A GUIDE TO CAMPING

The Fort Apache Indian Reservation: destination for campers. An excerpt from the new Arizona Highways book. Outdoors in Arizona A Guide to Camping

Arizona Highways introduces its latest book, Outdoors in Arizona: A Guide to Camping. Whether you're looking for a place to pitch a tent or a spot to park a recreational vehicle, this 128-page guidebook will take you there.

Outdoor writer Bob Hirsch details each campground's location, size, and terrain; specifies whether it is equipped with water and other facilities; and indicates fees, vehicle restrictions, and seasonal limitations. The book contains twelve maps, more than eighty full-color photographs, and a selection of recipes for outdoor cooking. As a bonus, the editors have included ten campfire stories by historian Marshall Trimble, each cleverly illustrated by artist Joe Beeler.

Outdoors in Arizona: A Guide to Camping is available for $12.95 (softcover, postpaid), and can be ordered from Ari zona Highways, 2039 West Lewis Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85009. To order by telephone, call (602) 258-1000.

The homeland of the White Mountain Apache Tribe-the Fort Apache Indi an Reservation-is more than one and a half million acres of mountainous terrain in east-central Arizona, mostly timbered and mostly well watered. Its streams and riv ers, along with man-made lakes built for fishing and recreation, make it a very pop ular destination for Arizona campers.

Because the Indians have jurisdiction here, there are special fees, rules, and reg ulations. And though the old ways still have great influence in Apache culture, tribal members are part of the modern world. Pickup trucks, color television, blue jeans, the Colonel's fried chicken work their universal appeal. Still, many newcomers to the state are uneasy about visiting the Indian reservations, not sure of their welcome, slightly inhibited by the rugged surroundings and the unfamiliar people.

The Apache understand this feeling, and, since the late 1950s, they have made a special effort to make visitors welcome. Far from merely tolerating those who want to enjoy the Apache country's outdoor recreation opportunities, the Indians have actively promoted reservation camping, hunting, fishing, and winter sports. So you are encouraged to take advantage of Apache facilities and Apache friendship.

Camping is possible all year, but most visitors either come when the fishing gets good in the early spring or wait until summer to enjoy the 7000to 9000-foot elevations. The same heights that guarantee abundant pine, spruce, aspen, and fir can also permit nighttime temperatures to drop below freezing early and late in the April-to-November span. Even in July and August, frost can form on the meadow grasses at the higher campgrounds, although daytime highs may be in the eighties.

Summer showers begin in early July, and there are short, spectacular downpours almost every afternoon during July, August, and the first part of September. The day begins clear and cool, but as the air heats up, fluffy white cumulus clouds form over the peaks of Baldy and Ordand sometime after noon, the rain sweeps down, freshening the air and dampening the dust on the back roads.

Guide to Camping

Some of those back roads get a bit bumpy and/or muddy after awhile. But better roads and better road signing are part of the Apache's ongoing campaign to attract more outdoorsmen, and generally all the campgrounds are accessible by any sort of recreational vehicle.Part of the charm of Apache country is the chance to choose a remote campground and thus escape the crowds. That takes some planning and initiative and may represent a nod to the past, when camping depended more on individual ingenuity and resourcefulness and less on parking a fully equipped recreational vehicle on a compact piece of pavement. Still, whatever your camping mode, the Apache welcome you to one of the state's most beautiful areas.Campgrounds on the Fort Apache reservation are all located close to waterlakes or streams. There's usually plenty of room; Apache campgrounds are seldom full, even on holiday weekends. You'll find the campgrounds pleasantly unstructured, different from the highly organized, paved, cheek-by-jowl sites offered at some of the new federal facilities elsewhere in the state. The layouts suggest that perhaps a group of friends came to the grove of trees along the lakeshore, and each chose a spot that appealed to him; then, when everyone was settled, they called it a campground.

There are some large facilities, notably the 200-unit campground at Sunrise, on a densely forested ridge a short walk from the lake; Horseshoe Cienega Lake, where aspen trees shade the widely dispersed sites; and popular Hawley Lake, often the source of Arizona's lowest temperature, as(ABOVE) Where to go and what to expect when you arrive: Here are the details for nineteen camping sites. Fees, availability, and facilities can change. For specific information, write or call: White Mountain Apache Game & Fish Agency, P.O. Box 220, Whiteriver, AZ 85941, (602) 338-4385.(RIGHT) Along the North Fork of White River. Boating, camping, fishing, biking are all permissible forms of recreation on the reservation. But all-terrain vehicles are banned. ERNIE WEEGEN

At the other end of the scale are the oneor two-family sites like those sprinkled along the banks of Diamond Creek. Add several dozen places that are not formally classified as campgrounds, offering only a place to park, a fifty-gallon drum for garbage, a table-bench unit-and a huge helping of solitude. The Apache charge campers daily fees, but they generally are no more than those assessed by the national forests that surround the reservation-and, in either case, the camper is getting a real bargain. For half the cost of a tank of gas, you can(LEFT) The Fort Apache Indian Reservation, homeland of the White Mountain Apache Tribe: 2570 square miles of uncrowded camping country with hundred of wooded-sometimes primitive-sites. The San Carlos Indian Reservation, immediately south, adds another 2855 square miles of forest and desert region to explore. JERRY JACKA

Guide to Camping

enjoy a long weekend at Drift Fence Lake, McCoy Bridge on the North Fork of the White River, or the charming campground at Reservation Lake. Unlike the national forests that surround it, the Fort Apache Indian Reservation is not open to camping except in specified, developed campgrounds. There are plenty of those, however, with more than a thousand individual sites. Upper Log Road has ninety-five sites scattered along the North Fork of the White River, above and below the bridged crossing where Trout Creek empties into the White River. There are wood tablebench units, garbage barrels, and waterless restrooms (the so-called pit toilets). No drinking water is available here, but many of the sites are right along the river, and it is one of the most popular camping areas on the reservation. Lower Log Road is about three or four miles downstream from the upper campground and has forty sites distributed in the same way. The facilities are similar. Again, no drinking water. Both Log Road campgrounds are 6500 to 7000 feet in elevation, so night temperatures are milder than at most other reservation sites. Bootleg Lake campground is in the pines south of Hon Daha dozen sites with table-bench units and restrooms but no drinking water. Very casual, seldom crowded. Cooley Lake has six places to park a camper or pitch a tent. It offers tablebench units and a restroom. There's no drinking water. Bog Creek campground consists of only five sites, but they are on a slight slope above the creek and in a parklike stand of trees. Nothing fancy: minimum facilities, no drinking water. The camp sits beside State Route 260 east of McNary. Shush Be Zahze Lake (Little Bear) is mostly do-it-yourself, with about twenty sites, some without tables, that are intended for self-contained campers. Overlooking the lake, it has minimum facilities and no drinking water.

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Guide to Camping

Shush Be Tou Lake (Big Bear) shares an access road with Little Bear. There is a dependable drinking water source on your right just after you turn off State Route 260. Sites are casual, as at Little Bear, and facilities are minimal.

Horseshoe Cienega Lake has sixty-eight widely dispersed sites and is one of the largest and best of the Apache campgrounds. It's on the south shore of the lake in a stand of mixed conifer and aspen trees. Table-bench units, restrooms, and drinking water faucets are scattered through the campground. Horseshoe is just off State Route 260, about ten miles east of McNary.

Hawley Lake has paved access via State Route 473. A hundred campsites extend along the shore. There are restrooms, table-bench units, and a water supply. A year-round store is a bonus. Elevation is a cool 8500 feet.

Dutch Camp lies along the North Fork of the White River, just off State Route 260 about fifteen miles east of McNary. There are thirty-five sites, about half with tablebench units and restrooms. There is no drinking water.

McCoy Bridge campground is on State Route 473, the Hawley Lake road, just after the turnoff from Route 260. The sites are found both upstream and downstream along the North Fork; some have tablebench units, others space for a recreational vehicle. Restrooms; no drinking water.

Sunrise Lake is reached by turning off State Route 273 at the Sunrise service sta-tion and heading toward the ski complex. The campground access road is on the left, a hundred yards or so off the pavement. There are approximately 200 sites, spread out along a ridge about a half-mile from the lake. Thick timber and widely dispersed sites make it seem uncrowded even when other campers are nearby. Table-bench units; restrooms; water faucets at several locations. The 9200-foot elevation makes for perfect summertime sleeping.

Reservation Lake has one big campground on a thickly forested ridge above the lake, just off the access road as you approach from Big Lake; another near the spillway crossing; and some scattered sites along the lake's shoreline in other areas. These last have no facilities and are intended for self-contained campers. Drinking water; restrooms; table-bench units at most sites. In summer, a store provides picnic supplies, ice, fishing tackle, rental boats. Reservation Lake is almost never filled to capacity. There are ninety sites in all.

Drift Fence Lake campground is very casual, with sites on two sides of the small lake. Restroom; some table-bench units; no drinking water.

Pacheta Lake always has room for campers. Some of the twenty-five sites have water. Restroom; but most sites are for recreational vehicles and self-contained campers.

East Fork, the campground on the White River, consists of about a dozen sites scattered along the river banks east of the town of Whiteriver. There's no drinking water.

Diamond Creek has miniclusters of campsites along its course over a distance of twenty miles. Although there is no drinking water, restrooms and tables are available wherever several sites are clustered. There are about twenty-five sites.

Cibecue Creek campground comprises ten sites along the creek north of the town of Cibecue. Very casual. Restroom; tablebench units. No drinking water.

Salt River Canyon is a good fall, winter, or spring campground downstream from the U. S. Route 60 bridge at the bottom of the Salt River Canyon. There are about twenty-four sites along the river. Restroom; table-bench units. No drinking water. The surroundings are spectacular. Elevation is 3000 feet.