BACK ROAD ADVENTURE

back road adventure The Flagstaff Arboretum and Oak Creek Highlight the Woody Mountain Road Trip

John Woody, a 19th-century cowboy, probably wouldn't be too surprised at what he'd find if he traveled today along the back road that bears his name. Woody Mountain Road, which runs for nearly 30 miles southwest of Flagstaff, still holds an air of the Old West. Cowboys, sheepherders, loggers, and forest rangers remain the primary occupants, sharing the land with elk, coyotes, deer, and bears, all pretty much the way John knew it, too.

Woody Mountain Road (Forest Service Road 231) begins three miles west of downtown Flagstaff. Heading west on Old Highway 66, take a left at the Woody Mountain Campground store, where a small sign announces the "Arboretum at Flagstaff," four miles distant. After crossing Interstate 40, the pavement ends, and the surface turns into hard-packed gravel and cinder. Nearly any vehicle can drive it, with caution for potholes and bumpy washboard in places.

The arboretum makes a pleasant first stop. Just past Sinclair Wash, a right turn takes you into the facility. The arboretum specializes in high-altitude native plants of the Colorado Plateau. In fact, with its 7,100-foot elevation, the arboretum bills itself as the highest-altitude research botanical garden in the country. One of its major goals is helping gardeners learn what (OPPOSITE PAGE) The bright colors of the Flagstaff arboretum's Ground Cover Garden provide contrast to a looming thunderhead.

(BELOW) Foxtail grass catches the setting sun in this view across the usually dry Rogers Lake to the San Francisco Peaks.

WEST FORK OAK CREEK

they can nurture in the brief, dry, fickle growing season of the high country. In 1981 Flagstaff philanthropist Frances McAllister gave 200 acres for the arboretum. Outside the lovely wood and basalt visitors center, Mrs. McAllister's former home, gardens reflect various themes: the Courtyard Garden, Mixed Conifer Garden, Butterfly Garden, Shade Garden, and Herb Garden among them. contained no water. As it most often is, Rogers Lake was dry. It holds water only in early summer when the snow is melting; by late summer, it's a wet meadow. The only gold likely to be found near it are the sunlit swaths of sneezeweed rimming the edges, along with vivid western tanagers flashing among the branches of ponderosas. (See Arizona Highways, June '98.) In summer, when the rains have been good, the Herb Garden is packed with beebalm, betony, thyme, catnip, and feverfew. The blooms and foliage scent the air and lure bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. The Wildflower Meadow flaunts a splendorous drift of color. Nearby a cindered nature trail meanders back into the ponderosa forest, a serene and sylvan sanctuary where visitors can wander to their heart's content.

Woody Mountain Road continues southwesterly from the arboretum. In another mile, a sign reads “Private Property.” (The road goes through private property, but there's no gate, just the sign.) This is the Miller Brothers/ DK Ranch, headquartered on the edge of Rogers Lake. In October, 1851, Capt. Lorenzo Sitgreaves, Maj. H.L. Kendrick, and naturalist Dr. Samuel Woodhouse, camped here. Woodhouse called it Raven Lake for the birds he observed; later it was named for rancher Charles T. Rogers. In the early days, the lake was a popular destination for Flagstaff citizens, who journeyed out for Sunday picnics and hunting parties. In more recent years, two women heard of lost loot supposedly buried under Rogers Lake and came out with scuba gear hoping to locate it. Much to their surprise, the “lake” A coyote may dash across the road and hide in the tall grasses, while tassel-eared Abert squirrels scamper to safe refuge in a tall pine, hurrying to avoid a red-tailed hawk spiraling in the sky. In autumn, bugling elk gather around Rogers Lake in their annual mating frenzy.

In the last century, this wood-land, the most extensive pon-derosa pine forest in the world, was big logging country. The Riordan brothers' Arizona Lum-ber & Timber Company felled trees to supply ties for the At-lantic and Pacific Railroad as it pushed westward in the early 1880s. The A&P ran a logging railroad from Flagstaff out to Rogers Lake (the raised railbed can still be seen across the lake) and all the way to the Mog-ollon Rim.

A little more than a mile east of Rogers Lake rises a volcanic mountain. Here, John Woody located a good "six-log" spring — one whose flow could fill six hollowed logs — and set up a ranch. Flagstaff author Donna Ashworth tells Woody's story in her Biography of a Small Mountain. Born in Oregon in 1856, John Woody moved to Arizona when he was in his 20s, started ranching, and did a little trading in horses and real estate. In 1895 he moved into the fledgling railroad town of Flag-staff and was elected marshal. That same year, he stood before

back road adventure

the justice of the peace and married Ella Black, but she died at their home only four years later. In 1901 John sold his Woody Mountain ranch and left town for a few years. He returned in 1906, remar-ried, and became deputy sher-iff. Woody died in 1913. He was, wrote Ashworth, "a work-ing man whose name was giv-en casually to an old volcano."

Woody Mountain's heights made it a desirable location for one of the first fire lookouts in the Coconino National Forest. A fire tower was built on top of the mountain in 1910, and young ranger Fred Coxen rode his horse up every day and scanned the forest with a mo-nocular looking for "smokes."

In four more miles, the road (FR 231) passes through another open meadow, called Mill Park, and in a couple more miles meets FR 538 branching to the right. To the left, FR 9024 provides a recommend-ed detour to Fry Lake, a won-derful spot with a view of the San Francisco Peaks. A perfect picnic stop.

Backtracking to Woody Mountain Road, turn left and continue south for two miles as the road curves and descends into the rough-cut headwaters of Oak Creek Canyon. Over a low-water concrete bridge, the road crosses Casner Cabin Draw, named for well-known cattle ranchers in the Oak Creek area.

The road continues to drop down, and in another two miles comes to the bridge across the head of the West Fork of Oak Creek. Here tall pines and firs draped with a furry lichen create a scene more like Washington or Oregon than Arizona. In about 15 miles of bush-whacking and boulder-hop-ping, a person could travel to its junction with Oak Creek.

Over the next six miles, the road climbs up and out of the West Fork drainage, past the Rattlesnake Burn, water holes

TIPS FOR TRAVELERS

The Arboretum at Flagstaff is open daily, 8 A.M. to 5 P.M., April 1 to December 15. For other seasonal hours and special activities, call (520) 774-1442. To inquire about current conditions on Woody Mountain Road (it may be impassable in winter), call the Coconino National Forest's Peaks Ranger District, (520) 526-0866.

Back road travel can be hazardous if you are not prepared for the unexpected. Whether traveling in the desert or in the high country, be aware of weather and road conditions, and make sure you and your vehicle are in top shape and you have plenty of water. Don't travel alone, and let someone at home know where you're going and when you plan to return. Odometer readings in the story may vary by vehicle.

Ignore other roads branching off and stay on FR 231 another 2.2 miles beyond Crater Tank, where the reward awaits.

With no warning, the road breaks out of the forest and edges along the stunning brink of that great escarpment called the Mogollon Rim, offering awesome views down into the bewildering ruggedness of the cliffs and canyons of the Red Rock-Secret Mountain Wilder-ness. If the air's been washed clean by a recent rain, Sedona, the Verde Valley, and Mingus Mountain are clearly visible.

It's nice to think that here, amid the big oaks and ponderosa pines, John Woody may have sat a time or two on horse-back, taken off his sweat-stained cowboy hat, and soaked in the same view with an equal measure of awe.