The Mogollon Rim

THE MOGOLLON RIM runs generally from northwest to southeast with extreme local variations across approximately the eastern two thirds of Arizona and one third of the way down from the northern boundary of the state. It is the exposed lower edge of the great Colorado Plateau and is the result of titanic upheavals of the earth's crust during the late Mesozoic times which raised the plateau and caused the land to the south to drop. The Mesozoic Age was that of dinosaurs, of marine and flying reptiles and of armored fishes. In those times, millions of years ago, huge swamp forests covered large areas of what is now the plateau, and relics of them are found today in the dinosaur tracks, the petrified forests and the great beds of coal and pools of natural gas and oil found above the Rim in Navajo country and the Four Corners area. The section of the Rim above the Payson country frequently is referred to as the Tonto Rim, a name popularized by Zane Grey in his book, Under The Tonto Rim. This name derives from the name misapplied to a tribe of the Apache nation which roamed the area when the American first arrived. It was misapplied, for the word "tonto" in Spanish means foolish, and the Tonto Apaches were anything but fools.

A singular feature of the Rim is that it affords the world's best view of the world's largest pure stand of Ponderosa pine, the vast forest that follows the course of the Rim across Arizona into New Mexico.

The average elevation of the top of the Rim is approximately 7,000 feet, with its highest point in the Payson country Baker Butte, due north of Payson and a little east of Strawberry, at 8,076 feet.

TOWERING ESCARPMENT rising like the mighty battlements of some gigantic fortress dominates the entire Payson country. No matter how dense the forest, how abrupt the nearby mountain, always there is the Rim, visible just around the next turn and felt like almost palpable presence even when not seen. From a little distance it appears to be a sheer and solid wall of rock, impassible and impenetrable. In the diurnal kaleidoscope of light and shadow its moods run the gamut from serene to sullen, from protective to ominous, from pastoral to Wagnerian. But it is always there, the immutable, fixed fact that finally become the reference point of life in the Payson country. Upon closer approach the Rim becomes suddenly three dimensional. Sharp foothills pile atop one another so loosely it is always a surprise to find another behind the first. Between them and sometimes on their tops are occasional little mountain meadows; and often their feet fall off precipitously into deep and rugged gorges.

From this vantage point it becomes apparent the face of the Rim is broken by scores of canyons which make its upper edge almost sawtoothed. Each canyon has a distinct personality. One will be steep and narrow, another wide with walls not so sheer. One will be choked with vegetation, another bright with light colored, bare rock. Some are straight and open, others twisting and writhing. Some say welcome; others say keep out.

Even the exposed bare rock on the uppermost reaches of the cliff faces varies. In spots it is vertically corrugated, dark brown stone, elsewhere horizontally striated layers of sedimentary rock ranging from mauve to pink to deep rose. Always it is massive, always solid, always there.