JUNE 2017 explore THE SANTA CATALINAS ESCAPE • EXPLORE • EXPERIENCE special Collector's issue North Rim Grand Canyon National Park Window Rock Flagstaff PHOENIX Greer Santa Catalina Gila Bend Mountains Tucson Bisbee POINTS OF INTEREST IN THIS ISSUE GET MORE ONLINE www.arizonahighways.com June /azhighways @arizonahighways 2017 2 EDITOR’S LETTER 3 CONTRIBUTORS 4 LETTERS 5 THE JOURNAL People, places and things from around the state, including a brief history of the Cop- per Queen Mine in Bisbee; Western patch- nosed snakes; and an Italian restaurant in Gila Bend that’s so good, even Prince Harry says it serves “the best pizza in the world.” 16 THE BIG PICTURES: 42 MOUNT LEMMON A story originally published in our SANTA CATALINA MOUNTAINS November 1945 issue. A Portfolio Edited by Jeff Kida By Clifton Abbott 28 MY LADY OF THE DESERT 46 THE SANTA CATALINAS: An Essay by Kelly Vaughn TUCSON’S NEARBY WILDERNESS 32 IDENTIFYING FLYING OBJECTS An essay originally published in our September 1985 issue. The facility is modest — a small control By Charles Bowden room in the upper elevations of the Santa Catalina Mountains — but the research being done by the Catalina Sky Survey is 52 SCENIC DRIVE out of this world. Literally. Its mission is to Cape Royal Road: Cape Royal offers one discover asteroids and comets that pass of the best overlooks in Grand Canyon within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. National Park. It’s impressive, and so is the And since its start nearly 20 years ago, the narrow, winding road that takes you there. NASA-funded lab has identified almost By Noah Austin half of the 15,000 known near-Earth objects. Photograph by Adam Schallau By Matt Jaffe 54 HIKE OF THE MONTH 38 PITCH A TENT & HIT THE TRAIL Baldy Crossover Trail: Although it’s over- ◗ A Calleta silkmoth (Eupackardia calleta) caterpillar climbs an ocotillo branch shadowed by its celebrated neighbors, the Lewis and Clark, Simon and Garfunkel, pea- in Oracle, north of the Santa Catalina Mountains. Bruce D. Taubert nut butter and chocolate ... there’s a long Mount Baldy Crossover Trail is the epitome CANON EOS 5D MARK III, 1/20 SEC, F/5.6, ISO 200, 100 MM LENS, 10 IMAGES STACKED of a gorgeous walk in the woods. list of great combinations. In the summer FRONT COVER: Santa Catalina Mountains illustration by Chris Gall in the Santa Catalina Mountains, the best By Robert Stieve BACK COVER: The water of Bear Creek cascades over Seven Falls in the Santa Catalina combo might be hiking and camping. Mountains’ Bear Canyon. Jeff Maltzman By Robert Stieve & Kelly Vaughn 56 WHERE IS THIS? CANON EOS 5D MARK III, 1/4 SEC, F/16, ISO 50, 28 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 EMILY BALLI the decay with blue-green tendrils. That is one “I love writing, but I feel like journalism is JUNE 2017 VOL. 93 NO. 6 square foot in the Cañada del Oro.” where my writing can make a differ- Those words are from Frog Mountain Blues, 800-543-5432 ence,” says Emily Balli, one of Arizona Chuck Bowden’s incomparable book about the www.arizonahighways.com Highways’ two editorial interns in the Catalinas. He wrote many beautiful things about GIFT SHOP: 602-712-2200 spring of 2017. You’ve probably seen her his beloved mountain, including an early piece work in The Journal and elsewhere in the for us in September 1985. In it, he described an PUBLISHER Win Holden magazine, and on our blog. Like many adventure on the north side of the mountain. He EDITOR Robert Stieve of our interns, Balli came to us via her The old tree was still alive in was with photographer Jack Dykinga. “We have ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, Arizona State University magazine writing class, which was taught by our managing DIRECTOR OF 1945. Back then, the rangers figured it was about come to the peaks tracking a man and a woman SALES & MARKETING Kelly Mero editor, Kelly Vaughn. “I’ve always loved the magazine,” she says. “I was born and raised 400 years old. That was before the desperate who sought the summit in 1881. Botanists, their MANAGING EDITOR Kelly Vaughn in Arizona, and my dad collected issues of Arizona Highways. Every assignment I do, I learn more about something I didn’t know before — whether it’s paddleboarding on souls of Tucson began the ritual exodus up the strange journey offers a way to know the beauty ASSOCIATE EDITOR Noah Austin Lake Powell or any of the other interesting things about our state.” Balli previously mountain to escape the oppression of triple dig- of the marvelous Santa Catalina Mountains.” EDITORIAL its down below. The scientists were John Gill Lemmon and his ADMINISTRATOR Nikki Kimbel interned on the breaking news desk at The Arizona Republic. She graduated from ASU’s In November 1945, we told the world about that venerable old tree. It was bride, Sarah Plummer Lemmon — Mount Lem- PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Jeff Kida Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in May and isn’t sure revealed by Clifton Abbott in a piece about a “new road” to the summit of mon is named for her. As you’ll see in The Santa CREATIVE DIRECTOR Barbara Glynn Denney where she’ll take her journalism career next, but she hopes to travel, “see new things, the Santa Catalinas. “The brush begins to give way to scrub oak and cedar, Catalinas: Tucson’s Nearby Wilderness, the couple’s ART DIRECTOR Keith Whitney learn new things and grow as a writer and a person.” and the bottoms of the gorges are filled with small fir and pine,” he wrote in journey was rugged. “Day by day they probed an MAP DESIGNER Kevin Kibsey Mount Lemmon. “For a mile or two this kind of scenery is prevalent and then imaginary mountain. And day by day, they found PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Michael Bianchi the road is widened, and here a trail leads off to the General Hitchcock Pine. the real mountain, one full of hard miles, cliffs, SEAN PARKER WEBMASTER Victoria J. Snow The trail leads up a colorful little wash replete with boulders, a stream in steep slopes, and a botany undreamed of in the Sean Parker has been photographing the night sky for several years, and he conducts winter, moss, fern and flowers and towering pines. The General Hitchcock ivy towers of Eastern academies.” CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Nicole Bowman astrophotography workshops with the Catalina Sky Survey, so his photos were a itself is a huge Ponderosa pine almost four hundred years old.” Eventually, the mountain’s battalion of FINANCE DIRECTOR Bob Allen natural fit for Matt Jaffe’s story on the facility (seeIdentifying Flying Objects, page 32). When I first read that, I was curious. I’ve looked up at the General Sher- shindaggers and catsclaw forced the Lemmons OPERATIONS/ But shooting the stars can be a challenge in Tucson, where Parker lives. “Living in IT MANAGER Cindy Bormanis man and the General Grant many times — they’re in Sequoia — but I’d to surrender their attempt of the front range. bigger cities makes it very difficult to see the stars,” he says. “Fortunately, it’s only a never heard of the General Hitchcock. Also, I’d hiked in that same spot, and However, they regrouped and moved to the more 30- to 45-minute drive out of town to escape the light pollution, and a little more than CORPORATE OR couldn’t remember ever seeing anything that old. Especially a ponderosa. accessible north side, where, with the help of a TRADE SALES 602-712-2018 an hour to get to the CSS.” In fact, one of Parker’s earlier night sky photos, a landscape shot that featured the Milky Way galaxy, was picked up by Smithsonian magazine to Although some have lived to be almost a thousand years old, a 400-year-old local rancher, they finally made the summit. SPONSORSHIP SALES in the Catalinas seemed unlikely. So, I did what I usually do when I have Today, you can drive to the top of the moun- REPRESENTATION On Media Publications accompany a story about light pollution. Parker has been a full-time photographer for Todd Bresnahan questions like that: I walked down the hall to see Noah. tain from either side. Ironically, the back side 602-445-7169 the past three years, and his recent work includes a project for the electronics Noah Austin is our associate editor. I don’t have enough space to spell — via Forest Road 38 — is now the rugged route. company LG in Iceland, where he photographed the northern lights for three months. out everything he does for us, but one of the things he does is solve myster- The easier drive is the Catalina Highway, the This is his first assignment forArizona Highways. “I’m very proud to finally be featured,” LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] ies. Like the unexplained disappearance of Darwin Van Campen, one of our road we wrote about in 1945. It’s since been 2039 W. Lewis Avenue he says. “I’ve been finding inspiration in the magazine for years.” — NOAH AUSTIN photographers in the 1960s. After months of research, and a lot of dead ends, named a National Scenic Byway, and in its Phoenix, AZ 85009 Noah finally figured out that Mr. Van Campen had died in Central Phoenix.