HIKE OF THE MONTH

hike of the month Into 'The Blue' - the 6-Mile KP Trail Follows a Creek Through Mountain Meadows

In Phoenix or Tucson, thermometers will slap 100 degrees for the umpteenth midsummer day in a row, but here in the White Mountains along Arizona's eastern edge it feels like early spring. A monsoon squall hit hard yesterday afternoon thunder, light-ning, slashing rain, hail and, incredibly, even a few snow-flakes. Now, at 7 A.M., as we drive south from Alpine along U.S. Route 191 for a day hike on the KP Trail, a patchy mist wreathes conifers, and fog blan-kets roadside swales. Ahead, a cow elk sprints across the road, then another. We brake and pull to the shoulder. In a large open meadow with a ribbon of water winding down through it, more than a dozen elk, a few antlered bulls among them, graze emerald grasses. As they raise their muzzles, watching us watching them, steamy va-pors escape their nostrils. They show no fear.

We're in wolf country, says a sign posted at the KP trail-head kiosk in the Blue Range Primitive Area. We don't expect to encounter any of the nearly 20 wolves reintroduced into the Apache National Forest, but the poster tells us that wolves are naturally curious and may come calling. "The Blue" as the region is known, encompasses 174,000 acres of wild ground, home to black bear, elk, beaver, mountain lion, deer, bald eagle and now, thanks to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's recovery program, the Mexican gray wolf. Over time, 100 wolves will be released here, restoring the "call of the wild" to this wilderness. The trail begins just beyond KP Cienega, a large, wet alpine meadow at about 9,000 feet elevation in the heart of The Blue. A wooden sign points the way to the Blue River, 14 miles and nearly 4,000 feet below. But we're not going that far. We'll descend 3 miles and a little more than 1,000 feet along KP Creek to its confluence with the north fork, our turnaround for this 6-mile hike.

The trail follows the creek across the meadow a short distance before dropping into a spruce-fir and mixed hardwood forest. The first sound to our ears is the plaintive, liquid call of the hermit thrush, the sig-nature bird of dense mountain woodlands. Excited Steller's jays and tassel-eared squir-rels scold from the treetops; Western tiger swallowtail but-terflies float delicately among the streamside columbine and spotted monkeyflower; and native Apache trout lurk in fern-fringed pools.

Skipping across the stream many times on rocks or downed logs as we descend, we arrive at the intersection of the south and north forks of KP Creek, converging in lovely 12-foot waterfalls. From this point, the North Fork KP Trail travels northwest 2.4 miles to U.S. 191 2 miles below Hannagan Meadow, while the KP Trail leads to the Blue River, 11 miles east.

After a quick plunge into icy pools beneath the falls, we snack in the shade of Douglas fir and bigtooth maple trees. A burst of thunder peals close by. When a louder rumble follows, we reluctantly gather our gear and head back up the trail to KP Cienega and the shelter of our vehicle.M