Hike of the Month

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We pop a pair of richly deserved refresh-ments and review some of the country we've just been through: juniper woodlands, sycamore forests, scrabbly mountain chaparral, open Sonoran Desert, serene and crystalline pools enveloped in the shade of overhanging willows. A grueling two-week slog across an entire Arizona county? Nope, did it in five hours. Thanks to the miracle of microenvironments, a 10-mile hike in the Tonto National Forest 30 miles from Phoenix provided hiking buddy Jerry Sieve and me with a Whitman's Sampler of Arizona.

CAVE CREEK'S BLUE-GREEN POOLS DRAW HIKERS THE YEAR-ROUND

Because of our jagged landscape, microenvironments are abundant here. A mountainside ravine creates a trough for cool air to fall and gather at its base. An ephemeral creek that runs three feet wide maybe three months of the year nurtures a miniature riparian forest. Ten carefully selected miles of walking in Arizona can reveal as much ecology as the 1,500-mile drive from Mexico to Canada.

Our 10 miles, which Jerry selected carefully indeed, began in a juniper forest near the Seven Springs picnic ground. The trail hugs a hillside 50 feet above Cave Creek, which politely struggled that day to replace the sounds of nearby picnic civilization. Some bozo was manufacturing a microenvironment of his own with a stereo, and Jerry and I briefly debated which circle of hell we'd assign him to. It's not okay to dump trash in national forests; why should people feel free to pollute the aural environment?

We boulder hopped across Cave Creek, a typical Arizona forest waterway 10 feet wide and eight inches deep. The glorious sycamore grove around it, backlit in gold by the morning sun of autumn, seemed ineffably precious which in fact, it is: 90 percent of Arizona's 19th-century riparian forests is gone, the victim of our own species' insatiable urge to develop this land.

Jerry and I also are part of the problem. "You know the difference between an environmentalist and a developer, don't you?" I reminded him. "A developer is somebody who wants tobuild a cabin in the woods. An environmentalist already has a cabin in the woods." We laughed uneasily.

More microenvironments. We climbed, bursting out of the woodlands into a landscape of lumpy hills bristling with prickly pear cacti and surly looking mesquite trees that grow only chest high. For some reason unknown to us, rain is not attracted to these slopes. We crossed Quien Sabe Spring, which generates a brook just a foot wide to nourish one lonely cotton-wood. We zigzagged down a draw and then climbed onto a warm south-facing mountain-side punctuated with saguaros. Their fat trunks told us that this slope enjoys plenty of precipitation.

We broke for bread and cheese at one of the pools formed by natural dams along Cave Creek. The water is an extraordinarily clear blue-green, and there's even a "beach" of fine gravel. Jerry says it's a fine swimming hole in warmer weather. A turtle sculling along the bottom seemed to have no complaints even then, although it appeared a little distrustful of the human shadows looming over its habitat.

A metaphor for Arizona, I realize: this is a fascinating and delicate land and one that is rightly wary of our presence. One human with a chainsaw and shovel could destroy any of Cave Creek's microenvironments in an hour.

That sobering fact forms this trail's lesson. Understanding what a little human intrusion could do on this scale, you return to Phoenix a shade more cognizant of the big picture.

WHEN YOU GO

To reach Cave Creek Trail, take Cave Creek Road east out of Carefree 17 miles; the paved road will become graveled Forest Service Road 24, heading north. The trailhead is a half mile beyond Seven Springs campground. Begin on Cave Creek Trail, turn left onto Cottonwood Trail, then right onto Skunk Creek Trail. After about five miles, pick up Cave Creek Trail again for the return. All these trails are clearly signed. For additional information, contact the Cave Creek Ranger Station, P.O. Box 5068, Carefree, AZ 85377; (602) 488-3441.