Archive All Issues September 1995

An Autumn Odyssey

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Whatever you may be searching for, chances are it''s right in your own backyard, this yarn seems to tell us. In this case, it''s autumn color, which our traveling author discovers is better nowhere than near his hometown. Travel along as we roam from the San Francisco Peaks, Oak Creek Canyon, Camp Verde, east along the Mogollon Rim, through Strawberry, Pine, and Payson all the way to the White Mountains.

Featured in the September 1995 Issue of Arizona Highways

BY: Tom Dollar

CHASING RED AN ODYSSEY IN SEARCH OF AUTUMN COLOR

ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF OCTOBER, I check it out by telephone. “The colors are prime,” I'm informed by the Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce/Visitors Center, “come on up.” My wife and I arrive in Flagstaff in late afternoon, check into our hotel, grab warm jackets, and head out north of town to the Snowbowl just in time for sunset. From the Snowbowl parking area, elevation 9,200 feet, we'll have a grand view of Hart Prairie and nearby slopes of the San Francisco Peaks. We're chasing red red fall colors, that is a mission that requires careful preparation when you live in a place where there's not much red to see in autumn. A lot of things turn gold to amber here in Arizona. A canyon lined with cottonwoods, willows, or sycamores in various shades of yellow to rust is beautiful, and sunlit golden aspen glow, carpeting the high flanks of Arizona's tallest mountains, is a feast for the eyes. Sometimes an aspen in full autumn foliage will even flame to red. We hope that with the setting sun illuminating the meadows and slopes, we'll spot, if we're lucky, one or two aspens among golden hundreds dressed in full red brilliance. But just at sunset, clouds roll in from the west and the sky is soon uniformly slate. There will be no brilliant illuminations this evening. This early letdown is okay, we figure. We've got a whole weekend of leaf-peeping ahead of us. In the morning, we'll rise early and drive down Oak Creek Canyon to Sedona, south on Interstate 17 to Camp Verde, then east along the Mogollon Rim, through Strawberry, Pine, Payson all theway to Alpine in the White Mountains. Along the way, surely, we'll see plenty of scarlet, crimson, pink, orange, cerise, and all other tones of red.

CHASING RED

In Arizona seeing autumn red means knowing where to find four leafy plants: bigtooth maple, a tree; scarlet sumac and squawbush, both shrubs; and Virginia creeper, a vine. Other plants, Arizona grape, for example, may show a hint of red in fall. I've even seen sycamore leaves with a slightly reddish cast to them. But in Arizona, your best shot at finding red splendor is to locate a midelevation canyon colonized by bigtooth maples.

But back to Flagstaff and our chase across the Mogollon Rim in search of red. It's still dark when I wake, and quiet - too quiet. Usually I hear morning street sounds below the hotel where I stay, but this morning, nothing. Something out there is muffling the sounds. Oh, oh. Quickly I pull back the window curtains. Everything - the ground, sidewalks, street - is covered with snow, maybe three or four inches. This stuff wasn't in the forecast. It's too early for snow, anyway. What do we do now?

We decide to drive down along Oak Creek Canyon, check out the weather in Sedona, and then make a decision. As we wind our way down State Route 89A, the snow gradually changes to rain, but it's foggy and soggy, hardly prime leaf-peeping weather.

In Sedona we stop to consider our options. Today's forecast says rain changing to snow all along the Mogollon Rim, but suggests the possibility of clearing by tomorrow morning. That's all we need to hear. Tomorrow morning we'll drive into the Escudilla Wilderness near Alpine to see brilliant splashes of color against a backdrop of virgin snow. What a scene that will be.

We pick up State Route 260 at Camp Verde and drive east into lowering clouds. We haven't brought along snow chains, but we're in a front-wheel-drive van. If it doesn't

CHASING RED

snow too heavily, we'll be okay, I tell my wife. Heading east we encounter mist, sprinkles, driving rain, a little snow, and so much fog that fall colors, if present, are invisible. Up around the twin towns of Pine and Strawberry, the rain lets up some, the foggy veil lifts slightly, and we catch glimpses of what must be a maple, displaying sullen red, in the gloom. "There's one!" I yell, pointing off into the mists. "Are you sure?" my wife asks, squinting hard. By the time we reach Show Low it's raining hard. I'm worried. Although our destination, the Tal-Wi-Wi Lodge near Alpine, is less than 75 miles farther, it's uphill all the way. The rain, not much of a road hazard except for reduced visibility, will surely change to snow. Trouble ahead.

It does change to snow, almost as soon as we leave Show Low, driving east toward Springerville. Slowed to a crawl by blowing snow, we settle in behind a line of vehicles and count off the miles. We make Springerville, now less than 25 miles from our destination, but in that short distance we'll climb more than 1,000 feet. Already falling thick and fast, the snow gets heavier as we ascend. The woods are filling up, and the snow drapes the boughs of ponderosa pines making them droop onto the roadway. It's beautiful. But driving without snow chains is a nervous business.

The Tal-Wi-Wi Lodge is a welcome sight. Smoke curls from fireplace chimneys rising above snow-laden roofs; lights glowing within rooms shine like beacons - at last, a port in the storm. After a good long soak in a hot tub, topped by a glass of wine and superb dinner, it's early to bed for us.

The morning brings more snow. Not as hard, but still snowing. I check with others at breakfast in the dining room. The weather, someone seems to have heard, is supposed to lift by noon. We decide to head home, taking our chances with the weather and the road. There will be no chasing red today.

But Nature is smiling on us, if only a little. The clouds begin to lift by midmorning, and sunlight breaks through here and there. U.S. 191, with its twists, turns, and sheer drops, is a road I dislike driving even in dry weather. Today a little sunshine helps.

Hours later we arrive in Tucson, home at last, our best-laid plans gone awry. Chasing red, we're chased off by white.

In the coming weeks, our luck is better closer to home. One bright late-October afternoon, we drive 22 miles up Mount Lemmon Highway in the Santa Catalina Mountains to Bear Wallow where bigtooth maples have turned bright red. Up at the vil-lage of Summerhaven, too, and at Marshall Gulch beyond, we find prime fall colors.

A week passes, and we drive to the South Fork of Cave Creek Canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains near Portal, where we park and hike 1.5 miles into Maple Camp. On the way in, we see a lot of crim-son maples, creeper, and squawbush. Later, driving across the mountain toward the Chiricahua National Monument on Pinery Canyon Road, we see scarlet sumac

CHASINGRED

(ABOVE) Vivid bigtooth maple leaves contrast with velvety moss growing on fallen logs in southern Arizona's Huachuca Mountains. MARK S. THALER (RIGHT) A clump of horsetails seems to reach toward a maple tree in Ramsey Canyon, a sanctuary for wildlife in the Huachucas. JERRY SIEVE Continued from page 27 and isolated groupings of bigtooth maple. In some years, fall colors are vivid in southeast Arizona's mountain canyons right up to Thanksgiving. Miller, Ramsey, and Carr canyons in the Huachuca Mountains near Sierra Vista are prime leaf-peeping locations. One of my favorites is Rattlesnake Canyon in the Galiuro Mountains, accessible only by a road trip in a four-wheel-drive vehicle and an arduous hike. One year I spent almost a full week camped on the rim of Rattlesnake Canyon. Daily I hiked into the chasm and along the stream to watch bigtooth maples change hue. I met a black bear on one of those hikes. Shuffling along in dry leaves, he didn't see me at first or pick up my scent. When he finally did, he shot off in the other direction, scattering red leaves.

NEW PRODUCTS FROM ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

Master craftsmen prints of two photographs from this issue are available from Arizona Highways' Gallery of Fine Prints. The unmatted prints, produced for Arizona Highways by EverColor DyePrint's custom lab in California, are the product of the very latest in digital technology and printed by hand under the supervision of master printer William Nordstrom. To order prints, call toll-free nationwide (800) 543-5432. In the Phoenix area or outside the U.S., call (602) 258-1000. The pictures offered for sale, the sizes, and prices are: Mountain yuccas force their spiky way up among bigtooth maples flourishing in the Huachucas' Miller Canyon. TOM DANIELSEN