BACK ROAD ADVENTURE

back road adventure Juniper Mesa's Pine Country Provides a Scenic Getaway from the Heat of the City

Sitting in the bed of the pickup, I watch my friend Annie tie her boots. We are parked just beyond Pine Springs tank at the trailhead of the Juniper Mesa Wilderness' Trail No. 3. Annie is going through the prehike ritual: applying sunscreen, doing hamstring stretches, drinking water, and stashing a Power Bar in her daypack. She grins like a kid about to open a birthday present, chattering with anticipation at experiencing a new Wilderness trail. I watch her pass through the gate. She turns to wave and then swings off down Trail 3, soon disappearing among the white oak, walnut, and locust trees.

My aching knee reminds me why I'm on a driving adventure while Annie hikes. After 30 years of hiking and backpacking, I'm on medical leave from such activity. We came here to get away from Prescott. There aren't many days when that mile-high city is too hot, but today is one of those exceptions. The monsoons had come in early July, then stopped as suddenly as a turned-off faucet, and the temperature soared.

We needed a weekend road trip to somewhere cooler and higher, where we could recharge on solitude and wildness: Juniper Mesa in the Prescott National Forest. Although most of the mesa is a federally designated Wilderness, you can drive up to it in at least two places. You also can follow Walnut Creek Road along the mesa's southern rim. So Saturday morning found us bumping up Forest Service Road 7, some 40 miles north of Prescott. This unimproved dirt road loops around the mesa's north end to reach the Wilderness boundary. Soon ponderosa pine trees appeared among the piñons and junipers, catching the eye like giants among dwarves. When we reached the trailhead, we had climbed to about 6,400 feet. Annie's hike will take her to 7,000 feet, and thanks to her two good knees she'll reap the scenic rewards of the view from the top. My payoff will be more subtle. Like classical music for some, ponderosa forest takes a little getting used to. But once you acquire a taste for it, as I have, the attraction is powerful.

For a while, I wait with my camera and telephoto lens, hoping the black bear that frequents Pine Springs will come by for its midday drink.

One of the reasons we came here was the chance to see Juniper Mesa's abundant wildlife. Today I have already seen deer and elk, and the footprints of a bear. There are goshawks and Abert's squirrels up in the pines; pronghorn antelopes and javelinas on the flats below the mesa. On a previous visit, a gray fox stood still less than 20 feet from our truck, and this morning we glimpsed a bobcat bounding across the road.

Giving up on the bear, I drive back down FR 7. I will pick up Annie at the trailhead below the mesa's southern rim. She will follow Trail 3 southwest across the mesa to Trail 20, and down Trail 100 along the steep southern scarp to Walnut Creek Road.

(LEFT) Globemallow and threadleaf groundsel brighten a meadow below Juniper Mesa. (RIGHT) FR 7 ends at this boundary sign marking the Wilderness area's border.

A short way down FR 7, I pass an old sawmill site. Some of Juniper Mesa has been logged, but thankfully not all of it, and not for many years. The forest still shelters many "yellow jacks," the beautiful and fragrant yellow-barked giants that indicate old growth ponderosas.

Juniper Mesa was set aside as Wilderness in 1984, one of eight designated Wilderness areas in the Prescott National Forest. Some people misunderstand such places. I remember a bumper sticker proclaiming "Wilderness Is Waste." In reality, only development, logging, and mechanized travel are banned. Wilderness is open to those hunters who draw permits to hunt there. In fact Juniper Mesa's heaviest use comes during the fall hunting season. Similarly, ranchers whose "grandfathered" allotments predate the Wilderness designation still graze cattle there.A little farther down the road, I cross Trail 1, the "Military Trail." Juniper Mesa is near the ancestral boundary between the Yavapai Indians to the south and the Hualapais to the north. Early in 1867, white freighters shot one of the Hualapai chiefs. Although the killing was unprovoked, a grand jury released the teamsters with a "vote of thanks." All over northwestern Arizona, the previously friendly Hualapais rose in a short-lived rebellion precipating the establishment of Camp Hualapai near Walnut Creek. Soldiers scouting for Hualapais followed the route of today's Trail 1 northwest along the mesa's eastern side. Since this trail is outside the Wilderness area, it is open to mountain bikes and motorized vehicles "less than 40 inches in width."

After following FR 7 back to Yavapai County Highway 5, 1 drove south about seven miles to County Road 125. Turning west onto 125, I remember that in January, 1854, Anglo Americans first saw Juniper Mesafrom about this same spot. An expedition under Lt. Amiel Weeks Whipple followed Walnut Creek, which they called Pueblo Creek, along the mesa's steep southern slope. Whipple was surveying a railroad route

TIPS FOR TRAVELERS

Like all back road travel, a trip to Juniper Mesa can be hazardous. Forest Service Road 7 is impassable until late spring, and it gets very slippery during any rain. For information on the Wilderness and current road conditions, contact the Prescott National Forest's Chino Valley Ranger District in Chino Valley, (520) 636-2302. Any expedition to Juniper Mesa should begin with a thorough study of the marvelous "Juniper Mesa and Apache Creek Wildernesses" map ($5) published by the Prescott National Forest. Please respect and stay off the private land that lies both north and south of the mesa. Be wary of food-seeking black bears, which have torn up camping gear near Pine Springs. Take plenty of water as there is no potable water on the mesa. Finally, don't camp within one-half mile of the springs since they are the only source of water for wildlife.

to California, a project that would be postponed by the Civil War.

Today a drive along Walnut Creek offers a marvelous side trip for anyone going to Juniper Mesa. The Walnut Creek Forest Service station dates to shortly after 1907, when the area was first set aside as a Forest Reserve. And, of course, the trails leading north onto Juniper Mesa can be accessed from Walnut Creek.

As I pull up at the end of Trail 100, Annie strides up to the truck, her eyes shining like those of someone who has had a religious experience.

"You hear bugs and birds like you never hear on the well-used trails," she says, describing her hike. "And butterflies of all colors flit around you. The smell of the pine forest is better than any scent humans could ever devise. Today I hugged some of the biggest yellow ponderosas I have ever seen. They must be at least 300 years old. I am so glad this place was saved."

When it comes to Wilderness, Annie is a true believer. Maybe on my next visit to Juniper Mesa, my knee will let me add a hike to my driving adventure."