2015 IS IT TIME FOR WILDERNESS PROTECTION? JULY ESCAPE • EXPLORE • EXPERIENCE THE SERENGETI — JOHN MUIR JOHN — OF ARIZONA By JACK DYKINGA THE BLUE AMERICA’S LAST PRIMITIVE AREA “The the Universe clearest into way is through a forest wilderness.” plus: HUBBELL TRADING POST • KACHINA TRAIL • CLARK TELESCOPE • YUMA’S SUN PHOTOGRAPHER TAD NICHOLS • WALNUT CANYON • LAVA CAVE LOOP • JUMPING SPIDERS CONTENTS 07.15 Grand Canyon National Park 2 EDITOR’S LETTER 3 CONTRIBUTORS 4 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 56 WHERE IS THIS? > > > Flagstaff Hubbell Trading Post Williams Walnut Canyon Pinetop- 5 THE JOURNAL 46 THE STAR ATTRACTION Lakeside Blue Range People, places and things from around the state, including a look back It’s not the most powerful telescope in the world, but the Clark Primitive Area at iconic photographer Tad Nichols, Hubbell Trading Post and one of is one of the most impressive. Among other things, its history PHOENIX the coolest spiders in the animal kingdom. includes the discovery of Pluto and mapping the surface of the Yuma moon. Today, the newly restored refracting telescope is the Buenos Aires National 16 THE BLUE highlight of a field trip to Lowell Observatory, where visitors Wildlife Refuge The Blue Range Primitive Area is the last primitive area in America. All can look through the 120-year-old glass at Saturn, Jupiter and POINTS OF INTEREST IN THIS ISSUE the rest were given wilderness protection years ago. Is it time to do the other parts of outer space. same for the Blue? BY NOAH AUSTIN BY KELLY VAUGHN PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAWN KISH 26 THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER ... 50 SKY MARSHAL Like April showers everywhere else in America, summer monsoons in Brian Klimowski patrols the skies. Not from an aircraft, but from Southern Arizona bring wildflowers, wildlife and lush, green grasses to the National Weather Service station 10 miles west of Flagstaff. the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. As our photographer likes to It’s his job to issue tornado warnings, anticipate lightning strikes say, the 117,464-acre sanctuary is the state’s version of the Serengeti. and help determine whether schools should have snow days. A PORTFOLIO BY JACK DYKINGA BY NIKKI BUCHANAN PHOTOGRAPH BY DEREK VON BRIESEN 38 FOR LAND’S SAKE 52 SCENIC DRIVE Walnut Canyon National Monument is one of Northern Arizona’s points Lava Cave Loop: Lava River Cave is the main attraction on this of pride, but the scenic, ecological and archaeological splendor of scenic drive, but the sights along the way are pretty nice, too. the canyon goes beyond the monument boundaries. What surrounds the gorge is equally impressive, which is why a coalition of Flagstaff 54 HIKE OF THE MONTH citizens is lobbying Congress to protect the land by designating it a Kachina Trail: Although Humphreys Peak gets most of the atten- national conservation area. tion in the San Francisco Peaks, the Kachina Trail offers a quiet BY ANNETTE MCGIVNEY alternative that’s every bit as beautiful. ◗ The setting sun silhouettes eroded sandstone hoodoos on the Navajo Nation in Northeastern Arizona. | JACK DYKINGA CAMERA: NIKON D3X; SHUTTER: 1/2 SEC; APERTURE: F/11; ISO: 100; FOCAL LENGTH: 85 MM FRONT COVER Sunrise lights the evergreens of the Blue Range Primitive Area near the Arizona-New Mexico border. | GEORGE H.H. HUEY CAMERA: PENTAX 6X7; www.facebook.com/azhighways SHUTTER: 1/2 SEC; APERTURE: F/22; GET MORE ONLINE @azhighways ISO: 50; FOCAL LENGTH: 45 MM www.arizonahighways.com @arizonahighways BACK COVER Prairie sunflowers (Helianthus petiolaris) bloom after a light rain. | CLAIRE CURRAN CAMERA: NIKON D800E; SHUTTER: 1/500 SEC; APERTURE: F/5.6; ISO: 200; FOCAL LENGTH: 28 MM PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS AVAILABLE Prints of some photographs in this issue are available for purchase. To view options, visit www.arizona highwaysprints.com. For more information, call 866-962-1191. www.arizonahighways.com 1 editor’s letter contributors DEREK VON BRIESEN Derek von Briesen (pictured in red) met Brian Klimowski This Land Is Your Land (see Sky Marshal, page 50) about 10 years ago, when JULY 2015 VOL. 91, NO. 7 both were publishing photos on PBase, a photography- 800-543-5432 sharing website. “We ended up looking at each other’s saw a black bear in the Blue. I was hik- northwest, just south since the Buenos Aires www.arizonahighways.com ing the Steeple Trail, almost 25 years of Flagstaff, a coalition National Wildlife Ref- galleries and seeing we overlapped on a lot of stuff,” I ago, when I heard a deep, throaty sound of citizens is getting uge was established PUBLISHER Win Holden von Briesen says. He later learned that in addition to behind me. I stopped, turned around ... closer to their dream to protect an area of EDITOR Robert Stieve being a talented landscape photographer, Klimowski is and there it was, about 30 yards away, of protecting one of the grasslands and wet- ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, the meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING Kelly Mero right in the middle of the trail. She was most beautiful canyons lands, and a gorgeous Service forecast office near Flagstaff. The two became JEFF KIDA MANAGING EDITOR Kelly Vaughn staring at me — I think it was a female — in the Southwest. sycamore-shaded can- friends and began going on shoots together, and von Briesen’s photo of Klimowski accom- ASSOCIATE EDITOR Noah Austin and grunting. Her behavior wasn’t aggres- As Annette yon. Jack Dykinga calls panies our profile of the weather forecaster. “In the times we’ve spent together, Brian has EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR Nikki Kimbel sive. It was just harmless bluster from McGivney writes in the refuge our state’s schooled me a lot on reading forecasts in preparation for a shoot,” von Briesen says. “It’s been PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Jeff Kida a nervous bear. I never felt threatened. For Land’s Sake: “Wal- version of the Seren- key to me becoming as successful as I have.” Von Briesen’s photos have also appeared in CREATIVE DIRECTOR Barbara Glynn Denney Instead, I was staring back. Captivated. nut Canyon meanders geti. In The Grass Is Outdoor Photographer magazine and National Geographic books. I’ve seen a lot of bears over the years, but through wild country Always Greener ..., you’ll ART DIRECTOR Keith Whitney that was my first encounter in Arizona. It that harbors sparse see why. It’s a beautiful DESIGN PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Diana Benzel-Rice was thrilling. And also unexpected. roads and rare stands portfolio that shows MAP DESIGNER Kevin Kibsey JACK DYKINGA PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Michael Bianchi With hindsight, I shouldn’t have been of old-growth ponder- MARKOW PAUL the effect of summer Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge is familiar surprised to see her. The Blue Range Prim- osa pines, as well as a rich riparian area monsoons on Southern Arizona. As our WEBMASTER Victoria J. Snow territory for longtime Arizona Highways con- itive Area is bear country, a land of rug- filled with the canyon’s namesake Ari- photographer says, when the rains come, CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Nicole Bowman tributor Jack Dykinga, which made him an ideal ged mountains, steep canyons and stark zona walnut trees. Pronghorns roam the “the Buenos Aires explodes with color.” FINANCE DIRECTOR Bob Allen choice for this month’s portfolio (see The Grass Is ridges. It’s also been described as “a cha- open, grassy plateaus. And tucked away In addition to the landscape, the ref- OPERATIONS/IT MANAGER Cindy Bormanis Always Greener ..., page 26). “The Buenos Aires is otic mass of very precipitous hills.” Or, as in Walnut’s 400-foot-tall cliffs are dozens uge was created for the reintroduction a vast grassland, and its richness of wildlife amid Kelly Vaughn so beautifully writes in The of ancient archaeological sites.” of masked bobwhite quails, which had CORPORATE OR TRADE SALES 602-712-2019 oceans of grasses is reminiscent of the Seren- Blue, “the state’s most unsullied landscape The most important cliff dwellings are been extirpated from the United States. SPONSORSHIP SALES geti in Kenya,” Dykinga says. “The problem for a REPRESENTATION On Media Publications ROBLESPATRICIO GIL — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s forest protected in the 3,580-acre Walnut Can- Pronghorns have been reintroduced, too. Lesley Bennett photographer is to create high-quality images of a primeval made real by murmuring pines yon National Monument, “but the scenic, There’s a lot of wildlife in the refuge. 602-445-7160 subject constantly blowing in the wind.” Dykinga completed the assignment before undergo- so dense that, once in them, you find your- ecological and archaeological resources of Some of the more common species are ing a double lung transplant in Phoenix last year, but he says he felt compelled to return to self swallowed by their long shadows.” the canyon extend well beyond the park mule deer, Coues white-tailed deer, foxes, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] Buenos Aires to photograph the grasses at their peak. “I was able to create several images 2039 W. Lewis Avenue during my first outing after surgery,” he says, “and many of them reflect my joy from returning Although it’s remote, and seemingly boundaries.” That’s why Ralph Baierlein, bobcats, javelinas, four types of skunks, Phoenix, AZ 85009 untouchable, the Blue is uniquely vulner- a retired Harvard physics professor, is ringtails, coatimundis and mountain to photograph what I love.” Dykinga is currently working on a sequel to his successful 2013 book, Capture the Magic, along with a retrospective of his career as a Pulitzer Prize-winning able. In 1933, it was one of 63 areas in the spearheading a grassroots movement to lions. On extremely rare occasions, even GOVERNOR Douglas A.