Thunder River Falls

THE GREEN ROOF OF THE KAIBAB

BY JOYCE ROCKWOOD MUENCH PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOSEPH MUENCH Roll the Paiute word, “Kaibab,” over your tongue a few times to get the unique flavor of the Indian name for a very special place. Pronounced “Ky-bab,” it’s short for “The Mountain-Lying-Down,” a lofty, imposing headland, jutting into the northern Arizona sky, that wears as a living mantle one of the most splendid forests known to man. Just as you’ll find the title in no other region, so the rare beauties of this mountain, segment of the soaring Colorado Plateau, are repeated nowhere else.

There is no rocky, storm-swept summit and all its elevations, from 5000 to 9000 feet above sea level, are under the green roof that stretches a generous fifty-five miles from north to south. You can drive your car the whole length, along sunny corridors, through airy cathedrals, bathed in the crystal-clear, heady air of the highlands. No king has ever been able to boast a park so expansive as these deer-filled forest aisles, mellowed by hundreds of years of Arizona sunshine.

The world’s largest stand of virgin Ponderosa Pine, shoulder to shoulder with thick woodlands of Douglas Fir, Spruce, and Aspen, wears garlands of flowers in spring, and summer weaves her gentle magic over them. Aspens flaunt their gold in autumn against the blur of conifers, and in winter the whole forest is wrapped in white, shutting out all but the hardiest visitors, while the mountain sleeps.

Though far inland, the pounding of waves can be heard here, as winds rush through the upper balconies of tree tops in a sea of surging sound, while on the soft carpet underneath, many animals step cautiously. Big Kaibab deer, of spreading antlers and gleaming coat; rare white-tailed Kaibab squirrels, which live nowhere else; mountain lion and bobcat are at home, and congregations of birds, singing peons of praise, are part of its lilting charm.

For generations, the Paiutes had claimed the region as their fall hunting grounds and it was they who guided the first white men over the confusing terrain, leading to peren-