Archive All Issues July 2002

Introducing: DESTINATION

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This new monthly feature will highlight a specific location that offers a special experience, a destination intended to enhance your travels in Arizona. This month''s Destination is the Red Setter Inn in the forested area of Greer.

Featured in the July 2002 Issue of Arizona Highways

WARNING: 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. 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.

TRAVEL ADVISORY: GPS waypoints given as UTM coordinates - T-Bar Ranch, 451588mE, 382847mN; Buck Mountain, 460345mE, 3839107mN.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Coconino National Forest, Happy Jack Information Center, (928) 477-2172; Mormon Lake Ranger District, (928) 774-1147.

644E, a short side road leading right to the ranch house of the historic and abandoned T-Bar Ranch, also known as Apache Maid homestead. The house, with hand-hewn beams and walls, stands open, its window panes and doors agape, but an old apple and pear orchard reminds that the place once operated as a working outfit. The T-Bar ranch house was built around 1884 following the Apache wars. The name historically associated with the property is that of pioneer cattleman Saxton Seth "Boss" Ackers. Ackers had a good eye for land. The house stands in the lee of 7,307-foot Apache Maid Mountain, and the 320-acre spread takes in a broad alpine meadow and water holes where elk graze in mornings and evenings. Elk-watchers Arrive around Happy Jack in springtime to observe new calves and in September for the bulls' rutting bugle.

Back on 229, go 1.1 miles to an intersection, then veer right and follow Apache Maid Mountain signs for 4.3 miles on well-packed Forest Service Road 620 up switchbacks to the summit. There you'll find rest rooms, a picnic table and a Forest Service fire lookout, which is staffed from May through September.

According to legends, the mountain was named either for an Apache woman killed in an 1873 battle, or for one who was saved or for a woman who arrived with a column of cavalry troops from Camp Verde. Pick the version you like.

The view from the top takes in the 12,000-foot summit of the San Francisco Peaks some 45 miles north, where snowcaps may linger into July. A canopy of ponderosa and oak trees stretches away, punctuated by green pools of open alpine parkland. Elk regularly cross over the mountain between water holes.

These highlands, rich in ochre-colored volcanic soil that turns into instant gumbo following heavy rains, nurture a host of wild blooms. A favorite is the evening primrose with its white blossoms that scent cool May mornings with a sultry perfume.

Coming off the mountain, watch for quiet campsites in the woods. Go cautiously, though. Some side roads are rough with large boulders. At the bottom of the mountain, the same 229 that brought you comfortably along now jerks right and becomes the bone-jarring, two-rut, four-wheel-drive road you see disappearing into the forest. It, too, goes to Happy Jack-the hard way-porpoising in and out of potholes, which, during the spring, fill with standing water, before returning after 5.6 miles to a maintained hardpacked road. Summer dries the four-wheeldrive segment hard but does nothing to smooth the bumps. Avoid this "shortcut" if driving a low-clearance vehicle.

Choosing the best road from the Apache Maid intersection is easy. Take the wide, well-traveled one bearing northeast, now redesignated as Forest Service Road 230. Drive 2.1 miles and take the marked FR 230C to the left for three-tenths of a mile to a woodland picnic spot and a turnaround at the usually dry Forest Service stream gauge at Monument Tanks.

Another 5.6 miles farther on FR 230 takes you past prime Western bluebirdand nuthatch-watching spots near stock tanks at Bill Back and Pratt natural parks to where 230 becomes one with 213, the Stoneman Lake Road, and then both arrive near a public rest room at Forest Highway 3.

Bordered by tall pines and lush alpine parks, the 56-mile-long paved FH 3 between Clints Well and Flagstaff rates as one of the most scenic drives in Arizona. Turn right and go 4.1 miles through Happy Jack-there's a seasonal Forest Service office there - then another 4.2 miles and watch for the right turn onto 229-the maintained eastern end of the four-wheel-drive route. The marked left turn onto FR 229B, just past the Bar D Ranch, leads to the Buck Mountain fire lookout at 4.3 miles.

A gate blocks the road that heads up the 7,097-foot mountain, but it's okay to hike the short distance to the summit and enjoy a vista of rolling pine canopies and distant valleys. The whole tour will take a day. And even when it's time to return home, Happy Jack offers scenic alternatives. To Flagstaff, FH 3 passes Mormon Lake, where elk often wade in the shallows. To Phoenix, 140 miles south, take FH 3 for a loop down the General Crook Highway back to 1-17 through historic Camp Verde, or continue to U.S. Route 87 and drop over the Mogollon Rim to Payson.

No matter which way you turn, you'll experience a delightful back road adventure.