Mountain Journeys

(Left) Sundown in the Santa Rita Mountains of southern Arizona. David Muench photo (Inset) Hiker Christine Keith rests atop the bald summit of Mt. Wrightson, the highest peak in the Santa Ritas. From this vantage, nearly every mountain range in southern Arizona is visible. John Annerino photo Could one be elevated to a sufficient height over the center of this region, and be gifted with superhuman powers of vision, he would see beneath him what would appear to be a great plain, bounded on every side by mountain ranges and here and there dotted with isolated mountain masses, rising like islands above the surface. J.S. Newberry, 1857 If you suddenly find yourself madly yearning for a peaceful moment to stretch your legs in subalpine forests, rolling grass savannahs, and lofty pathways spiralling through summit mists, take heart! you're not alone.

Colin Fletcher, the noted authority on walking and author of a number of books including such classics as The Man Who Walked Through Time and The Complete Walker, calls it "a quite delectable madness" and recommends it with a passion.

So do we, walking that is, particularly since Arizona offers so many incredibly beautiful areas in which to carry out the sport, and, at the same time, pick up a little history.

All that's needed is to decide on where and when. The "when" we can't help you with. But the "where"... well, for starters, there's Arizona's historic highlands.

In Arizona's vastness, there are no less than 13 mountain ranges towering over 9000 feet, with 31 other cordilleras rising over 7000 feet: the parallel ranges of the Carrizos and Chuskas looming over the Navajo Indian reservation, the ephemeral silhouettes of the Chiricahua Mountains on the Sonoran border, the cauliflower-shaped dome of 11,590-foot Mt. Baldy hovering in the midst of the White Mountains, the 12,670-foot "mastercone" of the San Francisco Mountains, piercing the fleecy altocumulus.

Of these high massifs and forested plateaus, two peaks stand apart as having the best panoramic views in the state and the walking trails to take you there: 10,418-foot Kendrick Peak in the north, and 9345-foot Mt. Wrightson in the south. From either of these summit perches, you'll be able to look out over a quixotic horizon for 360 degrees.

Kendrick Peak stands alone as northern Arizona's preeminent vantage. It is named after Brevet Major H. L. Kendrick, 2nd Artillery, who escorted Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves, Corps of Engineers, on an 1851 expedition down the Zuni and Colorado rivers.

Nipple-shaped, it thrusts itself up out of a 7000-foot high plateau for over 3000 feet, providing the greatest vertical relief in the southern Kaibab National Forest.

To reach Kendrick Peak, drive north from Flagstaff on Highway 180 for 17 miles to USFS Road 193. Turn west on 193 and drive 4.5 miles to USFS Road 171. Take 171 for three miles to 171A. Turn right and 171A will deadend at the Kendrick Peak trailhead a mile later.

They say "It's the journey, not the destination." And while the four-mile walk to the summit of this sleeping volcano is charming enough, offering some intoxicating views en route, I think, in the case of Kendrick Peak, it's the destination, not so much the journey.

Once you've touched the summit of this lone island of ponderosa and mixed conifer, you'll literally see why.

The Grand Canyon, that great gash in the earth, with its convoluted rims and fluted terraces, will be due north of you; if you look closely, two of its highest temples will be visible below the North Rim: 7529-foot Vishnu Temple and 7914-foot Siegfried Pyre.

Kendrick Peak was recognized as northern Arizona's quintessential vista as early Memorable summer hikes through Arizona's historic highlands

by John Annerino

A REGIONAL CAMPGROUND SAMPLER

For more information about Camping Arizona, contact the following: U.S. National Park Service Southern Arizona Group 1115 N. 1st. Street Phoenix, Az. 85004 (602) 261-4956 Bureau of Land Management 2400 Valley National Bank Center Phoenix, Az. 85073 (602) 261-3706 Arizona State Parks 1688 West Adams Phoenix, Az. 85007 (602) 255-4174 Department of Game and Fish 2222 W. Greenway Rd. Phoenix, Az. 85023 (602) 942-3000 Office of Tourism 3507 N. Central Ave. Suite 506 Phoenix, Az. 85012 (602) 255-3618 Apache Reservation: White Mountain Recreation Enterprise Box 220 White River, Az. 85941 (602) 338-4385 Hualapai Reservation: Outdoor Recreation Dept. P.O. Box 216 Peach Springs, Az. 86434 (602) 769-2227 Navajo Reservation: Recreational Resources Dept. Visitors' Services P.O. Box 308 Window Rock, Az. 86515 (602) 871-6645 Editor's note: This listing of Arizona campsites is not comprehensive, since our entire state opens the outdoors for camping. Our map and facilities suggest locations favored by our staff and author. Further information on numerous additional opportunities can be obtained by contacting the sources above.

Chiricahuas, to the east, and its open-air aviary, the Santa Ritas have few peers when it comes to bird-watching or back-packing. The 7.5 mile walk from the end of Madera Canyon Road to the bald summit of Mt. Wrightson is an invigorating day's outing.

To get to the Mt. Wrightson trailhead from Tucson, drive south 20 miles on Inter-state 19 to Continental. Take Exit 63, "Madera Canyon Recreation Area," and follow the signs 13 miles to the Roundup Campground.

Follow the "Super Trail" a little over two miles to a saddle at the 6400-foot level, which overlooks the length and breadth of tree-lined Madera Canyon. From this hollow, you'll also get your first good look at the precipitous west face of Mt. Wrightson-named after mine manager William Wrightson, killed by Apaches in 1861. It's another mile and a half to Sprung Spring, where you can fill up your canteen before pushing on to Josephine Saddle, a half-mile farther on.

There's a memorial erected on the Saddle to three Boy Scouts who perished there in a snowstorm during the autumn of 1958.

If you're burning daylight, Josephine Saddle is a good spot to take a break from the trail and chow down.

At the Saddle, take the Old Baldy Trail which climbs through sparse stands of Mexican, Chihuahuan, and ponderosa pine, past aspen-shrouded Bellows Spring to 8800-foot Baldy Saddle. It's along this 2.5 mile stretch that you begin to feel as though you're hiking somewhere in the California Sierras. Because, as the trail switchbacks up the steep west face of Mt. Wrightson, you're able to see all the way to the desert floor. And that's more characteristic of the California ranges than most mountains in Arizona.

There is perhaps no better promontory (Left) Mount Graham, in the Pinaleño Mountains, rises abruptly from the San Simon Valley of southeastern Arizona. (Inset) Heliograph Peak on Mount Graham was the location for an Army communications system set up by General Nelson A. Miles in 1886. Soldiers with mirrors were stationed on this and other high peaks to signal the locations of hostile Indians. David Muench photos In all of southern Arizona from which to drink in the terrestrial and celestial rhythms of our planet than atop Mt. Wrightson, a mile farther on.

The canopy of the Milky Way, constella-tions, and shooting stars all seem to whirl around Wrightson's summit. And if you peer over the edge, you'll see the white domes of the Fred Lawrence Observatory atop the summit of Mt. Wrightson's satellite peak.

At 8572 feet, Mt. Hopkins is the second highest peak in the Santa Ritas. On its top is a 176-inch multiple-mirror telescope with a reach which "extends to quasars whose distant light has taken half the age of the universe to reach the earth," according to Science magazine. Said observatory director Jacques Beckers in that same issue, "We can see anything between a couple of light-minutes and a couple of billion light-years away."

Once you've grown accustomed to your special view of the world and it does take some getting used toyou can embark on a time-riding journey through Arizona history. And you can begin it in which-ever direction you choose.

From your perch, you can clearly identify no less-frequently more than a dozen of the most prominent mountain chains in the region.

Take the Galiuros, or the "Galur-eez" as locals call them, 60 miles to the northeast, for instance. Back in 1918, they were the scene of a tragic shoot-out between the Powers brothers, alleged draft dodgers, and the Graham County sheriff's posse. The event led to the largest manhunt in the history of Arizona, involving over 3000 men. Today, the range is one of the most seldom-visited wilderness areas in the United States.

One hundred eighty degrees to the southwest, just beyond the first wave of the Atascosa Mountains, is the Bartlett Ranch. On April 28, 1886, 10-year-old Johnny Bartlett made what has to be one of the most heroic runs of all time-nine miles, barefoot, through the dead of night to warn the townsfolk of Oro Blanco that the Bartlett Ranch was under siege by renegade Apaches. "Father told me to pull off my boots and crawl out without making a sound and to go to Oro Blanco to tell the people the Indians had been at the house and had wounded Mr. Shanahan." According to the May 4, 1886, issue of the Arizona Daily Star, the little "Hero of the Bear Valley Raid" received an inscribed rifle from his grateful government.

Swing your gaze due west 50 miles and you'll see the unmistakable granite dome of 7864-foot Baboquivari Peak, in the Papago Reservation. To traditional Papagos, it is the sacred mountain of l'itoi, (Elder Brother) who guides his people through the trials of life and stands watch over their ancestral land. It is a vast and beautiful country, extending beyond the Sierra Pinacate, in the south, and the Gila River, in the north.

East-by-northeast 55 miles are the 7000-foot-high Dragoon Mountains. The name was derived from the fact that the Third U.S. Cavalry was stationed there in 1856. To S. W. Cozzens, who wrote of them in The Marvelous Country, in 1873, the Dragoons bordered on the sublime. "The huge rough and jagged peaks that towered around us were toned and softened by the purple haze that enshrouded them into perfect models of architectural beauty."

Today, the Dragoons are a winter haven for rock climbers, who enjoy ascending its coarse, sunbathed granite domes.

Look to the distant ranges like the Dos Cabezas Mountains, which means "two heads," or the Santa Teresas, where historians say Coronado traveled. Or look to the peripheral ranges like the Huachucas, the Whetstones, the Rincons, or the Santa Catalinas, and you'll turn yet another page in the saga of this region.

According to Hinton, it was there "... the old Aztecs and Toltecs journeyed, and along its base, in the beautiful valley of the Santa Cruz, passed the Spanish explorer and conqueror...settler, miner, and traveler...."

The Kendrick Peak and Mt. Wrightson walks are only two among hundreds. A further exploration of such areas as the southern Kaibab National Forest, just as one example, will reveal fabulous hiking canyons like the West Fork of Oak Creek, Sycamore, and Cataract canyons, and lesser-known drainages.

Hiking in and out of the South Kaibab is not all canyoneering, either. There's some excellent winter ski touring and snow-shoeing and two significant peaks easily explored during the summer season: Bill Williams Mountain, standing at 9341 feet above sea level, and Sitgreaves Mountain at 9388 feet, actually a cluster of steep forested hills.

As author George H. Tinker noted a century ago, each of these mountains will provide the opportunity for walking "...in the midst of the finest...scenery in the world...."