EDITOR'S LETTER

If you like flowers, you'll love this month's portfolio (see page 30), which features the many colors of Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, about 40 miles southeast of Tucson.

SOMETHING IS DIFFERENT. That's what you're thinking. You picked up this issue, looked at the cover, turned the magazine sideways, and then you looked again. The difference is subtle, you can feel it, but you can't put your finger on it. Turns out, something is different. In the publishing world, it's known as the “trim size.” In your hands, it's simply the size of the magazine. Look again. We're a little smaller - about the same size as National Geographic Traveler - and there's a good reason for that. We had no choice.

In 100 words or less, here's the explanation: Our old trim size was unconventional, and as a result, there was only one printer in the United States that could handle the job. Looking ahead to 2009, our printing costs were estimated to increase by as much as 30 percentmore than we could afford. As a not for profit magazine with limited funding, we needed options more printers - and the only way to get them was to change our trim size. It's that simple. In the end, the difference is minimal, but we thought you should know about it anyway.

The same holds true for our inside back cover, a space now reserved for corporate sponsorship. Again, the reason for doing this is simple: In order to balance our budget, we have to tap into this stream of revenue. That's how most magazines make their money. In our case, the sponsorship will be limited to just one page. That's it. Everything else about Arizona Highways will remain the same, including the incredible photography, the award-winning stories and the beautiful design. This month, like every month, it all begins with our cover story: Hiking.

Hiking is big in Arizona. Especially in the summer. It's something everybody does, whether you're like Al McCoy, the hallof-fame announcer for the Phoenix Suns, whose idea of hiking is a brisk walk around the block, or Kevin Cherilla, the Phoenix mountaineer who recently conquered Mount Everest. Most people, of course, fall somewhere in between. That's why most of the 25 trails in our Summer Hiking Guide are rated moderate.

The Inner Basin Trail near Flagstaff fits into that category. So does the Bear Wallow Trail in the White Mountains. Located just south of Hannagan Meadow, this gorgeous trail winds through some of the most remote and wild terrain in the state. If you'relooking for a little peace and quiet and a lot of Mother Nature, this is the place to go. Just ask Sandra Day O'Connor. Whether our illustrious Supreme Court justice actually hiked this trail, I don't know, but considering her childhood home was in nearby Duncan, she probably did - she was no stranger to the great outdoors.

As Terry Greene Sterling writes in Our Humble Servant, a beautifully written profile of Justice O'Connor: “She grew up on immense expanses of rocky, yucca-strewn desert flatlandswhere the landscape stretched for miles to indigo-hued mountains. This is where she learned to scale herself against the land, a lesson that has kept her humble,” despite making history as the first woman to ever serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Indeed, this is a remarkable story about a remarkable woman. George Smalley's story is something special, too.

Smalley was a newspaperman, one of many who struggled to survive in Arizona in the late 1800s. It wasn't easy. As Dave Eskes writes in The Local Papers, “A frontier paper meant cramped quarters, worn equipment, itinerant printers and deadbeat subscribers.” Dave is another wonderful writer, and his piece offers an interesting history lesson with an important link to the present.

Like editors and publishers today, Smalley dealt with an array of challenges - things like escalating costs and changing trim sizes. That's how it's always been in the publishing world. National Geographic, Reader's Digest, Arizona Highways... every great magazine faces these things, and only the very best are able to survive. As you'll see, this magazine is one of the very best. Always has been, always will be.

- Robert Stieve [email protected]