Drive the 'Crooked' Miles

back road adventure

THE SHORTEST DISTANCE between two points, as everybody knows, is a straight line. The first time I heard that, I immediately interpreted it to mean that a straight line is better than a crooked line. Big mistake.

I am sitting in my truck at the base of the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff, studying a map of Arizona, mentally erasing the “straight” lines—also known as interstate highways—that connect northern Arizona with Phoenix. I am about to drive to Phoenix on a scenic route that does not include so much as an inch of interstate highway. I calculate that driving these “crooked” roads—they're all paved—will add a half-hour to the time it usually takes to get to Phoenix by Interstate 17.

From where I sit, it looks like a fair trade. Driving these secondary condary roads will take me around the side of Lower and Upper Lake Mary and Mormon Lake, three high-altitude lakes at the edge of the Colorado Plateau, and through two national forests on the Mogollon Rim. The last third of the drive drops into the Sonoran Desert and three huge lakes on the Salt River about an hour east of Phoenix.

At the moment, my biggest problem is tearing myself away from cool, breezy Flagstaff. Reluctantly, I head for the southern edge of town, where Lake Mary Road (Forest Service Road 3) passes under 1-17. I soon find that the landscape changes but is no less remarkable as I head east and south away from the peaks. About a mile southeast of the 1-17 overpass, I come to the Mormon Lake Ranger Station, which offers information and brochures about the area.

Five miles later, Lower Lake Mary appears on the right. Farther ahead, Upper Lake Mary serves as both Flagstaff's reservoir and a popular place for picnicking and water sports. For some 10 miles, the road parallels Upper Lake Mary. The lake disappears in a stand of ponderosa pine trees at the edge of the Pine Grove Campground. A road opposite the campground leads to Ashurst Lake, 4 miles in. The road to Ashurst is worth taking because it provides a chance to photograph the San Francisco Peaks poking above the northwestern horizon.

Travel Flagstaff to Phoenix by the ‘Crooked’ Route for More Fun

{back road adventure}

[OPPOSITE PAGE] Desert greenery peeks through a slope of granite boulders near Four Peaks in Tonto National Forest. [BELOW] The multiple limbs of a saguaro bid farewell to the evening sun near the Four Peaks turnoff along State Route 87.

As Lake Mary disappears, the road plunges directly south and wraps around the broad shoulder of Mormon Lake. Heavily dependent on snowmelt and rainfall, Mormon Lake has filled with recent rains. On other trips, I've seen its shallow waters trimmed with wildflowers as elk graze on its banks.

The road now swings away from the lake, across broad meadows and hillsides covered with oaks and ponderosa pines. After 12 miles, I see on my right the Happy Jack Ranger Station, which is not open to the public. Immediately, I think of my friend Jim Cook, who lived here as a child when his dad worked for the Forest Service. In his book, the Arizona Liar's Journal, Cook, a former columnist for The Arizona Republic, included photographs of Happy Jack as it looked when he was a child. In those days, he says, Happy Jack was "noisy, industrious . a place of working people, chain saws and rumbling log trucks. In the chapter on Happy Jack, Cook also deals with the complicated history of names along this portion of my route. Lake Mary Road passes the Happy Jack Ranger Station and 15 miles later reaches State Route 87 at a spot variously named Clints Well, Happy Jack, Long Valley and one or two other names. A Forest Service spokesman says everyone calls it Clints Well. I turn right onto State 87 and a half-mile later I come to a gas station, the Happy Jack Post Office and another Forest Service information station. I ask the woman at the Forest Service whether I am standing in Happy Jack, Clints Well or Long VEHICLE REQUIREMENTS: Accessible by regular two-wheel-drive passenger cars. WARNING: Back road travel can be hazardous if you are not prepared for the unexpected. Whether traveling in the desert or in the high country, be aware of weather and road conditions, and make sure you and your vehicle are in top shape. Carry plenty of water. Don't travel alone, and let someone at home know where you're going and when you plan to return. Odometer readings in the story may vary by vehicle. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Coconino National Forest, Mormon Lake Ranger District, (928) 7741147, www.fs.fed.us/r3/coconino/ recreation/mormon_lake/index. shtml; Mogollon Rim Ranger District, (928) 477-2255, www. fs.fed.us/r3/coconino; Tonto National Forest, Mesa Ranger District, (480) 610-3300, www.fs.fed.us/r3/tonto.

Valley. She shrugs and says, “Take your pick.” Far too complicated for me. So I continue southwest on 87, traversing the massive uplift of the Mogollon Rim, which will drop me into the tiny hamlet of Strawberry. I am propelled by my memory of the homemade apple pie at the Strawberry Lodge. I can say with complete authority that good pie is far more satisfying than figuring out why the same place has five names.

If you are deranged or truly disciplined, you can bypass the homemade pies. Three more miles southeast, you'll find the Cool Pines Cafe in Pine, or take a deep breath and drive the winding 19 miles from Pine to Payson, where there are numerous restaurants and motels. I linger in Payson because I am desperate to prolong my experience of the cool weather as long as possible.

I could drive south from Payson on 87, also known as the Beeline Highway, and reach Phoenix in about two hours; instead, I turn east on State Route 260 and drive 31 miles to Willow Springs Lake, where I relax for an hour watching bald eagles fishing the chilly water.

In the late afternoon, I return to the junction of 260 and 87 in Payson, turn south on 87 and quickly descend the steep hill, passing through the pines and junipers to reach the paloverdes and saguaros. Only 56 miles south of Payson, I am at Bush Highway (Forest Service Road 204) where I turn left (southeast) and drive 4 miles to Saguaro Lake.

If I remain on 87 beyond the Bush Highway turnoff, I could drive a straight line (more or less) and reach metropolitan Phoenix in about an hour. But my agenda calls for crooked lines and nothing else, so I wander the vicinity of Saguaro Lake and the Usery Mountains, convinced that the shortest distance between two points is rarely the best way to plan a trip between any two places in Arizona.