Cliff Dwellers Restaurant

the Journal DINING Remote Possibilities

Although it's located in the middle of nowhere, the food at Cliff Dwellers Restaurant is out of this world. SITUATED ALONG A QUIET STRETCH OF STATE ROUTE 89A beneath the rugged Vermilion Cliffs of Northern Arizona, the Cliff Dwellers Restaurant is 50 miles away from any semblance of a town. Despite its wildly remote location, "The Cliff is a Venus flytrap," says chef Marnie Bellows. "People stop in to have an iced tea, and end up staying here for two days."

The Cliff Dwellers Lodge has been luring unsuspecting patrons since 1920, when homesteaders Bill and Blanche Russell established a small trading post for intrepid westbound travelers looking to fuel up for the long haul across the Arizona Strip. The current owners, the spirited husband-wife team of Terry and Wendy Gunn, have transformed this remote retreat into a premier destination for world-class fly-fishing and other outdoor activities that cultivate the hearty appetites of their guests.

The Cliff satisfies hungry travelers and outdoors enthusiasts with a pleasantly unexpected upscale menu, presented by Chef Bellows. Lured to the Cliff from Salt Lake City in 1994, Bellows' passion for taking care of visitors by serving food with style and pizzazz quickly earned her the nickname, "Love Chef." "The food is personal," she says with a friendly smile.

Made from scratch, using only fresh ingredients, Bellows creates edible works of art through dishes like luscious Sesame Crusted Seared Ahi Tuna, savory New Zealand Rack of Lamb and crisp High Mesa Salad - all meals you'd expect in Scottsdale or Phoenix, not on the desolate Colorado Plateau. Sure, you can still order a beefy burger with all the fixings, but Bellows' daily specials, such as Shrimp Tempura with Wasabi Ponzu and Maple Glazed Bacon-Wrapped Pork Chops, will certainly tempt even the most discriminating taste buds.

Although the flavors are complex and worldly, the Cliff's ambience remains simple and laid-back. Even after an exciting day of fly-fishing, hiking or sightseeing, you're encouraged to come as you are for your feast. No fancy clothes, white tablecloths or servers in pressed uniforms here.

Whether you're passing by on your way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon or spending time near Marble Canyon, the Cliff will draw you in. The Love Chef knows: "Once someone stops here, they always come back. There's nowhere like it in the world."

LODGING Catch the Stars

Most people head to Malibu to catch a glimpse of the stars; however, your best bet is a B&B in Southern Arizona.

ISOLATED FROM MAJOR CITIES AND BRIGHT LIGHTS, THE Astronomers Inn, a unique B&B in Benson, houses the one-of-akind Vega-Bray Observatory. The inn's location makes it possible because the jet streams over Southern Arizona provide ideal conditions for stargazing, allowing visitors some of the most beautiful views in the world. Anytime is a good time to visit, but according to Christina Pease and Dean Salman, who lead some of the private stargazing lessons, October is best because of the cooler weather and clearer skies.

Guests can hire Pease and Salman, as well as other guides, for a four-hour lesson, which can be geared to any level of interest. In addition, a new session teaches guests how to take photographs using telescopes.

Although an evening spent under a blanket of stars in a mysterious pitch-black sky sounds like something out of a Robert Frost poem, Patricia Vega's first night at the Astronomers Inn was much different than what guests experience today.

Back then, it wasn't the Astronomers Inn, or even the Sky Watcher's Inn, its original name; it was a 57-acre plot of land that Patricia had saved for and purchased on her own.

On New Year's Eve 1987, at exactly midnight, she took possession of the property and started walking the perimeter. Along the banks of the San Pedro River, the ground gave way and she fell into the freezing water. After struggling for nearly an hour, she finally made it out of the river and found herself chest-deep in quicksand. She managed to escape, but her shoes and pants did not. She tied her shirt around her waist and trudged back to her car, caked with mud and leaves.

She was driving back to Tucson to see her husband, astronomy enthusiast Eduardo Vega, when a police officer on DUI patrol pulled her over.

"Please step out of the car." It wasn't a question.

Patricia explained to the man why she couldn't get out of her car, recounting her incredible evening. He was reluctant to believe her story, but followed her all the way back to her house to make sure she arrived safely.

From that night on, until recently, Patricia ran the Sky Watcher's Inn. However, in 2006, she sold the property to the current owners, who renamed it. Fortunately for astronomy lovers, not much has changed.

The inn still has three themed rooms and a studio, including the Garden Room, the Egyptian Room and the Galaxy Room, which is decorated in a Star Wars theme and has a 10-foot dome. Breakfast is served in the solarium, overlooking the lake and surrounding property. Outside its large picture windows, lavishly colored birds hover nearby and squirrels seek shelter under the patio.

It seems peaceful, and it is. Despite the occasional rattlesnake or Gila monster, visitors to the Astronomers Inn don't have much more to worry about - other than a cloudy evening.

PHOTOGRAPHY Entry Points

Our first-ever online photography contest is under way, but there's still time to submit your best shots. Here's how: DIGITAL ENTRIES ARE POURING IN from photographers around the world as our first-ever online photography contest shifts into high gear. As you'll see when you visit our Web site (arizonahighways.com), we're taking advantage of the latest technology to conduct our contest. By the way, this is only the second photography contest in the magazine's illustrious 83-year history, and I'm in the unique position of having worked on the planning and execution of both.

The last time Arizona Highways sponsored a photo contest was 1986, and the differences between that one and this one were inconceivable 22 years ago. Old contest rules detailing entry procedures for the mounting and mailing of color prints seem burdensome by today's standards - the technology of the times has rewritten the rulebook.

The most obvious difference is that this year's competition is being conducted entirely online. To make that work, we established an advanced photo contest module that's customized to offer our entrants a rich interactive experience. Vicky Snow, our Webmaster, has logged countless hours implementing the program and testing the interface to make sure registrations are smooth and seamless.

In addition to submitting entries over the Internet, contestants have the ability to view their photos and all other entries online. What's more, anyone can cast a vote for his or her favorite photograph and view voting tabulations in real time.Go ahead. Take a look online and size up your competition. Surely you have a better shot of the Grand Canyon or a desert bighorn sheep than those entered so far. If not, there's still time to go out and shoot something new for our contest. The deadline for entries is November 15, 2008, and there are four categories

KEEP IT SIMPLE

The best way to present a clear message in a photograph is to keep the composition simple. The fewer elements you work with, the easier it is to design a pleasing image and orchestrate the viewer's eye movement. There are several ways to simplify a composition in which to enter - Landscape, People/Culture, Wildlife and Macro/Close-Up.

The grand prize for the Best of Show winner is a trip on an Arizona Highways Photo Workshop. This is a chance to learn firsthand from some of the best photographers in the world. For secondand third-place prizes, we've partnered with Tempe Camera Repair and Photo Imaging Center.

Joe Wojcic, the founder and owner of Tempe Camera, is providing a digital SLR camera package for second place, and a digital point-and-shoot camera package for third place. Because photography technology is advancing at such a rapid pace, Joe has not yet chosen which cameras will be awarded. To ensure that the winners receive the very latest feature-filled equipment, he'll select the cameras when the judges' choices are announced.

In addition to these prizes, the winners' photographs will be showcased in our September 2009 issue, and posted on our Web site, along with the People's Choice winners and entries receiving special recognition from the judges. tion, but the primary technique is to move closer to the subject. Whether you physically move the camera closer or zoom in optically, getting closer allows you to fill the frame with the subject, paring the composition down to its essential components and clarifying the story you're trying to tell. It removes distractions from the edges of the frame, eliminates superfluous elements, and defocuses the background.

HISTORY Point and Shoot

If you're going to have a gunfight, you might as well make it memorable 127 years ago this month, the Earps et al. did just that.

IT TAKES LONGER TO TELL THE STORY than the event itself lasted. Gunfights are like that. In this case, the duel was done in 30 seconds, and by the time the smoke had cleared, three men were dead and two lay wounded.

One hundred and twenty-seven years ago this month, the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday took an October afternoon walk on the streets of Tombstone. It ended in the most famous shootout in Old West history - the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Some say the face-off between the Clantons (Ike and Billy), who were joined by the McLaurys (Frank and Tom), and the Earps (Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt), who were joined by their friend Doc Holliday, started brewing seven months earlier, on March 15, 1881. That's when an attempted stagecoach robbery took place, leaving two people dead and no sign of the prime suspect.

Over the spring and summer, accusations, bribery and misinformation related to the robbery fueled the flames of the feud, and hostilities between the two groups increased. By October 25, the tension on the streets of Tombstone was palpable.

At midnight on the 25th, Ike Clanton and Holliday had a run-in, and after an all-night drinking binge, Ike was itching for a fight. By the morning of the 26th, he was shooting off his mouth and threatening to kill the Earps and Holliday. Around noon that day, Virgil Earp, the town marshal, got wind of Clanton's threats and called on Morgan and Wyatt as backups, in case a fight was to break out. On the other side of town, around 2:30 in the afternoon, Ike's younger brother, Billy, and Tom's brother, Frank, rode into town to join ranks with Ike and Tom. While the Clantons and McLaurys gathered in a vacant lot on Fremont Street - a block away from the O.K. Corral - the Earps and Holliday went looking for them. Witnesses reported that as the four men walked down Fremont Street, Morgan said to Holliday, "Let 'em have it." The opposing men stood only 6 feet apart, and when the gunfire ended, Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury lay dead. Virgil and Morgan Earp were wounded, and Doc Holliday was grazed by a bullet. Ike had retreated when the shooting started.

The next day, the bodies of the three dead men were dressed in suits, laid out in caskets, and put on public display at the Ritter and Ream Funeral Parlor with a sign above them that read: "Murdered in the Streets of Tombstone...."

What led to the violent showdown has been debated by witnesses, historians and Wild West aficionados for more than a century. Some blame Ike Clanton, some blame Wyatt Earp, and some blame Doc Holliday. Regardless of who instigated things, their places are etched in history, and the legend lives on.

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

Space Invader

Salt cedar, a European import, is gobbling up Arizona's shorelines - it now accounts for 90 percent of the ground cover in some riparian habitats.

WHERE WATER FLOWS, SALT CEDAR GROWS. THE PLANT, also known as tamarisk, is an ornamental shrub that was brought to North America from Europe in the late 1800s to create windbreaks and halt riverbank erosion. More than a century later, this invasive species rules the roost along Western waterways.

In Arizona, salt cedar, with its reddish bark and pencilshaped clusters of pink and white flowers, is easy to spot thronging the Colorado, Gila, Salt and Santa Cruz rivers, to name a few. Its wispy limbs, which can reach up to 30 feet in height, overhang roots that burrow more than 10 feet below the surface in search of water.

Salt cedar gets its name from the salt that drips from its stems and leaves into the ground - this process increases the salinity of the surrounding soil and hinders the growth of native plants.

Unlike native cottonwoods, which have shallower roots, salt cedar is well adapted to withstand drought and flooding. Its biological advantages also include widespread seed dispersal by wind, and the ability to grow vegetatively, which means a stray stick partially buried beneath the sediment can sprout roots. What's more, it also recovers quickly from fire damage, even though tightly packed clumps of tamarisk pose an increased risk of wildfires.

In fact, it's these packed clumps that overtake native trees, including mesquites and willows - it's estimated that tamarisks account for 90 percent of the ground cover in some riparian habitats, further reducing plant and animal diversity. The lower Colorado River is on that list.

Native mammals such as beavers and porcupines, which normally feed on cottonwoods and willows, won't eat salt cedar, and as a result, fare poorly where it dominates. In addition, few insects and birds use salt cedar, although, the endangered southwestern willow flycatcher will nest in tamarisks when native vegetation is unavailable. White-winged doves and mourning doves, honeybees and cicadas also use tamarisks.

Despite its prevalence, it is possible to eradicate salt cedar from localized regions, but not large landscapes. One promising method is through biocontrol using the Chinese salt cedar leaf beetle. "Once [the beetle] is well established, it does an excellent job of defoliating the plant," says Joseph DiTomaso, a weed ecologist at the University of California, Davis. "If salt cedar became just one of many plants in a community, and not by any means the dominant plant, ecosystem function would be maintained, as would plant and animal diversity."

However, the beetle has not been able to establish itself in NORTHERN SHOVELER Named for its odd-shaped bill, the northern shoveler, a migrating duck found primarily around Flagstaff and in the White Mountains, scoops water into its mouth, where comblike projections filter food such as mollusks, insects, plants and seeds from the water.

nature factoid

some areas, and is not permitted in the southwestern willow flycatcher's habitat, DiTomaso says.

Still, biocontrol proponents estimate it could reduce up to 80 percent of tamarisk biomass, says Curt Deuser, a National Park Service restoration biologist based out of Lake Mead.

"It's too much money to use the methods we use, like chain-saws or heavy equipment or herbicide, so, hopefully, the beetles will reduce [large] populations, and then we can do local eradication with our methods," Deuser says.

After elimination, the next hurdle is restoring native vegetation. "Once salt cedar is killed, what next?" DiTomaso asks.

"These are expensive programs, and we need to ensure that if the money is to be invested in restoration, it better be successful."

the Journal THINGS TO DO Party at Schnepf Farms

October 1-31: Pumpkin bowl-ing, a pumpkin pie-eating contest, a 10-acre celebrity maze, carnival rides, games, fireworks and, of course, chili are just a few of the reasons to visit the 14th Annual Schnepf Farms Pumpkin & Chili Party in Queen Creek.

October 24-26: The Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff comes alive during its Dia de los Muertos Celebraciones de la Gente. Based on an ancient and traditional Mesoamerican holiday, the event commemorates departed loved ones with musical and theatrical performances that include Aztec fire dances, ballet folklorico, storytelling, mariachis and other activities.

October 17-19: This is your chance to do the Kokopelli Krush at the Kokopelli Winery in downtown Chandler. Teams of two compete by jumping barefoot in a barrel of grapes to see how much grape juice they can make in two minutes. In addition, there will be music, wine-tastings, food, games, vendor booths and more.

October 21-November 2: London don Bridge isn't falling down, but it is the site of Lake Havasu City's 37th annual London Bridge Days. The town's famous landmark is celebrated with the Chillin' & Swillin' Brew Festival, the Taste of Havasu, a parade, entertainment and more - all set against the sparkling water of Lake Havasu.

October 11: The ghosts of Jerome won't rest in peace, but they do provide some excitement during the town's annual Ghost Walk. The tour, which begins at Spook Hall and winds through the city, teaches visitors about the murders, suicides and deaths associated with the ghosts that still haunt this old mining town.

The Chiricahua Wilderness comes alive with color every autumn, displaying the vibrant reds, oranges and golds of the maples and sycamores that line Cave Creek Canyon. The area is also known for striking formations of volcanic spires and balanced rocks. Photographer Edward McCain teaches how to make dramatic images of the stunning Chiricahua landscape during an Arizona Highways Photo Workshop.

THE PERFECT GIFT IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!

Give the gift of Arizona Highways. Just $24 for the first gift subscription, and $21 for each additional gift!

To order, visit arizonahighways.com or call 800-543-5432.

Offer expires November 28, 2008. Use promo code AH8AB. You can also visit our retail location at 2039 W. Lewis Avenue in Phoenix.