EDITOR'S LETTER

The Old Red Barn
Unless there’s an early snow, I plan on pitching a tent at Los Burros Campground sometime this fall. I’ve never been, but I’m intrigued by the old red barn that sits there. The barn and a house are all that’s left of a ranger station that was built on the site in 1909, and the campsites are located along the edge of a gorgeous meadow. It looks bucolic.

I wasn’t thinking about Coleman stoves and sleeping bags when I sat down to write this column. I was thinking about scenic drives and our cover story. I like to flip through the issue before I start writing, and this month, as always, I was holy cowed by the photography: Suzanne Mathia’s moody shot of the high desert along Forest Road 209; Morey Milbradt’s stark image of the Grand Wash Cliffs; and Tom Bean’s panoramic beauty from Mormon Lake Road. They’re all landscape shots, they’re all magnificent, and they’re all to be expected in a story about scenic drives. It was Nick Berezenko’s photograph of a red barn, however, that inspired me most.

I’m not really sure why. Mostly, I stick to wilderness areas when I’m off the grid, places where there aren’t any signs of man, but the old red barn looks so inviting. Perhaps it represents a simpler time in my life, or maybe it has some kind of Rockwellian appeal. Whatever it is, I’m camping there this fall, and I’m taking the scenic drive that surrounds it.

Forest Road 224, the route from McNary to Vernon via the campground, will be a first for me. It’s one of several drives in our story that I haven’t done. Pearce Ferry Road is another. The route, which offers great views of the Cerbat Mountains, winds through the rugged landscape between Kingman and Lake Mead. I’m not sure when I’ll hit that road, but I will. And you should, too. There’s a lot to see through the car window, including fall leaves.

The best bet for that is Hart Prairie Road, which is featured in our monthly Scenic Drive (page 52). The dirt road skirts the western edge of the San Francisco Peaks, and it ranks as one of the state’s best places to see fall leaves. Another good option is the South Fork of Cave Creek in the Chiricahua Mountains. In Local Color, a spectacular portfolio by Randy Prentice, we showcase some of that scenery. Unfortunately, this might be the only way you’ll get to see it. The Horseshoe Two Fire scorched parts of the Chiricahuas this summer, and at press time, we still weren’t able to get in there to assess the damage along the creek. We’re hopeful, but not optimistic. Fortunately, things are looking better for Navajo-Churro sheep.

If you’re not familiar with this animal, you’re not alone. On a list of endangered species, Navajo-Churro sheep wouldn’t even be a footnote. In fact, we didn’t fully understand their plight until Associate Editor Kathy Ritchie started researching her story, which was inspired by a random photograph and an exchange with Photo Editor Jeff Kida.

Jeff: “Hey Roberto, check out this photo.”

Me: “Wow. That’s a funky-looking sheep.”

Jeff: “It’s a rare species that’s being reintroduced on the reservation.”

Me: “That’s cool ... very cool. Let’s do a story.”

Turns out, the story is a doozy that includes a government-sanctioned program that led to the slaughter of up to 800,000 Navajo-Churros, a ranch in Gonzales, California, a sheep experiment station in New Mexico, and a professor at Cal Poly — a professor who never set out to save sheep, but, thanks to his curiosity and a stroke of serendipity, did just that.

In Woolly Mammals, Kat tells the unlikely tale of a rare breed that the Navajos believe was a gift from their deity. Most endangered-species stories don’t have happy endings, but this one does. All they need now is a nice red barn on the edge of a meadow.

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