 thick-billed parrots (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha) descended on Bonita Canyon in 1583, and the last took place in 1938 — by most accounts, hunting, not habitat loss, near Cochise Head. These birds, one of only two parrot species native to the United States, are not decimated the local population. Although an attempt to reintroduce the endangered species the retiring kind. They chatter and call, sometimes in single, high-pitched squawks Waudible more than a mile away, other times with staccato bursts that many people liken to human laughter. It’s a fair bet that the miners in the area where the parrots appeared had never came up short in the 1980s and ’90s, supporters aren’t giving up. BY MATT JAFFE heard a bird make a sound like that. Nor had they seen one so exotic: brilliant green, with scarlet

44 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY BRUCE D. TAUBERT www.arizonahighways.com 45 across the forehead, above the eyes and on the shoulders. especially those from Chihuahua pines, trees that reach the cent of the Sierra Madre’s old-growth forests survive. billed parrots,” Snyder says. “But I’m also not sure it makes Boomerang-shaped yellow stripes on the underside of the par- northern extent of their range in Southeastern Arizona. The Snyder says that after decades free of logging, the forests sense to reinitiate more releases here. We would have to sub- rots’ wings flashed in the forest when the birds took flight. parrots hold and rotate the cones in one claw, systematically of the Chiricahuas, though not pristine, presented promising tract birds from Mexico, and while I’m not saying I wouldn’t Even then, more than 30 years before the last Arizona tearing off the scales with their bills to get at the seeds. It’s a habitat. But a combination of factors doomed the effort, which want to someday see parrots in Arizona, it’s not the real sighting of wild thick-billed parrots in 1938, the birds were tricky enough maneuver that young parrots have to learn the some likened to a federal feeding program for hawks. conservation question. There are three preserves established not common in these mountains. So the miners considered technique from their parents before fledging at about 5 months. The situation was more complicated than that, Snyder says. in Mexico with major breeding colonies.” He also notes that the thick-billed parrots a sign of good fortune — though that Muscular and built like falcons, thick-bills are dynamic, The captive-bred parrots had a high mortality rate, but the wildfires in Southeastern Arizona have impacted many of the didn’t stop them from shooting several of the birds. agile flyers. During breeding season, they can cover 100 miles confiscated wild-caught parrots performed fairly well, flocking, area’s pine-forest habitats. Now, Arizona is home to six thick-bills, all in captivity. I go or more a day in search of food, flying to foraging areas 15 to nesting and eating pine cones as expected. But Snyder calls It may be more a romantic notion than an environmental to the Phoenix Zoo for a closer look at four of these federally 20 miles from their nests several times. And they execute those birds’ survival rates “not fully adequate,” and internationally endangered birds, whose remaining flocks acrobatic diving moves to avoid peregrine falcons, northern and at first, researchers attributed the losses to are limited to high-elevation pine forests in Mexico’s Sierra goshawks and other winged predators. predation by hawks. Later, though, they discov- Though efforts to Madre Occidental range. In 2013, the population in Mexico “They’re much faster in flight than hawks. A little edge, and ered many of the confiscated parrots were sick. reintroduce thick-billed was estimated at nearly 2,100 birds. the hawks can’t get them,” says Noel Snyder, a retired wildlife “The hawks actually took a lot of parrots parrots to Arizona have failed, the species is The zoo’s parrots have prime digs, with flyways connecting biologist who helped direct the thick-bill release program that that were going to die anyway, birds that were doing better at three two separate enclosures, plus a couple of California condors for began in the 1980s. He lives in Portal and is also the author of failing and straggling from flocks. And if you sites in Mexico. neighbors. Bird keeper Lisa Murphy points out that the parrots a book about the extinct Carolina parakeets, the U.S. parrot have a straggler, boy, the hawks really go for have bonded into two pairs — one still tentative, the other well species last credibly sighted in the 1930s. “Thick-bills are very them,” he says. “Those confiscated birds may established. Chattering contentedly, that second pair is beauti- social birds, so with more eyes, the hawks can’t sneak up on have looked healthy in captivity but had been ful to watch as the male feeds and preens his partner after she them as easily,” Snyder says. “The parrots habitually post sen- exposed to disease.” emerges from a hole in a climate-controlled nesting log. tinels. There’s almost always one individual up top in the trees, “OK, now go back to the nest,” Murphy says to the female. looking around.” Turning to me, she adds, “I looked inside with a mirror on the The thick-bills’ range includes altitudes of nearly 12,000 feet. The thick-bills’ range includes altitudes end of a stick. They have an egg in there.” They’re one of the world’s northernmost and highest-elevation This is the pair’s third egg. The first was infertile; the parrot species, which has earned them a seemingly contradic- second, they broke. Murphy says it sometimes takes a few tory nickname: “snow parrots.” of nearly 12,000 feet. They’re one of attempts for the birds to get things right. I’m encouraged. As In one account from the early 1900s, a rancher and mine a wise woman once wrote, “Hope is the thing with feathers,” owner wrote: “They would fly to a snow-covered limb, turn and the egg symbolizes that there’s still a future for a bird over, and grab the underside with their feet, woodpecker fash- the world’s northernmost and highest- sometimes known as the Arizona parrot. ion, pulling themselves along with their bill after the acorns, and occasionally dropping into the snow after those that fell. LTHOUGH QUESTIONS remain about whether thick- Wading in the snow with their short legs, and solemn appear- elevation parrot species, which has billed parrots were sporadic or permanent residents ance, was very ludicrous, and gave us several laughs. The poor Aof Arizona, their history here reaches deep into the buggers were having such tough sledding, that I hadn’t the Southwest’s past. Along with the remains of macaws brought heart to kill them.” earned them a seemingly contradictory in from Mexico and Central America, thick-billed parrot skeletons dating to as early as A.D. 1125 were found at Wupatki HAT AUTHOR WAS ONE OF THE FEW. By most accounts, Pueblo, where the birds were used for ceremonial purposes. hunting, not habitat loss, decimated the thick-billed parrot nickname: “snow parrots.” The birds also appear on Mimbres ceramics from New Mexico, Tpopulation in Arizona. and there’s a Parrot Clan in Hopi society, while the Kyaro In fairness to prospectors and others living and working in Katsina is a parrot-like figure associated with rain. remote areas, the birds offered an easy subsistence food source. Then, drought conditions in the late 1980s The first documented sighting of what likely were thick- But farmers erroneously believed that the parrots ate crops and decimated the released parrots’ food supply. billed parrots dates to May 1583, when Antonio de Espejo’s fruit in orchards. Still others shot thick-bills for novel trophies. “We learned two lessons,” Snyder says. “Don’t expedition — which explored the Rio Grande and the Verde So, along with the wonder at the parrots’ sudden appearance use questionable birds, and don’t do releases Valley, among other Southwestern areas — described parrots came the cold calculus of slaughter. During one incident at unless you’re confident that the habitat will be by a river “surrounded by an abundance of grape-vines, many Pinery Canyon in the winter of 1917 and ’18, as many as 100 par- good for the birds.” reality, but some way, somehow, I’d love to one day hike in the walnut and other trees.” This reference is notable for both its rots were shot out of a flock of 300 — virtually all of them for According to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2013 addendum Chiricahuas or Huachucas and suddenly see a flock of thick- early date and its northerly location outside present-day Flag- taxidermy or skins. to its recovery plan for the parrots, conservation efforts are billed parrots swoop into the pines. staff, where the parrots have never been spotted since. Between 1986 and 1993, the Arizona Game and Fish Depart- now focusing on the population in the Sierra Madre, where the I’m not the only one. When I go to see the thick-bill pair An encounter with thick-bills was not just another bird ment, in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Mexican government is trying to protect key breeding areas. at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, Shawnee sighting. In 1900, ornithologist Richard Lusk described a flock Fish and Wildlife Service, attempted to reintroduce the parrots Others, including the organization Defenders of Wildlife, have Riplog-Peterson, the museum’s curator of mammalogy and of the parrots “scolding and chattering and calling in a lan- into the Chiricahuas. The effort was based primarily on wild- argued that the species’ long-term survival strategy should also ornithology, also muses about that almost mystical experience. guage which was neither English nor Spanish, but may have caught birds that entered the illegal bird trade and were later involve re-establishing the parrots in Arizona. And Chris Biro, “What would it be like?” she wonders. “The sound. The color. been some Indian tongue, or, indeed, that of the old Aztecs of confiscated from smugglers and aviculturists, but parrots bred a parrot trainer and onetime resident of Portal who founded Just to be able to see something like that. And then, all of a Mexico themselves.” in captivity were also used. The agencies hoped to establish a the organization Bird Recovery International, has sought per- sudden, they disappear in the trees. If they don’t make a sound, As their mountain-forest habitat suggests, thick-bills defy separate population from flocks in Mexico, which were consid- mission to breed thick-bills and eventually establish a popula- you’d never see them. You could be staring right at them and assumptions about parrots as tropical, jungle-dwelling birds. ered vulnerable to habitat loss by logging and fire. According to tion in the state. never see anything. And these parrots are big, gorgeous, color- For their primary food source, the parrots rely on pine seeds, the conservation group BirdLife International, less than 1 per- “I’m an optimist about the overall conservation of thick- ful birds.”

46 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY GEORGE ANDREJKO www.arizonahighways.com 47 When the Hassayampa Hotel commissioned famed cartographic illustrator Emory Cobb to create a topographic map of Arizona in the 1920s, no one could have predicted its ultimate journey — from the wall of the Prescott hotel, into the Sam Hill Hardware Co. on Whiskey Row and then into the Phoenix studio of artist Ed Mell.

HEN CHARLIE SANDS visited artist Ed Mell’s Phoenix studio, he

expected to see great art. But he was surprised to find a different kind of

art there: a map he hadn’t seen since he was about 10. ¶ “I recognized it immediately,” he

says. “I’d only seen it one time before. My family was visiting Prescott. We were going

into the Hassayampa Hotel, and there it was, the most beautiful map of Arizona.” ¶ Sands

always loved maps, but this one was special. More than 5 feet high and nearly as wide, it

was three-dimensional, with mountains rising out of the landscape and painted pictorial

panels of Arizona landmarks on all four sides. Illustrated by Emory Cobb and published

by Arizona Mapping Service in 1931, the map also had a hand-painted legend that said it

This 1931 relief map of Arizona, illustrated by Emory Cobb, now hangs in artist Ed Mell’s Phoenix studio. BY KATHY MONTGOMERY PHOTOGRAPHS BY CRAIG SMITH

48 JANUARY 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 49 The map is framed by illustrations of Arizona landmarks and cultural touchstones.

was “prepared especially for the Hassayampa Hotel.” “I was mesmer- ORN IN KANKAKEE, ILLINOIS, Cobb made a living as a drafts- ized by it,” Sands recalls. “I’d never seen anything like it.” Bman and cartographic illustrator. He met and married his wife, Harriet, in Colorado. They moved frequently with their two daughters. APS ARE SOMEWHERE between literature and art. They After returning home, they went to Spokane, Washington, then El Paso, Minspire dreams of places unseen and nostalgia for those explored. Texas. By 1929, they had settled in Chandler. Part geography and part history, maps tell the story of a place, and each Cobb likely worked for Arizona Mapping Service, which published conveys a tone and a point of view. Like any good storyteller, the car- a number of his maps, including Sunkist Trail, a whimsical tourist route tographer decides what to put in, what to leave out and what to empha- from Los Angeles to Phoenix that illustrated landmarks with Western size, giving thought to every detail. cartoon characters. Yet maps are ephemeral. In a constantly evolving landscape, they pre- Details of the Hassayampa map’s commission disappeared as the serve a single moment and become obsolete almost as soon as they’re hotel changed hands through the years. But it’s possible that Cobb published. Even so, the Hassayampa map became Cobb’s most enduring worked on it up until the day he died. He had a heart attack on a work, and probably his last. November afternoon in 1930 at Arizona Mapping Service’s Phoenix Giving a visitor a tour of Arizona as Cobb captured it in 1931, Mell office. He died a month before his 43rd birthday. points out what’s labeled as the Hoover Dam Site. Workers broke Cobb may have finished the map by then. It’s also possible Harriet ground on the dam the year the map was published; the dam began completed it. Arizona Mapping Service published a similar map, with operating in 1936. Harriet listed as the artist, sometime after the Hoover Dam was completed. That map now hangs in a Phoenix restaurant: Juan’s Authentic Mexican Food on Thomas Road. In either case, the Hassayampa map stood in the lobby of the Has- Maps are ephemeral. In a constantly sayampa Hotel — later called the Hassayampa Inn — for nearly 40 years. A relative of boxer Max Baer bought the hotel with a partner in the evolving landscape, they preserve a late 1960s, following a foreclosure. Prescott historian Elisabeth Ruffner remembers that the new owners “threw most of the original furnish- single moment and become obsolete ings out onto the patio and held a yard sale.” almost as soon as they’re published. Emmalou Norris bought the map, along with many of those furnishings. She set the map near the entrance of her business, the Even so, the Hassayampa map storied Sam Hill Hardware Co. on Whiskey Row. When Norris retired in 1980, she closed the business after more than 100 years of operation became Cobb’s most enduring work, and put the map in storage. Mell bought it at an estate sale after Norris and probably his last. died in 2005. After Cobb’s death, Harriet worked for several years as a draftsman for the Arizona Highway Department. Her two-dimensional Relief Map of the State of Arizona, published by Arizona Mapping Service in 1934, “You’ll notice they didn’t have paved roads up here,” he says, indicating appeared many times in Arizona Highways. She eventually retired to the Four Corners area. “But Williams and Petrified Forest and St. Johns ... Cottonwood and developed a reputation as an artist. She spent her last all of those you can tell have been touched a lot [by observers].” years in the Arizona Pioneers’ Home in Prescott. The pictorial panels surrounding the map tell a narrative common Despite Emory Cobb’s early death, the relative obscurity of com- among tourist maps at the time, with cowboys and Indians, a saguaro mercial artists and the transitory nature of mapmaking, the maps the and a bleached cow skull — adventure themes familiar to fans of the Cobbs left behind proved not only beautiful and enduring, but also, in era’s Western films. Ed Mell’s view, “a priceless piece of Arizona history.” Some of the attractions they depict are long gone: Rainbow Lodge, which burned down in 1951, for example, and the pool at the Granite EDITOR’S NOTE: Our thanks to Ed Mell and the Sharlot Hall Museum Library and Dells, where Mell used to swim as a boy. Archives for their help researching this story.

50 JANUARY 2016 www.arizonahighways.com 51 scenic DRIVE

ROUTE 66: KINGMAN TO TOPOCK Although there are easier ways to go from east to west in Arizona, Historic Route 66 is much more interesting. Wild burros are just one reason. BY NOAH AUSTIN

he fuel pump is an underrated part of automotive history — and some- T thing we take for granted today. Early cars relied on gravity to feed fuel to the carburetor, and that often made steep hills a challenge. One example: the Kingman-to-Topock section of Historic Route 66, where tow-truck operators made a fortune rescuing motorists in the 1920s and ’30s. The passage was ardu- ous enough that Route 66 eventually was rerouted around it. Today’s cars are better equipped to out, that’s the one. continue southwest on Route 66. Here, take the express route back to Kingman handle the curves and switchbacks. And Not long after that, you’ll arrive in the road straightens out, and you’ll pass on I-40. Or you could turn around and that’s a good thing, because this drive — Oatman, a former gold-mining boom- through ocotillos, teddy bear chollas return the way you came. The views are officially designated the Historic Route 66 town that now is all but a ghost town. and other desert fauna as you approach just as good from west to east. But you’ll Back Country Byway — offers stunning Its most well-known modern residents Topock Marsh, part of Havasu National need a good fuel pump. views and a visit to one of Arizona’s are the dozens of burros that roam the Wildlife Refuge. quirkiest small towns. town’s streets, seeking handouts from What’s left of Arizona’s stretch of In Kingman, travel south on Route 66. tourists. When Oatman’s mines went Route 66 ends at Interstate 40 near the SCENIC Just past the Powerhouse building, which bust, the prospectors turned their pack Colorado River. From that intersection, DRIVES of Arizona’s ADDITIONAL READING: Best Back today serves as the Arizona Route 66 animals loose, and these burros are the you can see the Old Trails Bridge, whose 40 Roads For more adventure, pick up a copy of our book Scenic Drives, Museum, you’ll turn left and head toward descendants of those beasts of burden. 600-foot arch used to carry the route which features 40 of the the Black Mountains, a jagged range that After you’ve had enough of the burros west into California. Today, it carries state’s most beautiful back roads. To order, visit www. once was a gold-mining hot spot. Along and Oatman’s other attractions — the a natural-gas pipeline. From here, you shoparizonahighways.com/ Edited by Robert Stieve the way, you’ll pass 3,921-foot Thimble historic Oatman Hotel, for example — could go birding in the wildlife refuge or and Kelly Vaughn Kramer books. Mountain, part of the little-visited Mount Nutt Wilderness to the north. To the south is the Warm Springs Wilderness, which protects a pristine desert landscape. Soon, you’ll begin climbing into the TOUR GUIDE mountains, and you’ll find it hard to Note: Mileages are approximate. imagine Ma and Pa Joad tackling this LENGTH: 57.5 miles one way route in their Hudson. Thankfully, this DIRECTIONS: The entire drive is designated as Historic section was paved recently, so keep Route 66, but it follows several modern-day roads. From the intersection of Interstate 40 and Andy Devine Avenue your eye on the road and you’ll be fine. in Kingman, go south on Andy Devine Avenue for 4 miles You’ll find cold drinks, but no gas, at to where Route 66 splits off. Turn left to stay on Route 66, then continue 5 miles to Shinarump Drive. Turn right the rebuilt Cool Springs gas station, and onto Shinarump Drive and continue 0.5 miles to Oatman ample pullouts along the road provide Highway (the Historic Route 66 Back Country Byway). Turn panoramas of the Sacramento Valley left onto Oatman Highway and continue 25 miles, through Oatman, to a “Y” intersection. Bear left to stay on Route below and the Hualapai Mountains to 66, then continue 23 miles to I-40 in Topock. the east. But the best view is at Sitgreaves VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: None in good weather. The road Pass, the literal high point (3,586 feet) of crosses several washes, so don’t attempt the drive if rain is in the forecast. the drive. If you can stop at only one pull- INFORMATION: Kingman Field Office, 928-718-3700 or www.blm.gov/az; Oatman Chamber of Commerce, www. oatmangoldroad.org; Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, LEFT: Historic Route 66 winds past yuccas and teddy 760-326-3853 or www.fws.gov/refuge/havasu bear chollas in the jagged Black Mountains. Travelers in Arizona can visit www.az511.gov or dial OPPOSITE PAGE: An old building in Oatman serves 511 to get information on road closures, construction, as a reminder of the town’s mining roots. delays, weather and more.

52 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPH BY LYNN SANKEY PHOTOGRAPH BY KERRICK JAMES MAP BY KEVIN KIBSEY www.arizonahighways.com 53 HIKE of the month

APACHE CREEK LOOP In addition to solitude, this remote hike offers Ten minutes later, you’ll pass some ancient cottonwoods and arrive at Apache Creek, rolling hills, granite boulders, big trees and a perennial stream that supports which is the one place that can get confus- ing. Although this loop features dozens elk, mule deer, ringtails, mountain lions and black bears. of well-placed cairns — hats off to the BY ROBERT STIEVE / PHOTOGRAPHS BY AMY HORN team at the Chino Valley Ranger District — there aren’t any cairns to direct hikers across the creek. Instead, the trail dead- ends about 100 feet beyond the obvious crossing point. If you miss the turn, back- track and rock-hop across the water. Once you’ve crossed, and climbed the bank on the other side, you might have route crosses into the wilderness area. tain lions, gray foxes and black bears. to bushwhack through some tall thistles. As the name suggests, the second trail Decades ago, there were even grizzlies The trail is faint, but keep pushing and follows the creek, and of the four legs, it’s along the creek. Keep your eyes peeled. you’ll eventually see the next series of the best. The lush vegetation and peren- And your ears — because of the thickets, cairns, which lead across a wide meadow nial stream support an array of wildlife, the sound of cracking branches might be to an intersection with Trail 9905 (Apache including mule deer, elk, jackrabbits, all you get. Creek Trail). A minute or two later, the hooded skunks, bobcats, ringtails, moun- Heading southwest, the trail follows a low ridge that looks down on the creek. Then, about an hour in, you’ll cross the creek in what is arguably the pretti- est spot on the loop. Enjoy the riparian nature of things, and start looking to the left for a good-sized cairn across a small meadow. This is another tricky spot, but nothing like the first creek crossing. Ten minutes later, you’ll come to an old cor- ral — you’ll likely see cattle on this trail in the spring — along a grassy floodplain ringed by some impressive ponderosas. A few hundred yards later, you’ll arrive at an intersection with Trail 9906 (Upper Graber Wash Trail). Veer left and continue uphill for about a mile to Forest Road 95A. You might see some turkeys along the way. When you get to the forest road, which is too here are 90 wilderness areas ral springs and several important riparian utes of the trailhead, you’ll arrive at the rugged for most vehicles, turn left to in Arizona. And within their areas. And despite its rugged nature, the trail register. Don’t be alarmed if it’s been complete the loop. Although the final leg T boundaries are 4.5 million acres area is relatively accessible — only the a week or two since anyone has signed in. isn’t “earth untrammeled by man,” the of “earth untrammeled by man.” That last mile of forest road gets tricky. What’s This loop doesn’t get a lot of traffic. surrounding landscape is beautiful, the definition comes from the Wilderness more, the route that leads to the wilder- From the register, the trail begins a TRAIL GUIDE required; four-wheel-drive is recommended for Forest narrow road is easy to follow, and, in Road 95A. Act, which ultimately protected some of ness passes the Walnut Creek Center for slight downhill on a rocky path through LENGTH: 6.1 miles round-trip the spirit of wilderness, there’s a good DOGS ALLOWED: Yes (on a leash) DIFFICULTY: Easy the most beautiful places in the United Education and Research, which offers a a wooded area of piñons and manzanitas. HORSES ALLOWED: Yes chance you’ll have the home stretch all ELEVATION: 5,471 to 5,234 feet States, including a piñon-juniper wood- variety of education and volunteer oppor- In the distance, to the north, you’ll catch USGS MAPS: Camp Wood, Indian Peak, Juniper to yourself. land northwest of Prescott. Although the tunities. It’s worth a visit, either before or glimpses of Juniper Mesa. After 20 min- TRAILHEAD GPS: N 34˚53.964', W 112˚51.690' Mountains DIRECTIONS: From Prescott, go north on Williamson Apache Creek Wilderness accounts for after the hike. utes, the trail dips into a wash that feeds INFORMATION: Chino Valley Ranger District, 928-777- Valley Road for 35.7 miles to County Road 125 (after 2200 or www.fs.usda.gov/prescott; Walnut Creek Center only 0.1 percent of the total wilderness Like many loops, the Apache Creek two massive alligator junipers, the first of 22 miles, the road turns to dirt). Turn left onto for Education and Research, 928-445-3831 ADDITIONAL READING: area in Arizona, it’s every bit as worthy of Loop is a combination of trails. Each has many, as well as a few ponderosa pines. CR 125 and continue 1.8 miles to Forest Road 95. Turn left onto FR 95 and continue 1.2 miles to Forest Road For more hikes, pick up a copy of LEAVE-NO-TRACE PRINCIPLES: Arizona Highways Hiking Guide, that crucial designation. its own name, but they’re distinguished 95A. Turn right onto FR 95A and continue 1.2 miles • Plan ahead and be out all of your trash. which features 52 of the state’s ABOVE: The highlight of the Apache Creek Loop to the trailhead for Trail 9904 on the right. Because Established in 1984, the 5,633-acre wil- in the forest by their numbers, so you’ll prepared. • Leave what you find. best trails — one for each derness is anchored by rolling hills that want to make note of those. The first trail, is its namesake, which creates one of several there is no established parking area at the trailhead, • Travel and camp on • Respect wildlife. weekend of the year, sorted by riparian areas in the wilderness. it is recommended that you park at the gate that’s durable surfaces. • Minimize campfire seasons. To order a copy, visit shelter a variety of trees and wildlife, out- hiking counterclockwise, is Trail 9904 OPPOSITE PAGE: The hike features a variety of located 0.2 miles before the trailhead. • Dispose of waste impact. www.shoparizonahighways. croppings of granite boulders, three natu- (Graber Wash Trail). Within a few min- trees and outcroppings of granite boulders. VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: A high-clearance vehicle is properly and pack • Be considerate of others. com/books.

54 JANUARY 2016 MAP BY KEVIN KIBSEY www.arizonahighways.com 55 WHERE IS THIS?

Off- Road Vehicle This quirky sculp- ture can be found in an equally quirky Western Arizona small town. Its sculptor runs a business that was featured in a recent issue of Arizona High- ways. And here’s one more hint: The town’s high school has an amphibious mascot.

THE IMPORTANCE OF WILDLIFE CONSERVATION.

We enjoy Arizona’s wildlife. And we’re sure you do too. So, we’re working to keep it a reality for all of us through wise use of our Wildlife Restoration funding. From maintaining habitat connectivity to restoring species populations in Arizona, conservation efforts benefit all of us. Win a collection of our most popular books! November To enter, correctly identify the location pictured above The Arizona Game and Fish Department manages 800 species October 2015 and email your answer to editor@arizonahighways. 2015 Answer com — type “Where Is This?” in the subject line. Entries without any Arizona general tax funds. Our e orts are possible Answer & Winner can also be sent to 2039 W. Lewis Avenue, Phoenix, AZ because of discretionary spending on licenses, tags and stamps, 85009 (write “Where Is This?” on the envelope). Please AND & Winner Fairbanks TO CONSERVE PROTECT include your name, address and phone number. One and via a federal excise tax on ﬁ rearms and ammunition. Evergreen Cem- Schoolhouse. etery, Bisbee. Con- Congratulations winner will be chosen in a random drawing of qualified Learn more at: gratulations to our to our winner, entries. Entries must be postmarked by January 15, 2016. Simply put, the actions of a few beneﬁ t all of Arizona. Now imagine winner, Raymond Vicki Dunn of Only the winner will be notified. The correct answer Stackon of Trinity, Sierra Vista, will be posted in our March issue and online at www. the possibilities with everyone’s involvement. GameAndFishFacts.com Florida. Arizona. arizonahighways.com beginning February 15.

56 JANUARY 2016 PHOTOGRAPHS: TOP PAUL MARKOW ABOVE, FAR LEFT SUZANNE MATHIA ABOVE, LEFT JEFF KIDA

Agency: Off Madison Ave · 5555 E Van Buren St #215 · Phoenix, AZ 85008 · (480) 505-4500 · Fax: (480) 505-4501 • Contact: Sasha Howell • Contact Email: [email protected] • Contact Phone: 480-505-4505 • Client: AGF • Job #: 15-AOT-0666 AZ Highways • Trim Size: 8.375 in w x 10.8125 in h • Bleed Size: 8.625 in w x 11.0625 in h • Color: 4C