HISTORIC PLACES FEBRUARY 2014 ESCAPE • EXPLORE • EXPERIENCE BIGHORNS ARE BACK BY CHARLES BOWDEN page 44 — WINSTON — CHURCHILL Our Take on the State’s ICONIC Most Historic Landmarks, Including Hassayampa Inn, Hubbell Trading Post and More! “We shape our buildings,“We and afterwards our buildings shape us.” AZ Faraway Ranch PLUS: THE TORTOLITA MOUNTAINS • AMERICAN KESTRELS • A MAN NAMED GRIZZ PARKER, AZ • CANYON LIFE IN THE 1940S • THE SCENIC ROUTE TO THE VERDE RIVER Vermilion Cliffs Grand Canyon National Park Ganado Sedona Prescott Parker Verde River Florence PHOENIX Pusch Ridge Yuma Wilderness Chiricahua National Monument Dragoon Mountains Tombstone • POINTS OF INTEREST IN THIS ISSUE GET MORE ONLINE www.arizonahighways.com Visit our website for details on weekend getaways, hiking, lodging, dining, photography workshops, slideshows and more. www.arizonahighways.wordpress.com Check out our blog for regular posts on just about anything having to do with travel in Arizona, including Q&A’s with writers and pho- tographers, special events, bonus photos, sneak CONTENTS 02.14 peeks at upcoming issues and more. www.facebook.com/azhighways Join our Facebook community to share your 2 EDITOR’S LETTER > 3 CONTRIBUTORS > 4 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR > 56 WHERE IS THIS? photographs, chat with other fans, enter trivia contests and receive up-to-the-minute informa- tion about what’s going on behind the scenes at 5 THE JOURNAL 38 LIFE ON THE EDGE 50 MOTHERING NATURE Arizona Highways. People, places and things from around the state, including a black- In addition to the 4 million tourists who visit the South Rim As director of conservation for The Nature Conservancy in Arizona Highways is on Instagram smith named Grizz; North America’s smallest falcon; and Parker, our every year, there’s a small population of people who actu- Arizona, Holly Richter has spent years bringing together Follow us @arizonahighways to see our travel hometown of the month. ally live there, tucked away from the spotlight of the Grand people with disparate agendas: ranchers, environmentalists, photos from around the state. Canyon. It’s a unique existence today, but in the middle of scientists, politicians and regular people. It’s an arduous task, www.pinterest.com/azhighways 16 HISTORIC PLACES the last century, it was especially so. Back then, residents of but she’ll do whatever it takes to protect the things she finds Join our creative community on Pinterest to share Last year, we took it upon ourselves to start singling out some of the “the village” didn’t lock their cars, going out on a date was a most precious: nature and animals. photo inspiration, outdoors ideas and more. state’s most historic landmarks — El Tovar, Lowell Observatory and a hassle, gas was rationed, and weekend highlights included BY TERRY GREENE STERLING few others were on the list. This year, we’re at it again, and the class $1 horseback rides. As one former resident puts it, life was PHOTOGRAPH BY JOEL GRIMES includes Yuma Territorial Prison, Hubbell Trading Post, the Orpheum “free and easy.” ◗ With the San Francisco Peaks in the background, ponderosa Theatre, Faraway Ranch and the Hassayampa Inn. BY KATHY MONTGOMERY 52 SCENIC DRIVE pines line Ashurst Run, a small waterway in the Coconino National JACK DYKINGA BY NOAH AUSTIN Carefree to the Verde River: This drive, which used to be a Forest. | CAMERA: ARCA-SWISS F-LINE 4X5; FILM: FUJI VELVIA; 44 COUNTING SHEEP route for moving sheep, retraces a portion of the Great West- SHUTTER: 8 SEC; APERTURE: F/45; ISO: 100; FOCAL LENGTH: 400 MM 28 LINES IN THE SANDSTONE ern Trail and offers a unique look at the Sonoran Desert. For thousands of years, desert bighorns were a common FRONT COVER Faraway Ranch, part of Chiricahua National Monu- Vermilion Cliffs National Monument is located on the Colorado Plateau sight in the Santa Catalina Mountains. By the 1980s, ment, has been an Arizona icon for more than a century. | JEFF KIDA in Northern Arizona. Although its 280,000 acres include the Paria however, their numbers had dwindled to about 200, and 54 HIKE OF THE MONTH CAMERA: NIKON D700; SHUTTER: 1/25 SEC; APERTURE: F/20; ISO: 200; FOCAL LENGTH: 24 MM Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness and contain a variety of diverse in 2005, they disappeared altogether. Last fall, about 30 Wild Burro-Alamo Springs Loop: There’s a lot to see along BACK COVER A bald eagle takes flight at Page Springs, in Central landscapes, the monument doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic. With that in sheep were reintroduced to the area. Will they survive? Or this desert trail in the Tortolita Mountains, including crested Arizona. | JOHN SHERMAN mind, we sent our resident photographer out for a closer look. does it even matter? saguaros, larkspurs, lupines, diamondbacks, bobcats ... you CAMERA: NIKON D700; SHUTTER: 1/1000 SEC; APERTURE: F/8; A PORTFOLIO BY GARY LADD AN ESSAY BY CHARLES BOWDEN might even see a Karmann Ghia. ISO: 500; FOCAL LENGTH: 700 MM PHOTOGRAPHIC4 JANUARY 2013PRINTS AVAILABLE Prints of some photographs in this issue are available for purchase. To view options, visit www.arizona highwaysprints.com. For more information, call 866-962-1191. www.arizonahighways.com 1 editor’s letter contributors CHARLES BOWDEN Keep Your Eyes Peeled “I don’t want a FEBRUARY 2014 VOL. 90, NO. 2 mountain without 800-543-5432 www.arizonahighways.com he bighorns aren’t easy to see. about the bighorns middle of nowhere. In bighorns,” Charles PUBLISHER Win Holden Bowden says. He’s Even when you’re looking right at and the mountains Life on the Edge, Kathy EDITOR Robert Stieve Tthem, there’s a good chance you and the need to pre- Montgomery looks MANAGING EDITOR Kelly Vaughn Kramer talking about Pusch won’t see anything. Of all the animals serve those things back on that “halcyon SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR Kathy Ritchie Ridge, which looms ASSOCIATE EDITOR Noah Austin over Bowden’s in the wild, they’re among the most around us that mean time of innocence, sim- EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Nikki Kimbel camouflaged. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the most, whether it’s plicity and freedom.” PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Jeff Kida childhood home of one on the first take. Did those rocks just a threatened species It was so peaceful that CREATIVE DIRECTOR Barbara Glynn Denney Tucson and once ART DIRECTOR Keith Whitney move? What the ... hey, that’s a sheep. It takes a above Tucson or an old most people didn’t was home to a DESIGN PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Diana Benzel-Rice MARIE BARONNET MARIE double take to see what should have been building in downtown even lock their homes. MAP DESIGNER Kevin Kibsey large population obvious. That is, if you’re lucky enough Phoenix. Although the resi- PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Michael Bianchi of desert bighorn sheep. “The mountain felt closer then because the foothills were to be in the right place at the right time. The Orpheum The- dents aren’t as isolated WEBMASTER Victoria J. Snow largely empty,” he says, “and going there seemed simply a matter of putting one step DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING Kelly Mero Encountering a bighorn is rare, and it’s atre is one of those as they used to be, CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Nicole Bowman ahead of the other.” Despite Pusch Ridge being designated a wilderness area in 1978, getting even more so. At last count, there old buildings. It made they still have to go to FINANCE DIRECTOR Bob Allen human encroachment has robbed the mountain of its bighorns. In Counting Sheep (see were only 6,000 left in Arizona, and in a big splash when it Flagstaff or even Phoe- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Cindy Bormanis page 44), Bowden discusses the plan to reintroduce bighorns to Pusch Ridge. “I am not the mountains above Tucson, they’ve dis- opened on Adams MARKOW PAUL nix for certain things. confident the restored herd can survive,” he says. “But I am certain that if the effort is not CORPORATE OR TRADE SALES 602-712-2019 appeared altogether. Street in 1929. However, like a lot of old The flip side, of course, is that they get to SPONSORSHIP SALES made, it means we have given up on the mountain, and to give up on the mountain is to REPRESENTATION Kathleen Hennen abandon the dreams that have captivated people in the area for centuries.” Bowden is “The herd was hurled into oblivion theaters from the golden era, it changed live within walking distance of the Can- Hennen Publishing & by houses dibbling at the very edges of hands — and names — several times over yon and all that it offers, including the Marketing Group an acclaimed author who frequently writes about the American Southwest. He’s also a 480-664-0541 the wilderness area,” Charles Bowden the years, and by the mid-1980s, it was world-famous panoramas, the California contributing editor to GQ and Mother Jones magazines. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] writes in Counting Sheep. “The herd was a mess. That’s when the city stepped in, condors and the occasional sighting of a 2039 W. Lewis Avenue maimed by our hikes with pet dogs that bought it and began a $14 million restora- bighorn sheep. There aren’t a lot of them Phoenix, AZ 85009 terrified the sheep, by the slow but cer- tion. Today, it’s arguably the most beauti- up there, maybe a few hundred, but if GOVERNOR Janice K. Brewer TERRY GREENE STERLING tain encirclement of the mountain by ful theater in the state, and it’s on our list you happen to be in the right place at DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT Terry Greene Sterling met Holly Richter when she was writing OF TRANSPORTATION John S.