TAKING THE OFF-RAMP

Moran's Lands

Until John Wesley Powell led his first expedition down the Colorado River in 1869, few people knew about the beauty of the Grand Canyon. While Powell's photographers recorded the region during his second trip in 1871, the sepia prints couldn't convey the color of sunlight and shadows against the Canyon's stunning formations.

So in 1873, a young illustrator for Scribner's Monthly accompanied Powell to the region to draw a series of sketches. Those magazine illustrations enhanced the reputation of Thomas Moran, who, during the next 40 years, would establish himself as the preeminent landscape painter of the American West.

Moran returned to Arizona Territory in 1892, when the Santa Fe Railroad offered him free transportation in return for the copyright to one of his paintings to be reproduced for railroad publicity. The relationship continued and, in exchange for railroad passes and hotel accommodations, Moran produced paintings that were used as promotional tools in hotels, railroad cars, guidebooks and brochures.

Moran's glowing canvases gave 19th-century America its images of Arizona's magnificent landscape. Moran pursued his love affair with the Grand Canyon for the rest of his life, traveling there almost every year between 1901, when the Santa Fe completed its rail line to the Canyon, until his death in 1926. And on many of those trips, rail travelers accompanied Moran, drawn to the region by the inspiring Arizona images he had painted. Among the Moran works on permanent display in Arizona is "Zoroaster Temple at Sunset" at the Phoenix Art Museum and "Lake Nemi" at West Valley Art Museum in Surprise.

Condors Just Wanna Have Fun

California condors produce a stunning sight when seen in flight or standing on an outcropping on the Grand Canyon's South Rim. Sometimes, however, the birds engage in unbecoming behavior. "Condors like to play," explains Chris Parish, project supervisor for the California Condor Restoration Project with The Peregrine Fund. "They like sticks, cans, garbage and especially colorful stuff."

Condors find brightly colored objects so tantalizing, they stop to play with them even while on the lam, such as in the case of Condor 210.

Condor 210's troubles started when she walked into the command-and-control center for fire-fighting operations during a fire on the North Rim. The condor led a biologist in comical pursuit as she flapped from one off-limits spot to another in the forested housing area.

Suddenly, something caught her eye.

A toy! A bright orange ball. Condor 210 immediately started to push the pretty sphere around with her bill, but the relentless biologist was closing in on her. Condor 210 faced a dilemma: the toy or freedom. She abandoned her little orange ball and flew to a ponderosa pine treetop, where she finally settled down for the night.

Peach-pickin' Time

The picking is peachy at Folded Hills Orchard. Owner Leonard Nawrocki tends nearly 1,100 fruit trees at his Eden-like orchard alongside lower Oak Creek. Specializing in peaches, he also grows apples, apricots, plums and blackberries.

When you pull through the gate and up the lane to the front yard, you'll see a sign nailed to a tree that says "Sound Horn." Ferdy, the dog, wags his tail in greeting, then Nawrocki emerges, shovel in hand, his white ballcap bearing the indigo stain of blackberry. You can pick the fruit yourself, or Nawrocki will gladly get it for you. Bring containers or borrow a bucket, and he'll point you to the choicest ripening fruit, dangling like nuggets from the branches.

If you plan to pick berries, wear a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, shoes and socks.

Once you're done harvesting, you can sit in one of the lawn chairs lined up under the umbrella of the big mulberry tree, while Nawrocki weighs the produce in the "sales room." The fruit, all organically grown, includes heirloom peach varieties like Red Havens, Glow Havens and New Havens. He has a Lodi apple tree, a new early-harvest variety coveted by apple cognoscenti.

Folded Hills Orchard is open Tuesdays through Sundays during the growing season, June through September. Nawrocki advises customers to come early in the day, before it gets too hot. Follow the signs off State Route 89A to Willow Point Road, about 8 miles north of Cottonwood. Information: (928) 634-4649.

Question of the Month

A family man, medicine man, seer and warrior, Goyahkla ("One Who Yawns") was born during the 1820s near the headwaters of the Gila River. Who was he?

As an adult, this Apache became known by the name the Mexicans called him, Geronimo, even among his own people.

CONTRIBUTORS Cochise's Bloody