arizona highlands fall 2010

Photosof fall

White Mountains

MYSTERYUNEARTHED

Roosevelt Lake

BASS HEAVEN

High Country Forests

ENDANGEREDFORESTS

Flagstaff

A SCENICDISASTER

Sedona

WET FEET,FULL HEART $2.95 Fall 2010

HighlandsARIZONA

Adventuring in Rim Country, White Mountains, Sedona, Flagstaff

Masterphotographeroffers tips forcatching the

turn of theseason

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nce, fall seemed to me like a last gasp — a shudder be-fore death. I was young then and foolish. I did notunderstand death — nor life. But now I sit amidst a

red-orange-yellow scatter of leaves in the full flush of fall, on thecold cusp of winter — and revel in it.

I marvel at the extravagance ofthis season — the reckless courage withwhich the sensuously white-boledsycamore sheds the leaves that sustainit. All summer long the great tree hasturned sunlight into sugars throughthe miracle of its green chlorophyll.But as the light dwindles and the tem-perature drops, the sycamore grows acallous at the base of each leaf, cuttingoff the flow of nutrients — a protectionagainst the ravages of frost. The chloro-phyll provides the energy for the leaf tofuse carbon dioxide and water, givingoff as waste a gasp of oxygen that in itsturn sustains warm-hearted, air-breathers like me.

The chlorophyll left behindquickly breaks down. This leaves be-hind the yellow carotens and the redanthocyanins. No longer masked bythe chlorophyll, these leftovers in theleaf provide the palette of fall.

I am new to this extravagance ofthe season.

You see, I grew up in Californiaand then spent 20 years as a desert rat,where trees only lost their leaves whenthey died. I did not understand theways of trees — nor even the seasons inmy own life.

Now I watch the sycamores andcottonwoods from my front porch andhave begun to comprehend. Abouttrees. About me.

Once I thought my life was linear— a child, a young man, an old man. I

would start small and progress to great things. I would leavechildish things behind.

This is the thinking that believes life starts in the spring,rushes through summer, teeters into fall and dies in a tangle ofnaked limbs in winter.

But my life did not prove linear. It meandered. It rose upand fell back. It repeated its themes. I returned to familiar places,changed by the journey. Now I delight in childish things. Per-haps this is the gift of my grandchildren. I see now that I amrooted in my grandfather and my grandchildren are the sunlighton the tips of my trembling leaves. I see now that I have becomemy father and also the loam in which my children grew.

Life is not a line, but a circle. Wecome into the world helpless and leavein the same condition. We repeat ourmistakes and our triumphs until we seethey were the same thing after all.Every day we witness the same sunrise,the inevitable sunset — ever new. Ashesto ashes. Dust to dust.

So now autumn seems to me ahopeful time — full of grace andcourage.

Perhaps this is because I have en-tered my own autumn. My childrengrown, my grandchildren multiplying,my life in a graceful eddy — like afloppy red maple leaf on a lazy stream.

When I look out across the quiverof leaves flushed with reds and golds,fall seems the bravest of seasons. Suchan act of faith, to shed your leaves in atremble of glory — in the face of win-ter in the hope of spring. Let the leavesfall and return their sustenance to theearth for the grass and the saplings.Then stand angular against the skywithout apology through the snow andfrost. No longer green and bursting,but still beautiful in a different way.

For fall is a deep breath, a shudderof beauty, an affirmation of life.

So come now, thumb through ourpages — for it is another issue in thegreat round of the seasons. Then comevisit fall in the Highlands. It waits foryou, tremulous with life — tinted by thecarotens and anthocyanins that hidthere in plain sight all the time.

John Naughton, Publisher • Tom Brossart, Managing Editor/Photographer • Peter Aleshire, Senior Editor708 N. Beeline Highway • PO Box 2520 • Payson, AZ 85547 • (928) 474-5251 • [email protected]

No portion of the Arizona Highlands Magazine may be used in any manner without the expressed written consent of the publisher. ArizonaHighlands Magazine is published by Roundup Publishing, a division of WorldWest Limited Liability Company. © 2010

HighlandsARIZONATo advertise in the

Arizona Highlands Magazine,call Bobby Davis, Advertising Director,

(928) 474-5251 ext. 105, or [email protected]

To purchase any of thephotos in this edition

of Arizona HighlandsMagazine, e-mail us at

[email protected]

A gasp, a shudder, a lifeAnd the full flush of fall

by Peter Aleshire

O

4 ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

5ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

Tom Brossart

HighlandsARIZONA

Adventuring in Rim Country, White Mountains, Sedona, Flagstaff

Page 26 — CoverPhotos of fallLearn where to find fall colors — and what to dowith them when you get there.

Page 8 — Rim CountryFishing RooseveltOne of the world’s best bass fishermen reveals whythis lake has become bass heaven.

Page 14 — HighlandsEndangered beautyThe forests of the high country face a surprising threat:Too many trees.

Page 20 — Time Tripping

Riding the Mother RoadA photographer turns Route 66 into his very owntime machine.

Page 22 — Sedona

West Fork splendorSometimes to get the most out of a hike — you’vejust got to get your feet wet.

Page 40 — White MountainsUnearthing a mysteryThe Casa Malpais ruins just outside of Springerville mayhelp solve history’s most baffling missing persons case.

Page 44 — Flagstaff RegionMule SenseSometimes life’s most useful lessons come in themost unexpected settings.

Page 46 — Flagstaff RegionScenic disasterExplosions that shattered Northern Arizona lefta vivid landscape.

The unbearablelightness of being

(a fisherman)Story by Peter Aleshire — Photos by Tom Brossart

Watching Clifford Pirch ply the gleaming waters of Roosevelt Lake, Ibegin to understand why I’m not especially good at anything in particular.

Mind you, I have fitful impulses to become good at all manner ofthings — like bass fishing here in what’s fast developing into one of thebest bass fisheries in the world.

So I flim-flammed Pirch into taking me out for a dawn run at a fewof the millions of bass laying in wait for unwary shad, in advance of theSeptember professional bass tournament likely to put Roosevelt on thebass fishing map.

We’d set out with the lake immolated with dawn and he’d been work-ing lures, jigs and mutant worms. He knew every contour of the bottom,

Chasing the lightand monster bass

on Roosevelt Lake

since he’d been a guide on the lake back when the water level wasa hundred feet lower. And any channels, cliffs and dropoffs hecouldn’t remember — he could locate with his high-tech bottomsounding radar.

Even so, he’d been working intensely for an hour, locatingschools of bait-fish shad, picking out the hunting bass on the radar,then dropping his bewilderments of lures and jigs in front of theirscaly, turned up noses.

Nothing.From this I concluded two things.First, I don’t have to feel so bad about my fruitless hours as a

fisherman — working the water with far less expertise, but with thesame result.

Second, I will never be a great fisherman — for I lack a hunter’scompetitive patience. The more the fish refused to bite, the more in-tensely Pirch worked the angles. But if fish refuse to nibble my baitfor an hour, my attention inevitably wanders. I dangle my feet. Pullout my camera. Drift off into consideration of THE MEANINGOF LIFE.

I had prepared for my sojourn on Roosevelt Lake by talking toKirk Young, head of the fisheries branch of the Arizona Game andFish Department, who figures the biggest bass in Arizona is proba-bly skulking around in the bottom of Roosevelt Lake as we speak —some 16-pound monster starting to think about eating rowboats.

Roosevelt has inflicted a long purgatory on the bass it harbors.A decade-long drought a few years ago shrank the lake to about 17percent of its capacity, leaving the ends of the boat ramps far fromthe shoreline and concentrating the surviving fish in a withered

A fisherman launches at dawn on RooseveltLake, a bass-fishing hot spot (photo below).A boat heads for home as the sun set onRoosevelt Lake (photo bottom).

pool, without many nutrients or submerged cover.But then the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation finished rais-

ing the height of Roosevelt Dam to accommodate possiblemega floods, just as a couple of wet winters raised lake lev-els. This past winter, Roosevelt hit its record high-watermark — submerging miles of shoreline thick with brush andbass cover. The vegetation submerged last winter and thiswinter has released nutrients into the water, which triggereda population boom among the small fish the bass savor —both threadfin and gizzard shad.

As a result, the bass population in Roosevelt has ex-ploded. A decade ago, it took the average fisherman abouteight hours to catch a bass. Now, it takes about an hour, ac-cording to surveys of anglers conducted recently by Gameand Fish. The lake now supportshundreds of millions of shad andmillions of bass.

I believe them — just judgingby the schools of fish and big bassswimming back and forth underour boat, as revealed by Clifford’shigh-tech fish finders. I watchedthe unspooling ghost images as hecast his jigs and worms and spin-ners in among the milling schoolsof fish and their attentive, butfinicky predators. This proved in-finitely more entertaining thanmy blind, clumsy, mindless tech-nique — casting my bait upon thewaters in the unreasoning andstubborn hope of finding fish inthe opaque depths.

Then, 50 feet off the bow, aschool of shad broke the surface— frantic to escape the still un-seen, pursuing bass. Clifford im-mediately put down the polerigged with the enormous plastic jig that resembled somesort of mutant squid trying to make a demented, glow-worm fashion statement. He then seized another polerigged with a huge lure meant to thunder and squiggleacross the surface, like a Godzilla shad on crack.

Now, Clifford can cast such a lure farther than I canthrow a baseball, with sufficient accuracy to kill mosqui-toes. So barely two heartbeats after the school of shad hadbroken the surface, he had that lure thrashing about like awounded wildebeest right where those bass had been.

I eyed his jigged pole, abandoned on the deck.“Do you want me to hold your pole?” I said casually.“Uh, sure,” he said, not taking his eyes off his lure,

which was bouncing across the surface like a PT boat mak-ing a run on a battleship.

I stooped and picked up his pole.Clifford cast a couple more times: Nothing. Nada. Zip.I was, meanwhile, jigging.Well, sort of. I gave the pole an experimental jerk. But

it was hooked on something. I started to reel it in — butthe pole bent and the line groaned.

How embarrassing.“I think I’m stuck,” I said.Clifford eyed my tight-stretched line, right where it en-

tered the water.“You sure?” he asked, sounding oddly diplomatic.“Yeah,” I said, taking in half a turn on the reel. The

line where it entered the water dida little circle then veered left.“That’s odd,” I said.

“I think you have a fishthere,” said Clifford.

“No. I. Uh. Hey,” I said, asthe hidden bass made a run for it.

So I brought the bass in closeenough for Clifford to get a netunder him.

Now, I’m not one to brag.But I think that this bass had

been eating ducks — maybe aGreat Blue Heron. I mean, thatbaby could tow a rowboat. Theycould have made a mold of hismouth and used it as the entrancefor one of those jungle boat ridesat Disneyland. If you latched acouple of pontoons to him, youcould have sold him as a house-boat.

Clifford was very gracious. Hesaid my bass weighed at least 4

pounds — a keeper in a tournament. Point being, biggestbass I ever caught. I mean, I was definitely holding the pole.Definitely.

Clifford deftly removed the hook and returned themonster to the depths unharmed.

Clifford then returned to his fishing with renewed in-tensity after giving me a nice little pole rigged with one ofthose plastic, curly-tailed grub looking things that I wouldnormally use myself. I should note that this squiggly plas-tic thing was maybe one-fifth the size of the stuff he wasusing.

After half an hour, he hooked a much bigger bass thanmine by locating a huge submerged tree on the depth

Pirch displays a monster bass caught while thewriter was holding the pole. That counts, right?

Peter Aleshire

11ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

The highwaybridge crossesRoosevelt Lake(right) near thefirst big westerndam built bythe federal gov-ernment.Record lake lev-els have sub-mergedvegetation andcreated bassheaven. Earlymorning on thelake is quiettime (below).

12 ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

finder and then skillfully dragginghis lure through the underwatertangle. The bass he knew must belurking there gobbled his lure.Five pounds. Easy.

He caught four more hugefish after that — while I had not abite. So by the time the sun droveus off the lake at about 2, he hadcaught about 20 pounds of bass —enough to put him in the moneyfor most tournaments.

And so I can tell you truth-fully, that professional bass fish-ermen really are different — quiteaside from the Ranger boats andthe Rogue rods and the mutantjigs and fish finders. I’ll neverplace in the money. Guaranteed.

Still, I have not a complaintin the world.

I did catch a very big fish — Idon’t care who rigged the line. And better yet: I remember per-fectly the molten light on the still waters of a perfect morning.

P YSOA N

A Z

85541

Having the time of mylife on the banks ofTonto Creek ... wishyou were here!!

RESERVATIONS: 800-521-3131East Highway 260, Payson, AZ 85541 • (928) 478-4211 • www.kohlsranch.com

Peter Aleshire

13ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

The world’s largestponderosa pine forestcovers much of North-ern Arizona, but a cen-

tury of logging,grazing and fire sup-

pression havechanged it. The an-

cient forest was domi-nated by big trees like

these giants on theedge of the MogollonRim (left). The stumps

of the big trees likethis one (right) in the

white mountains havebeen replaced by

dense stands of smalltrees.

Seekingthe old

forestin these

moderntimes

I scrunched through the pine needles to the base of a tow-ering ponderosa pine that had first put down roots before thePilgrims landed. Pulling loose a piece of bark, I inhaled thedistinctive scent of vanilla, a bouquet produced by the com-plex mix of chemicals that help defend the ancient tree againstinsects, disease and drought.

The massive pine, too big for two people to encircle withlinked hands, reared dizzingly upward, the first branches 20feet above the surface of the ground. Rooted in a dim, shel-tered world and crowned in brilliant sunlight,the rough-barked giant had been the center-poleof a complex ecosystem for four centuries. Nour-ished by mushrooms, assaulted by beetles, bat-tling with mistletoe, harvested by squirrels,perched in by hawks, resistant to fires, and hostto multitudes of birds, the enormous “yellow belly” pine was asurvivor. Once, such giants covered much of Northern Ari-zona. Now, only they’re rare thanks to generations of logging,grazing and development. The old forest hangs on atop a fewmountains, in inaccessible canyons and in a few protectedplaces.

I leaned back against the ancient one, feeling its roughbark even through my jacket. The ridged bark provides innu-merable crannies and insect-sized canyons. That’s probably

Story andphotos

by Peter Aleshire

15ARIZONA HIGHLANDSTom Brossart

why studies show that the biggest trees are the center ofmost of the bird activity in patches of surviving oldgrowth.

The silence washed over me. The trees glowed withthe long, morning light just slanting through the trees tothe east. The reddish-yellow tint ponderosas acquirewhen they hit a youthful 150 seemed luminous. At thatmoment, I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear themelodious sing-song a Georgian choir, sighing like windthrough the branches.

Instead, I heard a raucous screech. Jolted from the trance of the

trees, I floundered through themaze of trunks toward the hiddenhawk.

Again the screech.There she was.A goshawk perched in the

dying top of an ancient tree, alarge, long-legged, wing-barredhunter that thrives beneath aclosed forest canopy. Remarkablefliers, they can glide, twist, andturn beneath a forest canopy tootangled for other hawks. Thegoshawks have become the poster-bird for old growth forests, sincethey may soon be listed as a threat-ened species due to loss of theirold growth refuges. If the forest be-comes too open, they lose out toother hawks like the redtail, whoare better adapted to hunting inthe open. The Arizona Game andFish Department, the U.S. Fishand Wildlife Service, and assortedenvironmental groups maintainthat continued logging in thestate’s surviving old growth forestscould shove the goshawk towardsextinction, although the U.S. Forest Service continues toseek a middle ground that would keep the timber millsrunning.

I stalked the hawk’s tree.She ignored me. She held her high ground, screech-

ing occasionally. Was she calling for a lost mate? Playing agame of nerves with terrified squirrels crouching in coversomewhere nearby? Or merely savoring the echoes of hervoice through her hauntingly beautiful domain?

The whole forest ecosystem was in sight. It was thegestalt moment in a crash course in forest ecology, ad-

ministered in the past few months by experts fromNorthern Arizona University, the Arizona Game andFish Department, and the U.S. Forest Service. Thegoshawks eat the squirrels, who eat the cones whilespreading the fungi that nourish the trees, that are killedby the bark beetles, who feed the birds while providingnesting snags for the array of birds who feed thegoshawk.

The forest ecosystem has flourished in surprising di-versity and flux since the glaciers retreated 10,000 yearsago, leaving unique forests scattered throughout Arizona.

The forests of mixed conifers pro-vide a complex living system, withgiant Douglas Firs, groves of Aspen,thickets of Corkbark Firs, anddense groves of graceful EnglemenSpruce. Those forests are fringed inplaces at the timberline by 5,000-year-old Bristlecone Pines, stuntedancients who demonstrate that ad-versity and long life often go handin hand. On the lower, gentlysloped Mogollon plateau stretchingfrom New Mexico to Flagstaff growsthe world’s largest pure ponderosapine forests. The giant “yellowbelly”pines prized by loggers for their lackof knots and twists thrive on soilslaid down during the ice age on anaverage rainfall too sparse to sustainalmost any other pine.

“The sum of an old growth for-est is greater than its parts,” notesNorthern Arizona University pro-fessor Dr. Russ Balder. “The majes-tic old trees, the diversity, the highstands of grass. Nature wasn’t com-partmentalized as it is today inmanaged forests. That’s how mostbiological systems work. You can’t

understand the forest by looking at it’s parts in isolation.It’s like looking at individual cells and trying to predictthe function of a kidney.”

All these forests are sustained by complex, still poorlyunderstood, cycles of growth and decay. One thing wehave learned is that all the pieces are connected and in-terdependent.

“We need to have all the pieces. If you’re going tomaintain something, you’ve got to save all the spareparts,” said Jim Beard, with the Coconino National For-est, an expert on the recreational uses of forests who has


documented a huge loss of pristine areas in the pastdecade.

Enter the circle anywhere.Start at the roots.Pines and firs all depend to some degree for water

and minerals on mushroom-sprouting fungi which colo-nize their roots — a different species of fungi grows oneach type of tree.

The fungi, in turn, depend heavily on squirrels tospread their spores from tree to tree. The squirrels eagerlyseek out the fungi truffles, which they can detect by theirscent beneath a foot of snow. The fungi, in turn, providethe squirrels with a rich food source during crucial timesof the year, according to Jack States, a professor of biologyand forestry at NAU who has studied the squirrels foryears.

But the trees pay a price for the diligence of the squir-rels, since the rodents live mostly on pine cone seeds. Insome years, they eat most of the cone crop, and the tipsof many growing branches..

Then again, the squirrels who remain active all win-ter thanks to the cones and fungi are a blessing for thegoshawks, foxes, bobcats, and other denizens of the deepforest for whom squirrels are a dietary cornerstone.

In the lower-altitude ponderosa pine Forest, the Al-bert’s Squirrel plays this crucial role.

In the colder mixed conifer forests, the Red Squirrel

serves the same function. They cope with the colder win-ters by building and stocking middens, piles of sticks anddebris in the lee of a fallen log where they hoard cones.The middens must have just the right temperature andhumidity to keep the pine cones from either drying outor sprouting, which means the squirrels need denseforests in which the interlocking branches of the trees fil-ter out much of the sunlight. Such a closed forest canopycools the forest floor in the summer and hoards escaping,nighttime heat in the winter.

So, the squirrels both need and sustain the trees.The cycle of interdependence drawn tight around the

mature trees continues even in death. Consider the lifeof a dead snag, an unexpectedly vital part of a forestecosystem. Trees, insects and birds are locked in a compli-cated interchange, with the death of the tree the begin-ning of a whole new cycle.

Dead trees can remain standing for more than 50years, sloughing their barks, rotted on the inside, slowlysoftening and decomposing under the assault of wind,rain, and frost. Once upon a time, snags were considereda fire hazard and the Forest Service paid for their re-moval.

That was before the biologists discovered how manybirds depend on snags to survive. Some studies suggestthat 80 percent of the bird activity in old growth areas iscentered around the mature, yellow-belly pines and

Presettlement forests had more grass and diversity, which was a boon to wildlife —like elk dependent on meadows and grass. Forest managers hope a new approachwill prove beneficial to a wide range of wildlife — including elk and deer.

17ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

Tom Brossart

the snags.That might be because old trees and snags attract a

host of insects, including many varieties of pine beetles.Perhaps the pine beetles focus on older trees because thegiant’s chemical defenses have begun to falter, like theweary immune systems of nursing home residents. Thefirst colonizing beetles emit some sort of chemical scent,which draws other beetles. Rapid-fire generations of pinebeetles chew large chambers in the inner bark of the treeand introduce a fungus that hinders the movement ofwater from the roots to the branches. That cripples thetree’s chemical counter-attack against the beetles. Asmore and more beetlescolonize the tree, the cen-turies old lord of the for-est slowly starves to death.

That triggers several,interlocking changes.

Birds flock to the tree,led by the woodpeckersand others with beakstough enough to dig outthe hidden insects. Thosetough-beaked birds alsohollow out nests in the de-caying heartwood of thedoomed tree. The wood-peckers and other primarycavity nesters raise theiryoung in these protectedchambers, sheltered fromextremes of heat and coldand safe from roving predators. But they abandon theircarefully constructed cavities after a single nesting season,a tactic they probably evolved to avoid a build-up ofmites, parasites and diseases.

That leaves the hole free for colonization by a host ofsecondary cavity nesters, like the pygmy nuthatch, an en-dearing little chirp of a bird with no neck, a sub of a tail,and a voracious appetite for insects. They flit through theforest, hopping up and down the immense expanse oftrunk, peeping incessantly, and gobbling up an array ofinsect pests. They’re one of the few species of birds whichstays all through the winter. Their secret lies in findingholes abandoned by woodpeckers in dead snags whichthey can jam with dozens of hot little bodies, like somany college students stuffed into a phone booth. So, the pine beetles create the snags, which shelter thebirds, who eat the pine beetles and protect the trees.

But it doesn’t stop there. Even rotting on theground, the giant pines continue to nourish an intricate

ecosystem. Those downed logs may hold as many storednutrients as the forest’s topsoil, a storehouse to replenishthe minerals and nutrients sucked out of the soil by theroots of the trees. They are host to an array of fungi, bac-teria and insects as they decay, each playing a role in anmostly unseen ecosystem. Specialized mites, centipedes,millipedes, slugs, snails, salamanders, shrews, shrew-moles and voles occupy this special niche, shifting in typeand population during a decades-long transformation ofa log into rich dirt. One study found 300 differentspecies dependent on decaying Douglas Fir logs.

Unfortunately, we logged forests for decades beforebiologists begin to lookclosely at the ecosystems ofold growth forests. Forestmanagers created all sorts ofnow-intractable problems,ranging from mistletoe in-festations to terrible firedangers, by turning forestsinto tree-farms without un-derstanding the living linksbetween plants and animals.

For instance, mistletoefrequently infects pine andfir trees, weakening them inthe course of decades. Theparasite somehow causesthe trees to produce mu-tated, gnarly branches called“brooms,” which grow onthe lower part of the nor-

mally branchless lower trunk. These infected branchesshed mistletoe spores which infect neighboring trees.That’s not a big problem in an intact, old growth forestwhere the trees are widely spaced save in the occasionalclearings created by fire, the death of a giant, insect infes-tation, or other natural processes. In such conditions, themistletoe spores mostly drift to the ground rather thaninfecting neighboring trees. However, in the dense clus-ters of trees, the mistletoe infection spreads easily fromtree to tree.

What’s more, we’ve also stopped natural fires whichused to control mistletoe outbreaks. Fires don’t do muchdamage in old growth forests, since the shade of the ma-ture trees has kept thickets of small trees from sproutingand the lower branches of the mature trees are too highabove the ground to catch flames ambling through thesparse debris on the forest floor.

These slow, cool ground forests used to burn throughthe forests every five to seven years. They thinned out the

Controlledburns likethis one canrestoreforesthealth bythinningthe treesandreturningnutrients tothe soil.


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young trees, kept piles of debris from building up on the forest floor,returned the nutrient rich ash to the soil, and also killed off many ofthe mistletoe-infected trees by climbing into their lower, mutatedbranches. Such fires rarely harmed the big trees, beyond sometimesburning through the bark on one side leaving a scar shaped like acat’s ear.

That has all changed, now that the virtually fire-proof old growthforests have given way to stands of closely spaced trees of uniform age.Now fires can feed on decades of debris. Fires can also leap-frog fromthe tops of the thickets of young trees into the branches of the maturetrees, triggering devastating crown fires, in which the flames leap fromtree-top to tree-top.

So I sat along while in the deep forest – this one perched at theedge of the Mogollon Rim, the uplifted southern edge of the Col-orado Plateau.

Birds flitted through the branches. I tried to count the calls. Thenuthatch I recognized. The jay I knew. For the rest, I simply closed myeyes and listened to the twittered harmony. Out over the canyon, ared tailed hawk wheeled on the thermals.

Behind me, in the sheltering forest, I heard a screech.Was it a goshawk, challenging the circling red-tail from one of his

last, canopied bastions?I drank in the view for a while. Then I turned and wandered back

into the forest, drawn to the more intimate marvels of tree, and root,and mushroom, seeing for the first time the wonder in the details.

19ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

The Mother RoadGet Your Kicks

on Route 66

The Mother RoadGet Your Kicks

on Route 66

Story and photos by Tom Brossart

F rom the time I was a little kid watching those two guysin a Corvette get their ‘Kicks on Route 66” in the 1960to 1964 TV show, the road has held a great lure for me.

I remember sitting in the front of the TV with my parents watchingMartin Milner and George Maharis, and later Glen Corbett, roamup and down the historic Mother Road. Maybe that is where myneed to explore came from.

Years later after I married Diane, I heard stories about her fa-ther loading up his family — two children and the family dog — andheading off to California seeking a better life. They made the trip toCalifornia on Route 66 from the Midwest in 1954, when cars hadno AC and overheated easily, as they labored up and down the oldroadway. Route 66 travelers strapped canvas bags of water to thebumpers, to cope with overheating.

The Route 66 museum in Kingman has a sign that says of the200,000 cars full of refugees that traveled this national roadway inthe early Oklahoma dust bow days, only 8 percent actually stayed inCalifornia. That’s a lot of people going back and forth. It was a simi-lar experience after World War II and into the 1950s.

Diane and I have traveled over the New Mexico part of theroadway, but until this year had not completed the Arizona stretch.It is not an easy road to follow; given the numerous routes duringthe years designated as Route 66. Picking up some maps and a bookor two about the old route will help you find your way through his-tory. If you like old stuff — the Mother Road abounds with old cars,motels, signs, diners, and buildings. Following the road takes youaway from the fast-paced interstate for a taste of travel in the “olddays”.

The alignment of Route 66 in Arizona generally follows what isnow I-40, but also includes stretches where you can be on the oldroad, away from the interstate. If you try to drive the eastern part ofthe route, be prepared to find a lot of dead ends that require a bit ofbacktracking to get back on the interstate.

You can follow the road from border to border in Arizona bystarting at the Painted Cliffs Welcome Center where you can get anoverview of what lies ahead. On the eastern side of the state thereare still some original road alignments, with their hidden treasures,Ortega’s Indian Trading Post. The famous old road takes youthrough the Petrified National Forest Park, making it the only na-tional park that Route 66 crossed.

From the park, the road takes you through views of the PaintedDesert before heading into Holbrook and then on to Winslow — allof it brimming with Route 66 lore.

On our recent trip we picked the road up at Winslow and fol-lowed it through to Oatman. While in Winslow be sure to view theLa Posada Hotel and enjoy a meal at the Turquoise Room Restau-rant, which features some of the best food in Arizona..

Along the way I met a Chicago man traveling the road for thethird time. He had first followed the road from his hometown ridinga bike many years ago, something I can’t imagine.

A few years ago, he made his first Chicago to California trip bycar and this year, with a new camera in hand and lots of film, he wastrying to retrace his steps. I say trying because when I met him at thefamous Twin Arrows roadside stop 20 miles outside of Flagstaff, hehad been waiting for several hours for the clouds to clear and thesun to come out to make that one special photo. He said he hadbrought 100 rolls of Kodachrome film with him on this trip and bythe time he got to Twin Arrows he he had shot up most of it. I gotlucky as we pulled up to the site, the sun came and clouds cleared.Timing can be everything.

After an hour, I left him still wandering around the Twin Ar-rows site, looking for the perfect photo of the old relic.

We found families with children, adventure tours and seniors

making this trip, along with lots of motorcycle travelers. We played“see you now, see you later,” with a family from Nevada and with sev-eral motor homes filled with young adults. We would catch up tothem at one stop or the next for some 200 miles of Route 66 explor-ing.

Traveling Route 66 is all about slowing down and viewingwhat’s left of the historic road that introduced much of the nationto the beauty of the west.

Other stops on the eastern side are ghost towns like Two Guns,once famous for a petting zoo and Meteor City, which is still operat-ing. Meteor City is not really a city, but a tourist attraction which sig-nals the road to Meteor Crater some six miles down the road.

At Meteor City, travelers could pay 25 cents to see Meteor Crater through a telescope without driving the last six miles.Every stop has a story of travelers building a new life and of the busi-nesses that sprang up to serve this new brand of tourist.


As one travels, side trips beckon. You can easily spend a week or moreexploring the areas a bit north and south of the road such as Petrified Na-tional Park, Painted Desert, the old ghost towns, La Posada, Williams Moun-tain, Sycamore Canyon Wilderness areas, a trip to the Grand Canyon on thetrain out of Williams, not to mention the towns of Flagstaff, Williams andAshfork, which bills itself as the flagstone capital of the world. Kingman andOatman each with their own special attractions and history.

Williams is a place to explore unto itself.The town is the stepping offplace for a trip to the Grand Canyon by rail or by car. You can walk the oldstreets of a downtown full of historical buildings, including the TurquoiseTeepee, which dates back to the 1940’s. Look around and get a sense forwhat it might have been like in the 1950s heading to California for a newlife. If you want a flavor of the times, try the Twister’s Café, which offeredthe best milk shake we found on the trip. For breakfast, try the Pine Café indowntown Williams.

Everywhere along the way, stores and markers promote Route 66’s

In Seligman, arailroad townfounded in1886, now fa-mous for itsRoute 66 at-tractions, youwill find theSnow CapDrive In, wherea good dose ofhumor isserved up withevery meal.Behind theSnow CapDrive In is amuseum ofsorts involvingold cars andother things(photo previ-ous page).Below is theOatmanTheatreBuilding onRoute 66.

23ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

history — like Winslow’s “Standing on theCorner” park. Many stores offer greatmaps and books, especially at the Route 66Museum in Kingman. Buildings on theNational Registry of Historic stand allalong the route.

Longest stretch

The longest continuous stretch of theroadway in Arizona begins just past Ash-fork at the Crookton Road exit off of I-40.Once on the roadway here you can followthe original road all the way into Califor-nia. The road to Seligman passes throughrolling hills where you can see older align-ment off to the side.

As you pull into Seligman the first thing that stands out, and itis a must-see and experience, is Delgadillo’s Snow Cap restaurant onthe left, operated by the same family that started it in the 1950s.

The food is good and the experience is just fun. But beware:The owners of the Snow Cap are famous for playing practical jokeson travelers. They have their own brand of humor, something youwill not find at a chain restaurant.

In Seligman, take a walking tour up and down the main street— a stroll of a few blocks and half a century. Seligman was bypassedby I-40 in the mid-1980s but after struggling for a few years, it hasnow been revitalized by the interest in traveling Route 66.

From there, the road takes you to the Grand Canyon Caverns,and the small town of Peach Springs, where you can take a side tripto the Grand Canyon. Next comes Truxton, Valentine and Hack-berry, each with their own Route 66 history. Peach Springs is hometo the Hualapi Indians where they have a visitor center and offer

trips to the Grand Canyon. After leaving Peach Springs, you can spot an older alignment of

Route 66 on the south side of the roadway. Finding these olderalignments becomes almost a game as you cruise the current road. InTruxton, you can see a classic neon sign at the Frontier Motel. Thesign was rescued and renovated with the help of the Route 66 Corri-dor Preservation Program and Historic Route 66 Association of Ari-zona.

Hackberry, once a silver mining mecca, is now famous for theHackberry General Store and its old gas pumps and cars. You can’tbuy gas anymore at the general store, but you can get a feel for thevintage cars and what driving the road must have been like 50 yearsago.

From there, the road goes into Kingman where you can findsome more must see and visit place including the Powerhouse Mu-seum, which houses the Route 66 Museum, a visitors center and theArizona Route 66 Association. The museum is well worth the stop.

Route 66 was hard on cars during its prime, while the old Hackberry General Store (below) is a popular stopalong the old roadway.


The KingmanDepot, which oncehoused a HarveyHouse Restaurant, isundergoing recon-struction and nearbythere is the HotelBrunswick, which hasbeen a resting placefor a century of travel-ers. Sadly the oldhotel is not in opera-tion at this time.

If you are hun-gry, the spot in King-man is Mr. D’s Route66 Dinner, just upfrom the museum.The succession ofowners have protected the vintage atmosphereand good food. We got our best burger andsalad on the four-day trip here and the home-made root beer and cherry coke made it a per-fect stop.

Our next stop after an overnight stay inKingman was Oatman.

There are actually two old roadbeds out ofKingman for Route 66. We took the older roadto Oatman, but you can take the new routethrough Topock. The road to Oatman is notrecommend for vehicles over 40-feet in lengthdue to its steep grades, narrow turns and bigdrop-offs. This is one road you don’t want torun off the edge of — it’s a long way down.

We got there too late in the day to experi-

ence their famous burros, other than the onewho stuck his head in the window of our Jeeplooking for a handout.

Oatman has also been saved by Route 66travelers. The road to Oatman is not for thefaint of heart as it twists and turns through Sitg-reaves Pass and then down the other side. Theroad does offer many photo opportunities, asdoes Oatman.

I think you can hit the highlights in a four-day trip, but when we tackle the road again —and we will — we plan on a weeklong trip so wecan spend more time in Williams and King-man.

Then maybe we’ll be ready to ride theMother Road all the way to the ocean, whichmay be the only thing that hasn’t changed.

Route 66betweenKingmanandOatmanmakes itswaythroughsomeruggedmountainpasses.

Photosof fall

A master photographer offers colorful tipson catching the light as the seasons change

PHOTO TIP: Use a tripod, low ISO and high F-stop to maximizedepth of field and saturate the foreground with color.

PHOTO TIP: Look up. Use a polarizer to saturate the sky and intensify color. Use the contrast between theblue and the red maples to enhance the color.


I chase the brilliance offall foliage colors the sameway I search themountain meadows anddesert for wildflowers.

But then, nature’s colors always excite photographers to apoint of obsession. So I (along with my wife) have spent weekschasing down colorful rumors in a search for the best fall col-ors.

Alleged sightings are the worst, it usually goes somethinglike “Hey, I spotted some great aspen (or maples, pick your tree)out on Forest Road XYZ last weekend.” So off we go. The firstattempt usually ends up on the wrong road. Sometimes youeventually find the right trees in the rightsettings with the right light. Other times,you arrive one windstorm too late. All ofwhich makes hitting the colors at the righttime a beautiful sight to behold.

In photography as in real estate -- thefirst rule is location, location, and location.And patience, plenty of patience.

Do as much research as possible The place that was so spe-cial last year may not be the same spot this year. Also rememberwhat you see today can be gone tomorrow with one good wind.

So once you’re in the right spot at the right moment -- howare you going to make some great photos?

First, pay attention to the time of day. Early or late is thebest, but I have also made some nice backlit photos mid-morn-ing and mid-afternoon. And don’t give up when the sun goesdown, for even then the right conditions produce wonderfulimages.

A bright sunny day is great for some photos, but don’t ig-nore a slightly overcast day, which I call a cloudy-bright day. Takefull advantage of any stormy skies or fluffy clouds; these condi-tions can enhance your photos. Right after a rain, the colorswill sparkle.

I suggest you always use a polarizing filter when creating im-ages outside, especially when focusing on fall foliage.

Story and

Photos

by

Tom

Brossart

PHOTO TIP: You can create depth within a com-position using a wide angle lens to keep itemsthat are near (ferns), middle (aspen trunk) andfar (distant trees) all in focus.

A feast of lights

29ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

PHOTO TIPS

Catch the “magic”light in the morningsand evening. Avoidharsh, mid-day light.

Use a polarizer, butdon’t overdo andmake the sky too dark.

Rain makes colorssparkle when the sunreturns, so don’t putaway the camerawhen it storms.

Look for color con-trasts, such as brightred maple or goldenaspen trees against agreen background.

Use a telephoto topick out details and awide angle for massesof color.

PHOTO TIP: Paint withlight. Remember, usebacklight to bring outthe brilliance of fallcolor. The dark areasemphasize the dramaof the aspen againstthe forest.


My college and workshop students always ask, “How do I know when Ihave set the polarizer correctly?” Good question.

Look through the lens as you turn the polarizing filter slowly until you seethe colors intensify, then stop. Don’t over polarize, as the sky will turn a deepblue black. You want a nice blue to contrast with the colors of the trees. Re-member that the lower the ISO the better the color and the sharper the photo.With some newer digital cameras you can use higher ISO ratings, but I still feelthe lower the better.

Many photographers love to use enhancing filters, such as a warming fil-ter or ND filters. I don’t. I just never saw the need. I like to photograph whatI see, with all the shadows along with the highlights. But that’s me, so don’tbe afraid to try something. Remember it is your vision, not mine, you use tocreate images.

About any lens will work, just remember that wide angle, normal, tele-photo and macro-lens will treat the scene different. Use the lens that will en-hance your vision. If you’re unsure, experiment with different lenses. Developyour eye, your vision — don’t just point a camera at a scene and hope it turnsout. Remember the rules of composition, including the rule of thirds -- whichmeans don’t place the most important part of you image directly in the cen-ter.

To capture many scenic or landscape images you need a large depth offield, which means the image looks sharp from near the camera to far away.For that effect, shoot at a slow shutter speed, say 1/30 of second or slower –depending on the light. I make many photos in the 1/10 of a second range toincrease the lens aperture or F-stop into the F8, 11-32 range. And use a tripodfor those longer exposures and greater depth of field images. If you have apoint and shoot camera, look for a landscaping setting on your camera and usethat. The straight “auto” setting won’t produce the best results.

PHOTO TIP: Use blue sky andwater to saturate the colors in thetree with a vivid contrast. Use wideangles (below) to create a dramaticperspective.

31ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

PHOTO TIP: Look for distant vistas with splashes of color and interesting skies like thisview of Mt. Humphrey. But also frame the scene with foreground to give the image depth.

PHOTO TIP:Look fordramatic light,enhanced byunusual fallcolors — likethis view oflight anglingthrough theyellow leavesof a usuallyscragglyTamarisk.


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PHOTO TIP: ChangingPerspectives: Keepshifting your view-point -- from big pic-ture to small. Look fora backlight throughleaves and intimatedetails, with a macroor telephoto lens.

33ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

FINDING FALL FOLIAGEEARLY FALL:Try LOCKETT MEADOWS and the SanFrancisco Peaks for aspen in early fall.Spread out from there taking various For-est Service Roads. Check road conditionsin areas affected by the fires this summer.Try the PEAKS LOOP, SNOWBOWL DRIVE,SCHULTZ PASS DRIVE,and the volcanoes and RUINS LOOP earlyin the season. Don’t forget the SNOW-BOWL SKY RIDE. Golden aspen, scarletmaples usually turn in early October.APACHE-SITGREAVES, fall colors start inlate September and finish up mid-waythrough October. Try FS 300 going towardHeber Overgaard or any of the high coun-try Forest Service roads out of MCNARY,ALPINE AND SPRINGERVILLE.

MIDDLE FALL:TONTO NATURAL BRIDGE STATE PARK –North of Payson on Highway 87 featuresthe largest natural travertine bridge in theworld. A short, steep hike to the creekyields brilliant aspen, cottonwood andelder trees. TONTO CREEK FISH HATCHERY – off ofHighway 260 at about 6,500 feet eleva-tion. The hatchery and surrounding wet-land area provide outstandingopportunities for learning adventures andfamily outings such as picnics, hiking, andobserving wildlife. Fall color is great in thisarea. RIM COUNTRY: FS ROADS 300, 321, 95 –51-mile segment of the Mogollon Rimfrom Highway 87 to Highway 260. Pass-able by carefully driven passenger cars.Scattered aspen groves turn from midSeptember to late October. For weekly re-ports, call the Forest Service Fall ColorHotline, 800-354-4595, or visitfs.fed.us/r3/recreation/fall-colors/fall.shtml.

LATE FALL:OAK CREEK CANYON and the RED ROCK/SYCAMORE CANYON SCENIC DRIVE. OakCreek Canyon is a good late fall drive.


Fall Inn

Fall is in the air. Take a walk in the woods and experience it fi rst hand!Enjoy the rustic comforts and features of Mormon Lake Lodge, including cozy historic cabins, modern cabins with kitchenettes and a dining room that’s served delicious, open-pit-grilled steaks for several decades. Real outdoorsy types love our comfortable campground and RV sites that make it easy to stop for a week or a weekend to enjoy the great outdoors.

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35ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

West Fork offers a busy, neck-

wrenching hike that begs you to stop

and look up at every corner’s tower-

ing cliffs and then quickly down

again so you don’t land face first in

the rocky, gushing creek.

A three-mile trek on West Fork will fill up your senseswith enough sights, sounds, smells and history to keep yougushing for days.

Tiny green apples hang heavily from the limbs of an-cient orchard trees. Thick fields of fern grow along thewinding path, splashing drops of dew along naked legs. A

sometimes-muddy creek darts across the canyon, requiringmultiple wet crossings and advanced boulder-skippingskills.

With all this in the first half-mile and even grander siteswaiting, West Fork of Oak Creek Trail has earned its statusas the most popular hike in Sedona.

So preferring scenery to solitude, I set off with myroommate for a quick jaunt up the popular, easy, first threemiles of the 11-mile trail.

Half a mile in, we stopped to take in a little history.Old apple trees line the wide path. Pioneer C.S. “Bear”Howard originally planted the trees in the 1880’s. Howard– famous for hunting the once plentiful black bears – even-tually sold the place to the Thomas family. They sold toCarl Mayhew, who added a lodge, swimming pool andsmaller buildings.

Thanks to its beauty, the lodge attracted many notableactors and politicians including Clark Gable and President

Story byAlexis Bechman

Photos byTom Brossart

Fall Splendor: The first easy three miles of West Fork isnot only the most popular hike in Sedona, it’s one ofthe best fall hikes in the state.

37ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

Herbert Hoover. Author ZaneGrey was so inspired by thecanyon he wrote part of thenovel Call of the Canyon whileat the lodge.

Sadly, in 1980 the lodgeburned down, leaving only theremnants of chimney andchicken coop as well as the con-crete basin of the swimmingpool, which hugs a westerly wallbehind the orchard.

Thanks to volunteer ef-forts, the apple trees are onceagain pruned and producinglarge harvests. In the fall, visi-tors can even check out anapple picker pole from the for-est service’s entry booth.

With tasty apple in hand,the real hike begins.

Sheer canyon walls rise upon either side, gradually closingin as you wander farther backinto the canyon. Large pon-derosa pines, firs, sycamores,oaks and maples grace the trail — a splendid hike to savor the fall color in October.Some trees are so large you would need three people to circle them and the area of-fers once of the most varied and healthy riparian habitats in the state. The streamis a wonderland for bird watchers and botanists alike.

After a rain, hikers must make more than a dozen river crossings – best to blun-der across in boots you don’t mind getting wet. For nearly three level miles, thetrail tracks the stream, crossing when it needs to and hugging the sandstone wallswhen it needs a break.

The abraded cliff walls tower hundreds of feet, reaching towards the sky andblocking out the sun. In some places, rock shelves create a wavelike feel while in oth-ers deep pockets are almost worth climbing into.

I got so into the pattern of stream crossing, boulder hopping, sandy trail andthen crossing again, I was surprised to see the end of the trail. Of course, it’s notreally an end, but a beginning of the less crowded, wilderness stretch of the stream— where hikers must be prepared to sometimes swim big pools.The trail eventuallytops out near Forest Road 231.

Alas, I had no time to test my canyoneering skills on this trip. Next time ... next time ...

When you go:From Sedona, drive 10 miles onHighway 89A to the Call O’ theCanyon day use area (past mile-posts 385). Pay the $10 parkingfee at the small parking area,which fills quickly on weekends.Hours: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. summer,9 a.m. to dusk winter. For walk-ins, there’s a $2 fee – or useyour weekly or annual Red RockPass. Allow 2 to 3 hours roundtrip for the initial 3-mile stretch.Information: Red Rock RangerDistrict, P.O. Box 20249, SedonaAZ 86341, (928) 282-4119

The canyon mingles 260-million-year-old CoconinoSandstone made fromfused sand dunes withKaibab Limestone, madefrom sea bottom deposits.


MAGIC IN THE MOUNTAINS!Autumn in the country is that part of Arizona where wondrous and inexplicable things happen and this is also where Mazatzal Hotel & Casino holds the “magic”. Just two hours from most cities, located in the heart of Arizona and positioned in the base of the Mazatzal Moun-tains is one of Arizona’s most beautiful vaca-tion destinations. The Mazatzal Hotel exceeds expectations with luxurious accommodations. The exquisite style of the suites is reminiscent of modern charm and elegance. Hungry? Head to Cedar Ridge restaurant which offers a variety of

delicious entrées in the daily buffet or grab a great tasting custom made pizza from the Grille. Whether the customer chooses one of the pizzas on the menu or creates their own pizza, each is created by using dough, cheeses, meats and veggies that are freshly prepared every day. There is always something exciting happening at Mazatzal whether it is a unique promotion going on or an event that sparks the attention of most adults who enjoy having fun. Tribute artists, comedy, dinner theater and themed events mark some of the finest entertainment in Arizona. Mazatzal Hotel & Casino also offers over 400 slot machines, poker, blackjack, keno and bingo and has meeting space and a con-ference room for those who choose a working retreat.For more informa-tion, please contact 800 777PLAY (7529) or check the website www.777play.

Photo by Mary Smith

Photo by Dianamarie Maione

39ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

On a windswept, lava hill lacedwith fissures and a complex, sa-cred history just outsideSpringerville, you can still see themound-like ruins of the GreatKiva where the kachina danced.

The snow-graced peaks of the sacred mountains rise inthe distance, the ancient pathway to the place of emergenceand the gleaming, antelope-graced grasslands. You can gaze onthe notched walls and the dancing figures, designed to markthe longest day and the shortest day in the life-giving progres-sion of the seasons.

Of course, you cannot see the caverns down below, per-haps still hiding their sacred catacombs and their ancient, con-secrated burials.

However, if you listen closely to Casa Malpais’ genialguide and stretch your imagination like the flared primaries ofthe hawk wheeling overhead on theupdraft, you may sense the dramahere that transformed the Southwest800 years ago — and that still has ar-chaeologists in a tumult of theoryand speculation.

“It’s just a great experience,” saidsite manager Linda Matthews, whofirst worked as a volunteer on the early excavations of the sitein 1991 and now protects it. “It’s been a lot of fun through theyears, working with so many different people and just learningmore all the time”

Casa Malpais, a complex of perhaps 60 rooms on a lavaflow riddled with caves, offers visitors the best glimpse of a wayof life that for centuries sustained the Mogollon people. Sit-ting in the sun on the outskirts of the ranching town ofSpringerville, Casa Malpais is the most visible and accessibleof a string of pueblos built along the headwaters of the LittleColorado River — a cultural crossroads that shaped the historyof the whole region. For $5 each, visitors can take a 1.5 milestroll through the ancient village, up a spiral staircase cut fromlava and onto a mesa top with a panoramic view of a sacredlandscape. The City of Springerville owns the site and offers

the tours, hoping to both preserve an ancient heritage and todraw modern tourists.

Archaeologists have only thoroughly investigated ninerooms, then buried them up again to protect them. So thetour doesn’t include partially restored walls as at Wupatki nearFlagstaff, but it does offer sweeping views and stirrings vistasfor the imagination.

The ruins dream in the sun: Great beams hauled by handfor 20 miles; a huge kiva linked to the spirit world; windowsand slots that force summer solstice light to fall on intricatepictoglyphs. But these ruins harbor even deeper secretes. Be-neath, lie the only known burial catacombs in the prehistoricwest. And in the architecture and artifacts, these ruins alongthe Little Colorado also hold clues to the birth of a new reli-gion that may shed light on one of the most absorbing myster-ies in archaeology.

“It’s unique,” observed archaeologist Patrick Lyons, “interms of the setting and the catacombs. It’s on the Hopi-Zunifrontier and is claimed as a special site by both. It’s accessible,but it hasn’t been loved to death — so it’s a great visitor experi-ence. The tour guides do a great job and field a wide variety ofquestions in a good way.”

The 90 minute tour of the 17-acre site that supported 200to 400 people offers a fascinating glimpse of a ancient andmysterious way of life. Many features still puzzle archaeologists,including a low wall that surrounds most of the ruins. The siteincludes many pictoglyphs and astronomical sites. One plat-

Unearthinga mystery

Story by Peter Aleshire



form apparently provided a place to tether a captive eagle for ceremonies,since many pueblo people considered eagles to be divine messengers passingbetween heaven and earth. The 50 to 60 rooms mostly built in the late1200s and largely abandoned by the late 1300s, includes an “observatory” —a circular area about 75 feet across, designed so that the rising sun wouldfall upon designs on the wall on the longest and shortest days of the year.The designs on the walls include a flying parrot, a double spiral that sug-gests an emerging corn sprout, a woman the Zuni say represents a sacredcorn maiden, a bear paw, symbols for migration and other symbols for thesun and for ancestral beings.

Casa Malpais remains best known for the sensational announcement adecade ago of the discovery of a network of caves harboring the reverentlyinterred bodies of many of the ancient residents of the village. Although ar-chaeologists had unearthed other cave or niche burials in the Southwest,none involve so many bodies in a connected network of caves. However,both the Hopi and Zuni objected to disturbing the bodies. Subsequently,the city agreed to seal the catacombs, with suitable prayers and offerings byHopi and Zuni spiritual leaders.

But quite aside from the catacombs, Casa Malpais and the string ofother ruins along the upper Little Colorado River offer crucial answers toancient riddles.

The waters and springs that feed the Little Colorado originate in the

Casa Malpais (above) on the outskirts of Springerville showcasesruins built over the Southwest’s most elaborate catacombs.

The site, and its haunting rock art (right) may hold the key tothe depopulation of the Southwest in the 1400s

41ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

surrounding mountains. The river wanders across the 7,000-foot-high volcanic plateau and on down through grasslands and desertsto the Grand Canyon. The stretch of slow, muddy water river be-tween St. Johns and Springerville offers one of the few areaswhere the hydrology and topography make it possible to divertwater to irrigate farmland. As a result, the region has lured peoplefor thousands of years.

The irrigation-based civilizations that arose along here be-tween about 1000 and 1400 A.D. started out as typical Mogollonsettlements, but soon showed the influence of northern immi-grants associated with Anasazi groups. Moreover, pottery shardsand pictoglyphs suggest that perhaps this blending of culturesspurred the development here of the kachina religion, which thenspread throughout the southwest. The rise of the kachina religionmay have led to the decline of the dominant religion centered inChaco Canyon in New Mexico. This may help explain the declineof the highly centralized Chaco culture, with its baffling system ofwonderfully engineered roads made by a people with no horses orcattle and therefore no use for the wheel.

Casa Malpais and the nearby ruins may have played a crucialrole in this transformation due to their uniquely documentedmingling of different cultures. In addition, the region forms theoverlapping frontier dividing two of the oldest and most vital ofthe pueblo cultures — the Zuni and the Hopi.

The Zuni, linguistically related to groups in California, believethey emerged from a previous world in the depths of the GrandCanyon. They then followed the Little Colorado River out of theGrand Canyon and across the desert to their homeland on a clus-ter of windswept mesas in New Mexico. For centuries, they havemaintained shrines in the Springerville area, includingKoluwala:wa at the juncture of the Little Colorado and CarrizoCreek in Lyman State Park. Religious leaders make regular pil-grimages to these sites within view of the sacred mountain peaksof Mount Baldy, Escudilla Peak and the White Mountains. Theypray and leave tokens in some of the caves, whose locations re-main secret. They say the Little Colorado is the umbilical chordthat connects them to their origins and call the place where therivers meet near Casa Malpai “Zuni Heaven.”

The Hopi, linguistically related to the Aztecs in Mexico, be-lieve they also emerged from a previous world drowned by theCreator because of the foolishness and wickedness of human be-ings. The different clans set out on epic migrations, seeking thebest place to live. They explored the world and found many lushplaces. But finally they all circled back to the Hopi Mesas, realizingthey would lose their way spiritually in such easy places. They real-ized the harshness of their homeland would hold them to theirprayers and to right thinking. Their oral traditions hold that sev-eral clans came to the Hopi Mesas from the area around CasaMalpais, including the Kangaroo Rat, Turkey, Road Runner,Boomerang, Fire, Stick, Butterfly, Bamboo, Reed, Greasewood,Coyote, Hawk, Spider and Parrot Clans. They call the area aroundCasa Malpais Wenima and say that the kachinas lived here, whichreinforces the evidence of shards and pictoglyphs.

The rich Zuni and Hopi oral traditions, plus recent archeolog-ical findings suggest that this stretch of river with its 10 known vil-lages is crucial to understanding the dynamic mingling of cultures

A steep passage leads into ruinsbuilt on top of caves in volcanic rock.


and ideas that shaped the prehistory of the region and perhapshelp explain the mysterious collapse of farming-based, pueblo-building cultures throughout the southwest.

Casa Malpais was one of the first of the major settlementson the upper Little Colorado, starting perhaps 1,000 years ago.The settlements along the river fall into three clusters, withCasa Malpais, Danson, Hooper Ranch and Rudd Creek pueb-los forming the oldest and southernmost grouping.

Mogollon immigrants apparently built Casa Malpais, mov-ing in from their heartland in the White Mountains and alongthe Mogollon Rim. They built huge, rectangular kivas thatcould hold more than 100 people, which they entered bydoors and tunnels. They also constructed in the kivas strangepits on either side of the central hearth, perhaps as a place togrow ceremonial plants like beans and squash during the win-ter. Some archaeologists also suggest the pits were covered withplanks on which people pounded during ceremonies, so thesound would reverberate impressively. The Mogollon generallybuilt rooms in solid adjoining blocks as the village grew. Inmaking pottery, they used metallic paints and glazes andburned wood to heat their kilns, resulting in distinctive colorsand generally porous firings.

The northern Anasazi groups favored different architec-ture and pottery styles. They built smaller kivas — usually bigenough for 10 to 50 people — and climbed down laddersthrough doors in the roof. They usually built the villagearound great central plazas, where they held the cycle of cere-monies throughout the year. They usually used plant-basedglazes and paints and coal to heat their kilns, resulting in aharder, finer glaze.

Casa Malpais started off in the Mogollon pattern, butlater showed evidence of the influence of immigrants from theNorth. For instance, archaeologists have uncovered large, ce-ramic plates, with holes all around the edge. Northern areapotters used these plates as a sort of Lazy Susan for makinglarge pots, turning the raw clay pot sitting on top of the hugeplate to work as they shaped it. Suddenly, the plates startedshowing up in the previously Mogollon settlements along theLittle Colorado.

The evidence suggests that these newcomers began to af-fect cultural and artistic styles in the Mogollon settlements.Some evidence shows Casa Malpais was abandoned as thetrend accelerated and larger villages grew along the river to thenorth. The ruins at Sherwood Ranch just up the river fromCasa Malpais best capture the transition. Here, a Mogollon-style Great Kiva dominates one end of the 400-room village.But the later construction at the other end of the village isdominated by a central plaza and a smaller, roof-entered kiva.The transition appears gradual, indicating the two culturesblended and so spurred a period of cultural and artistic changeand ferment.

Later, larger ruins to the north near St. Johns also show acultural mixture, but this time the Northern or Anasazi pat-tern seems dominant.

One intriguing possibility suggests the kachina religionemerged from this cultural cross-fertilization. Some expertsthink that the rise — or revival — of the kachina religion chal-lenged the centralized theology of Chaco, which made possiblethe huge settlements, massive irrigation works and impressive

joint undertakings, like the expertly cobbled roads radiatingoutward from Chaco for hundreds of miles. That highly cen-tralized Chaco system may have faced a crisis, which theprayers of the Chaco-oriented priests failed to avert. Thatcould have prompted the struggling people of the region toturn to the new, kachina religion, which perhaps grew fromthe roots of older traditions. Certainly, the decline of Chacoseems to coincide with the spread outward from the Casa Mal-pais area of kachina motifs on pottery found in villages andburials. Moreover, the decline of Chaco and the spread of themore decentralized kachina religion comes just before the re-gional decline of centralized, irrigation-based civilizationsthroughout the Southwest. In the end, the kachina religionspread to many of the pueblo peoples who claim connectionsto those vanished ancients — including the Hopi and Zuni andmany New Mexico pueblo cultures.

The debate continues among archeologists, which meansthat the long-neglected ruins along the Little Colorado Rivermay play a key role in resolving one of the great debates inSouthwestern archeology.

In the meantime, Casa Malpais waits in the high, breezysunlight — a prayer on a hill that has guarded its secrets andthe bones of its makers for eight centuries — and counting.

The small Casa Malpais museum contains displays of pots fromvarious digs including this Butterfly design pot.

43ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

Casa Malpais•

“Sandy” set her ears and planted her muleshoes.

Mountain on my right, cliff on my left —nowhere to go but forward.

“Hehhah,” I yelled.Nothing.“Forward, you mangy, mule-headed, son of a

gun,” I hollered, slapping Sandy across the hauncheswith the reins, my poise finally shattered after a long,frustrating day trying to convince Sandy to help meherd a bunch of cattle up and down some rough hill-sides.

This I did not need.Life harbored enough frustrations — what with

my son trying to decide whether to drop out ofschool and become an artist. We’d been haggling offand on for weeks, and I’d about run out of sensiblearguments. So I didn’t need thismule giving me any trouble.

I jerked the reins, and thun-ked her with my heels.

Abruptly, she half turnedand backed rapidly downslope to-wards disaster.

My mind grew wondrouslyclear — several overlooked details came forcefully tomind. For instance, Sandy outweighed me 10 to one— and could outmuscle a whole platoon of Marines.Moreover, if ejected from this altitude the only thinglikely to stop me from rolling over the cliff was thatdownslope clump of cholla — assuming that Sandydidn’t land on top of me and embed me in theearth.

At just this moment, I recalled a story recentlyimparted to me by photographer Gary Johnson — aman with an uncommon understanding of mules,horses, and other forces of nature.

Once upon a time, Gary undertook a 100-mileride atop a mule of wonderful endurance and awfuldisposition named Dixie. Built of brick and barbedwire, she could climb anything and haul anyone.However, he was also half wild and half Spawn ofthe Devil. She could bite like thunder and kickquicker than a rattlesnake strike. Captain of her owndoomed soul, she did pretty much as she pleased.She was as unpredictable as a teenager in the grip of

Mule Sense

Story by Pete Aleshire


Wisdom teeterson muleback — a lesson in letting go


MORMON LAKE MULESMormon Lake Lodge offers horseback ridingthrough the Coconino National Forest, sometimeson mules, from May through September by HighMountain stable. The lodge is off Lake Mary Road,about 21 miles south of Flagstaff. The Lodge offersa variety of winter activities including cross countryskiing and snowmobiling. Check out their web siteat www.mormonlakelodge.com

hormones.Gary waged a contest of wills with this singular beast, riding across

terrain spewed out of the inside of a volcano. He cajoled, spurred, bribed— and failed.

One night — after a day-long exercise in frustration — she allowedhim to remove the bit, then stretched out her neck and bit him experi-mentally on the forearm.

Gary responded with a stream of obscenities sufficient to wilt amesquite down to the taproot. Then he did a very foolish thing. Hewrapped the reins around his forearm, reared back, and kicked Dixie inthe chest as hard as he could.

Bad idea.The Satan side of Dixie’s nature immediately asserted itself. She

jerked back, lifting Gary’s not inconsiderable mass off the ground. Thenshe bolted straight through the center of a large Palo Verde tree, trailingGary like a semi dragging a crumpled Volkswagen. Gary and Dixie left aperfect, mule/man hole through that tree, decorated around the edgeswith bits of Gary’s flesh. Dixie dragged Gary along the ground for an-other 10 feet, before she stopped, turned, and stared down at her prostatefoe.

Dazed, Gary unwrapped the reins, staggered to his feet, stumbledtoward his gear, and pulled out his .45 caliber automatic.

Up strolled Jed, the head wrangler.“Whatcha doing?” asked Jed casually.“I’m gonna shoot that mule,” said Gary, wiping a trickle of blood

from his cheek. Jed nodded sagely. “I’m gonna shoot that mule right be-tween the eyes,” said Gary.

“Simple justice,” Jed observed.“You’re not going to try to stop me?” asked Gary, eyes narrowed.“Of course, you’ll have to pay for her. About $800.”“That’s all right,” Gary said.”It’s worth it.”“Of course, there’s one other thing.”“What’s that?”“It’s another 120 miles to Phoenix. You’ll have to walk it.”Gary’s shoulders slumped. He walked back to his pack, put away his

gun, and pulled out a granola bar. Sighing, he returned to Dixie with hispeace offer.“Friends, Dixie?” he said, offering her the granola bar.

She gathered it in with her dexterous lips, savored it a moment.Then in a motion too quick to follow with the naked eye, she kickedGary in the knee. He howled, hopped twice, and crumpled.

Dixie chewed her granola bar in perfect satisfaction.I reviewed this story carefully in my mind, sitting motionless stop

Sandy. Then I loosened the reins, patted her on the neck, and clicked mytongue experimentally. She cast a glance over her shoulder, to be surethat I’d been broken. Then she ambled forward — while I resolved toenjoy the view.

Somewhere near the top, I decided that Caleb could go to schoolanywhere he pleased.

Sally, the mule (left) was part of a demonstration where visitors learnedabout mules at Mormon Lake Lodge and why they’re becoming popu-lar for all types of equestrian activities.

(above right) John Williams, owner of High Mountain Stables, explainsto visitors the traits of mules and donkeys during the session. He isshowing off Barney, a 27-year-old mule.

Mormon Lake Lodge visitors get up and close to mules and donkeysduring a recent event.

45ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

L et us say that a gnat with a lifespan of a few min-utes comes across the vast terrain of a humanbeing lying stretched in the grass.

Astonished and a little fearful, the gnat freezes mo-tionless — anxious to know whether this mountain of acreature is dead or merely sleeping.

How long would the gnat crouch in that forest of hairsbefore concluding that this was the mere ruin of a humanbeing — an ancient landscape fallen into spectacular ruin?

A minute? Two? A whole gnat’s lifespan?So what do you think: Is the volcano whose violent

eruption 1,000 years ago created the lurid red cinder coneof Sunset Crater extinct?

And need we fret about the cataclysm that blasted4,000 feet off the top of the San Francisco Peaks some400,000 years ago — a explosion that must have madeMount St. Helen’s look like a child’s sparkler?

In fact, the same forces that raised up the Rocky Moun-tains and dug out the Grand Canyon in the past six millionyears also created a whole chain of volcanoes marchingacross Northern Arizona — from Williams to Sunset Crater

National Monument.Do you suppose we’re all done?Not likely — in fact, almost certainly not.And that thought makes the 600 cinder cones and

slumped volcanoes scattered across the high plateauaround Flagstaff not merely beautiful and wild — but fright-ening as well.

A visit to that violent landscape — especially a drive andhike through Sunset Crater — offers a vivid glimpse intothe titanic forces that continue to shape the surface of theEarth — and which will one day plunge this landscape backinto the furnace.

Geologists still don’t know how to fully account for theshifts deep down in the Earth’s semi-molten mantle thathave shaped North America, as it has wandered the sur-face embedded in a massive crustal plate. In general terms,the movements at the surface are believed driven by slow,inexorable convection currents in the molten core, trans-mitted outward through the semi-molten mantle to thebrittle crust.

The currents drive the movement of the continents —

Moonscape — close to home


The twisted, brilliant landforms ofSunset Crater bear witness to convulsions ofthe Earth — which may yet renew themselves

for instance breaking up a single supercontinent some 200million years ago and scattering the pieces across the planet.

Sometimes, those deep currents also somehow createwhat’s called a hot spot — where molten rock miles beneaththe surface wells up against the cool underside of a crustalplate drifting past on top. That blowtorch of upwelling rockperiodically forces its way to the surface and can remain rel-atively stable for millions of years. Such a hot spot can cre-ate a whole chain of volcanoes as the crust drifts pastoverhead. The long chain of the Hawaiian Islands, whichincludes a string of submerged seamounts is perhaps theplanet’s best-known example of the hot spot.

Some 6 million years ago, something shifted deep inthe Earth and a vast chunk of North American began torise, thrusting upward at about the speed your fingernailsgrow.

That uplift created the Rocky Mountains — and alsothe Grand Canyon, as several rivers that eventually com-bined to form the Colorado River chewed away at the lay-ers of soft, sedimentary rock — mostly limestones andsandstones laid down in vanished deserts and disappear-ing seas. The southernmost edge of that uplift formed theMogollon Rim — a chain of nearly 1,000-foot-high cliffsstretching from Camp Verde nearly to New Mexico.

In Northern Arizona, what amounted to a small hotspot developed, spawning a 50-mile-long line of volcanoesscattered across 1,800 square miles and starting with BillWilliams Mountain. Each peak in its turn spewed lava then

subsided — only to have another mountain emerge fromthe ground further east.

Mount Humphreys proved the largest of these peaks, astratovolcano built up to a towering height of 16,000 feetby a succession of eruptions spread over perhaps half a mil-lion years. Most of the volcanoes in the region were madeof magma low in silica and therefore not sticky enough tobuild great peaks. But Mount Humphreys had sticky, sil-ica-rich rock so it piled layer on layer — like Japans famousMount Fuji. Mount Humphrey’s was likely the tallest peakin North America at one time.

But 400,000 years ago, disaster overtook the mountainin the form of an explosion eerily like the much smalleroutburst of Mount St. Helens. Pressure built up inside themountain from accumulating lava and steam. But insteadof escaping out the summit and depositing another layer oflava — the explosion blasted out of the bulging south side.The convulsions left the blasted-out bowl of the InnerBasin, now filled with aspen and crushed rock layers thathold Flagstaff’s water supply.

The explosion blew up into the atmosphere the 4,000feet of rock off the top of the mountain — nearly four timesas much height as St. Helens lost.

Fortunately, no one was around to witness the unimag-inable disaster. The evidence or our DNA and a scatteringof bones and stone tools suggests that the first modernhuman beings spread out of Africa about 100,000 yearsago, long after the mountain had fallen silent.

Story by Peter Aleshire

Photos by Tom Brossart

47ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

However, human beings had aringside seat for the next episode inthis violent geological history — theseries of eruptions that built SunsetCrater 930 years ago.

Fortunately for the NativeAmericans who dry-farmed theircrops and built their pithousesthroughout the region, the erup-tions that eventually built the cindercone grew gradually enough that theIndians had time to move — in somecases even salvaging the beams fromtheir houses.

The Sunset Crater eruptionstarted in about A.D. 1064 when anine-mile-long fissure opened in theground to unleash towering jets ofmolten rock known as a “curtain offire.”

After an initial outburst, theeruptions shifted to the northwest end of the fissure andbegin to build the Sunset Crater cinder cone that still dom-inates the landscape.

The already thin, runny lava bearing a load of gases es-

caped out the vent to the surface.Released from the great pressure ofits confinement, the gases andmolten rock blasted out into thecooling air. The lava condensed intolittle gobs, then fell back to earth tocreate a mound of cinders aroundthe vent.

The eruptions continued offand on for perhaps 150 years, creat-ing a vivid landscape that offers neartextbook examples of volcanic land-forms.

Termed a scoria cone for thelight, air-filled volcanic rock, it isrusted red by the oxidation of itsiron content. The volcanic coneproduced a succession of major lavaflows, which have given the land-scape a wonderful complexity today.Other minerals in the rock tinted

the cinders with all the colors of a sunset, including sulfurand gypsum that added hues of yellow, purple and green.

The Kana-a flow stretches seven miles long. The mas-sive Bonito lava flow, which covered two square miles with

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A paved drive and several short trails lead past contorted landforms createdby eruptions some 1,000 years ago.

a river of black lava glowing at 2,200 degrees before it frozeinto a jagged landscape.

The molten rock flowing out of vents in the side of thecinder cone also formed a network of lava tubes, somemore than a mile long. These tubes form when the outeredges of a lava flow cool, insulating the molten rock be-neath. As long as the tubes run downhill, the insulated lavainside can remain molten and flow for miles.

The jagged, doomed landscape also features an arrayof other molten rock formslike squeeze ups, formed bythe cooling of lava pools.Such pools first form be-neath a roof of rock — likea lava tube with no wherefor the pooled lava to es-cape. The layer closest tothe surface hardens, cracksthen settles on top of thestill molten rock below.The molten rock is then“squeezed up” through thefractures in the rock on topof the pool. As the semi-molten rock squeezesthrough these cracks, it so-lidifies into these remark-able forms.

Sunset Crater eventu-

ally fell silent, the most recent outbreak in a chain of erup-tions stretching back 6 million years.

The eruptions proved only an interruption in the Na-tive American use of the area. In fact, archaeologists believethat the population boomed in the decades following theeruptions. One theory holds that cinders spread over hun-dreds of square miles insulated the soil and so extendedthe growing season by a few weeks on average. Others arguethat a period of increased rainfall that followed the erup-

tions led to a more general-ized population boom.

Either way, these highmountain farmers built upremarkable settlements atWupatki and WalnutCanyon and elsewhereafter the eruptions, only tomysteriously abandon theregion about 400 yearslater.

Geologists report not apeep in the 1,000 yearssince the violent birth ofSunset Crater.

So is it over? Are thevolcanoes extinct? Is themonster asleep? Just ask thegnat: It’s been nearly aminute.

49ARIZONA HIGHLANDS

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