Archive All Issues October 1961

THE TOUCH OF MIDAS

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THE MONTH OF OCTOBER BRINGS GOLD TO THE WOODS OF THE NORTHLANDS.

Featured in the October 1961 Issue of Arizona Highways

"Cottonwoods Aflame"
"Cottonwoods Aflame"

NOTES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

Continued from page sixteen Reading; ASA rating 50. Photograph taken on the Weatherford Road, north of Flagstaff. This road is too rough for a conventional car. It goes up the San Francisco Peaks following the eastern slope.

CENTER PANEL

"AUTUMNAL FIRES IN THE KAIBAB" BY CARLOS ELMER. Burke & James Panoram camera; Ektachrome E-2; f.8 at 1/100th sec.; 5" Ross wide-angle lens; October; bright day; meter reading 250; ASA rating 32. Photo taken along State Highway 67 leading from Jacob Lake to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Kaibab National Forest. While the Kaibab was full of blazing yellow, this stand of red aspens stood out. These colors are seldom seen in the aspen groves, and are possibly due to a difference in ground water supplying these trees.

"COTTONWOODS AFLAME" BY JOSEF MUENCH. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.20 at 1/50th sec.; 6" Tessar lens; November; sunny day. Photograph taken along Sonoita Creek in the Patagonia area. Cottonwoods fill the air with reflected light when autumn sweeps through this lowland country.

"SUNLIGHT AND GOLDEN ASPEN" BY BOB BRADSHAW. 4x5 Crown Graphic camera; Ektachrome; f.16 at 1/50th sec.; Ektar lens; late October; bright sunlight; light value of 18 on G.E. DW 68 light meter; ASA rating 50. Photograph was taken on the new Fort Valley Road, north of Flagstaff approximately twenty miles from the community. Generally, the month of October, that golden season between summer and winter, offers the visitor beautiful fall coloring in the forest, clothing the San Francisco Peaks.

"AUTUMN'S TREASURE-TROVE" BY BOB BRADSHAW. 4x5 Crown Graphic camera; Ektachrome; f.16 at 1/25th sec.; Ektar lens; early November; bright sunlight; light value of 15 on G.E. DW 68 meter; ASA rating so. Photograph was taken along Oak Creek, between Indian Gardens and Rocky's Cottages, 3½ miles north of Sedona. This area, being lower in elevation than the Flagstaff area, feels the touch of autumn early in November rather than in October.

"WHERE THE DIAMOND JOINS THE WHITE" BY JOHN WOODROFFE. Hasselblad sooc. camera; Ektachrome E3; f.8 at 1/125th sec.; 80 mm Carl Zeiss Planar lens; mid-morning, late October; bright sky but area shade spotted; Weston meter reading 200; ASA rating 40. Photograph taken approximately fourteen miles south of McNary on State Highway 73 and 4½ miles east on graded road to confluence of Diamond Creek and White River. This is on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. A picnic lunch table has been set up nearby. This spot is in a very picturesque, heavily wooded area. The bright sky, studded with fluffy, cumulus clouds, added greatly to the overall scene. Fast shutter speed was felt necessary in view of turbulent water so close.

OPPOSITE PAGE "AUTUMN SKIES-NORTHERN ARIZONA" BY JOSEF MUENCH. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.16 at 1/50th sec.; 6" Tessar lens; October; sunny with threatening sky. Photograph taken in the White Mountains, along U.S. 666. The gold of the aspens in autumn is particularly effective when dark clouds point to the approach of winter. Shortly after this photograph was taken, the first storm of winter swept in and the trees were denuded of their golden dress. The season's first snowfall came silently in the night and left the aspen trees stark and silvery.

as the Americans; but we have chosen to let the right lapse, and to use the word now is no better than larceny." We promise our dear friends in England who will read these few lines of ours that we would never think of them as "larcenists" if they use fall instead of autumn, and as for us, we'll use both with gay abandon, because they are both beautiful words describing the beautiful Season, and we'll go merrily on our way.

Autumn or fall (you takes your choice and you gets there all the same) (poor Mr. Fowler would turn over in his grave if he could see English, the King's or otherwise, written like that) is one of the most beautiful and brightest of all the seasons that bestride this blessed landscape we call "Arizona." The season with the touch of Midas has a timetable that never runs exactly on schedule but generally if one wishes to take the Golden Tour at the best time for the coloring it would be well to start way up in the Kaibab around the first of October. Such a time-start would give you a glorious trip through the Kaibab Forest from Jacob Lake to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon over a hard-surfaced road through aisles of shimmering, golden aspen broken by meadows and stands of green pine and blue-green spruce, whose contrast in color merely accents the appeal of the scene. At the North Rim, if you are at the right time and the right place, you might come along avalanches of Autumn's color where the trees cling precariously to some of the gentler sloped canyon walls and where the color in the trees mixed with the color of the Canyon walls is something to see or photograph, but not to write about.On the slopes of San Francisco Peaks, near Flagstaff, if you are lucky enough to be about the first week in October you should, indeed, be charmed by the touch of Midas in the aspen groves and the aspen aisles through which lazy side roads seem to wander without purpose.

In the serene and remote White Mountains early October is also the time for the color to be at its most vivid. Here you'll find tall, color green mountains wearing patches of bright yellow and gold, and the patches will tell you that sometime long ago there was a forest fire and when the earth cooled from the ashes the venturesome aspen moved in to prepare the ground for the return of the pine.As October grows older the Golden Season moves slowly to lower elevations until early November the touch of Midas is felt upon the sycamores and the cottonwoods and then another golden treasure is yours again to behold and enjoy and you will have been showered with all the riches, the Golden Season, whether you call it "autumn" or "fall."... R.C.

THUNDERSTORM

Sequence of Photographs by ANSEL ADAMS Songs from Papago Ceremonies as recorded by Ruth Underhill in Papago Indian Religion, Columbia University Press, 1946, and Singing For Power, University of California Press, Berkeley, California The wind moves slowly; The wind moves slowly. It twists my heart.

From the east as it comes forth; To the west it goes, taking me. Song dreamed by a shaman after eagle killing.

The outspread water (ocean) Lies far away. I try to look toward it, and I see Many clouds arise.

In front of the sky they lie. With a good sound it is thundering Nearby. Song from the Prayerstick Festival.

Shining white mocking bird, shaman, Hither summon the winds; Hither will come the white clouds, following. Although the earth seems very wide, They will climb up it and will go on.

Although the sky seems very high, They will touch it with their heads and will go on. Within, there will be crooked lightning And loud sounding will roar the thunder. Sprinkling the earth, they will go on.