SCENIC DRIVE

BY KELLY KRAMER

New York, San Francisco, maybe Los Angeles ... there's a handful of cities in which you'd expect to find the greatest collection of 20th century American photography, and Tucson wouldn't be among them. Nevertheless, there they are, more than 90,000 images - the best of the best — all at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson.

Thirty-six years ago, Tucson's Center for Creative Photography opened its doors and began spotlighting the works of its co-founders, the legendary Ansel Adams and John Schaefer (see Close-Ups, page 26), as well as those of Wynn Bullock, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind and Frederick Sommer.

Since then, the center's collection has grown to include more than 90,000 images from 2,000 photographers, not to mention correspondence, manuscripts, work prints and contact sheets. And the list of photographers whose archives are housed at the center has grown, too. The impressive catalog now includes Edward Weston, Richard Avedon and Louise DahlWolfe. You'll also find images from longtime Arizona Highways contributor David Muench and the late Senator Barry M. Goldwater.

On August 20, the center launched an exhibition titled Creative Continuum: The History of the Center for Creative Photography. Curator Rebecca Senf worked to pair the images in the show with additional works to "demonstrate the depth, breadth and diversity of the holdings in this ever-expanding, world-class collection."

"I think Ansel Adams would be amazed by the success of the Center for Creative Photography," Senf says. "It's a cornerstone among photographic research institutions. Photographers, scholars, curators and visitors make pilgrimages from all over the world to visit our collection in Tucson."

To enhance the collection, center archivists are working to digitize each photograph and present groups of images on the center's website, meaning that people around the globe can take cyber tours of the incomparable works of art.

"I feel incredibly proud to help uphold this legacy," Senf says. "Curating this show has only deepened my appreciation of what a special institution Dr. Schaefer and Ansel Adams created in 1975."

The Center for Creative Photography is located at 1030 N. Olive Road in Tucson. Creative Continuum: The History of the Center for Creative Photography runs through November 27, 2011. For more information, call 520-621-7968 or visit www.creativephotography.org.

scenic drive CHAVEZ PASS

Lush pine forests, mountain lakes and shimmering plains make this historic route one of our favorites.

BY ROGER NAYLOR PHOTOGRAPHS BY NICK BEREZENKO The drive to Chavez Pass is a sly one. It's easy just to roll through the pleasing landscape that melts from one vivid scene to the next - lush pine forests, mountain lakes and shimmering plains - without realizing the layers of history you're brushing past. This one is worth a little predrive research.

Start approximately 46 miles north of Payson, turning west onto Forest Road 211, off State Route 87. The dirt road curves through an impressive parklike setting of ponderosa pines, with pools of grasses swirling around mature trees. Along the route, the forest ebbs and flows, with pines and then junipers crowding the road in dense groves. Other times, scrubby meadows sweep the timber back onto distant slopes.

After about 3.2 miles, turn right onto Forest Road 82 and follow it toward Long Lake for 11 miles. Long Lake, Soldier's Lake and Soldier's Annex Lake are three shallow fishing lakes perched in high grasslands that are freckled with volcanic rock and wind-bent junipers. The trio is clustered close together, and each is known for producing a different species of fish. They're a pretty sweet deal for impatient anglers.

The lakes lie about a mile beyond the turnoff for Forest Road 69B. After visiting the lakes, backtrack to FR 69B the road beyond that point is four-wheel-drive territory and continue northeast toward Chavez Pass, which is a natural gap through the rugged country above the Mogollon Rim.

The pass is named for Colo-nel J. Francisco Chaves, who provided a military escort to Arizona's first Territorial gov-ernor. The route connecting Winslow to Prescott is known as Chavez Trail, but is actually part of something much older: the Palatkwapi Trail, which stretched from the Hopi mesas to the native villages of the Verde Valley. The Palatkwapi was a section of a prehistoric trade route that went from Colorado into northern Mexico.

After 4 miles on FR 69B, you'll reach a signed parking area for Chavez Pass Ruins. There isn't a designated trail just scramble up the hill directly behind the sign. Atop the mesa, you can see the bare bones of an ancient Sinaguan village, which had been occu-pied by as many as 1,000 people from the years 1050 to 1425. Look for low-stacked stone walls, indentations of rooms and faint rock art traced on boulders.

The road pushes through the pass and breaks into open plains. The gravel track smooths out and, for the next 20 miles, beelines across vast grazing lands. The volcanic towers of the San Francisco Peaks rise to the west. Just as you're con-templating the span of history you've already sampled, the road ends at the entrance to Meteor Crater, where a fiery orb slammed into the Earth, goug-ing out a mile-wide hole some 50,000 years ago.