Hike of the Month

Like of the Month

It is mid-June, peak sea-son for the irises that flower each spring in the high-country meadows of the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona's southeast corner. We don't want to miss the irises.

Friends who hiked the Crest Trail just a week ago warn of the bears marauding Rustler Park Campground, knocking over garbage cans, and checking out tents for something edible. Bears smashing a car's taillight and half tearing off a bumper trying to get at food cached in the trunk. Even several bears invading camps in broad day-light, too brazen to be driven off. Dangerous, "half-tamed" bears for whom a full campground is an invitation to amble in for lunch.

So we skirt Rustler Park in our four-wheel-drive pickup and motor two steep miles up a rough jeep road to Long Park. We'll camp here, rise early, and hike to Chiricahua Peak, passing Flys Peak and Round, Cima, and Anita parks. Round-trip about eight miles.

WHEN YOU GO

Two routes lead to the Crest Trail trailhead at Rustler Park. Approaching the Chiricahua range on State Route 181 from the west, turn south on Pinery Canyon Road and proceed approximately 10 miles south-southeast to Onion Saddle. At Onion Saddle, go south about two miles to Rustler Park.

From the east, take Cave Creek Canyon Road from Portal to Onion Saddle. Approximate distance: 10 miles. From Onion Saddle, proceed to Rustler Park.

Although maintained, these mountain roads are narrow and winding. Use caution.

Hiking along the Crest Trail is ideal from late May through early November. For flower watching, the best times are late May and early to mid-June. During all seasons, be sure to check local weather conditions. This is strenuous mountain hiking, so come prepared for a workout.

After supper we hike a short distance up the Crest Trail, past bright clumps of claret cup hedgehog cactus near Flys Peak, where vistas open westward across the Sulphur Springs Valley to the silhouetted rock line undulat-ing along the Dragoon Moun-tains on the horizon.

Tattered clouds of white cling to distant peaks, flame to crimson as the sun sets behind them, fade to salmon pink in the afterglow, and then to blue-purple as the light fails.

Scolding robins warn off intruders as we prepare to turn in early. Just as I drift off, a whippoorwill settles on a nearby pine bough to call incessantly into the night.

Suddenly, I'm awake, sit-ting straight upright. I stare into the gloom. A noise from the woods on the other side of the jeep track. What is it? An immense shadowy form moves across a line of dark trees. A bear! Another bulky shape joins the first. Two bears! Yet a third figure emerges from the shadows. I'm surrounded!

Quickly, I fish my eyeglasses from a boot beside my sleeping bag. Now there are five! With my glasses on, I make them out clearly in the gray light. Fat haunches, slim legs, tense ears pricked forward, the five shapes stand in a row facing me. Not bear. Deer! Relieved, I laugh and dig out my flashlight to check the time. It's 4:30 A.M., almost time to get up.

SCENIC VISTAS, WILDFLOWERS: CHIRICAHUA PEAK HAS IT ALL

Teasing banter dogs my footsteps. Phantom bears, indeed. No, no bears. But there are irises, a plethora of irises. All the meadows are carpeted with them. Round Park, elevation 9,280 feet, is the biggest, and we stay there for a long time photographing the irises and watching a quartet of ravens, wheel-ing, diving, "talking" across blue space as they cavort above the meadow. The breeze is stiff, chilly, and when we're not hiking briskly along the trail, we're glad for full sun.

We move on past Cima Park and then Anita Park, the prettiest of the meadows and, with a good spring below it, the best campsite. We climb through dense stands of quaking aspen until, after a heart-thumping steep push, we arrive, sweating, at Chiricahua Peak. At 9,796 feet, we stand on top of the world - at least hereabouts.

At lunch I pour a little sardine oil onto a decaying log. For the bears, I say, rekindling the banter.

Once the realm of Apache warriors, outlaws, homesteaders, and gold seekers, the Chiricahua Mountains today are a popular outdoor-recreation area. One of the pleasures of hiking here is the near certainty of a scenic surprise beyond the next bend, such as Rocky Mountain irises (ABOVE) abloom on a hillside and a claret cup hedgehog cactus (RIGHT) coloring the floor of a ponderosa pine forest. BOTH BY JACK DYKINGA