BACK ROAD ADVENTURE

Historical Route From Winslow to Heber Traverses High Desert and Pine Country

It's August on the Colorado Plateau, and I bed down at Ken and Dorothy Fish's Ironwood Farm near Joseph City. My window is half-open. The rain has stopped and the fragrance of damp pastures washes over me. I am thinking about the back-road excursion Ken and I will make in the morning, from Winslow to Heber by way of Chevelon Canyon. I doze off listening to Ken's horses rustling on the hay-flecked floor of the barn north of the house."Let's take 'the lizard,'" Ken says, referring to his green Chevy truck. The previous night's rain polished the bright morning's air so thoroughly, I feel my eyesight is measurably improved. Every blade of grass, every wildflower on Ken's farm appears in perfect focus. Getting onto Interstate 40, we head west about 30 miles to Winslow, an old railroad town that most of the world learned about through one line in a song by the Eagles -I was standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.We will drive from Winslow to Heber on a historical route through Chevelon Canyon, a scenic trek that will take us from the high desert on the Colorado Plateau to conifer forest. Exit 255 from I-40 becomes Transcon Lane. We turn left and follow it to East Third Street in Winslow, to the intersection of State Route 87. We turn left onto State 87, head south across the railroad tracks and drive 2 miles to a fork. For all practical purposes, Winslow has disappeared and we might well be on another planet.

We take the left fork onto State Route 99 into a treeless plain interrupted here and there by a jumble of sandstone boulders. Somewhere to our left (or east), Chevelon Creek inches its way northward to the Little Colorado River, but we can't see the creek or the deep canyon of the same name. Within the hour, this will change.Seven miles south of the interstate exit, we dip into a little ravine and cross Clear Creek, another tributary of the Little Colorado. At this point, it's the centerpiece of McHood Park, a Winslow city recreation area with canopied picnic tables, barbecues, horseshoe pits and boat dock, and many chiseled gray rocks. As we continue south of the park, the vegetation begins to change. Small clumps of shagbark juniper appear on both sides of the road, and more hills roll in the distance.

Ken hits the brakes, pointingto a couple of antelope darting into the dark-green foliage to our right. Throughout this areathroughout the West, in fact-North American pronghorn antelope are abundant.

Experts estimate there are some 10,000 in Arizona alone. Ken remarks on the contrast between the pristine weather we're encountering and what this place is like in the winter. "For around six weeks, from the middle of December through January, there's a layer of fog, maybe 400 or 500 feet thick, that hangs in this area," he says. "The fog will settle in this basin all along the river, andtemperatures will drop to 15 or 20 degrees." On this day, however, we can see for many miles in every direction. Six miles after we cross Clear Creek, a wide valley spreads before us. Chevelon Butte, a prominent landmark, rises southwest of us. A trapper named Chevelon died here in the 1800s, reportedly from eating poisonous parsnips, and was buriedat the base of his namesake butte. "In the spring," Ken says, "you'll see people on all-terrain vehicles out here collecting elk antlers. They sell them for $10 a pound." In East Asian countries, the antlers are sold to be ground up as an aphrodisiac. Ken smiles and says, "I think they use 'em for some other medicinal purposes, but I'm not sure what."

Eighteen miles south of I-40, a sign tells us we've come to the end of State 99. We've also come to the end of the pavement, but the road continues as Forest Service Road 34, and about 8 miles later it veers southwest, and FR 504 heads southeast (left) toward Mormon Crossing and Chevelon Canyon. We take the left fork (504) and cross the boundary into the Sitgreaves National