AUTUMN IS HERE

Autumn’s dress in the high country of Arizona is subdued compared to spring’s flamboyant and garish attire, but many are of the opinion the old dressmaker, Mother Nature, wields her most inspired shears when she transforms a world of summer’s green into autumn’s wonderland of shimmering and glimmering reds, yellows, golds and shining browns. Our autumn color display does not offer some of the season’s showier pigmentation one finds where hardwoods are numerous. Nevertheless, our aspen in the high country and our cottonwoods and sycamores in lower country, with brilliant color punctuation marks supplied by patches of maples, oaks, and other trees and shrubs, make autumn in Arizona something we want to climb high up on the church steeple, flap our wings and crow about. And we have a lot to crow about. If you don’t believe us, take some of our more colorful journeys into autumn and see for yourselves. Or better yet, disregard the guide books and our feeble pointing and head for the high country where the forests are. You’ll find autumn wherever you go, perhaps some we haven’t seen.

— Editor Raymond Carlson, 1968
 

Maples and oaks bring a profusion of color to Sedona’s Schnebly Hill. A mid-October drive up Schnebly Hill Road can yield plenty of fall leaves, but the rugged route requires a high-clearance, four-wheel-drive vehicle. 
Mark Frank

 

The yellows, oranges and reds of bigtooth maple leaves contrast with the dark sandstone canyon walls along the West Fork of Oak Creek, north of Sedona. 
Derek von Briesen

 

Ghostly aspen trunks and fallen leaves line the bottom of Weatherford Canyon in the Flagstaff area’s Kachina Peaks Wilderness. The wilderness area protects the San Francisco Peaks, where fall colors typically are brightest the first two weeks of October.
Joel Hazelton

 

Early morning frost covers aspen leaves at Hart Prairie, northwest of Flagstaff. The 245-acre Hart Prairie Preserve, which is managed by The Nature Conservancy, also is home to old-growth ponderosa pines and a rare grove of Bebb willows. 
Claire Curran

 

Dense riparian vegetation begins to show its autumn hues in Sycamore Canyon, northwest of Cottonwood. The canyon’s Parsons Trail, an easy 7.4-mile (round-trip) hike, is an excellent route for spotting fall color. 
Rick Goldwasser

 

Thick aspen leaves and a distant grove of maples cover a hillside in the Beaver Turkey Ridge Wildlife Quiet Area. This site, northeast of Payson, is one of several wildlife quiet areas on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests. 
Joel Hazelton

 

Autumn color fills Betatakin Canyon at Navajo National Monument. This National Park Service site on the Navajo Nation protects three large Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings, two of which — Betatakin and Keet Seel — are open to the public. 
Nick Berezenko

 

Maples and sycamores intermingle to produce an idyllic scene along a creek in the Huachuca Mountains’ Ramsey Canyon. The canyon’s northeastern orientation and high canyon walls give it a cool environment rarely found in the desert Southwest. 
Joel Hazelton

 

Yellow and orange maple leaves frame a waterfall in Ramsey Canyon. Part of the canyon is managed by The Nature Conservancy via the Ramsey Canyon Preserve, which is open to the public for a small fee.
Joel Hazelton

 

Golden aspen leaves punctuate a foggy scene along a forest road near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Late September and early October usually are the best times to see fall color on the North Rim.
Paul Gill