Northern Arizona Offers Wealth of Scenic Beauty and Grandeur to Vacationist

SEPTEMBER, 1929 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS Page Thirteen Northern Arizona Offers Wealth of Scenic Beauty and Grandeur to Vacationist

NORTHERN Arizona has so much of interest and beauty to offer the vacationist that he may well hesitate before making a choice. If he wishes hunting and fishing he may go into the beautiful White Mountains or Lake country; if he seeks points of interest and scenic beauty he has a wide and wonderful choice.

Starting from Phoenix the first trip possibly would be over the Apache Trail to Roosevelt Dam, stopping at Mormon Flats Dam and Canyon Lake, where there is excellent bass fishing. Leaving the dam the tourist follows the road along the shore of the lake to the crossing of Salt River. There are many motor and row boats on the lake which are for hire and many delightful hours may be spent on the water. The road passes within a mile or two of the Cliff Dwellings, which may be seen in the distance. They are reached by a side road and trail up the side of the cliffs and are well worth a visit. These ruins are in two groups and constitute the Tonto National Mounment and represent the architecture of the original inhabitants of this region.

After crossing the Salt River at the upper end of Roosevelt Lake the road winds up into the Sierra Ancha Mountains, where there are many fine streams for fishing, good hunting in season and numerous summer resorts and camps, with plenty of room for camping in the forests along the streams. These mountains are in the Tonto National Forest, where the vacationist has the opportunity of exploring for undiscovered cliff and cave dwellings and where there are excellent trails leading into the higher elevations, most of the trails having been built by the Forest Service. By following this road through Heber and Young you may reach Holbrook. This road is unimproved.

Returning to Roosevelt Dam the traveler will follow the road to the north along the shore of the lake for ten or twelve miles. The road then winds into the mountains along the base of Four Peaks and the Mazatzal, over Ozbow Hill and into the little town of Payson in Northern Gila County, located at an elevation of 5,000 feet and under the rim of the Mogollons. There are many points of interest to be reached from Payson. There is good fishing in the Tonto and Verde and hunting in the mountains inseason. Payson has a good hotel and camp grounds with many fine camping spots near by. A few miles from Payson is Kohls Ranch, near which is the summer camp of the Boy Scouts and near where Zane Grey has a summer cabin.

NATURAL BRIDGE

Several miles beyond Payson the road to Natural Bridge branches off. A few miles west on this road takes one to the head of the grade leading down into Pine Creek and soon the Goodfellow ranch house is reached. The ranch house is surrounded by fruit trees, vineyards and green fields and has an air of hospitality that may cause the traveler to spend his entire vacation in this quiet retreat in the canyon. The bridge is but a few rods from the Goodfellow home and is approached by a path thru an alfalfa field, the top of the bridge being a grain field. Beneath it, 150 to 190 feet below, the waters of Pine creek tumble over boulders through a channel 70 feet high, about 140 wide and 400 feet long. On either end of the bridge is a gorge, wild and rugged and rich in ferns and flowers.

Returning to the highway again Pine is soon reached, a pretty town nestling under the Mogollon Rim. Near Pine the Fossil Creek road branches off leading to Camp Verde, through the deep canyon of Fossil Creek, The chief point of interest near Camp Verde is Montezuma's Castle, a prehistoric cliff dwelling high on the wall of a cliff and reached by ladders. This castle is but one of scores scattered for miles along the Verde, but it is the best preserved in Arizona, Twelve miles from Camp Verde is Montezuma's Well, a large, circular basin of unfathomable depth fed by springs. Around the sides of this well are more cliff dwellings.

Pine is an old Mormon settlement, resting peacefully at the foot of Strawberry Hill, up which the road ascends on easy, though long grades. There are many fine camping places as well as ranches in the mountains near Pine. At the summit the road continues for fifty miles through tall pine trees to Flagstaff.

At Long Valley, a few miles beyond Pine, the road branches, the right fork leading to Winslow and the other to Flagstaff, through the Lake Country, where are found Stoneman, Mormon and Lake Mary, and many smaller lakes. Stoneman Lake is southwest of Flagstaff, a small body of water surrounded by virgin timber. There is a lodge for summer visitors, plenty of camping

Mormon Lake, Looking North Page Fourteen ARIZONA HIGHWAYS SEPTEMBER, 1929

places as well as a good camp ground. The altitude is about 6,900 feet. feet, the highest city in Arizona and is bridge, the second for it beautful colorcalled the "Sky Light City." It has ing and large trees that look like fallen

MORMON LAKE

A few miles east and north of Stoneseveral good hotels and is one of the timber, the Third for its hundreds of man Lake is Mormon Lake, a body of favorite resorts of those living in the tree trunks and striking color; the Blue water about 25 miles in circumference warmer valleys of the state. Forest for its odd "bad lands" and and a summer camping place for hunFlagstaff is the home of the Northern peculiar rock formation, and the North dreds of vacationists. Good bass and Arizona Normal School, and many go Forest for its many finely preserved perch fishing may be had, duck and there for the summer term. Located specimens of the carboniferous period. goose shooting in season, with game of among the pines and on Mars Hill is the Thirty-five miles west of Flagsatff is all kinds in the mountains surroundLowell Observatory, the fame of which Williams, the "Gateway to the Grand ing. is world wide. Canyon." Williams lies at the foot of There are two lodges at this lake, good camp grounds and plenty of camp-

SUNSET MOUNTAIN

Interesting places nearby. The altitude is about 6,900 feet. Fishing, swimming, boating and dancing are the chief amusements of those who form the summer colony at the lake. Sites for summer homes may be had at the lake from the Forest Service. Lake Mary, nine miles south of Flagstaff, is the summer home of many Flagstaff residents and an ideal camping place. It has often been called the most beautiful lake in Arizona and it well deserves the title. There is a good lodge with cottages, catfish, perch and bass fishing. At the northern end of the lake and among the rocks is an opening to a cave, formerly one of the ice caves of Coconino County. The altitude of Lake Mary is about 7,000.

Northeast of Flagstaff and east of the San Francisco Peaks are Sunset Mountain and the Lava Beds. No matter at what hour Sunset Mountain is seen, it always appears to be flooded with sunlight and stands like a red beacon above the somer hued surrounding country. At the foot of the mountain are some large ice caves. The vast bed of lava extending in every direction from the foot of Sunset Mountain is by many deemed the most remarkable sight of all. One can have no conception of it until one sees it, vast, incredibly rough, bare and impassable.

Bill Williams Mountain and has many points of interest near by. The mountain is more than 9,000 feet above sea level. A good forest auto road leads to within four miles of the top and the trail from that point up is gradual and well cleared. Williams has several good hotels and there are good camping grounds. The road from Williams to the Grand Canyon is the shortest for one driving from Southern Arizona.

GRAND CANYON

North of the San Francisco Peaks is the Painted Desert, reached by a good automobile road. This desert is painted in a profusion of colors, white, black, blue, red, green, orange, violet, pink, yellow in fact, in every color known to man. It has been fancifully called "Nature's Palette," on which the Great Artist mixes the colors with which He paints the sunset, the sea, storm and rainbow. Between Flagstaff and Winslow will be found a riddle of science, Meteor Mountain. This monument to a celestial visitor was formed by a huge meteor, which, when it struck, exploded, causing an upheaval of the earth and many particles of meteorite have been found near. It is said to be the largest meteor discovered. Where this meteor fell is a hole nearly a mile across, 200 feet high above the level plain, and 600 feet deep in the interior. The bottom contains 40 acres of level land. For more than 25 years mining operations have been conducted. in the hope of locating this great mass of ore, Good roads lead up to the top of the crater.

The Grand Canyon is the most scenic feature in North America and is conceded to be the greatest natural wonder of the world. It is something that must be seen to be appreciated. Zane Grey said of this wonderland of form, of color and mystery, after viewing it at sunrise: Another beautiful place for camping is along or in Oak Creek Canyon, about 16 miles southwest of Flagstaff. It is one of the natural beauty spots of Arizona, and while the canyon is rugged and precipitous, at the bottom there are beautiful green trees, grass and flowers, Lolomai Lodge is about 20 miles from Flagstaff, at the bottom of the canyon on Oak Creek. There is good trout fishing here and a good camp ground is provided adjoining the lodge.

"The awfulness of sudden death and the glory of Heaven stunned me. The thing that had been mystery at twilight lay clear, pure, open in the rosy hour of dawn. Out of the greatest of the morning poured a light which glorified the palaces and pyramids, purged and purified the afternoon's inscrutible clefts, swept away the shadows of the mesas and bathed that broad, deep world of mighty mountains, stately spars of rocks, sculptured cathedrals and alabaster terraces in an artist's dream of color. A pearl from Heaven had burst, flinging its heart of fire into the chasm, A stream of opal flowed out of the sun to touch each peak, mesa, dome, parapet, temple and tower, cliff and cleft, into the newborn life of another day.

FLAGSTAFF AS CENTER

Making Flagstaff the starting point many points of interest may be reached. Southeast of the town are prehistoric cliff dwellings in Walnut Canyon. Farther east is Canyon Diablo, a deep gash in the earth. Near Walnut Canyon is one of the bottomless pits, said to be crevices in the lava underlying the surface.

PETRIFIED FORESTS

"I sat there for a long time and know that every second the scene changed, yet I could not tell how. I know I sat over a hole of broken, splintered, barren mountains; I knew I could see a hundred miles of the length of it and eighteen miles of the width of it and a mile of the depth of it, and the shafts and rays of rose light on a million glancing, many hued surfaces at once; but that knowledge was not a help to me. I repeated a lot of meaningless superlatives to myself, and I formed words inadequate and superflous. The spectacle was too illusFifteen miles north of Flagstaff are the San Francisco Peaks, the highest elevation in Arizona, with an altitude of more than 12,000 feet and snowcapped the greater part of the year. A road travels almost to the summit of the peaks. There is considerable timber on the peaks and behind them are the large springs that furnish water for the town of Flagstaff.

East and southeast of Holbrook is a National Monument that transcends in beauty, in variety of coloring and in extent all other similar deposits in the world-the Petrified Forest, comprising the First, Second, Third and the Blue Forests, and then what is known as the North Forest, north of Adama. The first forest is noted for its natural low