Special Aerial Photos ‘Reading’ the Desert Landscape

arizonahighways.com MARCH 2004

Who Says Arizona Ain’t Green? a portfolio {also inside} MARCH 2004

46 DESTINATION Oracle State Park COVER/PORTFOLIO HISTORY 22 30 Visitors to this sprawling retreat in the foothills north Don’t Take ‘Green’ for Granted The Legend of of Tucson can enjoy nature and tour a restored ranch house. Our state is noted for its magnificent deserts, Sacrificed Children mountains and canyons, but there’s also an 42 BACK ROAD ADVENTURE On the Tohono O’odham Nation, a mound of rocks marks abundance of verdant scenery to dazzle your eyes. Navajo Mountain the revered site where, according to the tale, four young Starting at Page, a drive through parts of the Navajo children were chosen to die to save a village. Nation offers spectacular scenery in historic TRAVEL 34 backcountry. The Eagletails Soar Alone ARCHAEOLOGY 14 48 HIKE OF THE MONTH In Arizona’s remote southwestern backcountry, this Prescott’s Underground Secrets Boulder Canyon Trail rugged range sees few visitors hanging around its In the legend-filled Superstition Mountains, this route An archaeological dig reveals evidence of an outcast odd-shaped spires and elaborate petroglyphs. gives up its “treasure” in some of the region’s most Chinese community and a red-light district along striking panoramas. Granite Street, behind Whiskey Row.

RANCHING 2 LETTERS & E-MAIL House Rock Valley 18 GEOLOGY ONA P Navajo A Simple Ranch Life 3 TAKING THE ARIZ TRI Mountain 6 OFF-RAMP S on the Arizona Strip An Aerial View of Arizona Explore Arizona Grand Canyon Dixie Northcott and husband Bud chase their cattle in Seen from high above, the state’s mountain ranges, oddities, attractions National Park sight of the Vermilion Cliffs, and it’s a life with canyons, rivers and forests reveal new secrets. and pleasures. PRESCOTT hardships — softened by rewards of incomparable PHOENIX beauty. 40 HIGHWAY TO Eagletail Superstition HUMOR Mountains Wilderness Picacho Peak Oracle State Park 41 ALONG THE WAY Santa Rosa Climbing Picacho Peak TUCSON Tohono O'odham between Phoenix and Tucson Nation seems tame enough — until you hit the really POINTS OF INTEREST FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE steep part. {more stories online} at arizonahighways.com GENE PERRET’S WIT STOP A roadrunner, as we all know, is a bird, so how come it rarely flies — and then only for short distances? ONLINE EXTRA Archaeological Sites Opened [this page] Behind Courthouse Rock in the Eagletail Mountains Two unusual archaeological sites near Sierra Vista — a Wilderness of western Arizona, mammoth-kill location and an old Spanish presidio — the full moon pierces a predawn are now developed and open for viewing by the public. sky of rose and lavender. For more on this little-known wilderness WEEKEND GETAWAY area, see the story on page 34. Tombstone’s Other History [front cover] Bracken ferns and a New Mexico locust in bloom Visitors to Tombstone have a lot more to see and learn provide a verdant counterpoint to about than the account of the brief-but-famous the silvery white trunks of aspen shootout at O.K. Corral. trees in the Blue Range Primitive Area in eastern Arizona. See page EXPERIENCE ARIZONA 22 for a visual tour of Arizona’s Celebrate the Tohono O’odham Indian culture at Organ unexpectedly green places. both by jack dykinga Pipe Cactus National Monument, or tap your boots [back cover] An aerial view along with the cowboys at the Festival of the West in reveals the ruggedly weathered Scottsdale. landscape of Lake Powell and the Kaiparowits Plateau. See story, page 6. adriel heisey {letters & e-mail} Arizona Oddities, Attractions and Pleasures {taking the off- ramp }

MARCH 2004 VOL. 80, NO. 3

Publisher WIN HOLDEN

Editor ROBERT J. EARLY San Xavier Artwork people who like travel, as your photographs make Senior Editor BETH DEVENY THIS MONTH IN Managing Editor RANDY SUMMERLIN Wow! The article titled “The Hidden Artwork of one yearn for more distant shores. Research Editor MARY PRATT Editorial Administrator CONNIE BOCH June Whitehead, New Plymouth, New Zealand ARIZONA Mission San Xavier” (October ’03) is an absolute Administrative Assistant NIKKI KIMBEL masterpiece. The combination of vivid photography Director of Photography PETER ENSENBERGER E-mail Newsletter and extremely informative text must be considered Photography Editor RICHARD MAACK 1894An epidemic of one of your finest accomplishments. I have been an I just read the “Off-ramp Newsletter” you e-mailed Art Director MARY WINKELMAN VELGOS glanders avid reader of Arizona Highways for 25 years, and I to me and thoroughly enjoyed it. I will look forward Deputy Art Director BARBARA GLYNN DENNEY prompts the

Deputy Art Director BILLIE JO BISHOP CARLOS BEGAY Territorial cannot remember having been so moved by an article. to future issues. We have built a home in Mesa and Art Assistant PAULY HELLER On the trading post’s Livestock Bernard L. Fontana and Edward McCain should be plan to move there permanently sometime in 2004. Map Designer KEVIN KIBSEY north wall, a portion Commission to Begay Mural Enlivens Kayenta Trading Post kill horses and highly congratulated for their efforts. As a southern Your articles will provide good “roaming” material Arizona Highways Books of Carlos Begay’s burn their ® mural depicts Navajo Arizona resident, I consider San Xavier to be a very when we get there. WitWorks Books striking mural adorns the cultural richness of the Four that the carcasses to Editor BOB ALBANO sheepherding. stop further special place. Your article certainly does it justice. Bev Quisenberry, Elburn, IL Associate Editor EVELYN HOWELL exterior walls of the Kayenta Corners region,” says Begay, a formerly empty spreading of the Associate Editor PK PERKIN McMAHON William Boyer, Oro Valley For those who haven’t found it yet, we have started a Trading Post on the Navajo Kayenta resident whose work is walls now sparkle with color. disease. Production Director CINDY MACKEY A free monthly e-mail newsletter. You can subscribe by Reservation. Artist Carlos Begay known around the Southwest. “One man told me the mural is Production Coordinator KIM ENSENBERGER The incredible beauty of the photographs of Mission going to our Web site at arizonahighways.com. Promotions Art Director RONDA JOHNSON painted scenes of Navajo life, in- The post, not far from a happy painting that has a San Xavier filled us with wonder. We visited this Webmaster VICKY SNOW cluding a hogan in winter, rows of Monument Valley, opened in 1914 spiritual quality, and that made me 1898The Arizona Press treasure in 2001, but the photographs and history Poor Ol’ Editor Circulation Director HOLLY CARNAHAN corn to represent the tribe’s and has never closed. Owner feel good,” says Begay. Association of the mission and its artwork are so spectacular, I feel sorry for the poor ol’ editor. I faithfully read Finance Director ROBERT M. STEELE cultural and spiritual ceremonies Melissa Biard says the original Two shops in downtown demands a storage we want to visit again. letters to the editor every month. You certainly get Fulfillment Director VALERIE J. BECKETT and baskets and jewelry to owners built a rock home that still Flagstaff — Thunder Mountain reservoir be Alice and Clarence Wagner, Wausau, WI a variety of kudos and admonishments. You Information Technology Manager represent craftsmanship. stands behind the post. It attracts Traders and Puchteca Indian placed in Pinal CINDY BORMANIS County to help probably tiptoe over eggs and hot coals as you put Begay’s brush also re-created a passersby who remember visiting Goods — sell Begay’s paintings, 4,000 Indians In the late 1920s, I lived in Tucson. In 1927 and together your articles each month. FOR CUSTOMER INQUIRIES local sandstone monolith known as children and stop to have as do the Heard Museum in whose crops 1928, a highlight was when my father took me to We all know that it’s not possible to satisfy OR TO ORDER BY PHONE: as The Toes. Visitors standing at a pictures taken. Phoenix and The White Hogan are dying Call toll-free: (800) 543-5432 because settlers the old Mission San Xavier. Believe it or not, it was everyone all of the time. If I see an article that In the Phoenix area or outside the U.S., certain point in front of the store Begay’s mural takes up 80 feet in Scottsdale. robbed them of in total ruin. I used to crawl up to the top of the doesn’t interest me, I simply skip past it, because Call (602) 712-2000 can see The Toes on the wall, then, of wall space and draws attention For more information about the Gila River water. Or visit us online at: tower on a rickety wooden ladder. We would take there’s always something interesting in the ensuing arizonahighways.com off to the right, see the real thing. to the post, which he calls a mural or the trading post, call our lunch and spend the day around the mission. pages. Keep up the good work and keep smiling. For Corporate or Trade Sales: “The idea was to bring out the community center. He delights (928) 697-3541. Sales Manager HELEN THOMPSON The town of Thus “The Hidden Artwork of Mission San Xavier” John Nelson, Southampton, PA 1899 Call (602) 712-2050 Jerome is was a great reading experience for me. It is hard for What a nice note. Thank you. incorporated. me to believe that the old weathered mission of E-MAIL “LETTERS TO THE EDITOR”: life-zones, creating [email protected] A Little Bit 1928 has been restored to its present elegance. I Revitalized Regular Mail: one of the most varied must return for a visit. Craig Childs’ article, “Dwelling in the Cliffs” Editor of New York ecosystems in North 1901The saguaro 2039 W. Lewis Ave. blossom is Philip E. LaMoreaux, Tuscaloosa, AL (October ‘03), was beautifully written. I felt as if I Phoenix, AZ 85009 America and drawing adopted as were walking with him and experiencing the wonder in the Chiricahuas scientists and Arizona’s Governor Janet Napolitano official flower The October 2003 issue just arrived, and already it of being where earlier man lived, moved and Director, Department of Transportation ince 1955, the American researchers from by the has rated a place on my shelf with past “collectors’ breathed. The photographs of the people of Sonora, Victor M. Mendez Museum of Natural History around the world. Territorial Legislature. editions” on turquoise, pottery, jewelry, rugs, kachinas in “Sonora, AZ: Slow Death of a Small Town,” told a ARIZONA TRANSPORTATION BOARD in New York has had a Besides the Chairman Ingo Radicke, Globe S and a few others that I have enshrined over the thousand tales. And, as usual, I got a chuckle from Vice Chairman Bill Jeffers, Holbrook branch of its research division technical equipment Miners rush to the Hassayampa years. “The Hidden Artwork of San Xavier” is unique. your “Humor.” Members Dallas “Rusty” Gant, Wickenburg planted in the southeastern corner laboratory, the Richard “Dick” Hileman, Lake Havasu City River area when John Hodge, Dallas, TX Janet Carnall, Berea, OH James W. Martin, Willcox of Arizona, along the quiet folds station provides prospectors Joe Lane, Phoenix of the Chiricahua Mountains. comfortable cabins discover gold 4 S.L. Schorr, Tucson miles from My family and I started traveling throughout Gentle Monster Surrounded by oak, juniper and and a main house Wickenburg. INTERNATIONAL REGIONAL MAGAZINE ASSOCIATION Arizona in the 1920s. We have covered your state I have been a resident of Arizona for more than 50 2001, 2000, 1998, 1992, 1990 Magazine of the Year piñon pine woodlands, the with a library for like a blanket. Your article and pictures on Mission years now. I know of the Mogollon Monster (“In WESTERN PUBLICATIONS ASSOCIATION Southwestern Research Station study, a lounge with San Xavier, in my mind, are the best that you have Search of the Mogollon Monster,” “Taking the Off- 2002 Best Overall Consumer Publication rests near the base of the mountain. a fireplace and a The new 2002, 2001 Best Travel & In-transit Magazine 1907 Territorial ever printed. ramp,” October ’03) from the late ‘50s, and I’m sure 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1995, 1993, 1992 From there, a short drive up the family-style dining prison in Best Regional & State Magazine Harold E. Copeland, Littleton, CO the legend is older than that. Chiricahuas travels through five room where chefs Florence SOCIETY OF AMERICAN TRAVEL WRITERS opens, and its Usually we do not publish so many letters on the same Every summer, my Scout Troop No. 223 would go FOUNDATION serve up home first prisoners topic, but the mail on this story was voluminous. We to Camp Geronimo on the Rim for one or two weeks. 2000, 1997 Gold Awards cooking. Outside, a are transferred Best Monthly Travel Magazine thought the letters should reflect the reaction. The Mogollon Monster resides somewhere in that swimming pool, from Yuma. Arizona Highways® (ISSN 0004-1521) is published area. I have seen plaster casts of its footprints in monthly by the Arizona Department of volleyball court and WADE C. SHERBROOKE Passed Around the lodge at Camp Geronimo. I have heard many Transportation. Subscription price: $24 a year in the horseshoe pit offer U.S., $34 in Canada, $37 elsewhere outside the U.S. The State Arizona Highways is well read in New Plymouth. It stories about it, but I have never heard of it hurting Single copy: $3.99 U.S. Send subscription cor­ relaxing diversions. enjoy their cozy accommodations 1912 respondence­ and change of address information to Legislature Arizona High­ways, 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, AZ holds its first does the rounds of friends, then ends up with other any human. I don’t believe it’s capable of that act. 85009. Periodical postage paid at Phoenix, AZ and The summer months are prime and spectacular scenery. As space at additional mailing office. POSTMASTER­ : send session. Among friends who have a bed and breakfast at Oakura, on It’s a friend of the forest and the creatures that live address changes to Arizona Highways, 2039 W. Lewis time for field researchers, but in is available, family and tour groups the laws passed: Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85009. Copyright­ © 2004 by the the Surf Highway, where it is enjoyed by many there, both man and animal. I think any Scout will Arizona­ Department of Transpor­ tation.­ Reproduc­ ­ the spring and fall, the station find the station a perfect getaway. child-laborers people from various parts of New Zealand as well as attest to that. tion in whole or in part without­­ permission is pro- must be at least hibited. The magazine does not accept and is not welcomes birders, hikers, Information: (520) 558-2396; 14 years old. responsible for unsolicited­ materials­ provided for overseas visitors. Can’t think of a better gift to send Robert Parker, Payson editorial consideration.­ DAWN WILSON naturalists and anyone else to research.amnh.org/swrs.

Produced in the USA 2 MARCH 2004 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 3 {taking the off- ramp }

LIFE IN ARIZONA 1920s such artist, J. Paul Fennel, uses mesquite in his work, breathing Dinner With Edna St. Vincent Millay such elegance into his wooden at the Bottom of the Grand Canyon vessels they appear to be woven baskets. lenton Sykes met a great in the Journal of Arizona History Todd Hoyer, another G literary figure at the bottom in 1976. featured local artist, uses a of the Grand Canyon in 1923. “Madam, I should be variety of regional woods in his A young college graduate, delighted,” he told Millay. R O G ER A dramatic wire-and-wood Sykes lived alone in a cabin near “Splendid! Then I shall be SA Y/ GA LL sculptures. He takes the wood the Colorado River and worked looking for you in half an hour.” ER Y M AT ERIA from piles left by tree trimmers, measuring the river’s flow for the After going to his cabin to Question and enjoys preserving these trees DAVID H. SMITH U.S. Geological Survey. “slick up,” Sykes enjoyed a good of the Out of the in his art. He uses native woods One night, while at river’s edge meal with Millay, renowned Month for the qualities he can’t find in Hoodoo Haven stowing tools in his boat, Sykes bohemian poet, and her friends. Arizona Woods other woods, like the density o most of the locals, they’re was startled to hear a voice “I answered many questions How did ith the fallen branches and twisting grain of mesquite, known as “the teepees.” behind him. He turned to see a and talked a good deal — possibly Q Texas of cottonwood, aspen, and the symmetrical splits and TOthers have suggested small woman in a long gray coat. too much — and had a very Canyon in mesquite, juniper and specks of sycamore. “hoodoos” might be more “You must pardon me,” she pleasant evening,” Sykes wrote. southern Arizona W SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, VASSAR COLLEGE LIBRARIES ponderosa pine trees found near From the delicate illusions of appropriate. Either way, a cluster said, “but I have just had the “I waved the party bon voyage get its name? their Prescott home, Roger Asay artist Tom Eckert, to the sleek, of odd geological formations 9 pleasure of observing a young man today at the Canyon bottom, had the following morning as they ? and Rebecca Davis craft native contemporary vessels of sculptor miles east of Camp Verde merits beautifully lost in his task. I’m just opened. passed by my cabin on their The three LINDA LONGMIRE Arizona woods into beautiful Virginia Dotson and the a distinctive moniker. Edna St. Vincent Millay. Will you “Let it be recorded that I had way out, watched them follow A Adams Oops, wooden spheres, blending nature fascinating sculptures of Joey Conical and cylindrical join me for supper at the ranch?” enough judgment to accept,” the switchbacks, and saw them brothers were Sorry Dear and sculpture, geometry and Gottbrath, the Gallery Materia formations of buff-colored earth Phantom Ranch, still operating wrote Sykes, who told his story disappear onto the Tonto Plateau.” heading to the artistry. showcases a breadth of sculpture and rock, nearly all pockmarked coast of California Popular ditty Asay and Davis are two of as diverse and textured as the cheeselike by wind and water, from Texas when sung long ago by several regional wood sculptors native wood of Arizona itself. hunker down alongside two Apache Indians miners in Jerome’s whose work is shown at Information: (480) 949-1262. desolate off-road drainages. On a stole their horse beer halls: Scottsdale’s Gallery Materia. One www.gallerymateria.com. moonlit windy night, it would be Navajo Poster Tells a Story of Beauty team and My sweetheart’s a easy to imagine these lonely ourists can own, for the The Discover Navajo poster, wearing a traditional rug dress stranded them in mule in the mine, towering sentinels as alien beings asking, a print of one of the put out by the tribe’s tourism and standing beside a 2-year-old a rocky canyon. I drive her with Everyone’s a Kid in Train Museum come down to give mankind the Tmost beautiful images to office, shows Patty Arthur, a paint mare. The striking backdrop The brothers only one line. willies. come out of the Navajo Indian Navajo teen-ager from is Canyon de Chelly, the Navajos’ decided to make a On the ore car I sit, he place looks like Christmas the Louisville & Nashville huffs The scientific facts are a bit Reservation in a long time. Vanderwagen, New Mexico, ancestral home. go of it right there and tobacco I spit, morning in the land of the and puffs, the Santa Fe hauls. less haunting. The teepees- Three thousand posters and settled All over my sweet- Tgiants. Toy trains running They run through safe little hoodoos consist primarily of were given away at the nearby in a place heart’s behind. everywhere. Tracks filling 6,000 towns, down mine and lumber volcanic ash sediment deposited Navajo Pavilion at the 2002 they called Adams square feet of warehouse. Smoke loops, up hills and over bridges. from the air when a nearby Olympics in Salt Lake City. Flat. They named billowing, bells ringing, cars Children carried into the volcano (now Hackberry “They were so popular we the canyon of chugging. Welcome to the museum reach out in all directions, Mountain, 8 miles away) blew its had to hide them under the jumbled rocks Gadsden-Pacific Division Toy one word on their lips: “Train. top ages ago. Water percolating counter to keep from after their home Train Operating Museum, Ltd. in Train. Train.” up from below congealed the ash running out,” says Kathie state. Interstate 10 Tucson. Forget trying to remember Adults may not be yelling, but into concretelike integrity that Curley, the tribe’s marketing now runs through the name, just make the trip you see it in their eyes, a vision of out-toughed the erosion of softer coordinator. “Some people Texas Canyon some Sunday afternoon (after Christmas morning. Admission is adjacent sedimentary deposits. found the simplicity and the between Willcox calling to confirm hours). free. Information: (520) 888-2222. Still spooky, but fun. colors so beautiful they had and Benson in Run by volunteers, the tears in their eyes.” Cochise County. museum at 7401 N. Cholla Blvd. The poster was featured opens twice a month. Photographs in several newspapers in and posters of the great trains of the Midwest, which led to the past hang on the walls. But out coverage by the Associated CONTRIBUTORS on the floor, on the raised tracks, Press and on CNN. It’s free NOAH ALESHIRE LEO W. BANKS the past comes alive and the to reservation visitors. TERI NIESCHULZ present moves with a roar as a Information: Navajo BILL NORMAN dozen-plus miniature trains roll. Nation Tourism, (928) MARY PRATT KATHLEEN WALKER PETER NOEBELS The New York Central barrels by, GARY L. LANGSTON 871-6436.

4 MARCH 2004 arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 5 ∞ AERIAL VIEWPOINT reveals an infinite character Reading the Palm of Arizona’s Landscape text by Craig Childs photographs by Adriel Heisey I AM READING THE PALM OF THE LAND. Creases and wrinkles weave in and out of each other thousands of feet below. Each line, each arroyo and canyon and ridge tells a story . . . something about the future, something about the past. Leaning forward from the jumpseat just behind the pilot, I shout over the deafening roar of twin-propeller engines, asking if she’ll dip the plane to the west. The dragon spine of the Dragoon Moun- tains stretches across southeast Arizona, and I want a closer look. Without hesitation, she leans the airplane toward the west as we turn sharply across the desert, raking over the edge of the moun- tains. This is a business flight, Douglas to Phoenix. Usually the pilot carries women in business suits with folders of work sorted across their laps, men strapped by neckties, laptop computers clat- tering under their fingers. They want the quickest ride, a straight line between Point A and Point B. She’s always happy when I come along because I ask for a different kind of flight. I want the bumpy ride. I want to skim the ground. I am glued to the windows, hop- ping back and forth to see one side and the other, leaning forward to ask her to swing back over some curiosity in the landscape when no one else objects. She once made a living flying bush planes in Alaska, supply-

ing logging camps and remote villages, landing on crooked little dirt strips. She [preceding panel, pages 6 likes the wild ride. and 7] The Colorado River’s Passing over the north edge of the Dragoons, I point to the Dos Cabezas Peaks winding path through Marble not far off. Canyon, and crevices like Cathedral Wash (center), are ∞ “Can you get us over there?” joined by smaller watercourses She turns to look at me, shouting above the engines. “Why don’t we just circle to create a storytelling all the sky islands from here to Phoenix?” palmprint of the land. In the distance, Navajo Bridge spans “Perfect,” I shout. the river and gorge. For the rest of the day, the land unfolds beneath us — darkly forested mountains [opposite page] Holy Joe Peak springing straight up from the wash-scrawled Chihuahuan Desert. I have her cir- rises to 5,415 feet from the cle twice, then a third time over the secret interior of the Galiuro Mountains, groves Galiuro Mountains northeast of Tucson. of aspen trees hiding in the high basins, Aravaipa Canyon slipping like a dark snake [above] This westward- around the northern end. This is what I mean by reading the palm of the land: From looking aerial view belies the here I can see the larger patterns of the earth, how things are put together. The sky meandering creek’s rich riparian habitats in Aravaipa islands of southeast Arizona are not independent mountain ranges, but are instead Canyon. strung together like pearls on a necklace. Each pearl, each range of mountains, is an isolated ecosystem, an island of forests suspended in a desert sea. I ask for one more turn. She obliges. What reason is there for flying other than to have a window seat? I am the one who holds up the line in airports, making sure at the ticket counter that I don’t get the aisle or middle. Don’t we all dream of flying? Isn’t that the one superpower we wish we had? Though the crop patterns of Iowa and the oceanic blue of the Great Lakes are

8 MARCH 2004 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 9 [below] Left behind by years intriguing, my native state of Arizona is by far the aerial champion, a landscape of drought and dropping of infinite changes. Yet somehow it is not so huge from the air. Things are not so water levels, an ominous white strip outlines the far apart. Phoenix comes as a surprise early in the evening as we descend into its intense blue water of Navajo gridded lights, striking down on the asphalt runways of Sky Harbor International Canyon on Lake Powell. Airport. When the propellers jerk to a halt, I step out of the plane. My feet touch [opposite page] The concrete ground and I am mortal again. used to construct Hoover Dam, completed in 1935, could pave a road 16 feet rriving in the morning for the next flight, I am heading to a meeting in wide from San Francisco to Kingman. I see the pilot in the small commuter terminal. We shake hands. New York City. A She’ll be flying me today. We both smile at each other. Secret smiles. After land- ing in Kingman for my meeting, we take off again and I ask if we can have a brief tour of the mountains to the west before turning back for Phoenix. Soon we are deep over the Mohave Desert. The mountains here, in northwest Arizona, have no forests like those in the southeast region. They are barren, stand­ing like broken glass, edges curt and sunbaked. Lake Mead is a strange blue substance fill- ing a space where there should be a canyon. We skirt its smooth, opal edges, slipping up through the steep canyons of the Black Mountains. The view from here tells of a larger Earth than what I usually see. I spend much of my life on foot on the ground, crossing these places with a pack on my back. The study of landscapes is my occu­pation, and I tend toward the small: boulders and grains of sand and leaves scattered by wind. From the air, though, I see what looks like tidal forces in the land, the undulation of the entire continent. Geology out here is of similar con- struction to that of the sky islands: an orderly network of basins inter- rupted by mountain ranges aligned in an angle from the southeast to the northwest. One might imagine that the land is nothing but a haphazard assemblage of geographic odds and ends: chasms thrown in with mountains and scattered unevenly. Hills seem to show up for no reason. From walking on the ground, I have discovered otherwise. Every boulder tells a story about where it came from

and where it is going. The ground is a web of interactions, every object woven in ∞ time and space. Boulder slopes lead to a cliff that is made by a delicate balance of ero- sion and the strength of the particular geological formation. The root of a tree breaks into the weakness of a million-year-old fracture in the rock, causing part of a rockface to calve off, slowly turning a broad mesa into a narrow butte. Cause and effect are interlaced like clockwork. Now, from the air, I see the same thing on a different scale. The course of the Colorado River emerges from Lake Mead, defining a gorge that in turn follows the global thrusting of mountains and the settling of basins between. Hoover Dam was stuffed into place by human engineers because the land told them this is the place: The river follows the westward geological trend that established the Grand Canyon, but turns suddenly south here, meeting a new trend, cutting into a new and narrowing canyon, a perfect place to build a dam. It is like a book below me, through the oval airplane windows, paragraphs and

10 MARCH 2004 arizonahighways.com sentences and punctuation defined by each mountain and canyon, laying out a well-planned story. The pilot points to her watch. My time is up. We turn back toward Phoenix. ∞

’ve looked forward to this flight around Page, at the northern edge of the state. As soon as we’re off the runway, the red-stone desert of the Colorado Plateau I reveals itself. The crystalline geology of faults and uplifts and synclines fan around the plane. Every hundred feet that we climb, the land turns into a more and more dense orchestration. Slender canyons wind down into the bedrock. The embry-

onic arms and coves of Lake Powell outline the sensual sway of surrounding rock [opposite page] Storm clouds formations. This place makes the sky islands and the Mohave Desert’s basins and roil above Lake Powell’s Last ranges look like crude stonework. In this area, the Colorado Plateau is delicate, like Chance Bay. [below] Named in 1869 by a finely crafted ceramic vase. There is very little soil, hardly anything living down Colorado River explorer John there, no basins filled thousands of feet thick with sloughed-off rock. The earth is Wesley Powell, Marble Canyon absolutely naked, every twitch and fracture exposed, unveiled by wind and water. stretches from Lee’s Ferry to We fly over a boneyard of stone, but it is not just heaps of random bones. No, the mouth of the Little Colorado River, which marks these are skeletons, fully articulated. The long, reaching spine of Navajo Canyon the beginning of Grand is elegantly jointed into side canyons that spread away like ribs. We circle the Canyon’s Granite Gorge. shadow-infested depths of Paria Canyon, looking down into its smooth, ossific meanders. Buckskin Gulch is a dark thread sewn into the landscape, a place where flash floods gather as if conspiring. In the distance, I see the convergent landmarks of Water Pocket Fold, Escalante Canyon and the Straight Cliffs in Utah. The throne of Navajo Mountain sheds countless canyons around its feet. Marble Canyon glides down below a smooth deck of earth into the Grand Canyon. The pilot asks if I want to see anything in particular this time. No. You choose. How can I possibly pick one place over the other? To see this land from the sky is like being reborn, the world turned inside out for me. I have walked all over down there, lost in shadows, sleeping among sunken waterholes. I have often imagined what it would be like to look down from high above and see the small dot of myself in the middle of nowhere, en- gulfed in palaces of stone. Traveling on foot, I have come to learn the sub- tleties of these rock formations, how some are grained like coarse sand- paper, how others turn smooth as soap down in the deep canyons. All of my knowledge is tied together here. The small is eternally bound into the huge. The Earth becomes in my eyes a living creature. Now, can we go into space? I wonder. Can I tap the pilot’s shoulder and point straight up? Can we fly out beyond the atmosphere and look back at this polished gemstone of a planet, knowing that within it are the flawless, isometric planes of a diamond? Molten bands of liquid rock swirl among each other in a methodical dance within the Earth, as scrupu- lous as the inner slices of an orange. This molten flow ripples our thin crust of continents, forming mountains and gorges and mesas. The Col- orado Plateau lifts upon the slow wave of this dance, and its surface shudders, falling into vast and precise canyons. This is why people read palms. By looking at the lines, we see deep into a person’s nature. We read the past and the future. We live upon a character of a planet, a place rife with personality. There is temper in the land. I can see it from the plane. A desert of emotion. Suddenly, I think that I do not want to go any farther. I want the ground again. Down there, I can feel the stone with my hands. I can choose a mesa edge upon which to set my camp. Up here, I am only a set of eyes carrying the memory of what I have seen. I have what I came for. Now, let’s go back and put this plane on the ground. I don’t want to be a palm reader anymore. I want to be the palm itself. I want to be one of lines, one of the boulders, one of the people walking upon the Earth. The pilot turns the plane, and we start back for home.

Craig Childs, who lives in Colorado, regularly wanders the backcountry of his home state of Arizona, ­disappearing sometimes for weeks or months on end. He is the author of The Desert Cries, published by ­Arizona Highways Books. Bold landforms mean bold flying for Tucson photographer Adriel Heisey, whose skeletal airplane is a fine open-air shooting platform but can be a bucking bronco in the skies above tall mountains or deep canyons.

arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 13 Prescott ndergrOund U Archaeologists find evidence of a Chinese society and a red-light district

text by Norm Tessman photographs by George H.H. Huey

ike all Western towns, Territorial lanterns soon after Prescott’s founding in Prescott included minorities who the summer of 1864. The first newspaper L lived on the edge of “polite society.” mention of one seems to be the April 4, A small Chinese population raised and 1868, Arizona Miner report of a “. . . shoot- sold produce, cooked in “noodle joints” and ing done by a courtesan who lives in the operated laundries along Whiskey Row house of ill fame on Montezuma Street.” In from the late 1860s, when they first arrived, 1895, the Courier reported “. . . over one through the Great Depression of the 1930s. hundred female denizens of Prescott’s ten- Similarly, women who worked in bawdy derloin district,” but the 1910 census counted houses seem to have been accepted as a part only 30 red-light ladies. Despite restrictive of the town’s economy as they entertained laws and occasional attempts to drive them miners, cowboys and soldiers from nearby away, “soiled doves” remained a part of Fort Whipple. the town until well into the 20th century. Both the “fancy women” and the “Celes- Some of Prescott’s first Chinese residents tials,” as newspapers called the two groups, had been among the thousands of their left little record except for the occasional countrymen who migrated across the West and usually derogatory news article. searching for employment upon comple- [above] The joss house built The women probably hung out their red tion of the transcontinental railroad. On beside Granite Creek in Prescott November 27, 1869, the xenophobic Arizona­ served the Chinese community and names, and they followed unfamiliar family moved to Los Angeles in the 1940s. higher status “ladies.” At least one building is Miner reflected common preju- as a church, gathering place, customs and religious practices. They ate Many of these outcasts, both the Chinese marked on a map as saloon and dance hall. ­dices of the day by announcing, funeral parlor and laundry foods from their homeland, although Chi- and the red-light women, lived along South Gail Gardner (1892-1987), Prescott post- business. sharlot hall museum “Three more Chinamen arrived [left] A delicate bowl was nese eateries became popular adjuncts to Granite Street, in the block behind Whiskey master, cowboy, Dartmouth University grad- here. There are now four of them among items dug from the site many saloons. Row. The Chinese joss house or community uate and poet, once related how his mother’s in this vicinity, which is quite of a privy during archaeological In Arizona, most Chinese seem to have center and place of worship, was west of friends wouldn’t speak of South Granite excavation along South Granite enough.” Street, the neighborhood of avoided the overt persecution they had suf- Granite Street near Granite Creek. “Cribs,” Street. If the region had to be named, it was Prescott’s Chinese population prob- Prescott’s Chinese residents fered in California by working at occupa- barely large enough for one woman and a referred to as the “restricted zone.” Gardner ably peaked about 1900. That year’s cen- during the 1800s. tions not directly competing with Anglos. bed, extended both ways from the street cor- and his childhood buddies were forbidden sus counted 229 Chinese men, four women Eventually they left Prescott because of eco- ner up Goodwin and Granite streets. Sev- to go near the area, but rode their ponies and five children. To Euro-Americans, the nomic pressures, particularly the Great eral parlor houses, including the infamous there at every opportunity to see its residents. Chinese were strange in looks, dress, speech Depression. The last traditional Chinese double-decker brothel, presumably employed In 2002, a parking garage was to be built

14 MARCH 2004 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 15 on South Granite Street. Recognizing simultaneous shiver, as if they had usually show a strong preference for pork), artifacts, most of them typical of female- when Arizona outlawed alcoholic bever- the area’s historical significance, city seen a ghost, the faintest essence of Feature 17 may have been a restaurant dominated Victorian households. Cos­ ages. Buried deeper were wine bottles from officials and builders hired SWCA one of South Granite Street’s red-light operated­ by Chinese but patronized by non- metics and grooming items included jars about 1900 and an Anheuser-Busch beer Inc., an archaeological contracting ladies. Chinese as well. labeled “Thorn’s Cherry Toothpaste — keg atop a blacksmith-made wheelbarrow. company, to prospect the site. As On the other end of the project area, Across South Granite Street from Feature Patronized by the Queen,” bone and ivory Archaeologists believe this well had been background research, archaeologists archaeologists and volunteers were 17 had been Prescott’s Joss House, the Chi- toothbrushes and hairbrushes, hard rub- dug in the 1860s, abandoned and covered, consulted the Sharlot Hall Museum’s excavating Feature 17, another trash- nese community’s religious and political ­ber combs and numerous bottles that con- then exposed by the archives for Sanborn fire maps, news- filled cellar. This basement, however, center. The Arizona Miner derided it as tained hair dye, cologne, perfume 1900 fire and sub- paper files, city directories, early pho- had surely been a casualty of the 1900 “Mongolian Headquarters.” On the bank of and “Florida Water.” sequently filled tographs and other records. Originally fire. The 1890 Sanborn fire map had Granite Creek, the joss house escaped the Less obviously with trash. Water published for insurance purposes, the labeled the frame building over it sim- 1900 fire as its constituents fought flying feminine were some was encoun- Sanborn fire maps pinpoint location, ply “Chinese.” The 1895 edition of the embers with wet blankets and brooms. dozen half-pint amber tered about 12 feet material composition and sometimes map added, “dance hall” and “saloon.” During the excavation, archaeologists liquor flasks and round- down, so exca­va­tion the use of buildings. Archaeologists After it burned, the gaping cellar hole often commented that Chinese artifacts bottomed “Belfast” ginger was abandoned without use them to identify historical foun- had been filled with fire debris and were obvious, but wondered what material ales. Some patent medicines learning what lay beneath that level. dations, wells and privies — all poten- trash from the saloon and rows of would characterize South Granite Street’s uncovered were “Dr. Kilmer’s Through the dig, as community vol-­ tial sources of artifacts. “female boarding houses” that was other outcasts, the red-light community. Swamp Root, Kidney, Liver, and unteers like Hastings and Sullivan When exploratory trenches uncov- quickly rebuilt nearby. Beneath the This was at least partially answered by Bladder Cure,” and “Dr. Birney’s ­diligently worked alongside pro-­ ered abundant historical material, SWCA an 1840s medicine bottle. Since Prescott, 1900 ashes were typical Chinese artifacts Feature 32, a trash-filled privy pit behind Catarrhal Powder,” the latter packed fes­sional archaeologists, the Inc. was again funded to excavate these Arizona Territory, was not founded until — beautifully painted dishes, graceful rice the foundation of the infamous double- with cocaine. A well-preserved size mater­ial culture of South 1 artifact-rich sites, called “features.” During 1864, this last item must have arrived in liquor bottles, glazed ginger jars and what decker, a two-story frame house midway 7 ⁄8 Derby hat may be evidence of one Gran­ite Street’s outcasts 32 days of fieldwork, several thousand arti- some traveler’s luggage. appeared to be hollow doorknobs — the up the block. An 1880 photograph in the of the double-decker’s clients. was excavated, screened facts were recovered from cellars of burned Two volunteers, Ed Sullivan and Christy bowls of opium pipes. Sharlot Hall Museum archives labels it as Some red-light ladies sought cus- from fill dirt, carefully labeled and buildings and trash-filled abandoned wells Hastings, were sifting dirt that archaeolo- Period newspapers vilified the “Chinese the “double-decker house of prostitution.” tomers in the Whiskey Row saloons. But bagged. It has been added to the col- and privies. Each of these sites was num- gist Norm Bush was troweling into a bucket opium fiends,” reporting that they lay stu- Without refuse collection until after 1900, on South Granite Street, they worked in lections at the Sharlot Hall Museum, bered as a feature, and its identity was veri­- when a glimmer of gold flashed in the debris pefied in tunnels and dark cellars. Probably garbage often was dumped into the out- settings ranging from rows of the tiny where an ongoing exhibit presents the fied on a fire map. screen. “Hey, Norm,” Hastings called excit- some Chinese opium users abused the house pit. When the pit was full, a new hole wooden cribs, which also extended along story of Prescott’s color­ful outcast commu­ Feature 1 was relatively old, the cellar edly. “You really need to see this!” Bush drug, but most of them regarded it much was dug nearby and the building moved west Goodwin Street, to parlor houses such nities that lived behind Whiskey Row. of a wooden building burned long before scrambled­ from the burned-out cellar to join as today’s Americans view alcohol, using over it, with excavated dirt and stove ashes as the double-decker. Presumably the work-

Prescott’s devastating fire of July 14, 1900. the volunteers at the debris screen. With it openly for relaxation. In one Chinese covering the old hole. After a century, the ing women of the cribs were on the bottom In his former position as Sharlot Hall Museum’s chief Feature 1’s artifacts, and those of Feature a paintbrush, he eased back dirt and tradition, a daughter-in-law prepared the organic contents of such deposits resemble rung of red-light society, and parlor-house curator, Norm Tessman helped research South Granite 36 next to it, were notably from an charred wood to reveal an eight- opium pipe for her father-in-law. innocuous garden soil. occupants enjoyed higher status. Street, and led the crew that identified nearly 1,300 food early era: ceramic mineral-water sided floral medallion, then a hinged Because of its large amount of broken Archaeologists interpret past life ways Another sort of structure was Feature 22, bones (including a grizzly bear) from the features. George H.H. Huey has photographed throughout the ­bot­tles, Minie balls from gold loop. “It’s an earring,” he said. tableware­ and preponderance of beef bones from material culture, a formal name for a hand-dug, stone-lined well. Near its top United States and abroad, but this story was his first Civil War-era rifles and The three of them experienced a over pork (historic Chinese settlements trash. Feature 32 was a treasure trove of were whiskey bottles perhaps from 1914, assignment ever in his adopted hometown of Prescott.

[above] Bone toothbrushes and cherry toothpaste “Patronized by the Queen” were recovered from the privy site behind the double-decker bawdy house. [left] Kara Schmidt, lab director for SWCA Inc. carefully cleaned the artifacts discovered behind Whiskey Row along South [top] By researching Granite Street. old town site and fire [right] A rice wine jug and a maps, archaeologists cup were dug from beneath a determined the most layer of hardened ashes of a likely locations to unearth Chinese store and restaurant artifacts. that burned in 1900. [above] Recovered from the earth, a delicate gold earring retains a hint of its original beauty. [above right] Meticulous excavation uncovered Chinese coins and glass gaming pieces behind the location of a burned store. [right] The Union Saloon stood on the corner of West Goodwin and South Granite streets, and was flanked by “cribs” labeled as “female boarding” on the Sanborn fire maps from the 1800s. sharlot hall museum

16 MARCH 2004 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 17 Text by JANET WEBB FARNSWORTH Text by JANET WEBB FARNSWORTH Photographs by BERNADETTE HEATH Photographs by BERNADETTE HEATH

’ll fight tooth and nail if my husband ever ‘‘ wants me to leave here,” says rancher Dixie Northcott. She’s talking about the Arizona Strip, that high, lonesome stretch of land Isprawling across northwestern Arizona. Cut off from the rest of the state by the Colorado River, the Strip appears barren in parts, but its windswept beauty grows on those living there until, like Dixie, they LADY never want to leave. Stretching from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon north to the Utah border, bound on the east RANCHER by Marble Canyon and on the west by the Nevada D d border, the Arizona Strip covers approximately 5 ON THE million acres of land with a population of 2,000 to 3,000. Towns are few and small. Most people are just passing through, on their way to someplace ARIZONA else. Only those who enjoy solitude, clear skies and unlimited vistas last here. As Dixie says, “If you can’t stand being with yourself, you better not come here.” STRIP Fans of the Western author Zane Grey know this Hardships and remoteness have a payoff in beauty country from his novel Riders of the Purple Sage. Sliced by deep arroyos and dominated by the rugged loveliness of the Vermilion Cliffs, the Strip is a land of contrast, but nowhere is it a soft and gentle land. House Rock Valley covers much of the eastern Strip, funneling snow runoff­ and summer monsoon floods into the Colorado River. The Kaibab Plateau borders the valley on the west. Sand and sage limits the trees, keeping them confined­ to the high plateaus­ and clus- tered around a few watering tanks. Remote ranches dot the landscape. One of those properties belongs to Dixie and her husband, Bud. Dixie had lived in a nice home in Phoenix until 1982 when Bud, tired of big-city life, bought the ranch. He told Dixie, “It’s just like ‘Dallas’ [the popular televi- sion series of the time]. We have a ranch house with a swimming pool in the [opposite page] Paria Canyon- front yard, and our neighbor is named J.R.” Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness stretches across House Rock Valley Bud told the truth, but the ranch house was a on the Arizona Strip, the rugged one‑room cabin — since expanded — with no elec- swath of land circumscribed by tricity, then or now, and a stock tank that served as the Colorado River in the state’s a swimming pool. J.R. Jones, the nearest neighbor, northwest corner. [above] Rancher Dixie Northcott was 13 miles away on a washboard dirt road pass- houses livestock in a corral used able only in dry weather. Running water originated by generations of House Rock from a spring three-quarters of a mile away, cold Valley ranchers.

arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 19 was drafted into the service during World War II. and Jim can look for the cat- One especially hard winter, Trevor made a pair tle on ATVs. of skis out of wood from a wagon and skied into Bernadette and I explore Kanab for food when supplies ran out. The two while Dixie looks for the brothers owned the ranch until they retired in 1982 cattle. House Rock Valley and the Northcotts took over. has long been a corridor for Ranch chores are never-ending. Much of Dixie’s those who must pass through time is spent inspecting cattle, stock tanks and this stark land — its hidden fences. She invites Bernadette and me to tag along springs providing treasured the next morning as she checks on cattle, but warns watering stops. us to eat a good breakfast. Scattered shards of pot- “When I first came up here to the ranch, Trevor tery testify to use by ances- helped me run the place. I didn’t eat breakfast then, tral Puebloan Indians, who and when we left one morning, Trevor handed me were formerly called Ana an apple. He said I couldn’t eat it until I found a sazi. Names and dates carved cow. It took me all day to find any cattle, and by the into the cliffs document the time we got back to the ranch, I was plenty hungry. Mormon treks through here Now I eat every morning.” in the 1800s. First, explorer We head out early the next morning to a moun- Jacob Hamblin traveled the and clear out of a V-pipe down at the corral. ‘Even with tain area known as “the buckskin,” which some say area searching for routes, Dixie laughs when I ask about bathroom facili- four-wheel­ drive, earns its name from the yellow-white tinge of Kaibab and then Mormon pioneers ties. “See that old plank over there?” pointing to a there are places limestone. The road is rough in Dixie’s four‑wheel- passed through on their way 10-inch-wide warped board spanning a gully on the on this ranch drive pickup truck. “Even with four-wheel­ drive, to settlements in eastern north side of the house. “I had to walk that plank to you can’t get to there are places on this ranch you can’t get to unless Arizona. Later, Mormon cou- get to an outhouse.” unless you use you use an ATV [all‑terrain vehicle] or a horse,” ples followed the Honey- Never convenient, the outhouse became a sore an ATV or a Dixie comments as we bump along. moon Trail, which stretched subject when Dixie got up in the middle of the night horse.’ With a final lunge, the pickup tops out, and below across House Rock Valley, to go to the bathroom, stepped out the front door us in House Rock Valley, the sagebrush looks like a in order to get married in and a rattlesnake bit her on the ankle. “They had bluish-green river winding down the valley. The the Mor­mon temple in St. to drive me 60 miles to Kanab, Utah, to a doctor,” road meanders through junipers and piñons. Dixie George, Utah. [opposite page, above] The which is beautiful to look at but is toxic and may Dixie says. drives slowly, her head out the window looking for The Vermilion Cliffs stand out as the most striking blue and purple shales of be fatal to cattle, dots the coral-colored sand. the barren Chinle Recovered from the snakebite, Dixie announced cattle tracks. feature of House Rock Valley. Named by Colorado Formation have preserved Dixie’s cattle are fat and sleek from the spring there would be some changes made. She wanted a I ask how they gather cattle in the dense brush. River explorer John Wesley Powell, the majestic cliffs an abundance of fossil grass, with many calves born this season. Dixie says, bathroom — and she wanted it now. Bud rigged up “We water trap,” Dixie answers. “See the ‘trigger’ at change colors from variegated red with white in the trees, ferns and freshwater “The babies are what I like about this life, the new a gravity‑flow water system, and Dixie quit show- the gate to the watering hole? That gate allows the morning to glowing orange and buff in the evening. animals from perhaps 75 calves and foals each spring.” million years ago. ering down in the corral and walking the plank to cattle to go in, but the sharpened poles on the side The cliffs are protected as part of the Paria Canyon‑ [opposite page, below] Dixie At the wilderness boundary, we park the ATVs the outhouse. She says, “I kept that weathered board discourage them from coming back through. They Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness. Bicyclists and hikers Northcott readies to ride and hike to waterholes, actually potholes in the over the gully as a reminder of the good old days.” stay here by the water until flock to the Coyote Spring area to explore the beau- Barney as she inspects her sandstone filled with rainwater. These are lifelines House Rock Valley ranch Photographer Bernadette Heath and I are sitting we come get them.” tiful rock formations. Endangered condors, released north of the Grand Canyon. for high-desert animals like coyotes, mountain lions, in rocking chairs on the front porch of Dixie’s ranch A pair of cinnamon teals into the wild here, are occasionally spotted. [above] Hiking across rabbits and deer. The rock formations around us are house as she reminisces. “I just knew I wasn’t going swims around on the pond. Bernadette and I are admiring the purple and Navajo sandstone forma- swirled into fantasy formations like dollops of red tions, Northcott looks to like living up on the Strip,” Dixie remembers. “These watering tanks pro- mauve shale of the Chinle formation at the base of for a favorite watering hole whipped cream. Dixie points out one large beehive‑ “But, how can you hate that?” she asks, gesturing vide resting spots and water the Vermilion Cliffs when I notice a lizard. About shared by her cattle and the shaped rock. “The Leach brothers told me there is toward the Vermilion Cliffs glowing red and gold for migrating birds,” Dixie 12 inches long with shiny fishlike scales, it changes local wildlife. a pothole in the top of that rock, and one dry year in the setting sun. “I go to Phoenix now, and I can says. “I stock the pond by the colors to blend in with the colored sand. Of course, they climbed up there and scooped out water.” hardly wait to get back up here.”’ house with goldfish just for Bernadette wants photographs and orders me to With the sun setting fast, we head back to the At 59, Dixie is tall and lean, her skin tanned dark the birds.” That explains the keep him distracted while she sets up her camera. I ranch, ready for bed. The next morning brings good by years in the sun. Raised on the Alamo Ranch in pair of snowy white egrets sprawl out in the sand about a foot and a half from news. Bud arrives from Prescott and the lost cattle Mancos, Colorado, Dixie comes from pioneer stock sitting grandly in the top of the lizard. We look each other in the eye, and I tell have found their way back to water. Yesterday’s prob- and knows the ranching life. She manages the ranch a juniper tree this morning. him how beautiful he is while Bernadette snaps pic- lems are solved, but today will present more. It’s in House Rock Valley with Bud’s help, who comes We follow a rough road tures. The lizard finally tires of my flattery and scut- always that way on a ranch. I know it’s time for me whenever he can from his business in Prescott. Her along the fenceline when tles off to his hole, and we head back to the ranch. to leave, but as I watch the horses in the old stock- brother, Jim Yeoman, and his wife, Ace, help out with Dixie slams on the brakes There we find Dixie, frustrated. “We couldn’t find ade corral, the cattle by the pond and the sunlight branding and roundup, and during busy times other as she spots cattle tracks the cattle,” she says. “They just vanished in the trees. on the Vermilion Cliffs, I share Dixie’s attachment to members of the family pitch in. on the opposite side of the We left a gate open and hope they find their own the wild land. Bernadette’s going to have drag me Dixie and Bud bought their ranch from brothers fence from the water tank. way back to water.” kicking and screaming out of this ranch and back Trevor and Bill Leach, who went to the Strip from In this land, natural springs When Dixie asks if we want to see more of the to the real world. Kanab, Utah, as young boys to herd goats in House are few. Even worse, there ranch, Bernadette and I are more than willing. Rock Valley. Living in a wagon, they followed the are newborn calves with the We each climb on an ATV behind Dixie and her The beauty and peacefulness of the valley helped Janet Webb Farnsworth of Snowflake feel at home at the remote Arizona Strip ranch. goats as they grazed. Bill didn’t move from the val- lost cows. We immediately sister‑in‑law, Ace, and head down Coyote Wash. The Bernadette Heath of Star Valley likes the life of pushing cows and ley for seven years and then left only because he return to the ranch so Dixie wildflowers are blooming, and purple locoweed, living without running water and electricity.

20 MARCH 2004 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 21 The S ignal of Life in the Arizona Outback TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY JACK DYKINGA

Most people take the color green for granted. In the deserts, canyons and mountains of Arizona, it’s revered — often as a sign of water. I have photographed in the rain forests and been confronted by walls of green vegetation where finding any suitable photographic composition challenges the senses. I literally could not see the forest through the trees. Yet, in my desert home state, the color green acts as a beacon in a sea of brown. It amazes me to see all the color variations resulting from plants’ use of chlorophyll in harvesting Arizona’s abundant sunlight. In the high country of the White Mountains, you’d expect and are treated to fields of grasses, corn lilies and sedge, with their electric greens speaking of ever-present water. Yet, in the canyons of Aravaipa Creek in the harsh Sonoran Desert, the sight of watery seeps nurturing emerald plant life is unexpected candy for the eye. Gardens of columbines and monkeyflowers hang from the super-soaked volcanic tuff canyon walls. The Superstition Mountains’ arroyos and ephemeral streams create mesquite bosques, or forests, where shaded microhabitats offer the perfect home to fields of shocking-green fiddlenecks contrasting the gray-green pads of prickly pear cacti. Even the majestic saguaro cacti change color, as flowers emerge full of the yellow-green coloration of new growth. In the hot desert regions, green is not just a color. It represents life itself.

[pages 22 and 23] Blooming fiddlenecks create a field of green among prickly pear cacti in a mesquite bosque along a desert wash in the Superstition Wilderness. [pages 24 and 25] In the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, vivid sedges bend to the rushing waters of the rain-swollen East Fork of the Black River. [left] Water seeps into a pool surrounded by crimson monkeyflowers, golden columbine and emerald-green grasses in the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness. [right] Reaching skyward, a stem of hemlock flowers skirmishes for space in a White Mountain meadow with an exuberant stand of blossoming false hellebore. [left] Framed by a manzanita in full bloom, pine cones decorate a Parry’s agave in the ponderosa pine belt along the Mogollon Rim. [right] Asters and Western sneezeweed brighten a mountain meadow heavy with morning dew along the West Fork of the Black River. THE TOHONO O’ODHAM Well of Sacrifice A sad legend TEXT BY BOB THOMAS of four children ILLUSTRATIONS BY BRAD HOLLAND given to save n a dusty depression in the desert floor, a short dis- a village tance from the village of Santa Rosa on the Tohono O’odham Nation, a small mound of flat rocks cov- ers a hole in which legend says four children were Iburied alive. According to the Indian tale, the children were killed to placate spirits threatening to inundate a village with a flood of water from a mysterious subterranean well. Sometimes called the Well of Sacrifice or the Children’s Shrine, the little-known site is seldom visited except by the residents of nearby Indian villages and a few anthro- pologists and ethnologists privy to tribal legends. For untold centuries, tribal shamans have maintained the site as a shrine in secret ceremonies carried out every four years. No one outside the tribe has been permitted to ‘WHEN THE MEN COULD NO LONGER HOLD THE CHILDREN, THEY RELEASED THEIR GRIP, AND THE CHILDREN AND THE WATER VANISHED TOGETHER.’

modern world among the eight friend, the late Enos Francisco Sr., former the water receded a little. The second med- one child, were placed around the mound rocks. Instead, I saw that someone tribal chairman. ­icine­ man put a larger bird, like a crane, into at the north, west, south and east. Farther had placed natural objects like That evening, in the Indian village of the water, and the water receded a bit more. back a ring of large ocotillo branches was seashells, colorful rocks and beads Covered Wells, I listened to the legend of “The third medicine man put a big sea stuck into the ground with openings at the on top of the rocks. the Well of Sacrifice as told to me by the late turtle into the water, and the water went north, west, south and east. One rock, however, held a dif- Jose Poncho, a tribal shaman and partici- down still farther. But it did not stop, and “The grandmother who hid her grand-­ ferent offering — a lock of straw- pant in the age‑old ceremonies commemo- soon the village was in danger. son in the sleeping mat ran home, believ- berry-blond hair wrapped around rating the live sacrifice of the four children. “Finally the fourth medicine man told ing the boy to be safe. But when she rolled a small stone. Under a ramada of mesquite-wood beams the villagers the only way the water could open the sleeping mat, all she found was a Immediately catching a visitor’s and saguaro ribs at his home, Poncho, his be stopped was to sacrifice four children, green scum, like the kind left when water eye are two semicircular piles of lined face lit by the flickering flames of a two boys and two girls. He said they had recedes. discarded ocotillo sticks on either cooking­ fire, retold the ancient story that to be the best and the handsomest in the “The villagers, through the years, showed side of the rock mound that covers has been passed on to each generation by village. their respect to the shrine by replacing the the burial hole. Each pile of dis- tribal elders like him. “When the people heard the last medi­-­ branches every four years. But even now we carded branches is about 5 feet He recounted the story in his native cine man speak, they moaned and pro­ know the children are near. high with one measuring about 25 tongue as Francisco slowly translated the tested. But the medicine man said that unless “When the [summer] rains come, we feet long and the other 20 feet. tale, sentence by sentence, so that I could they sacrificed the children, the village and see seabirds and hear the sounds of turtles The huge numbers of old sticks, write it down without error. its people were doomed. and the cries of children, and the people especially if thrown aside on a This is his story: “The villagers, their hearts heavy with think of the four children in the ground. four‑year cycle, are irrefutable evi- “Many years ago, long before the white sorrow, agreed and the medicine man “Please tell your readers not to disturb dence of the ceremony’s antiquity. man came, our people had a village near a named the children to be sacrificed. The the rocks over the hole. Some Indians Even given the preservation quali- wash. One of the farmers who farmed the grandmother of one of the boys named about 50 years ago, in the generation before ties of the dry desert climate, it lowlands in the wash would find his mel- hurried home and hid her grandson by mine, were curious and lifted the flat rock must have taken many centuries ons and beans eaten when he arrived at his rolling him in a sleeping mat. from the hole. for the discarded ocotillo sticks to fields in the morning. “When the villagers came looking for “There was a sudden wind that roared witness the sacred and solemn ceremonies years ago to convert the desert tribes. reach the great proportions suggested by “This happened again and again. From the boy, they could not find him, and so from the hole and would not stop until that may take several days to complete. To commemorate the death of the four these two weathered piles. the tracks in the earth, the farmer could they chose another boy. they put the stone back over the hole. As I stood before the mound of rocks, children, Indian spiritual leaders push four Even more powerful evidence of the tell the eater of his crops was a badger. “The four chosen children were taken “We do not mind if people visit our which is surrounded by newly peeled oco­- pairs of shortened ocotillo sticks — two great age of the shrine are the heaped‑up Finally, the farmer could stand no more, to the hole where the water poured out. shrine, but they must not leave any metal tillo branches (a desert shrub noted for its sticks represent each sacrificed child — piles of acorn‑sized stones found around and he decided to kill the badger. They were dressed in ceremonial clothing, or give any valuable coins in offering. If green, thorny bark and bright-red flowers), into the ground around the rock pile. Each the rock mound. “One morning the farmer came on the and their features were painted with cere- they must leave something, we prefer that I could not help but be moved by the poig-­ pair of sticks marks the compass points — During the shrine’s renewal ceremony, badger in his fields and chased him to the monial designs. All the time the elders of beads and seashells be given. nant offerings of love left there by Indian north, south, east and west. the Indian caretakers rake and sweep the wash where the badger began digging a the village chanted to the children and told “The children like those things.” families. More peeled ocotillo sticks, these much ground around the mound of rocks, clean- hole. The farmer dug after the badger, them of the wonderful thing they would There were teddy bears, dolls, plastic flow longer, form an outside ring around the ing the surface of small stones and leaving intending to catch him and kill him. do to save their people. Editor’s Note: The Well of Sacrifice shrine ers, feathers, toy cars, children’s school mound with four openings, or “doorways,” behind a soft, silty soil. The gravel that is “But suddenly water began spouting out “The children were fed dishes of flour is located near the village of Santa Rosa on drawings,­ Christmas wreaths, dollar bills, at the north, south, east and west, that raked up is deposited on either side of the of the badger hole. The water hissed and and water, and more flour and water was the Tohono O’odham Nation in southern quarters, dimes and nickels, tips of pun- allow for the children’s souls to escape. shrine. Through the years, these tiny stones roared like the white man’s artesian wells, sprinkled on the waters. This caused the Arizona.­ The site of the shrine is on the gent creosote branches, foam balls, alum­ Nearby, in a small oval‑shaped depres- have grown into raised hills 2 to 3 feet high and the farmer became very frightened. He flow to slacken and the people took this banks of a wash and is easily accessible to inum­ pans, rubber pacifiers, Indian brac­ sion, is another shrine marked by eight flat and 25 feet long that line the path to the ran back to the village and told his people for a good omen. visi­tors.­ However, there are no directional elets and beads, even votive candles. rocks set on the ground in no special order. shrine. about it. “Then four men lifted the four children signs to its remote location because the While I studied the items, which almost According to legend, the rocks represent The ground has to be raked because the “The villagers came and looked at the and together lowered the children feet first Indians want to protect the shrine from covered the mound of rocks, it was easy to the spot — ­perhaps the exact spot — where desert winds blow away the silty soil, leav- water, and they became frightened, too. into the water‑filled hole. The children vandalism. visualize an Indian mother carefully select- eight elders or priests sat during an all‑night ing behind a layer of stones called “desert Eight of the wisest men held an all-night­ were calm and quiet. As they were slowly Visitors interested in tribal lore and tra- ing her child’s favorite plaything, some- prayer conference to decide the best way of pavement.” council beside the hole where the water immersed, the water level dropped. Four ditions should contact the Tohono O’odham thing ripe with warm memories known persuading the gods to end the flood. The caretakers also replace the offerings was coming out. They decided to send for other men put dishes into the water, while Nation Headquarters, (520) 383-2281, for only to her, and then leaving it here on the Beside each of the eight rocks are two that Indian families leave at the shrine. The the tribe’s medicine men who told the vil- another sprinkled flour into the hole. directions and permission to visit the shrine. sunbaked desert. peeled ocotillo sticks decorated with bird old ones, mostly sun­bleached teddy bears, lagers that unless the water stopped com- “When the men could no longer hold the Phoenix-based Bob Thomas said the sight of mementos No one knows when the shrine was first feathers. are removed and carefully deposited into ing out of the ground, the land would be children, they released their grip, and the left by loving Indian mothers on the shrine affected him built. According to Indian medicine men, Some believe the priests used the rocks a small, shallow hole in the ground on one flooded to the tops of the mountains, and children and the water vanished together. deeply. it was long ago — before the missionaries, as seats as they sought ways to spare the side of the shrine. the people would all drown. “The hole was covered with a flat rock Brad Holland is a self-taught artist who lives in New York City. As a teen-ager he toured the Midwest led by the famed explorer Father Eusebio ancient village and its people. There are no I first visited the Well of Sacrifice more “There were four medicine men. The and other stones were piled on top. Four ­performing Indian dances, including a hoop dance, with Francisco Kino, came here more than 300 modern toys or anything to suggest the than 30 years ago in the company of a first put a small seabird into the water, and pairs of ocotillo sticks, each pair representing the Boy Scouts.

32 MARCH 2004 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 33 LONELY ARE THE EAGLETAIL MOUNTAINS THEY’RE SMALL, RUGGED AND RARELY VISITED Text by GREGORY McNAMEE Photographs by JACK DYKINGA I scaled a canyon wall, alert for hedgehog cacti and sunbathing rattlesnakes as I made my way upward to the wind caves and natural arches that time has carved into the rock . . .

resonant name, like an eagle’s feathers. find some of those signs — to distinguish, Much of the range, as well as the broad say, arrowheads deliberately shaped by plain that joins it to the westerly extension human handiwork from bits of quartz that called Cemetery Ridge, falls within the millions of years of wear and tear have 100,600-acre Eagletail Mountains Wilder- ground into sharp points. ness, so designated by the federal govern­­ But other signs are there for anyone to ment in 1990. The wilderness, at once see. On that cool morning in December, I accessible and remote, harbors several wandered into one of the dozen-odd washes other peaks between 2,000 and 3,000 feet that spill out of the Eagletails and came in elevation, low enough that they’d barely across a series of round, half-foot-deep holes pass for foot­hills in many parts of the that some hard-working soul pounded into Grand Canyon State. What they lack in the porous rock generations ago, either to size, though, they more than make up for grind meal from mesquite pods or to collect in ruggedness, as well as in some of the precious rainwater. Later in the day, I scaled scenic beauties that lie nestled among them: a canyon wall, alert for hedgehog cacti and steep-walled box canyons, stone arches, rock sunbathing rattlesnakes as I made my way pinnacles that wouldn’t be out of place in upward to the wind caves and natural arches Monument Valley or Sedona, and, here and that time has carved into the rock, and came the dirt road that leads from the water, we’ve both driven plenty worse — of the Sonoran Desert that keeps its own hours’ drive west from Phoenix, the range there, shaded pools of water that offer sus- floor of western Arizona’s fertile Harquahala even if it did take a few hours for our spines hours, and whose calendar stretches into is made up of Courthouse Rock, a great tenance to pronghorn antelopes,­ deer, kan- [preceding panel, pages 34 and 35] The split-tailed Plain to the 2,874-foot-tall stone tower to settle back into alignment. times far distant from our own. monolith visible from many miles away, as garoo rats, kit foxes, bighorn­ sheep and “feathers” of Eagletail Peak rise above the fog- called Courthouse Rock is long, dusty, I examined my truck for the new “desert Weathered remnants of ancient volca- well as the long, saw­tooth ridge at whose other mammals, as well as hummingbirds, shrouded arroyos and saguaro-studded ridgelines bumpy, scratchy, even a little exasperating. pinstriping” the road has bestowed on it, noes and blocks of stone thrust into the sky heart stands Eagletail Peak. That mountain, painted ladies, rock wrens, ver­dins, phain- of the Eagletail Mountains Wilderness in the It takes a good while to negotiate that then put away my watch in the glove box. I some 25 million years ago, the Eagletails relatively small at 3,300 feet but still rising opeplas, flycatchers and many other remote desert west of Phoenix. [opposite page] Evidence of past geologic road through dense forests of cacti, creosote had no pressing engagements in the metro­ stretch 15 miles in a northwest-southeast more than a quarter of a mile above the sur- winged creatures. upheavals, a boulder-strewn lava flow crowds the and hackberry, following a roller-coaster polis whose lights flicker across the eastern direction, the classic basin-and-range ori- rounding des­ert, is crowned by a trio of Drawn by such attractions, people have base of the Eagletail Mountains. Eagletail Peak sequence of winding dry washes. But, pho- horizon after sunset, so I wouldn’t be need- entation that defines this part of Arizona. granite spires that stand against the sky and been coming to the Eagletails for millen- reflects the setting sun in the background. [above] Basalt boulders scattered across the tographer Jack Dykinga and I agreed after ing it. For now we were in the heart of the Located at the juncture of Yuma, La Paz resemble an Indian warbonnet — or, to the nia, and the signs of their ancient presence landscape attest to the power of ancient volcanic washing down the dust with big quaffs of Eagletail Mountains, a little-explored corner and Maricopa counties, only a couple of eye of the unknown miner who gave it its are everywhere. It takes a practiced eye to eruptions. T36 MARCH 2004 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 37 Though it’s possible to scale the lower portions of the stately monolith without ropes, carabiners and other mountaineering accoutrements, the higher reaches remain the province of the skilled climbers . . .

and east to Eagletail Peak. Both branches from all over the world to try their skills adding yet more splendor to an already gor- lead eventually to the Arlington-Clanton against the Courthouse’s granite. The geous place. Well Road, a washboard dirt route that unskilled, suffice it to say, need not apply. But even with all those opportunities for forms the southern boundary of the wilder- Nature lovers can make do without such recreation and nature study, few people ven- ness area. A favor­ite of four-wheel-drive challenging activities, opting instead for a ture into the Eagletails, and the chances are enthusiasts, this slow, bumpy road crosses leisurely stroll among the saguaros, palo­ good that you’ll have the place to yourself the range at a narrow pass that offers a spec- verde trees, catclaw acacias, bitter condalia, on any given day. On our trip into the tacular view of Eagletail Peak’s sun-drenched chuparosa and other plants that make up mountains, in fact, Dykinga and I shared south face, beyond which it reaches other the Eagletails’ natural botanical garden. Still, the range with just two other visitors, a pair four-wheel-drive trails that thread into the for the dedicated plant aficionado, the more of hunters who had come over from Yuma. surrounding desert. arduous cross-country trip to the north slope They’d been scaling the mountain wall for a across intricate petroglyphs depicting the or two away, below the three-spired notch find plenty to do. A favorite destination of Some outdoor enthusiasts, those with an of Eagletail Peak repays the effort with the week, one of them said, in search of big movement of animals and pointing the way of Eagletail­ Peak. As I took in the view, I Arizona wilderness hikers is the Ben Avery evident bent for more perilous adventure, view of a true curiosity: a grove of wind­swept game, up and down, up and down. Added to the springs and pools where they gather. found myself thinking about those wan- Trail, named to honor the late Arizona travel to the Eagletails to climb Courthouse­ juniper and oak trees, which don’t quite the other, “Yeah, my legs feel kind of rub- Dykinga, who has — pardon the pun — dering spirits, and about the mind of the Republic outdoor writer. Rock, the 1,300-foot ascent of which is one belong at such low, hot elevations but flour- bery right now.” an eagle eye for such things, was delighted traveling hunter who arranged those stones The trail, whose northern terminus lies of the most challenging in Arizona. Though ish there all the same. I was secretly glad that they hadn’t found to discover a rarer find as we made our way so long ago. I decided that whoever he was just below Courthouse Rock, is rated as it’s possible to scale the lower portions of In spring, when the winter rains have the bighorn sheep they were after, though across the boulder-strewn slope below and whatever his worries, he had a good eye being of moderate difficulty, mostly because the stately monolith without ropes, cara- been generous, all these year-round plants diplomatic enough not to say so. Still, I 2,184-foot-tall Nottbusch Butte: a sleeping for real estate. of the loose rock and up-and-down terrain biners and other mountaineering accoutre­ are joined by sweeping carpets of buck- enjoyed visiting with them over coffee and circle, a ring of hefty rocks arranged in a The Clantons weren’t the only Anglo pio- over which it passes. It’s easy enough to walk ments, the higher reaches remain the wheat, lupines, poppies, golden eye, mari­ a campfire against the cool winter air, hear- rough oval to guard its long-ago maker neers to settle around here; in odd corners in most spots, but the trail itself is not always province of the skilled climbers who travel golds, four o’clocks and other wildflowers, ing about the hidden canyons and caves that against wandering spirits in the night. Just of the mountains, we find the remnants of easy to follow, and hikers have to keep a they’d been exploring for weeks — and they how long ago we could not say, but the nat- old mining shacks, line camps and corrals careful eye out for the occasional rock cairn swore that they would continue to explore ural glue called desert varnish, formed by that date back more than a century. for orientation — if, that is, they’re not Location: 65 miles west of Phoenix, in La Paz, Yuma and Maricopa counties. until they found their sheep. trickled-down min­erals over the centuries, Then as now, however, most of the area’s equipped with a global-positioning device, Getting There: From Phoenix, take Interstate 10 west to Exit 81, Harquahala Road. Turn A stern archipelago of jagged rock, easily had fixed the rocks to the ground. This sug- residents have chosen to live down in the which makes such monuments seem some- south and follow the road to Centennial Road or Baseline Road and turn west. visible from the busy highway to the north To Reach Courthouse Rock: Drive approximately 5 miles south from Exit 81 to Centennial gests that the circle was part of the landscape green Harquahala Valley, where broad irri- how anachronistic. Road. Turn right (west) and follow the road 6.9 miles to the the intersection with a gas pipeline but worlds away. These are the Eagletails, long before the Clanton family, 19th-century gation canals nourish vast fields of cotton The 12-mile-long trail bends southwest maintenance road. (Passenger cars cannot proceed beyond this point.) Follow the pipeline road an open secret to those who know them, ranchers who would soon go on to earn their and herds of livestock. The few local ranch- toward Indian Spring, where rocks bear approximately 4 miles. An unsigned road leads to the kiosk that marks the entrance to the wilderness area. A and a timeless place that beckons the trav- fame in Tombstone, sank a deep well not far ers who run their cattle in the hills keep dozens of well-preserved petroglyphs, rough four-wheel-drive road continues about 1 mile to the base of Courthouse Rock. eler with time to spare. To Reach the Arlington-Clanton Well Road: From Exit 81, drive approximately 11 miles south to from the spot. their fences mended and their water tanks before branching west to Cemetery Ridge Baseline Road. Turn right (west) and drive approximately 2 miles. Turn left (south) at the entrance to the Dykinga and I agreed that it was a fine full. They keep a watchful eye out on the Tucson-based Gregory McNamee keeps an ­ever- Harquahala Ranch. The trail leads to a marked cattle gate. Enter the ranch here and follow the road. Be sure changing list of favorite places in Arizona, on which the place to make camp in any century, afford- range as well, and visitors should repay the [above] A vivid sky at sunrise silhouettes an to close the gate behind you. Eagletails occupy a permanent spot. ing as it does a wide-angle view of the rolling favor by securely closing cattle gates behind ocotillo in flower and the hulking facade of Travel Advisory: The best seasons to hike in the Eagletails are late fall through spring. After years of viewing the Eagletail Mountains from Clanton Hills to the south, the imposing them as they pass. Courthouse Butte. Warning: Travel on most of the roads that pass through and around the Eagletail Mountains requires a his speeding truck on Interstate 10 and longing to [opposite page] Pools etched into the volcanic tuff high-clearance or four-wheel-drive vehicle. Some of these roads pass through private land; please observe explore the area, Jack Dykinga, who lives in Tucson, Kofa Mountains to the west, and the lava- Inside the gates, fences and canals that along a rocky wash capture the ephemeral rainfall all signs. Fill your gas tank before entering the mountains. finally got his chance for an intimate encounter with and-saguaro-studded valley that ends, a mile bound the mountains, those visitors will of a winter storm. Additional Information: Bureau of Land Management, Yuma Field Office, (928) 317-3200. their rough-hewn beauty.

38 MARCH 2004 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 39 {highway to humor} Jokes, Witticisms and Whatchamacallits by Lawrence W. Cheek | photograph by Steve Bruno {along the way}

FAKING IT “Is this really a healthy place?” perspective Picacho Peak’s Trail Fails to Topple Trusting Marriage Partners hile escorting a small group “It sure is,” the man replied. u n u s u a l Wof amateur bird-watchers “When I first arrived here I Some people may be surprised or many years after i moved to wove through a spiky saguaro forest and near a little lake, I enjoyed their couldn’t say one word. I had to learn that the movie Oklahoma was actually filmed in Arizona in 1973, I reasonably assumed afforded increasingly striking views of a enthusiasm as they spotted hardly any hair on my head. I Arizona. Maybe the song should be changed to “You’re doing fine that the conical mountain I passed on landscape littered with distant mountain ranges. Oklahoma — Oklahoma, A-Z.” F different birds. “Look, a yellow didn’t have the strength to walk — Linda Perret Interstate 10 between Tucson and Phoenix was It was a view you’d get from a quarter-mile- warbler!” one would yell. “Over across a room, and I had to be an extinct volcano. I liked that thought, because high radio tower, only without the acrophobia there! A white-breasted lifted out of bed.” wind and they were soon aloft. the hike. As they entered a gift while Picacho Peak had none of the majestic that would accompany climbing a flimsy nuthatch,” another would exclaim. “That’s wonderful,” said John. “Fly over the north side of the shop, my aunt noticed a video features of the world’s signature volcanoes — contraption. Picacho was strong, reassuring, As we continued, I noticed “How long have you been here?” fire,” said the photographer, “and playing, explaining what NOT to it didn’t make its own weather or harbor eternal — not at all the menacing presence I’d that a fisherman had caught his “I was born here.” make a few low-level passes.” do at the Grand Canyon. Lo and once supposed. It felt good to be up there. fishing line in the tree branches Ben Nicks, Shawnee, KS “Why?” asked the pilot. behold, on the screen were my And then without warning the trail arrowed near the shore and his fishing “Because I’m here to document uncle and cousin, completely straight into the sky. The last hundred-foot bobber was hung up there. Just OOPS this fire. I’m a photographer and unprepared, limping along the stretch to the summit was just as it had for fun I shouted, “And there’s a n assignment for a national photographers take pictures,” hot trail. My aunt, anxious to get appeared from below: practically vertical. red and white bobber!” Omagazine, a photographer said the photographer with great my uncle’s attention, called in a The Arizona State Parks department had The watchers turned to look and was sent to get photos of a huge exasperation and impatience. loud voice across the room, thus thoughtfully installed steel cables beside the someone said, “Where? I haven’t forest fire in northern Arizona. After a long pause the pilot attracting curious shoppers to route to help hikers haul themselves up, so we seen that kind of bird in years.” The smoke at the scene was too said, “You mean you’re not the look at the television screen. mustered on. It was tough work, and my latent William S. Smith, Atascadero, CA thick to get any good shots from instructor?” As my uncle sheepishly made acrophobia finally kicked in. My palms oozed the ground, so he frantically De Ann Zarkowski, Lebec, CA his way over, a voice in the crowd sweat and slipped a couple of inches with each {early day arizona} called his magazine to see noticed him and called out, “And new grip. My feet fumbled incompetently. The if he could hire a plane. WRONG NUMBER he’s wearing the same shirt!” view quit being enchanting. Sweat poured into Mrs. O’Flanigan: “If we call one of the “Don’t worry about a ttempting to order a pizza Amy Fisher, Tucson my eyes and the sun, suddenly much hotter, twins Kate, what’ll we call the other one?” thing,” said the editor. “It Afrom a place called The reddened my face. Mr. O’Flanigan: “Dupli-cate.” will be waiting for you at Streets of New York, I apparently FARRIER SOUGHT About 25 feet from the summit, I looked Holbrook Argus, November 16, 1901 the airport.” dialed the wrong number when a ne Saturday night, my husband down at Patty, who was just beneath me on Sure enough, as soon as man simply answered, “Hello?” Oand I went to a dance hall in the cables. I asked her, “Are you having a he got to the tiny, rural airport, a Just to be certain, I asked if I our town to watch the crowd good time?” HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT small Cessna was warming up had reached The Streets of New doing the two‑step and cowboy “No!” t the urging of his doctor, near the runway. He jumped in York. The man laughed and said, shuffle to a live Western band. “Me neither,” I said. “Let’s go home.” John moved to Arizona. After with his gear and yelled, “Let’s “Wow, you are way off. These are While standing on the sidelines, Very tentatively we backed down until we A [above] Cabled pathways settling in, he met a neighbor, get this thing off the ground the streets of Arizona.” a cowboy introduced himself to us offer some reassurance Pleistocene glaciers — it seemed to sniff the hit a reasonable gradient and walked off the also an older man, and asked, NOW.” The pilot turned into the Steve Allen, Tempe and politely asked my husband if along the vertigo- desert sky with a suitably menacing profile, a mountain, failed summiteers. he could have the next dance with inducing trail to the slouchy, sawed-off funnel. It didn’t apologize What surprised me a few hours later was the summit of Picacho Peak. CALLING ALL FASHION POLICE me. Permission was given, and I steve bruno for its modest size, compared, with, say, realization that I didn’t feel like a failure. I felt n awe over the Grand Canyon’s was happy to be learning to dance Washington’s 14,410-foot Mount Rainier. Like deeply satisfied and profoundly happy, and this Ibeauty, my uncle and cousin Western style when suddenly a a street punk with pocked skin and a loose is what I told Patty: “You know, the wonderful decided to take a short walk strap broke on one of my sandals. swagger, it had attitude: Don’t mess with me. thing about being married to the same person down the Bright Angel Trail for Leading me limping off the floor, I also figured it would take mountaineering for 20 years is that you can both turn back 25 “just a few minutes.” Enraptured he handed me over to my husband skills to climb it. The funnel appeared to crease feet from the summit.” by the Canyon, “a few minutes” saying, “Here she is mister. No near the summit, becoming a near-vertical neck. If this assault on Picacho Peak had occurred turned into a few hours. As they good any more. She done threw a Since I’m not into pitons and carabiners, I wrote during our third date, or even our third year staggered back to the trailhead, shoe on me.” it off — regretfully — and pondered it through together, I would have done the Guy Thing they received a good reprimand Treva M. Clevenger, Prescott the windshield at 70 miles per hour. and continued, even at the price of scaring by my worried aunt. They After years with it filed in the back of my myself, and her, half senseless. And probably later revealed that hers {reader’s corner} mind, I learned, with some disappointment, everything would have turned out all right, was not the only etting to work on time is becoming that it was no volcano. It’s the remnant of some and I would have been able to bask in the glow reprimand they’d received. G tougher and tougher with all the road ancient sequential lava spills that somehow got of a small accomplishment — scaling a very On the way back up construction. Yesterday I was 45 minutes tilted up and then eroded into this prominence. small nonvolcano with a reputedly easy route the trail, the hot and tired late and it was my day off. Then a friend told me there was a fairly easy to its summit. duo met a ranger, who Send us your road construction jokes, trail — a little over 2 miles and 1,500 feet of But this was a bigger accomplishment. That was shocked to find them and we’ll pay $50 for each one we use. elevation gain — to the summit. Picacho was day I came to terms with a force of nature within without food, water and no longer a compelling force, but it sounded at myself and the relationship I share with my wife. wearing flimsy sandals. TO SUBMIT HUMOR: Send your jokes and humorous least like an interesting hike. When some years later I looked up at Mount Arizona anecdotes to Humor, Arizona Highways, A year later, my aunt 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85009 or e-mail us at Patty, my wife and favorite trail companion, Rainier and found myself tempted, I knew I “On second thought, I think I’ll wait for and uncle returned to the [email protected]. Please include your name, drove out with me on a sunny Saturday didn’t have to make the summit. I also knew address and telephone number with each submission. the video game to come out!” Canyon for a visit, minus morning. The trail was indeed benign and it I didn’t even have to try.

40 MARCH 2004 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 41 {back road adventure} by Janet Webb Farnsworth | photographs by Leroy DeJolie

Navajo Mountain Drive Explores Land Seemingly Forgotten by Time

avajo mountain seems forgotten by northwestern corner of the Navajo Nation. Page Chamber of Commerce, rode along. “ time,” said photographer LeRoy DeJolie We were driving the back roads past We took two four-wheel-drive vehicles Nas he pointed toward the black hulking Navajo Mountain into Utah and looping back and obtained Navajo Nation permits, mountain dominating the northern horizon. “It into Arizona. Harley Klemme, a Navajo necessary for this trip. The main route is is the last frontier of the Navajos.” DeJolie, a guide who owns Overland Canyon Tours, not a four-wheel-drive road, but a high- tribal member, should know. He lives in this far and Joan Nevills-Staveley, director of the clearance vehicle is needed and a four-wheel

drive required on some side trips. Leaving Page at 6 a.m., we headed east on State Route 98 for 55 miles, then turned north on Indian Route 16. Known locally as Crossroads, signs indicate the way to Navajo Mountain and T’Sah Bikin, Navajo for “house made from rough sage,” also called Inscription House Ruin. Six miles off State 98, we stopped at Inscription House Trading Post to top off our gas tanks. Cell phone coverage was spotty and tow trucks far away, so [opposite page] A gnarled we were prepared for backcountry travel. juniper tree appears to dwarf the distant Navajo Mountain Klemme served as our guide, and I packed an in the rugged desert along Indian Country map as backup. the Arizona-Utah border. About 16 miles from 98, a breathtaking­ view [top] Negotiating the rough revealed Navajo Canyon to the left, or west, roads within the Navajo Indian Reservation requires a along with slickrock and buttes, all Navajo high-clearance or four-wheel- sandstone created from ancient sand dunes. On drive vehicle, a thorough paved road, we passed through piñon-juniper knowledge of the area and Navajo Nation permits. vegetation studded with sagebrush. [above] Traditionally facing At 10,416 feet, Navajo Mountain’s eastward toward the dawn, overpowering presence is sacred to the Navajo, this hogan’s entrance is Ute and Hopi people. John Wesley Powell, shaded from the intensity of the afternoon sun. Grand Canyon explorer, named it Mount Approximately 65 percent of Seneca Howland after one of his party Navajo people on the members, but the name never stuck and it reservation live in hogans or use them for ceremonial remained Navajo Mountain, or Naatsis ’aan, purposes. meaning “enemy mountain cave.” In 1863-64, U.S. soldiers rounded up and force-marched the Navajos to New Mexico. Chief Hoskinnini’s band hid on Navajo Mountain for seven years, going back to Monument Valley only when the Navajos returned to their homeland. After 26 miles of pavement, the road abruptly turned to bone-jarring washboards and sand-filled ruts. Klemme called it a “rez road” and hollered at us to hang on. The road was so rough he found it smoother

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 43 unmarked. At 36 Warning: Back road miles from Navajo travel can be hazardous Mountain Trading if you are not prepared for the unexpected. Post, on Indian Route Whether traveling in the 6310, we admired a desert or in the high red mesa, then country, be aware of weather and road dropped into the conditions, and make sure you and your vehicle are in top shape. Carry bottom of Cattle plenty of water. Don’t travel alone, Canyon, its rippling and let someone at home know where sand dunes you’re going and when you plan to accentuated by the return. Odometer readings in the story evening sun. Thin may vary by vehicle. Travel Advisory: Permits from the veils of blowing sand Navajo Nation are required for driving danced along dune or hiking off the main highways crests before piling without an official guide. Mountain’s eastern flank for 3.5 miles, we up against the north side of an old forked-stick Additional Information: Permits may be purchased from: Navajo Nation turned left for .7 of a mile to the burned-out, hogan used for ceremonials Parks and Recreation Department in closed Navajo Mountain Trading Post, then Still heading south on Indian 6310, we Window Rock, (928) 871-6636; returned to Indian 16. After all the side trips, passed a turnoff to Navajo National Monument, Cameron Visitor Center on U.S. Route I started re-counting mileage from zero again. and after 60 miles hit pavement that felt soft 89 north of Flagstaff, (928) 679-2303; Navajo Mountain Boarding School stands as satin on our battered bones. A left turn or LeChee Chapter House/Parks and Recreation, 7 miles south of Page, 3 miles from the trading post turnoff, then a onto Indian Route 221 leads to the Shonto (928) 698-2808; Overland Canyon [above] A window opening if he drove off to the side in the ditch. Endischee rode off into the gusting north wind. cottonwood tree splits the road and we turned Trading Post, established in 1919, that sells Tours, Page, (928) 608-4072. in what formerly was U.S. We passed the Navajo Mountain Alliance Continuing northwest, the road divided and right (east) onto Indian Route 6310/Utah 434. food, gas, rugs, silver and pottery. Back on Senator Barry Goldwater’s Rainbow Lodge frames a Church, then, after 32 miles, we took a dirt we turned right at the Illinois license plate We stopped while sheep guarded by a golden 6310, it was 4 miles to 98, and then 60 miles distant view of Cummings road to the left that leads to the late Senator nailed to a cedar post. Then we drove a short sheepdog crossed the road. After 6 miles, an back to Page. Mesa north of the Arizona- Barry Goldwater’s deserted Rainbow Lodge. distance to a well, where a sign pointed to unusually large earthen-roofed hogan caught DeJolie was right, this trip was a rough road Utah border. Goldwater brought tourists here for horseback Navajo Mountain. Here the bad road got worse, our attention. The traditional single door faced to a place forgotten by time. [opposite page, clockwise from bottom] Brought to the rides to Rainbow Bridge. The lodge is an 11.6- and side roads took off willy-nilly. Klemme’s east where Navajos greet the morning sun. Southwest by Spaniards in mile round-trip along a four-wheel-drive road instructions: “Keep to the left with the water A sign at 9 miles warned of the steep, one- Navajo Mountain the 16th century, sheep Trading Post from where we were, so we went for it. We tank on your right.” lane road into Piute Canyon, where a chunk of Lake Navajo form an integral part of 89 needed Navajo Nation permits to go there, After 5.8 slow miles, we reached the fallen sandstone almost blocked the road. The Powell Mountain UTAH today’s Navajo culture. P ARIZONA 16 i Rainbow u Rock art in Piute Canyon since we were off the main road. buildings and rock remains of Goldwater’s canyon, dramatic with bluish-purple Chinle t on Lodge e y an evidences former habitation START HERE C C N Approximately a mile down the unnumbered lodge scattered among the cedars. While eating Formation, created a miniature Painted Desert. a Navajo Mountain n le by ancient Puebloan people. PAGE t Alliance Church y t side road, we passed a water tower and sandwiches, we admired the ever-changing Switchbacking out of Piute Canyon, we r 98 o a A remote and untamed e n C iv spotted a Navajo man on horseback. DeJolie cloud shadow patterns playing across the vast looked northwest to Lake Powell’s startling R AIBITO landscape surrounds K PL ATE N Cummings Mesa west of learned the rider was Dan Endischee. Kaibito Plateau below us. A white sandstone blue water. Occasional green vegetation AU ava 6310 o jo d C Navajo Mountain. a an Endischee didn’t speak English and has dome squatted like a giant dollop of whipped marked small springs leaking out of sandstone r y lo o o n 16 Navajo National lived at the base of Navajo Mountain for cream on a sand-and-sage cake. Carved walls. Navajo Mountain loomed on the right, C Monument 89A Inscription House 70 years. He told DeJolie he was born to the footholds marched up the side to an ancestral since we’d looped back south. The rocky road Trading Post 221 Bitter Water Clan (maternal lineage) and Puebloan lookout point. We retraced our way turned to pockets of blowing sand and Klemme 564 born for the Salt Clan (paternal lineage), a back to Indian Route 16 and turned left (north.) increased his speed. “You don’t want to slow 98 Shonto traditional introduction among Navajos. Another 5.3 miles farther, we came to the down now,” he said as we plowed ahead. 89 NAVAJO INDIAN RESERVATION 160 Bundled in a sheepskin-lined denim jacket, Arizona-Utah border. After skirting Navajo The Arizona border with Utah is To Flagstaff KEVIN KIBSEY

44 MARCH 2004 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 45 {destination} by Janet Webb Farnsworth | photographs by David H. Smith

[right] Designed by architect H. Newkirk of Louisville, Kentucky, and constructed from 1929 to 1932, the Kannally Ranch House reflects Oracle State Park Offers a Peek at Arizona Ranching History the influence of the family’s European travels. hat do arizona’s 30th state safely, he designated his mining claim “The Magma Copper Co. left the family well-to-do. [below] Adjacent to Oracle park, an 1870s clipper ship, a Greek Oracle” in gratitude. In 1880, when local folks The Kannally Ranch House was constructed State Park, the C.O.D. Ranch, soothsayer and a southern Arizona needed a post office, they named it Oracle. from 1929 to 1932. Originally costing $30,000, restored by owner Steve Malkin, W includes huge agave plants in town have in common? The mine produced granite instead of gold, but the 2,622-square-foot, white-stucco home with its desert landscaping. Their names — Oracle — of course. the settlement boomed when an 1891 medical turquoise wooden shutters is Spanish Colonial [bottom] A walkway on the When prospector Albert Weldon sailed to article touted the area’s climate for respiratory Revival-style with Moorish influences. Built west side of the Kannally [below] A barrel cactus Ranch House leads down a sports scarlet blooms California on the good ship The Oracle, he patients. Ranchers and miners made Oracle a into a hillside with four levels and two lovely terraced hillside to the dining alongside the Granite encountered a severe storm. “Nothing but trading center, and Tucson residents liked terraces, oddly, the house lacks bedrooms. room’s outside entrance. Overlook Trail, a 2-mile Providence saved her from the reefs and cliffs,” Oracle’s cooler temperatures. The September 10, Every night the family loop leading to the Weldon recalled in papers now housed at the 1900, edition of the Tucson newspaper advertised: retreated down steep 4,500-foot highest point Arizona Historical Society. Reaching the northern “Those desiring to escape the heat can do stone steps behind Location: within Oracle State Park Approximately 35 miles in southern Arizona. foothills of Arizona’s Santa Catalina Mountains well to visit the only resort in the territory, the the house where north of Tucson. Mt. View Hotel, Oracle, where the comforts of brothers and sisters Getting There: To home can be enjoyed with the cool breezes day had separate cabins. reach Oracle State Park, and night. Rates are $10 to $12.50 per week. Later in life, Lee took drive north on Oracle Daily stage to and from the hotel.” up painting. Nerve-gas Road (State Route 77) and continue on it as the highway Today, the Mt. View Hotel serves as a Baptist poisoning during World curves east at Oracle Junction. Turn church, as it has since 1957. Oracle’s 4,000 War I left him with right off State 77 at the Oracle turnoff residents have homes tucked among the high permanent nervous and follow the road 2.3 miles through desert mesquite and scrub oak, and the 4,500- head and eye Oracle on American Avenue to Mount Lemmon Road. Turn right and drive foot elevation means an occasional winter snow. movements, which 1.1 miles to the park entrance. I brought my husband, Richard, teen-age made it difficult to Hours: The park is open from 8 a.m. daughter, Jessica, and her friend, Delaina paint. He created 4,400 to 5 p.m. every day except Christmas Dowdy, along on this road trip to explore the paintings by kneeling Day. Tours of the Kannally Ranch nearly 4,000-acre Oracle State Park Center for next to his bed with the House are held on Saturday and Sunday at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Environmental Education just east of town. canvas lying on the bed. Fees: $6 per car with four occupants, Opened to the public in 2001 as a wildlife Lucile was also an artist. $1 for each additional person. refuge and learning center, the park ranges from She painted room Attractions: C.O.D. Ranch, (800) oak grasslands to riparian woodlands with plenty borders and beams in the house and took up smoothly, and chef Brent Warburton serves 868-5617 or codranch.com. The business district in Oracle on of hiking and bird-watching. The 7 miles of the wood carving on furniture to combat depression. great food. We ate lunch on a glassed-in porch American Avenue offers shopping Arizona Trail in the park are open for hiking, Lucile’s designs are still visible in the home. and watched hummingbirds dart about while and dining. mountain biking and horseback riding. Other After completing our exploration of the blue jays and cardinals provided splashes Additional Information: Oracle easy hikes range from .75 to 1.25 miles. Kannally Ranch House, we checked in at the of color. State Park Center for Environmental The highlight of the park is the restored historic C.O.D. Ranch near Oracle State Park. Jessica and Delaina couldn’t wait to go Education, (520)896-2425 or www.azstateparks.com. Kannally Ranch House. The ranch once covered Owner Steve Malkin likes to say C.O.D. stood horseback riding, so we walked down to the nearly 50,000 acres, or 78 square miles, for “Come on Down,” but it actually means Rockin’ R Rides where Randy Knox and extending eastward to the San Pedro River and “Cash on Delivery.” An early owner ordered a Peggy Smith offer a variety of trips including the town of San Manuel. Three saddle that arrived with a leather tag stamped including one-hour rides around the ranch, brothers and two sisters of the Kannally family “C.O.D.,” signifying that he must pay for the all-day tours through the surrounding operated the ranch from 1902 until 1976. Lee saddle before taking delivery. The old cowboy Coronado National Forest, and trails inside and brother Neil ran the ranch, Vincent saved the leather tag and christened his ranch Oracle State Park. managed the business affairs and Mary and the C.O.D. The restored ranch can accommodate The C.O.D. Ranch also provides guided Lucile cared for the house, sewed and gardened. a single visitor or up to 45 guests per night nature walks, wagon rides, mountain biking, Lucile, the last surviving member, bequeathed along with group events and weddings. horseshoes and a swimming pool. Or the land to the Defenders of Wildlife, which The place has plenty of Western atmosphere visitors may sit and enjoy the view of the transferred it to the state park system in 1985. and scenery. Our casitas were beautiful with San Pedro River valley and the Galiuro Originally from Illinois, none of the Saltillo-tiled floors, Talavera-tiled basins bright Mountains to the west. Kannallys at the ranch ever married. The with Mexican designs, and leather furniture A surprising number of artists call Oracle rumored explanation was that since their made by craftsmen in Mexico. We had a home, so we checked out the gallery at mother and two brothers had died of kitchen, living room complete with fireplace, Rancho de los Robles, a working ranch, and tuberculosis, they were afraid their offspring bathroom and bedroom where an enormous at Rancho Linda Vista, an old guest-ranch- might inherit the disease. Mexican pressed-tin headboard graced the bed. turned-art-community. The Ranch Store The Kannallys didn’t come West with Homesteaded in the 1880s, Steve Malkin’s Center showcased carvings, collectibles and wealth. Hard work, shrewd business dealings restoration of the old ranch is a labor of love. unusual metal creations. and the 1952 sale of mineral rights and Daria Sparling, a former Miss Arizona and All in all, there is plenty to do in Oracle, all but 4,000 acres of their land to the now ranch manager, keeps things running a small town named for a clipper ship.

46 MARCH 2004 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 47 {hike of the month} by Christine Maxa | photographs by Jerry Sieve

There’s Natural ‘Treasure’ on the Superstitions’ Boulder Canyon Trail

he rough-hewn scenery of the here, too. Welded columns of volcanic tuff line Superstition Wilderness and its alluring the canyon wall, and curious rows of rock legends always provide an intriguing eroded into fins appear on an outcrop. The [below] Soon to be T confronted with a steep setting for a hike. German prospector Jacob massive golden rock wall that comes into three-quarter-mile uphill Waltz, nicknamed “the Dutchman,” distant sight as the trail starts to gradually climb, a hiker strolls along Boulder Canyon Trail near immortalized the Superstition Mountains with descend into La Barge Canyon is known as its trailhead at the Canyon tales of his Lost Dutchman Mine. This legend Geronimo Head. Across from it on the west side Lake Marina east of drew a crowd of prospectors to the mountains of the drainage, reminiscent of a ship, looms Phoenix. in search of a phantom mine the Dutchman Battleship Mountain. [opposite page] The barely visible 4,553-foot summit described as an 18-inch-thick vein of gold that When the trail crosses La Barge Canyon’s of Weavers Needle (top lies in the shadow of Weavers Needle. creekbed, it heads into an anomalous area of right) pokes the sky beyond The 7.3-mile-long Boulder Canyon Trail, salmon-colored rock called Indian Paint Saddle. angular outcroppings and saguaro-studded hills near which starts at La Barge Canyon on the Relics from Indian Paint Mine stand on the top Boulder Canyon. northern edge of the Superstition Wilderness, of the tiny saddle. The mine got its name, won’t take hikers to stories say, because Indians dug red rock from Waltz’s legendary mine, the area to make paint. Prospectors left their but it will take them to a mark all around the area — hikers might find cluster of adits midway rusted equipment and prospect tunnels. The along the trail. The real mine, at mile 3.4, makes a good turnaround treasures of the trail, point for a moderate day hike. however, show up in From Indian Paint Mine, the trail drops into natural features. The Boulder Canyon and heads south along the most abundant are the canyon floor. The trail continually crisscrosses extravagant panoramas the rocky creekbed that, after a wet winter, fills along the path — some of with a valuable desert commodity — water. Also the best in the after a wet winter, more than 50 species of wilderness. wildflowers congregate along the creekbanks. The views start at mile The trail ends at the Dutchman Trail in Marsh 1 on an overlook that Valley. gives a glimpse of the Hikers won’t need a treasure map to find azure shimmer of what prospectors left behind along the Boulder Canyon Lake to the Canyon Trail. Neither, like the prospectors who north and the searched vainly for gold in the Superstition tempestuous topography Mountains, are they likely to find any treasure. of the Superstitions to Unless, of course, they’re looking for the the south. The natural ones. trademark rocky Weavers Needle pokes Before you go on this hike, visit our Web site at arizonahighways.com for other things to do and places from a mix of to see in the area. formations. In another N Getting There: From half-mile, a more uninhibited Phoenix, drive east on version of the same view U.S. Route 60 to Idaho appears. The overlook Road, Exit 196. Drive TONTO NATIONAL FOREST north on Idaho Road makes a good turnaround about 1 mile, and turn point for a short hike. Canyon Lake right onto State Route Saguaro As the trail twists TRAILHEAD 88, also known as the Apache Trail. around to the south Lake Drive 15.8 miles to the trailhead L face of the ridge, it a SUPERSTITION across from the Canyon Lake Marina. B a WILDERNESS

r B e r passes a stand of v 88 o g Park in the marina parking lot at signs i C R u e a

l n C S d marked “Trailhead Parking.” The parking saguaro cacti. Some alt Apache Trail a y e n lot is closed from dusk to dawn. o r y of the giants, close to n on 87 Additional Information: Tonto S Apache U Weavers 20 feet tall with a dozen P National Forest, Mesa Ranger District, Junction E R Needle ST (480) 610-3300; arms, show their ITI MESA Idaho Road ON MTNS. www.fs.fed.us/r3/tonto/recreation. ancient age of 100- To Phoenix 60 plus years old. Exit 196 60

The scenery turns striking KEVIN KIBSEY

48 MARCH 2004 arizonahighways.com