. Rim Country ARIZONA
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SUMMER 2014
THE JOURNIGAN HOUSE 202 W. Main St. • 928-474-2900
Featuring Great Food & Drink Specials Daily Julian Journigan was born in Flagstaff in 1884. His mother died when he was just eleven days old. Julian’s grandparents, John and Louisa See took him in, raising him in Strawberry and the Tonto Basin. They soon found themselves also raising their grandson Charley See, seven years younger than Julian. The two boys grew to become fast friends and later business partners. As a young man, Julian worked as a cowboy and in 1906, at age 22, he joined the Forest Service. He was stationed at Roosevelt under Superintendent Roscoe Willson, but after two years left that service to work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at San Carlos. In February 1910 he married Margaret (“Madge”) Solomon and they had two children, Jack and Delsie Dee. In 1921 Julian’s cousin Charley asked him to come to Globe and help operate the mail stage between Globe and Payson. The Stage was still horse drawn and for several years the two of them hauled mail and passengers through swollen creeks and over dirt roads. In 1923 Julian secured a Cadillac car and the mail stage became mechanized. Julian and his Cadillac quickly became an institution in the Tonto and Payson Basins. He not only delivered the mail, but carried packages and passengers. Folks along the way often asked him to buy this or that for them in Globe, which he cheerfully did. One lady had him take a piece of some material she was sewing so he could buy thread to match the color. One of his nieces, local author Marguerite Noble, says that Julian also brought the local gossip with him along the route. There were no newspapers, radio, or television so people had to get their news by word of mouth. She tells that Stella Frazier, the postmistress at Roosevelt, read all the post cards and filled Julian in on what others were doing so
he could pass it on. About 1924 Journigan’s partner and cousin, Charley See gave up the mail route and Julian enlarged the route on his own. Mail routes were done by contract with the Federal government and the person who won the contract would often sublet portions of the route to others. These rural routes were called “Star Routes” because the asterisks on the contract noting sublets were called stars. Journigan won the contract for the entire route between Globe and the Verde Valley, going by way of Fossil Creek and including all stops in between. By this time mail service was daily along the extended route and required a number of subcontractors. Since he was settled into a job that seemed substantial, in 1925 Julian and his family built their house on Main Street. It’s what now is considered the front one-third of the building at 202 W. Main. From Journigan’s house on Main Street to Globe was a day’s trip in the Cadillac Stage. The party would stop for lunch at the Angler’s Inn near Roosevelt Lake. The noon meal consisted of cowboy beans, jerky, gravy, and hot biscuits. The special treat was iced tea, made with ice that had been packed in from Globe. On the return trip to Payson the climb up Ox Bow Hill often required the passengers to get out of the Cadillac and help it up the hill by placing stones behind the wheels as it crept along. In 1932 Julian lost his bid for the mail route. While the family still lived on Main Street, he went to work on the ChilsonTremaine cattle ranches around Rye and continued his favorite sport of mining. It was in April of 1941, after a trip to his claims near the headwaters of Slate Creek, that Julian Journigan suffered a heart attack at the Sunflower Store and died. He was 57 years old and is buried in the Payson Pioneer Cemetery.
Payson’s Main Street Entertainment Center
2014 Summer Visitors Guide 4: Wisdom Sits in Places 6: Hiking Guide 10: Mountain Biking 12: Swimming Holes 14: Camping Guide 18: Fishing Guide 20: Tonto National Monument
22: Tonto Apache Tribe 24: Tonto Natural Bridge 26: Horsing Around 28: Mogollon Rim 30: Shoofly Ruins 32: Dirt-Road Adventure 34: Pine and Strawberry 38: Tonto Basin 40: Blue Ridge Reservoir 42: Geocaching
43: Fossil Creek 44: Christopher Creek 46: Payson Trails 50: Eagle Watching 52: Payson Recreation 54: Music Scene 55: Summer Concerts 56: Live Music Venues 57: Community Garden 58: Dining Guide 64: Lodging Guide
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Wisdom sits in places . . PETE ALESHIRE ROUNDUP EDITOR
So I’m just sitting here — letting the Mogollon Rim smooth my mind out. It always seems to work, if I just sit and let my mind settle — like river water full of silt. Not hard to do, given the view. The Mogollon Rim’s a 200-mile-long cliff of limestone and sandstone that runs through the heart of Arizona, defining Rim Country. The top of the Rim stands at some 7,000 feet and it’s visible from all over Payson, in its shadow at 5,000 feet. The Rim offers views of pretty much everything worth seeing. On most days, you can see for at least 100 miles — far to the jagged horizon. The sedimentary rocks of the Rim preserve vanished oceans and vast deserts — and their ancient layers harbor evidence of at least two mass extinctions. Just behind where I sit settled on a slab of sea bottom limestone runs the historic Crook Trail, which General George Crook used to link Camp Verde and Fort Apache in his relentless war against the Apache. Those proud warriors eventually succumbed to the years-long effort to starve their families into surrender. They accepted exile to the distant San Carlos Reservation, but eventually slipped away to return stubbornly to their ancient homes. Some settled in Payson, where they won recognition as the Tonto Apache Tribe. I have spent years studying the tragedy of the Apache Wars, wondering why they fought so hard for their particular piece of wilderness, yearning for it, returning to it, dying for it.
Then I read a remarkable book called “Wisdom sits in Places” by anthropologist Keith Basso. He explained the Apache concept of place naming and their spiritual relationship to the land. The Apache had an elaborate set of stories — parables really — explaining moral behavior, each connected to a particular place. And because everyone knew the stories, people could offer criticism or suggestions or advice, by simply slipping the usually very descriptive name of a place into the conversation. Moreover, Apaches are urged to seek a “smooth mind,” safe from anger and greed and fear. They want to grow in strength and wisdom. Turns out, the best way to pull that off is to find a place of beauty and harmony and let it shape and smooth your mind. That’s why they say that wisdom sits in places. Well, that’s how I feel about this slab of rock on the edge of the world, with its 100-mile views and the constant keening of the wind through the pine needles. Of course, I know lots of places in Rim Country that will make you wise if you let them — a grassy bank of the East Verde River; a ridge near the cliff dwellings of Tonto National Monument where the poppies grow every spring; a place downstream from the world’s largest natural travertine arch, where brilliant green water cress contrasts with deep pink water sculpted granite. You’ll find all those places in our Summer 2014 Rim Country Visitors Guide. We hope you’ll find your own slab of rock with a view of forever, extinctions, summer tanagers and monarch butterflies. Then just sit a spell — feel the sun, listen to the wind. Before you know it, you’ll be wise. Or maybe napping.
Rim Country Regional Chamber of Commerce
Produced by Roundup Publishing
100 W. Main Street P.O. Box 1380 Payson, AZ 85547 928.474.4515/800.672.9766 www.rimcountrychamber.com
708 N. Beeline Highway P.O. Box 2520 Payson, AZ 85547 928.474.5251 www.payson.com
Publisher’s Note: Despite our best editing, the Rim Country Regional Chamber of Commerce assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Information is current as of June 2014. Photos and stories copyright Payson Roundup.
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Take a hike . . Rim Country favorites
Meandering along the banks of Horton Creek with a shaggy companion proves ... it’s the journey – not the destination PETE ALESHIRE ROUNDUP EDITOR
This time, I’m gonna make the spring — maybe even the top of the Rim. Nothing’s gonna stop me. Just as soon as I make a little detour to investigate the alluring rush of water just off the Horton Creek Trail, my favorite hike in Rim Country. I look up the trail to where my boon companion, Lobo, has strayed from the trail to stick his big, wet nose into a patch of lush, green, primordial 6 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
ferns sprinkled with little yellow wildflowers. “Hey, mutt,” I holler, “this way.” He ignores me, but I know he’s taking in every mutter and curse. We have an odd relationship, my wolfish dog and I. He adopted me years ago on the streets of Tucson — looking like a scrawny wolf or a huskie coyote. He’s hands down the best dog I ever had, except for his determination to make it clear that we’re in a voluntary relationship — none of that master-slave stuff for Lobo. So I don’t
Photos by Pete Aleshire
necessarily expect him to come running — I just make sure that he knows when I’m going to change directions. This way he can keep track of me and amble along in roughly the same direction, while saving his integrity. “OK, Lobo. I’m going to go down to the stream,” I add in a loud voice, although I know that all he hears is
“blah, Lobo, blah, blah, blah, blah.” He looks up now and cocks his head skeptically. He’s heard this line before. “Really. Just for a minute. We’re going to get all the way to the Rim today.” He shrugs and sticks his big, wet, black nose back into the ferns.” I shake my head and scramble down toward the stream. Just as I suspected: The noise of the stream marks a spot where Horton Creek rushed down a limestone incline before spilling over a perfect limestone ledge into a perfect little pool. I just recently acquired a new camera — one of those mega-megapixel jobs with a computer chip that can out-think me. I’ve spent years struggling to make those beautiful blurred water photographs you see in the magazines, which involves slowing the shutter way, way down. In daylight, that usually involves a tripod. Unfortunately, my hikes are so improvisational and my planning so pathetic that I almost never remember to bring my tripod. But the new camera has this little swing-out viewfinder, so I can put the camera on a rock, flip out the viewfinder line up the photo in a crouch. So every little outcrop becomes a tripod and I’m in the blurry water business. And that makes Horton Creek my current favorite Rim Country hike, with miles of perfect little spillovers. So I photo, photo, photograph. Perfect. I look up. Oh my. Just up stream I see an even perfecter spillover. I slog upstream, jump onto a well-placed rock tripod just in front of the spillover, slip off, plunge into the creek up to my knees and scramble out, holding my camera aloft. No matter, This just makes it easier to position myself, not
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WALK AROUND A LAKE: On a hot day, the perimeter of Woods Canyon Lake up on the Rim offers a leisurely stroll around a beautiful lake at about 7,500 feet. The lake usually remains open throughout the summer season despite forest closures. Enjoy watching the antics of local critters from birds in the air to fishermen in boats. Osprey and bald eagles glide and dip in their never-ending search for a meal. Ducks crowd the water’s edge looking for a handout. As the sun dips below the horizon, the fish feed a tantalizing few feet from the messing with that whole staying dry thing. shore frustrating fishermen when they refuse to take the I hunker down, set my camera on the rock, squint, ad- bait — but it’s still worth a try because the fishermen are aljust the shutter speed. Hold my breath, press the shutter, ways out in force. then curse as a fine spray of water covers me and he camera. I turn. Lobo’s standing there, damp and dripping, just WANDER THE RIM: finishing a nice shake. If breathtaking views and an easy stroll are the agenda, “LOBO!” I cry with emphasis. then pull over at any viewing spot overlooking the Rim He grins wolfishly and wags, each wag flicking me with after turning onto Forest Road 300 at the Woods Canyon another set of droplets. He just loves hearing his name. turnoff and take off on the paved Rim Trail. The trail Then he shrugs and wades off across the stream, knowing winds through the forest overlooking the Mogollon Rim we’ll never make the Rim, now that I’ve got the camera out. for a couple of miles, with long stretches of it paved. That But Lobo understands the great truth of hiking. makes it an easy jaunt for bikes, joggers, people pushing It’s not the destination: It’s the journey. strollers or even the wheelchair bound. Hit the trail to So herewith I offer a list of some of Lobo’s favorite watch the sun set while sitting with legs dangling over the hikes. edge of the world.
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A STROLL BY THE CREEK: Horton Creek Trail can be a four-mile trek or a slow walk by a stunning creek. Fed by a spring under the Rim at the junction of the Highline Trail and the top of Horton Creek Trail, the meandering jaunt has the unique quality of being shaded by trees for most of the length of the trail. At the top of the trail, a switchback helps the hiker break a sweat to fully appreciate the cool and refreshing waters of Horton Spring. To find the trailhead, drive up the road that leads to the Tonto Creek Fish Hatchery. At the bridge next to the RV park, leave a vehicle in the parking lot. The trail is across the street and up a hill. AN ALL DAY ADVENTURE: With a 1,200-foot elevation change in four miles, the Fossil Creek Trail is more than a hike — it’s an adventure. The arid trail is hot and exposed. So get down early and return as the day starts to cool. Don’t become one of the many ill-prepared hikers who ends up needing help from the Tonto Rim Search and Rescue and Mounted Posse groups. To reach the trailhead, drive down Fossil Creek Road in Strawberry that juts off from Highway 87 north and 260 west. Continue down the paved road until it turns into a rutted bumpy dirt road. Signs direct hikers to the trailhead
that has his and her outhouses. A LITTLE BIT OF BOULDERING: If a bit a scrambling does not cause a case of nerves, consider hiking along the edge of Tonto Creek down by the tiny housing development Bear Flat. Be warned, however, even the road to get to the parking lot will force a car to pull out the stops. Bumpy, rutted, steep and twisty, the Bear Flat road drops quickly into the steep canyon carved out by the rushing waters of Tonto Creek. Fishermen most often come to this stretch of waterway to cast about for stocked trout. A wisp of a trail clings to the edge of the creek often getting lost in a pile of boulders a hiker may choose to weave in and out of or climb over. Deep pools, slides over huge boulders and grottos under bowers of trees make for a hike unlike many others. Tonto Creek slices through the aptly named Hellsgate Wilderness. Those who have decided to canyoneer farther beyond the parking lot at Bear Flat report experiencing landscapes so harrowing, signs posted nearby clearly state, “Warning — Be aware if an emergency happens, you will not be rescued.” To get there, take Highway 260 past Star Valley. Around Christopher Creek, look for the road to Bear Flat off to the right. Follow the signs to the parking lot.
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Mountain Biking Mecca
ALEXIS BECHMAN ROUNDUP STAFF REPORTER
Ask at either of the town’s mountain bike shops and employees will declare: Payson has some of the best trails in the state — even rivaling that of Sedona. “When we go up to Sedona and meet other people and tell them we are from Payson we get, ‘Too bad there are no trails over there,’” said 87 Cyclery co-owner Andy Cailliau. “There are tons of good trails up here, but nobody knows about them.” Certified Bicycle owner Mick Wolf has for years touted Rim Country’s singletrack trails, even helping build new trails and put on biking events. There is no central database of bike trails, but stop by either shop and the owners will offer suggestions based on ability and interest. 87 Cyclery hosts a Wednesday 10 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
night ride free each week. 2. RIM LAKES Here are the top eight places to Also on top of the Rim, 40 minmountain bike in Rim Country, listed utes east of Payson, is the Rim Lakes in no particular order. Recreation Area. The area around the Rim Lakes 1. CABIN LOOP offers some of the mellowest riding in Payson draws summer crowds Rim Country. thanks to the cool temperatures on the The Carr Lake Trail system is a se7,000-foot Mogollon Rim. A favorite ries of interconnected trails that riders among riders is the Cabin Loop, can take in any direction. which incorporates the Arizona, Fred Rides go from short and easy to Haught, Houston Brothers, Barber- 30-plus miles that incorporate all levels shop and U-Bar trails. The challenging of riding. Cabin Loop is remote, requiring an “Depending on the route you hour drive from Payson. Head north take, you can include a stop at one of from Payson on Highway 87 to the the many lakes, which all include Forest Road 300 turnoff. Head 12 abundant camping and fishing, with miles east on the dirt road to the Ari- numerous connecter trails in bezona Trailhead. Park and head north tween,” Wolf said. to the loop. For the more adventurous Other popular trails in the Rim riders, park at the bottom of the Rim Lakes area include the General Crook, at Washington Park and hike your Vista, Drew, Military Sinkhole, Wilbike up the Arizona Trail to the Cabin low Springs Lake and the Woods Loop. Canyon Lake trails.
3. HIGHLINE TRAIL Below the Rim, 20 miles east of Payson, is Rim Country’s quintessential mountain biking trail — the Highline Trail. The 260 section of the Highline Trail starts at the 260 Trailhead off Highway 260 and runs west to See Canyon near Christopher Creek. Recently, Volunteers for Outdoor Arizona (VOAZ) completed a lot of work on the trail. VOAZ built three miles of new singletrack along the Highline going west from See Canyon, adding an awesome six-mile out and back. Riders can go out-n-back on it or make a loop using Highway 260. For more challenge, loop the trail up and down the Rim using the Military Sinkhole, Rim Vista, General Crook and Drew trails. Another popular trail below the Rim and east of Payson is the Horton Creek Trail.
6. HOUSTON MESA LOOP On the north side of Payson, lies the Houston Mesa Loop. Part of the Payson Area Trails System, the loop is a great in-town trail for beginning to advanced riders. Though comprised mostly of motorized trails, the Houston Mesa Loop is fast and flowy. The trail creates a lollipop, starting either at the Horse Camp Trailhead or at the Houston Mesa Trailhead. The trail descends down toward Star Valley, and is eight to 12 miles in length.
7. PINE-STRAWBERRY In the last few years, Pine-Strawberry volunteers have been busy building new singletrack around their communities that offer a fuel break. From the Pine Trailhead, you can access the 4. HORTON western end of the HighCREEK/TONTO line Trail. Across Highway FISH HATCHERY 87 from the Pine Trailhead, The Horton Creek you can access the Arizona Trail has always been one of Trail. the prettiest hikes. Once finUp the road from Pine, ished, the Highline section, at the southern end of going east from the fish Strawberry is the Pinehatchery to Horton and the Strawberry Trailhead. This Derrick trails, will make it trail stays high, paralleling one of the best loops. The the highway as you ride totrail is about 15 miles east of ward Hardscrabble Road. Payson on Highway 260. Across from the P-S Starting at the Horton Creek Trailhead, it is a four-mile Trailhead is the Bearfoot Trail which incorporates seven climb to the spring, with a four-mile downhill back down. new miles of singletrack heading east from the highway. In the spring of 2014, VOAZ built three miles of new The Bearfoot Trail connects with the Dripping Springs singletrack above Horton along the Highline Trail. The new Trail. section of the Highline starts at the Fish Hatchery Trailhead Ask Pedals n Pistons in Pine, 6223 Hardscrabble Mesa and heads east to the power lines. From the power lines, Road, No. 2 for more details on current trail conditions. continue on the old Highline Trail to the top of Horton Creek, taking the Horton Creek Trail down. 8. CRACKERJACK MINE The views along Crackerjack Mine Road are fantastic. 5. GRANITE DELLS/BOULDERS/TRAIL 200 Pick up this long, sometimes-rough dirt road just outside of Part of the Payson Area Trails System is the Granite Payson as you head toward Pine. It’s the first dirt road Dells/Boulders area that sits between Payson and Star Val- turnoff to the left dignified by a stop sign. ley. The road leads through the woods down to the East The Boulders Trail offers a nice intermediate loop, Verde River, crosses the river, then climbs up onto a high while a new trail in the area called Trail 200 offers some of plateau. From there, it’s mostly a glorious downhill to anthe most challenging singletrack in and around Payson. other crossing of the Verde River at Doll Baby Ranch. Most The 200 loop is five miles of 100 percent singletrack, fea- riders don’t head all the way to Doll Baby Ranch Road, turing steep climbs and fast and technical descents winding preferring instead to turn around at East Verde Estates to in and out of giant boulders. The best way to access the return to their vehicles parked just off the highway. Boulders Trails and Trail 200 is at the bottom of Phoenix For more information, visit Certified Bicycle at 410 W. Street off Highway 87. Main St. or call (928) 970-2472. 2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 11
Holing up in a swimming hole PETE ALESHIRE
through the granite, creating a 50-foot-high waterfall that plunges into this deep, long pool. The East Verde remains one of my favorite providers of I’m breaststroking — but not making much progress. Up ahead, the waterfall roars — a frothing din of sound swimming holes in Rim Country, partly because it’s so bouncing back and forth between the flood-smoothed gran- close. Other streams provide their own pleasures, including Tonto Creek, Haigler ite walls of this dramatic Creek, Christopher Creek cleft carved out by the and Fossil Creek. Then seemingly innocuous East when summer bears down, Verde River. the chain of lakes atop the Now, you’ve got to Rim offer a new set of make allowances for my splashing about possibiliwater shoes and my currentties. catching water shirt and the But right now, I’m folazy indolence of a long, cused on fighting my way sun-soaked day. But still, upstream to the waterfall. the current’s pushing back I’m determined to swim with surprising force. right in under the waterfall Feels like I’m in and lose myself in the roar. Havasu Creek in the depths Not possible. of the Grand Canyon or But the current shoves maybe challenging the flow me over to the wall. I grab of the Salt River. what handholds I can find But it’s just the East and haul myself with Verde River in the dramatic drowning rat determinanarrows above the Water tion hand-over-hand up Wheel day-use area. A juminto the smash of water. ble of granite forged miles The water pounds on me, beneath the surface and most of it pumped out of then over hundreds of milthe Blue Ridge Reservoir, lions of years thrust up into piped to an outflow at the the sunlight ‚ to form a roilhead of the East Verde, ing barrier to the normally then run down the stream well-behaved East Verde, all the way to the Verde one of the most underestiRiver miles below. mated recreational opporThe blast of water eventunities in the state. tually rips me loose from Between first and secmy death grip on the rock ond crossings of the stream on Houston Mesa Road near Beaver Valley, the stream wan- and I float out of the thunder, staring up at the slit of sky — ders through a sculpted landscape of spillovers and slots. hardly believing such a well-mannered little stream can proThe stream eventually gathers itself for one last lurch vide such a perfect swimming hole. ROUNDUP EDITOR
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Rim Country’s Best Swimming Holes EAST VERDE RIVER Flowing Springs Road: Head out of Payson toward Pine and after five miles turn on Flowing Springs Road. Beyond a popular campground the dirt road follows the stream for a couple of miles, with lots of places to pull over and get down to the water. Houston Mesa Road: Take Houston Mesa Road at the west end of Payson past Mesa del Caballo and Beaver Valley. The Forest Service maintains a string of day-use areas along the creek. Whispering Pines: Houston Mesa Road eventually connects with the Control Road at Whispering Pines. You can access the creek along a network of dirt roads between the Control Road and Whispering Pines.
down to the stream anywhere along the roughly five miles of dirt road up to the hatchery. Bear Flat: Just before you reach Kohl’s Ranch, you can turn off on Bear Flat Road. The good dirt road descends steeply in the next five miles to Tonto Creek just before it flows into the Hellsgate Wilderness. Park where the road dead-ends and make your way downstream for a series of rocky pools that provide great swimming holes.
FOSSIL CREEK From Strawberry, you can hike down the steep, demanding Fossil Creek Trail. Bring plenty of water and good footwear. You can also drive around to the Camp Verde side, where a long, dirt road eventually reaches Fossil Creek. That involves a roughly 60-minute drive from Pine. TONTO CREEK Despite the difficult access, Fossil Creek without doubt has Tonto Creek remains one of the most popular fishing the best series of swimming holes in Arizona. The traverstreams in Arizona, thanks to heavy weekly stockings from tine-tinted spring water creates miles of deep, crystal clear the Tonto Creek Fish Hatchery. The creek also offers a se- water that looks like some kind of tropical paradise. A ries of pools appropriate for splashing about. roughly two-mile hike from the parking area brings you to Tonto Creek Road: Turn to the north opposite Kohl’s a spectacular waterfall that has carved a remarkable 25-footRanch. This road provides access to several campgrounds, deep pool. But you’ll find lots of pools glinting with native as well as Horton Creek. Look for little turnouts and get fish all along the creek.
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Rim Country Camping Photos by Pete Aleshire
ALEXIS BECHMAN
views of the forest. No doubt about it: Waking up to a When Highway 87 fills with back- 200-mile view puts your life in perto-back campers and RVs on a Friday, spective. But if you arrive late and find all you know summer has officially kicked of these spots taken, there are hunoff. Some of the best campsites in the dreds of other sites to choose from. But state attract flocks of campers — espe- remember, the maximum stay at most cially refugees from the triple-digit Val- is 14 days. ley summers. SITES Anglers can find campsites nestled ... WITH A VIEW just off the banks of trout-stocked lakes; • Forest Road 9350 and Forest photographers favor panoramic sites Road 171 — Numbered sites off both from the Mogollon Rim; poets seek quiet spots tucked back into the woods roads, most with a fire ring and picnic and social networkers enjoy bustling table. From Payson, head east on Highway 260 to Forest Road 300. Head east campgrounds. Personally, I like a site with a view. past the Mogollon Rim Visitor Center While a campsite nestled in the woods to reach FR 171 and west on FR 300 offers peace and solitude, perching for FR 9350; free. • Rim Campground — 26 campyour tent on the edge of a 2,000-foot sites with access to drinking water; escarpment is truly out of sight. Forest Road 9350, with 50 free fee. • Mogollon Campground — 26 campsites, and Forest Road 171, with 20, offer the most stunning panoramic sites; fee. ROUNDUP STAFF REPORTER
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... IN THE WOODS • Forest Road 195 — 20 dispersed sites, no facilities; free. • Forest Road 237 — 20 dispersed sites, no facilities; free. • Forest Road 9354 — 50 dispersed sites, no facilities, free. • Sharp Creek Campground — 23 miles northeast of Payson, 1/2 mile east of Christopher Creek, fee. • South of Highway 260, camping is allowed along Forest Roads 171, 181, 9512E and 79. Watch for signs describing where you can camp.
... NEAR WATER • Sinkhole Campground — 26 sites, boat ramp access to Willow Springs Lake; fee. • Aspen Campground — 136 sites, near Woods Canyon Lake; fee. • Spillway Campground — 26 sites, near Woods Canyon Lake; fee. • Forest Roads 84, 89 and 9018 — free dispersed camping sites near
Bear Canyon Lake. • Flowing Springs — several miles north of town off Flowing Springs Road. Free dispersed camping, vault toilets. • Knoll Lake Campground — 30 sites, boat ramp; $14 a night. • Christopher Creek Campground — 21 miles east of Payson on Highway 260; 43 campsites with tables, fire pits,
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• Houston Mesa Campground — two miles north of Payson off Houston Mesa Road. Picnic tables, restrooms and showers; fee. • Payson Campground; this in-town developed campground at 808 E. Highway 260 has a pool and is open year-round; fee. • Ponderosa Campground — 15 miles east of Payson off Highway 260. 61 units with tables, grills, drinking water, vault toilets, nature trail and amphitheater. Open year-round. Hosts available, fee. • Christopher Creek — 28 units with tables, grills, drinking water, vault toilets and lantern holders; fee. For more information, visit www.paysonrim country.com or www.fs.usda.gov/main/tonto.
... NEAR TONTO BASIN Heading south, several campgrounds near Roosevelt Lake, central Arizona’s largest lake, are open all year, but get quite hot during the summer months so bring a sunshade. • Cholla — Near the lake, Cholla is the largest all-solar-powered campground in the United States, according to the Forest Service. Views include the Four Peaks, Sierra Anchas and the lake. Fishing for largemouth bass, sunfish and flathead catfish is yearround. • Windy Hill recreation site — Nearly 350 campsites along paved loops, most with shade ramadas, fire rings, picnic tables and potable water hydrants. Toilets and showers are also located throughout the loops. The site includes an amphitheater, playgrounds and a picnic area. • Schoolhouse recreation site — Sits east of the other campgrounds. There are 211 campsites, some tent-only, and most have a fire ring and picnic tables. The site is also a popular river access point to the Upper Salt River.
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Rim Country Fishing Lopsided battle of wits with a critter that’s got a brain the size of a walnut PETE ALESHIRE ROUNDUP EDITOR
If I was a fish — I’d definitely want me to catch me. Here I am, standing on a flood-polished boulder below Bear Flat on Tonto Creek, casting my nymph like some kinda natural born fishing fool. I got my floppy hat, polarized sunglasses, squishy water shoes, multi-pocket fishing vest and surgical clamp hook removal thingy. Those pea-brained paragons of piscinity outta be jumping out of this deep swirl of a pool into my ever-so-stylish fish net dangling with such allure from my neck. But they’re not. But I got a three-pound brain, noodling constantly in the roomy comfort of my cranium. And I drove all the way down the twisty little dirt road to Bear Flat to escape the the weekend crowds of fishermen drawn to the more easily accessible stretches of the East Verde and Tonto Creek —not to mention the popular lakes atop the Rim. Forest Road 405 to Bear Flat fetches up against a beautiful little campground. Here, you can hop on the Bear Flat Trail that leads on into the 37,000-acre Hellsgate Wilderness. You can hike about five miles to the wilderness boundary and turn around, or plunge on down into Hellsgate — a jagged trail that ranks second only to Fossil Creek when it comes to generating entertainment for the search 18 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
and rescue folks all summer long. The upper reaches of Tonto Creek flow reliably with the outpouring of a 1,300-gallon-per-minute series of springs above the fish hatchery. But when it comes to floods, Tonto Creek can rely on water draining off nearly 1,000 square miles beneath the edge of the Mogollon Rim. Rainfall ranges from 38 inches annually at its upper reaches — to more like 14 inches down at Punkin Center. The flow of this stubborn little creek goes through dramatic gyrations. Back in 1978, stream gauges recorded a record 469,000 acre-feet — enough water to supply all Payson’s needs for about 234 years. But in 1971, the creek carried just 1,245 acre-feet, according to the Arizona Water Atlas — a roughly nine-month supply for Payson. So I’m working the stream with deft expertise — taking full advantage of my three-pound brain to imagine where all the fish are hiding. Of course, I’m not catching anything. So I’ve got lots of time to watch the clouds cavort. Maybe even untutored trout are smarter than I figured. Read recently a study suggesting fish can count up to four. I’m not talking about that study by Dr. Seuss (One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish) … I’m talking about the experiment in the journal Cognition, which showed that fish can quickly count and compare the number of fish in other
groups — up to about five. After that, they apparently just figure it’s a bunch of fish. Near as I can tell, the experiment relied on allowing mosquitofish to react to a threat by darting toward groups of fish in tanks on either side. They reliably headed for the larger group of fish. Not sure this accounts for why they’re not biting my cunning nymph, but one must seek one’s comfort where one can. But it’s getting late — which means the light’s getting good. Time to exchange my fishing pole for my camera. With piscines, my record’s mixed, but I’m 100 percent when it comes to capturing photons. You gotta go with what works. It don’t take a three-pound brain to figure that one out.
Best Rim Country Fishing Holes Tonto Creek: Great fishing off Tonto Creek Road, deep pools stocked weekly. East Verde River: Stocked weekly along Houston Mesa and Flowing Springs Road. Haigler Creek: Dirt-road thins out fishermen. Browns in stretch below Fisherman’s Point.
Woods Canyon Lake: Easy access off FR 300. Boats for rent, with heavy weekly stocking. Willow Springs Lake: Easy access off Hwy. 260 atop the Rim. Heavily stocked weekly. Roosevelt Lake: Bass and catfish all summer long, but you’ll need a boat. Hot during the day.
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Clues to an ancient mystery hidden in plain sight
PETE ALESHIRE
ously some 150 years later. The creation of Tonto National A baffling and vital missing per- Monument protected those two sets son’s case lies hidden in plain sight be- of cliff dwellings — preserving clues to neath the sparkling waters of a mystery that reverberates across the entire Southwest with the still unexRoosevelt Lake in the Tonto Basin. But it’s hard to pull off the per- plained collapse of inner-connected fect crime — without leaving at least civilizations that had survived 1,000 years of drought, floods and famine one clue. The best clue to the mystery sits only to collapse sometime in the off Highway 188 sheltered by a great 1400s. The remaining ruins include the overhanging cliff, ruins of mud and stone built with enormous effort by Upper Cliff Dwellings open only with the Salado Indians in about A.D. guided tours that include 32 ground1300 and then abandoned mysteri- floor rooms, eight of them with a secROUNDUP EDITOR
20 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
ond story. The Lower Cliff Dwellings open daily at the top of a steep trail from the visitors center include 16 ground-floor rooms, three of which had a second story. The people who lived here probably spent much of their lives on the roofs of their homes, protected from the elements by the overhanging cliff. The Tonto Basin lay at a crossroads of those connected civilizations, picking up elements of the Pueblo people to the north, the Hohokam to the south, the Chaco Canyon influenced people to the east and even the seashell trading peoples of California. The first people entered the Tonto Basin at least 5,000 years ago — perhaps much sooner. They started developing the distinctive Salado culture in about 1100, building elaborate irrigation works along the Salt River. They built a string of villages along the Salt River and Tonto Creek, most of the sites now submerged by the reservoirs. They most closely resembled the Hohokam, who built even more elaborate cities and irrigation works in the Phoenix area. The Salado organized their villages around curious platform mounds, which often started by filling in huge blocks of rooms with dirt to make a man-made hill, on which they built large new complexes of buildings. Archaeologists believe the emergence of the platform mounds indicates the development of a class structure, founded on control of the irrigation works and resulting crop surpluses. The Salado developed a distinctive form of pottery called Salado polychrome, beautiful red pots with striking black designs outlined in white. Evidence suggests they developed this distinctive and complex style of pottery through borrowing from trading partners and creative experimentation, using local clays and materials.
Studies have revealed unexpectedly complex technology and artistry necessary to create the sharp separation of these rich colors. The bold designs became the rage throughout a wide area, which made the output of the Salado a prized trade item throughout the region. The pottery showed up in a place of honor among the Hohokam, the Mogollon and the Ancestral Puebloan (or Anasazi) — the three major cultures in the Southwest between about 1100 and the mid-1400s. The Ancestral Puebloan built the great cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde and other sites throughout northern Arizona and Colorado. The Hohokam built great irrigations works and great cities in Phoenix and Tucson. The Mogollon occupied Rim Country along the great crossroads of the trade routes from California to New Mexico. All of that underscores the perhaps crucial role played by the Salado, who built the great cliff houses of Tonto National Monument, overlooking Roosevelt Lake. The intriguing spread of Salado pottery leaves unsolved the central mystery these silent, impressively preserved ruins now harbor. Why did the Salado expend the enormous effort to build these cliff dwellings so far from their irrigated fields along the Salt River? And then why did they abandon those cliff dwellings barely a century after they completed
them? Those still argued questions haunt and animate any visit to Tonto National Monument. But they also demonstrate that people have depended on Rim Country to sustain them for at least 5,000 years — and still counting.
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Tonto Apache celebrations The Tonto Apache Tribe fought for a century to establish their small reservation on the outskirts of Payson, after suffering exile and persecution. Now, they operate the Mazatzal Hotel and Casino, contribute to community causes and celebrate ancient lifeways. The tribe recently celebrated the first Sunrise Ceremony since establishment of the reservation. The coming-of-age ceremony relied on the use of masked Apache Crown Dancers. The dancers impersonate the G’an Mountain Spirits, the guardians and guides for the people in traditional Apache culture. The dancers also include a “clown” who carries messages from the enthusiastically participating audience to the dancers and back again. The clowns expressed the irrepressible, delightful Apache sense of humor. And the dances — and dancers — drew their meaning and energy from the culture’s pervasive spirituality, mindful of the energy and spiritual power that imbued rocks, trees, animals and the whole world with meaning and consciousness. The spiritual practice of traditional Apache culture pervaded everything and so also found expression in the details of everyday life.
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Welcome to Gila County’s
RIM COUNTRY
What an Relocating excellent choice! to Gila County? Be sure to visit www.gilacountyaz.gov Board of Supervisors — 928-474-7100 Tommie C. Martin, District 1 Michael A. Pastor, District 2 John Marcanti, District 3 Building Permits — 928-474-9276 (for unincorporated areas only) Planning & Zoning — 928-474-9276 Septic Permits — 928-474-9276 Cooperative Extension — 928-474-4160 Voter Registration — 928-472-5340 ext 8733 Health & Emergency Services — 928-474-1210 Dog Licenses — 928-474-1210 Library District — 928-472-5340 ext 8768 www.gcldaz.org/gila/ Buckhead Landfill — 928-476-3350 Sheriff — 928-474-2208 Non Emergency 2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 23
Tonto Natural Bridge State Park
PETE ALESHIRE ROUNDUP EDITOR
Drip. Drip. Drip. Time drips down on my head — making my hair extra curly. But I can’t move: I’m caught between worlds. The fingertips of my left hand brush against the weary surface of a mass of 1.6-billion-year-old volcanic rhyolite. The fingertips of my right hand test the surface of a just barely formed wall of travertine — in its turn made of the skeletons and shells of extinct sea creatures that settled to the bottom of an ocean that drowned the continent before the dinosaurs groaned and growled. The chattering tourists do not notice that I am standing to my post — spanning half the planet’s history from fingertip to fingertip. They’re more intent on the echoing, awesome 400foot-long, 180-foot-tall tunnel of stone, the world’s largest natural travertine 24 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
bridge. The great, 150-foot-wide tunnel dissolved in seemingly solid stone, forms the geologically astonishing heart of the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park — Rim Country’s bestknown tourist attraction. Visitation dropped during the state budget crisis as the hours of operation grew unreliable, but has now largely recovered. Most people stop first at the visitors center, a restored historic lodge. Then they wander across the grassy, park-like grounds to the short, steep trail. The less than half-mile trail drops about 300 feet down to the immense cavern Pine Creek has dissolved through a great wall of travertine in only a few thousand years. This remarkable cavern stands as a metaphor in stone for the turbulent history of the planet — a geological extravaganza. The oldest rock forms one side of the cavern, red rhyolite that flowed from ancient volcanoes when the first amoebas and algae floated in those an-
cient oceans. The runny lava rolled into the ocean, bursting into steam and mixing with sand and sediments. The heaving earth eventually buried that great mass of incredibly ancient lava. But then the fickle earth changed its mind and began heaving that deeply buried ancient rock to the surface — letting erosion carry away without a trace an overlying mass of deposits 1.2 billion years thick. A succession of desert dunes and on-again-off-again sea bottoms laid down fresh layers. This rise and fall of the earth, with the waxing and waning of oceans, set the stage for the creation of this spectacular trick of rock chemistry. About 20 layers of thin, runny lava lay down the flat slabs where the visitors center stands. Then Pine Creek cut down along a fault line that separated a layer of sandstone on one side and a layer of limestone on the other. The creek cut all the way down to the unyielding volcanic rhyolite underlying both those sedimentary layers
— one a fossilized desert, the other a frozen sea bottom. Water seeping down through the thick layers of limestone along numerous fissures dissolved the calcium carbonate from the skeletons and shells of sea creatures that had settled to the bottom of a vast inland sea 300 million years ago. Under the great pressure of the overlying rock, the now mineral laden water eventually made its escape along cracks in the rock, emerging as a spring saturated with travertine Tonto Natural Bridge State — which is just another name for calcium carPark is 12 miles north of bonate. Payson off Highway 87. The Released from the pressure, the minerals park is open seven days a in the water precipitated out. That’s the same week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. process that’s now building great dams of Last entry is at 5 p.m. Adtravertine in nearby Fossil Creek and that mission is $5 per adult and makes the stalactites and other formations in $2 for children. Call (928) limestone caves. In this case, the minerals 476-4202 for more informafrom the spring water built a great wall of tion. travertine in the canyon cut by Pine Creek. But the creek went to work on this wall, once again dissolving the malleable travertine. Eventually, the water dissolved the great cavern through the heart of the stone. Travertine deposits on the canyon walls indicate that the drip-castle cavern once stretched for 1,000 feet, before erosion and Pine Creek chipped away at it. The 400-foot-long remnant is impressive enough — especially when you can span 2 billion years of history just by stretching out your fingers.
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2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 25
Horsin’ around in Rim Country
Pete Aleshire/Roundup
TERESA MCQUERREY ROUNDUP STAFF REPORTER
Horse enthusiasts can get in all kinds of great riding in the Rim Country. The area’s many trails are available for horseback riding. The U.S. Forest Service even has a developed campsite off Houston Mesa Road for visitors and their horses. And every week, if so inclined, visitors and residents can test the skill of their horses and themselves in the 4D Barrel Jackpots. The 4D Barrel Jackpots are part of the Payson Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department programs. Held every Wednesday at the Payson Event Center from June 11 through July 9, the books open at 6 p.m., with timed events from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and competition starting at 6 p.m. The fees: $5 per run for Pee Wee contestants; $20 for youth; and $30 for the open class. There is also a $5 facility use fee in addition to the participation fees. Fees must be paid in cash. To learn more, contact Angie at (928) 474-5242, ext. 272 or go online to http://paysonrimcountry.com/Activities/Payson-Event-Center. 26 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
AUGUST RODEO Then there is the big horse event for Rim Country visitors and residents alike — the 130th Annual World’s Oldest Continuous Rodeo Aug. 14 through Aug. 17 at the Payson Event Center. The rodeo performances start with the Cactus Women’s Professional Rodeo Barrel Racing, Thursday, Aug. 14, gates open at 5 p.m. and the performance is at 7 p.m. Afternoon performances are Saturday, Aug. 16 and Sunday, Aug. 17. Gates open at 11 a.m., with the rodeo starting at 1 p.m. The evening rodeo performances are at 7 p.m., Friday, Aug. 15 and Saturday, Aug. 16, with gates opening at 5 p.m. The August Rodeo also features a parade on Historic West Main, starting at 9 a.m. in Green Valley Park and going east to the Sawmill Crossing shopping center. For more information about the Payson Main Street Parade visit the Rim Country Regional Chamber of Commerce’s website: rimcountrychamber.com, or call 1-(928) 474-4515.
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The Mogollon Rim Pete Aleshire/Roundup
PETE ALESHIRE ROUNDUP EDITOR
The 200-mile-long line of 1,000foot-tall cliffs that dominates the scenery, weather, forests and economy of Rim Country remains one of the most remarkable geological features on the planet. The Mogollon Rim’s dramatic layers of sandstone and limestone cliffs also offer a view of the violent history of a tempestuous earth — and a primer in the small changes that produce dramatic variations in the intricate net of life. It even offers clues as to how all living things might end. Laid bare by the uplift of the Colorado Plateau that also created the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains, the cliffs preserved fossilized deserts and sea bottoms — laid down, deeply buried, fused, then cast once more up into the sunlight by the convulsions of a continent. The Mogollon Rim sharply divides the Sonoran Desert from the world’s largest ponderosa pine forest. It affects the climate of the region, forcing the release of snow and rain from passing storms — and in the process making Phoenix possible by filling up a chain of reservoirs. The Rim forms one of the most dramatic ecological divides in the country. It even bears mute witness to at least two 28 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
terrible events that wiped out most living species on the planet. Start the story some 300 million years ago with the formation of the Kaibab Limestone found near the base of the Rim. This limestone formed in the bottom of a vast inland sea, well before the first dinosaurs emerged. Composed mostly of the skeletons of tiny sea creatures that drifted to form thickening layers over the millennium, this sea bottom layer extends to the Grand Canyon and north into Utah. Movements of crustal plates that rearranged whole continents, driven by stirrings deep in the semi-molten layers of Earth’s mantle, eventually uplifted that one-time sea bottom, converting it into a vast interior desert on a scale to dwarf the modern Sahara or Gobi. New shifts in the earth, some 250 million years ago, then buried the vast, cross-bedded sand dunes of that desert. The pressure and heat of the overlying rock layers fused those ancient sand dunes, creating thick layers now dubbed Coconino Sandstone. On the pathetic scale of a human lifetime, the earth seems patient and immutable. But on its own terms, the earth is restless and given to violent outpourings. No sooner had the movement of the crustal plates buried those great sand dunes and turned
them to stone than it again shifted. Pressured upward from below, the great block of crust that includes the Rocky Mountains and northern Arizona began an inexorable uplift between 80 million and 50 million years ago, creating a region known as the Mogollon Highlands. Rivers then flowed north, depositing thousands of feet of sediment stripped from the rising mountains in interior basins. But the earth can never quite decide. So between 35 and 40 million years ago these titanic forces shifted once again, spurring a vast outpouring of lava — which put a cap of hard, resistant rock on top of the softer layers of sandstone and limestone. All of that finally set the stage for the emergence of the modern topography of Arizona and the Colorado Plateau, starting about 20 million years ago. Great blocks of earth resumed their uplift, this time, tilted to drain to the south. The layer of lava rock slowed erosion where it formed a cap, resulting in the dramatic march of cliffs, as the softer sedimentary rock went tumbling down the newly formed Salt and Verde rivers and as the ancestral Colorado River chewed back north until it captured once north-flowing rivers. This created the intricate topography of the Grand
Canyon.The process created the dramatic, 7,000-foothigh plateau atop the Rim. It also created some of the most rugged, beautiful and inaccessible canyons in the country, draining the bounty of that rain and snow off the Rim to the 1,000-foot elevation of Phoenix. Hikers have long marveled at some of those canyons, like West Clear Creek, Black River Canyon, Fossil Creek, Tonto Creek, the East Verde River, Pine, Sycamore, Oak Creek, Wet Beaver, Greenback, Salome, Sawmill, San Carlos and the immense gash of the Salt River Canyon — with world-class whitewater rafting during the spring thaw and the summer monsoons. Many canyons remain guarded by cliffs and waterfalls that require rock climbing skills and a reservation permit to navigate. That includes Cibecue Canyon, which requires adventurers to rappel through two or three waterfalls in the company of a certified Apache guide. This uplifted wall of lava-capped, fossilized sand dunes has shaped every aspect of the state’s history and ecology. It forms a boundary line for many plant and animal species, it controlled patterns of travel and settlement and controls the weather of the whole state.
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Ghosts in the ruins
PETE ALESHIRE ROUNDUP EDITOR
I’m a ghost hunter. I have sought them in sunlight and shadow, in remote canyons and in crowds of tourists. Recently, on an impulse, I turned into the Shoofly Ruins off Houston Mesa Road. The parking lot was completely empty. The wind gusted and whispered, inciting a mass of clouds to form up over the Rim — just as it did when the Mogollon gathered here century after century before their abrupt vanishing in the 1300s. The site offered only a handful of partially rebuilt walls. The faint outlines of rooms remained in the grass and scattered stones — both limestone made from ancient sea bottom laid down before the dinosaurs rose and much more recent blocks of gray, volcanic basalt. Hundreds of people once lived here, in a loose collection of compounds. A thousand years ago — they lived in pit houses.of brush and logs. in extended family groups, with no walls or defense. 30 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
Payson then and now lay at a crossroads — along a natural travel route that linked Mexico to Colorado and California to New Mexico. Shoofly testified to this great cultural mingling as the pit houses gave way in the course of centuries to mudmortared stone buildings. Archaeologists found a curious mixture of building types and influence, from the platform-mound building Hohokam in the Valley to the kiva-building Ancestral Puebloans of Colorado. Some archaeologists speculate that overpopulation in the Hohokam core area in the Valley resulted in a spread of regional conflict. Archaeologists have found evidence of recurrent flood, drought and famine in the Valley in the 1200s and 1300s. Perhaps the Hohokam started raiding, desperately seeking to augment their faltering crops. Some evidence suggests this caused people in the Verde Valley and Rim Country to build more defensible settlements to resist the raiders. Other evidence suggests the impact of drought caused what
amounted to a religious war across Arizona’s high country. More clues may lie buried in the ruins of Shoofly, which has never been thoroughly excavated. The mystery pressed on me as I wandered alone in the cemetery of stones. More surprisingly, I began to dimly sense the pattern of their lives in the centuries they lived quietly and happily here. I realized that the mound I had taken for a natural feature on my first visit was instead the collapsed remains of a two-story apartment building. Here alone in this mound of stones, the ghosts found me. I felt the memory of children’s laughter, eluding the call of their mothers. I could see the terrace where they would have planted their corn and squash and beans. I heard snatches of song. I turned my eyes to the Rim, wondering as they wondered whether the sky would finally yield rain. So it turned out that I did not need to hunt ghosts after all. I had only to stand alone in Shoofly and wait for them to find me.
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Dirt Road Adventure: Forest Road 300 Scenic jaunt on historic route threads past sweeping views, fascinating history PETE ALESHIRE
side of an off-road vehicle can easily set dry grass on fire. At the point the wellI fingered the longgraded gravel road crosses healed scar hacked into Highway 60 you can eithe vanilla-scented bark ther go east toward Show of a tall, yellow-red ponLow or west toward Pine derosa pine — left to where the dirt road remark a dangerous wagon connects to paved Highroad through one of the way 260, which follows most tragically thrilling the old wagon route periods of American hisdown into the Verde Valtory. Turning, I walked ley. 100 yards through a Either route takes logged-over, secondyou past trout-stocked growth forest of spindly high-country lakes and pines and so came sudvista points offering a denly to the edge of the panoramic view from the world — the dizzying upedge of the Rim, the lift of the Mogollon Rim. abrupt leading edge of Standing just off Forthe Colorado Plateau est Road 300 — known to made famous by the exhistory as the General pansive storytelling of Crook Trail — I could see writers like Zane Grey. south 100 miles and back The well-maintained 100 years to a violent, road offers a fascinating morally wrenching conglimpse of the ecology of flict that defined Ameria ponderosa pine forest, can history and especially if you head tocharacter. ward Pine through the The 250-mile-long scar of the Dude Fire. General Crook Trail When Crook arrived once linked Fort Apache to make war on the in the White Mountains Apaches in the 1870s, these ponderosa pine forests were with Camp Verde in the Verde Valley and Fort Whipple near Prescott. Now the well-graded Forest Road 300 runs dominated by gigantic, widely-spaced, 400-year-old trees along much of that route, hugging the Mogollon Rim for and tall grass. Low intensity ground fires burned through every five to seven years, clearing out the dead wood and 70 miles. Forest Road 300 offers a wonderful day’s adventure seedlings. These fires merely scarred the fire-resistant, thick-barked bases of the mature trees, whose lowest and access to a wealth of lakes and hiking trails. Check for possible forest closures before heading out branches were 20 or 30 feet above the flames. But once Crook and his military successors broke the and remember that the dry conditions preclude fires anyresistance of the Apache, settlers moved in and transwhere in the forest. Don’t venture off the road at all, since the hot under- formed the ponderosa pine ecosystem. Loggers went to ROUNDUP EDITOR
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work and soon cut down most of the fire-resistant, old-growth trees, and forest managers devoted themselves energetically to preventing fires. As a result, the forest of towering, widely spaced giants was replaced by thickets of smaller, stunted trees. When the inevitable fires finally got loose, they had a devastating effect — as the Dude Fire demonstrated. Decades of accumulated undergrowth and downed wood provided the fuel for a holocaust, climbing up into the mature trees and sterilizing the topsoil. The result is a haunted forest along one stretch of Forest Road 300, dominated by the towering, blackened skeletons of the trees scourged by the Dude Fire. But Forest Road 300 also offers a route through history, threading through the heart of a terrain that the Apache defended against all odds for three centuries before falling to Crook’s war of attrition in the 1870s. The Apache fought the Spanish and the Mexicans to a standstill, partly because they could always retreat into the wilderness of present-day Arizona and New Mexico. But the arrival of the Americans in the 1840s and 1850s forced the Apache into a hopeless, two-front war. Ironically, Crook respected and admired the Apache more than any
other commander — which made the bearded, unconventional, fearless Crook their most effective enemy. He relied heavily on Apache scouts, the only ones who could hold to the faint trail of a band of fleeing warriors. The Crook Trail played a crucial strategic role, as it supplied the network of forts from which Crook dispatched roving patrols of soldiers and Indian scouts that could remain on patrol for months. Captain John Bourke left a fascinating account of the 1871 campaign in his 1891 “On the Border with Crook,” which also described the majestic Mogollon Rim country. Of course, a journey that consumed days and led through danger in 1871 now takes a couple of hours — more of a jaunt than a journey. Still, when I slowed down, pulled to the side of the road, and wandered toward the Rim, I almost expected Bourke to come wandering out from among the trees, cursing his mule and casting a long look back over his shoulder. Then standing on the Rim with a view out toward forever, I startled and spun at the snap of a twig behind me. I could see nothing save dreaming trees, dim memories, and old crimes. 2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 33
Pine & Strawberry: Small-town charm MAX FOSTER SPECIAL TO THE ROUNDUP
The onset of the summer festival season, traditionally Pine and Strawberry’s most celebratory time of the year, is fashioning an air of excitement in the two tiny mountain hamlets. Obviously, the exhilaration is because the weekend festivals, cool high country weather and the opportunity to hike, hunt, fish and camp draws throngs of heat weary desert dwellers to the Rim Country where they mingle with locals creating a holiday-like vibe. The Pine and Strawberry festival season actually began May 3 and 4 with the Sixth Annual Cinco de Mayo celebration and continued May 24 and 25 with the 34th Annual Pine Strawberry Arts and Crafts Guild Spring Show. The Memorial Day event is traditionally one of the most popular of all the festivals and this year was no exception as hoards of people descended on the two towns to enjoy more than 30 antique arts and crafts booths as well as the town’s restaurants, shops, historic sites and hiking trails. Many who visited took the opportunity to enjoy an early morning pancake breakfast at the community center that was highlighted by plenty of old-fashioned hometown camaraderie. On June 7-8, the two towns hosted the 24th Annual Strawberry Festival which is Pine and Strawberry’s salute to summer in a family friendly environment that includes arts and craft shows, music, contests, games and plenty of the delicious fruit known for its aroma, juicy texture and sweetness. Next on the calendar was the 34 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
The annual Telebration gathering of storytellers typifies the spirit of a small, close-knit community that welcomes ambling summer visitors with festivals, concerts, antiques, ice cream cones and a rush of small-town hospitality.
Strawberry Patchers Quilt Show held June 13-14 in the community center. While some might shy away from such a show, it is actually a quite enjoyable exhibition in which winning ribbons are awarded by viewer’s choice. “The viewers pick ones they like for its color, pattern, or what the focus fabric is, be it dogs, cats, wildlife or something else,” said Strawberry Patchers member Maureen Pastika, who was a 2013 first-place winner in the “Art Quilts” category.
MORE TO DO When not attending festivals, some visitors flock to Fossil Creek Ranch for its unique “Hiking with Llamas” experience. The ranch is located about one mile from the Fossil Creek Trailhead and in addition to hiking with llamas, in 2007 it became a certified goat dairy that sells goat milk, cheese and fudge.
The communities of Pine and Strawberry are nestled in the ponderosa pine forest north of Payson on Highway 87.
On the hikes campground birds like which are at an eleSteller’s jays to majestic bull vation of about elks. 7,000 feet through It’s also not unusual on majestic ponderosa a trip through forests near pines and past natPine and Strawberry, espeural rock formacially Pine Creek Canyon, tions, llamas carry to see white-tailed deer, coypacks of equipotes, squirrels, turkeys and ment and food. on occasions black bears, Hikes are half-day. mountain lions and bobSummer visits cats. to the land beneath the Rim also ofMany of those who visit Pine and fers plenty of opportunities for ob- Strawberry are there to hike and serving wild animals, from common among the most popular adventures is
the eight-mile Pine Canyon Trail. Most hikers access the trail at the lower trailhead just off Beeline Highway on the south end of Pine and hike to the upper trailhead north of Strawberry. Bearfoot Trail is a hiking and biking option that should become extremely popular as more visitors learn of its existence and recent improvements. The Pine Strawberry Fuel Reduction Committee members began working on it in early January and continued each weekend throughout the
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month. During the May 4 Trails Day celebration in Pine and Strawberry, Tom Stennerson of the Mountain Bike Association of Arizona (MBAA) led a 12-mile round-trip bike ride over the trail. The new trail connects Strawberry with other Rim Country trails including TR 15 (the Pine Strawberry Trail) and TR 36 (the Pine Canyon Trail). The MBAA partners with the Pine Strawberry Fuel Reduction Committee to host the Fire on the Rim Mountain Bike Race in Pine. This year’s event will be held Sept. 12-14 and features camping, live music, a silent auction and a beer garden, in addition to the 15-, 30and 45-mile races. All proceeds from the event go directly into trail building and wildfire protection in the Pine Strawberry fuel break.
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Tonto Basin: A world apart MICHELE NELSON
Tonto Creek or in a handful of small communities along the shores of RooFor perhaps 10,000 years, Tonto sevelt Lake, the huge reservoir that susCreek and the Salt River have shaped tains Phoenix. The lake dominates the recreation the people who live in the Tonto Basin. in the Tonto Basin, drawing bass fishIt’s still true. Tonto Basin lies just 20 miles from erman from all over the country and Payson, but remains a world apart. Peo- providing wide-open spaces for boaters ple there maintain small-town relation- and campers. The rugged basin also ships, to the land and to each other. provides a wealth of back-country roads Most either live close to flood-prone and adventures. ROUNDUP STAFF REPORTER
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Unlike Payson’s pine-covered slopes, saguaro dominate the slopes of the Tonto Basin, which means the temperatures often top 100 degrees during the day in the summer. Tonto Creek runs through the town, splitting the basin that the Mazatzal and Sierra Ancha mountains define. The creek flows from headwaters coming off of the Mogollon Rim, through the Hellsgate Wilderness and
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down to Tonto Basin before Roosevelt Lake swallows it up. Residents live on both sides of the creek. Runoff down the creek cuts the community in half — usually several times a year. Folks on the far side of the creek sometimes have to wait for days before they can make the crossing — but live there anyway for the natural beauty and the friendly people. Gila County hopes to get enough federal funds to bridge the crossing in years to come. Humans have settled the area since prehistoric times. Ancient hunters from the last Ice Age stopped in the basin for game and drink. The Salado Indians created settlements filling the basin with farms, irrigation canals and stone buildings. Tonto National Monument preserves a set of cliff dwellings built by those enigmatic residents. Then came the Apache and their wandering ways. They waged a long struggle to hang onto their homelands, but lost a
desperate war of attrition in the 1870s and 1880s. Finally, the farmers and ranchers settled to take advantage of the rich soil deposited by the invading and receding waters of the creek. A few still operate cattle ranches in the basin. Tonto Basin offers impressive hunting and recreational opportunities, but it also houses families. One of the projects the community is most proud of is the school. Preschool children to eighth-graders attend. One of the only schools in Arizona to remain debt free, the community built the school in the late 1970s with money raised from residents. Today about 70 students attend. But the stream also affects the school. During really wet storms, students cannot reach the school because the water is too high to cross, so the school closes down — for creek days. In all ways, Tonto Basin in a town defined by nature, especially its creek.
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Seeking solace on Blue Ridge PETE ALESHIRE
too frail to endure the operation. I saw him once, twice in that long, painfully slow dwindle. California was a long Standing on the shores of the Blue Ridge Reservoir drive and my own life was a muddle. I saw him for the last time just before he died. But I staring at a great tangle of logs floating against the dam, I gave him a pep talk about eating better. I told him he had sense my brother — alive again — at the corner of my eye. We spend the long summers of our lives on such per- to build up his strength so he could have his operation. He offered his wispy, sardonic smile and made some fect lakes, making Huck Fin log rafts. But that was before small joke. He reinserted his oxywe’d swirled apart on the currents of gen tube and said he was tired, the world. which I grasped as permission to I’d come with an amiable group flee back to my bustling life. of day-trippers, each outfitted by I kissed him as I left. “I love Jimmy’s Stand-up Paddleboarding. you, Brian,” I said. He smiled. Jimmy Carson had helped us negoI should have canceled all my tiate the Saturday boat jam. plans and sat with him then. I The reservoir holds Payson’s fushould have let him sleep then ture, since water flowing down a talked when he awoke. But I didpipeline from that lake will double n’t. I went home, intending to reour water supply starting in 2014. turn. Payson worked tenaciously for 20 Five days later in the dead of years to win rights to about 3,500 of the night, I got the call. I should the 14,000 acre-feet of water the have been there — standing with reservoir holds. him on the shores of that last deep The Salt River Project nearly crossing. drains the reservoir every year now, Instead, I could only weep letting the water flow down the East deep in the night. Verde, which has thereby turned But now in the sunlight, I feel into a trout stream and Rim Counhim here on this new shore. I have try tourist mainstay. no rope to make a raft on which we The crowd of boaters dispersed can ride. So I launch my one-log quickly from the boat ramp. We raft onto the lake, paddling away headed up toward the dam. Here Within 20 miles of Happy Jack are sevfrom shore. Strangely, I feel a great and there, fishermen cast hopeful eral lakes, campgrounds and trails. joy. As though he balances on the hooks. Major lakes nearby include Long Lake, log behind me. As though everyWe paddled steadily up the lake, Blue Ridge Reservoir and Lake Mary. thing still lies before us. savoring the silence, the wind, the Before you head out on an adventure, When the rest of the party rereflections of clouds in the water. stop by Happy Jack Lodge and RV. turns, we find a cliff. I climb to the When we got to the dam, the rest of The full-service resort sits on 100 acres ledge and stand a moment, alive the group continued around the atop the Mogollon Rim. The lodge features a general store, Jack’s Place with fear. Then I jump, laughing all bend out of sight, but I beached my Steakhouse and Bar and they even the way down into the cold water. I paddleboard and climbed up the have a wedding chapel. laugh as though I have never wept hill for a view of the dam. Nestled among the pines just off Highnor lost nor failed those I love. All Upon my return to the shoreway 260 before the Lake Mary Road these things I have done, for deep line my gaze fell upon the tangle of turnoff is the charming Long Valley are the shadows and long are the relogs, which summoned the ghost of Café. Diners say the restaurant’s bisgrets. But for this moment, I can my brother to stand beside me. cuits and gravy and pancakes can’t be call out his name through all that He died a little bit ago. He had missed. long fall. a bad heart valve but quickly grew ROUNDUP EDITOR
Happy Jack Adventures
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2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 41
Geocaching: Latter day treasure hunt ALEXIS BECHMAN
tion. When we were sufficiently close, they started searching for the cache, looking under rocks and in tree branches. After 15 minutes elapsed with no trace of the thing in view, Hide-and-seek has never been so easy or fun. But be warned: from an outsider’s perspective, a geo- I decided to download the app right there in the forest off Tyler Parkway to help get this whole thing over with sooner. cacher looks a lot like a crazy person lost in the woods. Then a funny thing happened. I The pastime involves loading the loaded the app on my phone and coordinates for a hidden container, started following the arrow pointing then using a phone or GPS device to in the direction of the cache. I read direct you to its location (usually the description of where it was lowithin a few feet) and searching cated and the comments left by peoaround until you find it. ple who had looked for it. Before I It didn’t take long during our first knew it, I was hooked. geocaching outing for my friends to We were on to our next cache, start staring at trees, rolling logs, turnthis one located off a Payson Area ing over rocks, walking in circles and Trail System hike. I led the charge, turning over every pine cone in search shouting out that we were 300, now of the elusive cache. Not the most 200 feet away. We stumbled on Nanormal looking behavior. tive American ruins and the hike Then someone yelled out, “I turned into something more. We found it,” and pulled from a tiny oohed and aahed over the crumbly crack in the rocks a match-size plastic low walls, the pottery shards and arcontainer with an equally tiny rolled rowheads. up piece of paper inside with scribbles We carried on and found it, a diof past seekers. What a thrill. nosaur-themed box that people filled Geocaching has been around with small plastic toys. since 2000, but only accessible for When I checked the time, sevthose with handheld expensive GPS eral hours had elapsed. I had noticed devices, such as a Garmin. • Geocaching (pronounced geoneither the passage of time — or the Today, there is a free geocaching cashing) is a game where users workout I was getting. app for iPhone and Android. discover hidden containers. We walked home feeling like exA typical cache fits in the palm of • There are more than 2 million pert treasure hunters. a hand, a small waterproof container geocaches throughout the world, in The next night, I suggested we containing a log where geocachers more than 180 countries. hit the area by the Payson Event enter their name and the date found. • After a geocacher hides a cache, they Center. We quickly found the two In larger caches, like Tupperware conlist it on Geocaching.com, caches, but then continued our walk tainers, geocachers usually leave a challenging others to find it. up a dirt road to a saddle overlooksmall trinket and take something to • At minimum, geocaches contain a logbook to sign. Some geocaches ing Payson to watch the sunset. After bring to the next cache. contain small trinkets for trade. five years of living in Payson, I had Now I was not initially enthusias• If a geocacher takes something from visited two areas I had never seen tic about geocaching. the geocache, they replace it with and they were some of the prettiest. A friend suggested a hike and something of equal or greater value. What else have I missed? then once we were on the trail said we • Geocaches are returned to their I have now geocached in Sedona were going geocaching. hiding places for the next geocacher. and Payson with family and friends. I plodded along behind the • To begin, download the Geocaching No matter the age or place, geogroup while they poured over their app or visit Geocaching.com. caching pulls everyone in on the cell phone screens, debating which Source: Geocaching.com hunt, even if it looks a little crazy. way was the most direct to the locaROUNDUP STAFF REPORTER
Geocaching basics
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Fossil Creek: Refuge for wildlife, visitors PETE ALESHIRE ROUNDUP EDITOR
Fossil Creek has become a worldclass refuge for wildlife — a veritable Noah’s ark for rare and endangered species both above and below the turquoise-blue waters of the travertineladen creek. The creek’s role as an unparalleled wildlife refuge stems from the extraordinary properties of the water that gushes from a series of springs at the head of the canyon and the pristine qualities of a riparian area that seems uniquely reinvented. Start with the water itself, which emerges from 60 springs in a 100-footlong section of the creek bed. The flow of these springs totals about 50 cubic feet per second, an astonishing, utterly consistent gush of water in an arid region. The flow is only a little less than the 65 cubic foot per second gush of Havasu Spring, which spawns a worldfamous travertine stream in the heart of the Grand Canyon. Only a handful of streams have the chemistry necessary to build the travertine formations that have grown rapidly since the water returned to the stream bed. An estimated 13 tons of travertine precipitate out along the stream every day, constantly building natural check dams and formations. Riparian areas comprise less than 1 percent of the land in the western United States, but more than 80 percent of the wildlife depends on riparian areas for some critical portion of their life cycle. Deep in a remote canyon, a riot of native trees crowds the creekside, including Arizona sycamore, Fremont cottonwood, willows, Arizona alder, mesquite, velvet ash, Arizona walnut and others — at least 166 species of permanent plants and 314 species of flowering plants
Photos by Pete Aleshire/Roundup
Fossil Creek draws 90,000 people a year — but it’s also a refuge for endangered species. Check for closures. You can hike down from the Strawberry side or drive around to the Camp Verde side and take the Fossil Creek Road.
and ferns. The creek harbors at least eight “sensitive and rare” plants. The waters of this remarkable stream also now provide one of the last refuges for a host of native fish, including seven species considered threatened or endangered. Fossil Creek has already become a birder’s paradise, as rich as the birding Meccas in southeastern Arizona where eco-tourism has become an economic mainstay. Biologists have recorded 200 different species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, but the habitat has the potential to support 300 additional species — including endangered species like the willow flycatcher, the desert bald eagle, the Mexican spotted owl, the Yuma clapper rail and the yellow-billed cuckoo. 2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 43
Christopher Creek: A little slice of heaven PETE ALESHIRE ROUNDUP EDITOR
Nestled in the pines close by three trout-stocked streams, Christopher Creek, Tonto Basin and Kohl’s Ranch have provided a refuge for decades. Halfway between Payson at 5,000 feet and the top of the Rim at 7,000 feet, these communities have a relative handful of year-round residents. However, come summer the population swells as a result of cabin rentals, campgrounds, day-trippers and people who have discovered historic Kohl’s Ranch fronting on Tonto Creek. The little community of Christopher Creek lies tucked in among the ponderosa pines about 17 miles east of Payson, near the base of the 1,500foot-tall ramparts of the Rim. Upstream the creek harbors popular camping areas along Christopher 44 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
Tonto Village
Christopher Creek
Star Valley Payson Creek, which the Arizona Game and Fish Department stocks throughout the summer. Residents have a church, a little store, rental cabins and a couple of restaurants — but mostly lots of peace and quiet. Just down the road lies Tonto Village, with a mix of housing and a larger percentage of year-round residents. Tonto Village has a bar and a
store and lots of wildlife — including bears that sometimes make the rounds to see if they can find any untended trash bins. Residents report frequent sightings of elk, deer, javelina and other wildlife. The community lies along the Control Road, a scenic dirt road that connects Tonto Village to Pine and Strawberry. Both communities lie close to Tonto Creek, one of the most popular
fishing areas in the state. The spring that gushes from the base of the Rim flows through a state fish hatchery, which supplies most of the rainbow trout stocked into the region’s lakes and rivers all summer. On Tonto Creek sits Kohl’s Ranch, a historic lodge and restaurant that offers summer rentals — and time shares. A road hugging the stream is lined with more expensive, custom homes with an access to the creek almost unique in the state. Camp Tontozona lies at the end of that road, site of spring training for the Arizona State University football team. The cluster of settlements lies about 20 minutes from Payson and
the same as Pine and Strawberry, which means these communities get a lot more winter than Payson or Star Valley. Pines line the streams rather than the cottonwoods and sycamores found along the East Verde River on the outskirts of lower-elevation Payson. Besides ready access to both Tonto Creek and Haigler Creek, the communities lie close to the road to Haigler Creek. Lying at the end of a long, well-graded dirt road, Photos by Pete Aleshire Tonto Creek (opposite page) flows through granite narrows near Bear Haigler has a campground Flat, which gets less use than the more easily accessed sections of the creek near Christopher Creek. The three popular streams close to but fewer people than the Christopher Creek and Kohl’s Ranch attract a variety of wildlife. popular Tonto Creek. One perhaps 15 minutes from lakes atop the Rim, some stretch of the stream harwhere Highway 87 tops out of the best camping spots bors wild brown trout, for on the Mogollon Rim. in the state and year-round the price of a short, steep walk from Fisherman’s That provides easy access to recreation. a string of trout-stocked The elevation is about Point.
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WORLD FAMOUS, AWARD WINNING TRAIL RIDE OPERATION IN ARIZONA We offer some of the most scenic horseback riding trails in Arizona. Professional guides will take you on trails of breathtaking scenery while telling you about the abundant plant and animal life found along the way and about the colorful history of the area.
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Call for reservations: 928-478-0030 Located just 17 miles east of Payson on E. Highway 260, Mile marker 268 Under special use permit of the Tonto National Forest
2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 45
Payson builds trails network Boulders Trail or not, what a hike KEITH MORRIS ROUNDUP STAFF REPORTER
Being new to Payson, I decided a hike would be a great way to check out one of the trails in the area. My sister, Debbie, was visiting me and we decided to hike the Boulders Trail, which is part of the spectacular 30-mile Payson Area Trails System. You can park off of East Phoenix Street and walk 1.0 miles on the Cypress Trail to reach the 2.7-mile Boulders Loop, but we decided to drive down Granite Dells Road to the Boulders Trailhead. It’s a 3.8-mile drive from Highway 260 to the trailhead, but the road is closed a few hundred yards before the trailhead, so you have to park and walk. But it’s a scenic walk and we reached the trailhead within a few minutes. The sign indicated we could take the 1.7-mile Boulders South Trail to our left or the 1.0-mile Boulders North Trail to our right. Since we planned to walk both, it didn’t matter much to either of us which one we walked first. We came across the sign indicating we had arrived at the trail and set off on what we thought was the Boulders South Trail to the left. We didn’t know for sure at the time, but it turns out we were never actually on the trail. I suspected that was the case because we never saw a trail marker. The only signs we saw were several proclaiming: No Trespassing. At first those signs were on our left and we were on what appeared to be a pretty nice trail approximately six-feet wide. 46 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
But later on in our walk, we noticed a fence on our right with a sign on the other side. We came to a break in the fence and I walked through and took a look and discovered another No Trespassing sign. Only now we were apparently actually trespassing. Neither of us could understand this because we hadn’t crossed a fence and remained on what we thought was the South Trail. So we were confused. I expressed my desire to turn around, go back to the sign marking the trailhead and take another trail, although we hadn’t noticed one the first time. Debbie, however was for continuing on. “This must be the trail,” she said. Well, it certainly appeared to be a
trail to me. So on we went. The landscape was amazing. The Boulders is an appropriate name for the trail because there were a lot of them along the path and we were both stopping every minute or two to snap photos. When we came to a small stream with no good options for crossing, I again expressed my belief that we should just turn around. Of course Debbie was for pushing on. “Let’s just go up to the top of this hill and take a look,” she said. The possibility of walking the rest of the hike in wet New Balance running shoes in hopes we were on the trail and not trespassing on private property made the decision to not try and cross that muddy stream an easy
one for me. Debbie, however, was set on continuing. So she squeezed in between two trees and attempted to step on the only rock in the water big enough to step on. The problem was it was the only rock. She could have used another one. Of course, she lost her balance and wound up with both feet in the water. And the red mud. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Oh, this is going to leave a stain,â&#x20AC;? she sighed looking down at her new hiking shoes. She managed to reach the other side and did her best to wipe as much of the mud off as possible. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t say, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I told you so,â&#x20AC;? or anything like that. I was just glad I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t made the same mistake. Anyway, she continued on up the hill to see what she could find at the top with me saying, â&#x20AC;&#x153;hopefully you wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get shot.â&#x20AC;? She didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t and announced that the â&#x20AC;&#x153;trailâ&#x20AC;? continued on. But Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d had enough of the uncertainty and, perhaps as a result of her wet and muddy shoes as much as me expressing my desire to turn back, we agreed to turn around after 0.9 miles, about halfway through the Boulders South Trail, if that was actually what it was. I guess her shoes didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get too wet because I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hear the swishing, sucking sound that comes with walking
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in soggy footwear. The hike was a good experience, more so for me than my sister, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d venture to guess. The boulders are what make this trail worth your time. There are some interesting rocks along the path we walked and many more on the North Trail. I returned to hike the Boulders Loop with my dogs a few weeks later and discovered that we were never actually on the trail. The actual Boulders South and Boulders North trails are spectacular. I recommend anyone who loves being outdoors to hike these trails. And the Cypress Trail is a great way to get there and scenic in its own right. The Payson Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department offers free PATS hikes every month. The schedule includes the Peach Loop from Country Club Drive, listed as difficult, on June 21. The easy/moderate Round Valley East Trail from Gibson Court hike is scheduled for July 19. The easy Monument Loop from the Granite Dells Trailhead is set for Aug. 16. The Cypress and Boulders Trails, rated as easy/moderate, are scheduled to depart from the East end of Phoenix Street on Sept. 20. Pre-registration is preferred but can be done on site. Call Payson Parks, Recreation and Tourism at (928) 4745242 ext. 7 or visit their website at paysonrimcountry .com.
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2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 47
48 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 49
On the wings of EAGLES
Rim Country offers wealth of wildlife watching PETE ALESHIRE
other Rim Country lakes like Bear Canyon, Willow Springs and Knoll. In addition, a pair of bald eagles Like hardy pioneers, the pair of bald eagles nesting at Woods Canyon has been casing Fossil Creek and Lake seem likely to produce enough Chevelon Lake, perhaps with an eye offspring to one day colonize the Rim toward establishing a new territory. Country, according to eagle biolo- Eagles also spend much of the year plucking stocked trout out of Payson’s gists. The Woods Canyon pair sur- Green Valley Park lakes. The trend could one day turn prised many experts by taking over an osprey nest atop a towering snag and Rim Country lakes and streams like Fossil, Tonto and the East Verde into started to crank out eaglets. Now they produce fledglings al- staging grounds for a rare wildlife most ever year. Eagle experts hope comeback story. Arizona continues to operate its that their offspring will soon colonize ROUNDUP EDITOR
50 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
Photo courtesy DJ Craig
Rim Country has a wealth of wildlife — including eagles that hang out around Payson’s Green Valley Park and eagles that have claimed Woods Canyon Lake.
nest watch program designed to boost the child rearing success of the state’s eagles, many of which live in high-traffic areas like Woods Canyon Lake. During the spring nesting season, nest watchers keep people away from the nests and call in biologists if a chick gets into trouble — like getting tangled in fishing line accidentally brought back to the nest by the parents. Bald eagles generally mate for life and return to the same nest year after year, usually on a cliff face or atop a tall dead snag — most often cotton-
woods. Their young hang around for the next several months after they first take flight — usually in about May, depending on the elevation. Once they’re strong enough, the young head north. They generally find their way to certain summer feeding grounds — like rivers on which salmon or other fish spawn. The young spend the next three to five years moving back and forth, waiting until the growth of their distinctive white head and tail feathers signals they’re old enough to breed. About 75 percent of the eagles die before they ever reach breeding age, although once they establish a good territory, they typically live for 15 or 20 years. The Woods Canyon pair in 2008 took over the laboriously constructed nest of two, huge resident osprey, white-breasted raptors only a bit smaller than eagles who also make their living plucking fish out of the water. Both osprey and eagles at Woods Canyon live mostly on the trout stocked so copiously in the lake, including the fish that escaped fishermen only to die and float to shore — sometimes trailing fishing line. Moreover, careless and uncaring anglers often leave tangles of fishing line on the shore, where it poses a grave danger to all sorts of wildlife — including the eagles. After about four years of wandering around, the young eagles will seek out an unoccupied breeding territory — someplace with big trees or cliffs suitable for nesting and a nearby lake or stream with riffles in which they can spot fish — generally within about 30 miles of their birthplace.
Wildlife Watching Hot Spots Elk and deer abound throughout Rim Country, especially around Rim Country lakes and meadows. The cottonwood and willow galleries of the East Verde harbor a startling diversity of birds. Fossil Creek has not only a great diversity of birds, but more species of endangered native fish than almost any other stream in Arizona.
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2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 51
Payson Recreation: Small-town, in-town fun
KEITH MORRIS ROUNDUP STAFF REPORTER
Payson offers the kind of small-town charm you simply can’t find in bigger cities. It’s a chance to escape from the congestion that plagues Valley communities. Living in or visiting Rim Country can make you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. I didn’t live through the 1950s, but I imagine it might have felt something like this. It’s just a slower pace. It’s peaceful. It’s ideal. You can relax here. Yes, Payson is a beautiful small mountain town, however, there’s no shortage of recreational options available from hiking numerous trails, fishing, hunting, camping, canoeing, kayaking, boating, horseback riding, mountain biking, swimming, tennis, adult softball leagues, sand volleyball leagues, ATV trail rides, golf, bird watching, firearms and archery target shooting, and all sorts of kids’ activities, just to name a few. In addition to fishing, canoeing and kayaking, Green Valley Lake also offers families a chance to sit in a beautiful setting and watch the ducks and geese. And might even be 52 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
lucky enough to see a bald eagle soar down and snatch a fish from the lake. Of course, there are several rodeos and other special events. And Arizona State’s football team opens its season every August by spending a week a Camp Tontozona, which brings thousands of people to the area.
Rim Country recreational activities • Hiking is available on numerous trails around Payson and Rim Country. The Payson Area Trails System (PATS) features 30 miles of trails in the immediate area and there are an additional 20 miles of trails traversing the Mogollon Rim. Free guided PATS hikes are offered one Saturday per month. • Fishing is available at Rim Country streams, rivers and lakes, which are stocked regularly. • Swimming is offered at Taylor Pool, 504 N. McLane Road, daily from Memorial Day through July. Call (928) 474-2774 or visit www.paysonrimcountry.com for the schedule. • Golf — Payson features three golf courses. Payson Golf Course is a public course located at 1504 W. Country Club Drive. Call (928) 4742273 to schedule a tee time. There are two private courses: Chaparral Pines, (928) 472-1420 and The Rim Club, (928) 472-1470. • Tennis — Although tennis lessons aren’t currently being offered, Rumsey Park does feature several courts, which are open to the public. • Firearm and archery target shooting are available at the Jim Jones Shooting Range. Contact Tonto Rim Sports Club at (928) 468-9075. • Payson Parks & Rec offers a six- to eight-week summer recreation camp, featuring sports and activities for kindergartners through sixthgraders from 8 a.m. to noon Monday through Thursday in the middle school gym beginning the week after school ends.
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RIM COUNTRY GUNS
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After golfing, swimming and hiking, save energy for dancing at the Buffalo Bar and Grill in Payson or one of the other venues with live music. The Buffalo’s Sunday night jam session is especially popular.
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Rim Country’s Best Gun Store
and we have archery supplies, too. 474-8000
513 S. BEELINE HIGHWAY, PAYSON ARIZONA
Payson Hometown Store New Owners – Marvin & La Mora Dumbrow
113 E. HIGHWAY 260 • 474-6050
2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 53
Rim Country’s music scene Musicians like John Carpino living the dream – entertaining dreamers KEITH MORRIS ROUNDUP STAFF REPORTER
It didn’t take John Carpino long to realize he wanted to be a singer-songwriter. “It came natural to me,” he said. “I learned guitar and started writing songs. I’m still learning guitar. It’s a neverending process.” More than four decades after writing his first song at the age of 16, the Payson resident is still traveling around the state playing both his original music, which is a blend of acoustic rock, roots, rhythm and blues. He spends many nights a year on stage and is a frequent performer at Cardo’s in Payson. “I do so much traveling, I feel like a modern troubadour,” he said. He’s also a regular performer on the Grand Canyon Railway, which runs from Williams to the Grand Canyon. “You stroll the cars and get people involved and sing anything from Johnny Cash to favorites,” Carpino said. “I sing a lot of train songs and sneak in some originals. I’ve sold CDs to people in over 30 countries. It’s quite an honor to know my music is all over the world.” Carpino has released four CDs of original music: 2002’s “Heart in the Rain,” 2005’s “Evolution,” 2001’s “Come So Far,” and 2010’s “Life As We Know It.” He’s also worked on several side projects, such as a CD dedicated to Korean War veterans. He is also a music teacher. He’s taught in both Colorado and Arizona, most recently as a substitute first-grade teacher at Pine Strawberry Elementary. Carpino wrote “Under the Blue Arizona Sky” with his 54 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
wife’s vocals in mind. He and Lu have been married for 24 years. Visit his website www.johncarpino.com to view a video of the song. “She has fantastic presence,” Carpino said of his wife. “I do the acoustic thing and we do an acoustic duo and we have a five-piece rock band called John Carpino and the Hot Cappuccinos. We also go under the name Big Boss Lady and the Knuckleheads. We have a lot of fun.” David Brooks is the band’s main bass player and Dave Yoder is the drummer, but there are a lot of interchangeable parts because the band doesn’t perform together regularly. Icons such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Jackson Browne influenced his early music. “I cut my teeth on the singer-songwriters of the folk rock era,” he said. Carpino also has his own studio. “I’ve recorded literally thousands of songwriter demos for people all over the country,” he said. “I’ve written and arraigned and produced radio jingles all over the state. The studio’s kind of on a hiatus because I’ve been traveling and performing so much.” One of his songs, “Rock and Roll Highway,” off of “Come So Far,” went to No. 1 on the Independent Charts. All of his CDs are available through his website. The Carpinos have four children, Matthew, Nicholas, Jessalyn and Jared, who’ve all been involved in the performing arts in one way or another. He said he’s living his dream every day. “Songwriting is my passion,” Carpino said. “I feel very blessed and very fortunate to live this life and have these kinds of opportunities.”
Summer concerts
TERESA MCQUERREY ROUNDUP STAFF REPORTER
Rim residents and visitors can enjoy serenades at sunset throughout the summer at Green Valley Park. Once again, with the assistance of title sponsor SuddenLink, the Payson Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department is bringing the summer concert series to the amphitheater area of Green Valley Park. Starting at 7 p.m., each Saturday, from June through July, the series offers great entertainment by both local and visiting groups, free of charge. Many of the performers have been part of the series in the past, but audiences will have an opportunity to enjoy new voices as well. The series opened June 7 with MC6 A Cappella, an a cappella performing group founded in 2004 by six friends who love to sing and who share a passion for the power of the human voice. Reaching back through the years, MC6 shared doo-wop favorites. One of Arizona’s top bands, Southern Flight Band brought country, country rock and blues to the community when it performed Sat-
urday, June 14. Blue Frog Group promises to have the crowd jumping like — you guessed it — frogs in a frying pan Saturday, June 21. Voted Best Band numerous times in the Payson Roundup’s Best of Rim Country publication, Junction 87 will bring hard rocking country music to Green Valley Park Saturday, June 28. The summer concert series gets a little bit of a change up for the Fourth of July holiday, instead of a single concert Saturday, July 5, there will be two concerts. There will be a performance is Friday, July 4, before the community fireworks display. Taking to the bandstand will be The J. Powers Band, a five-piece group that mixes it up with R& B, blues, soul, Motown, reggae, pop and
classic rock. The new voices of Bonfire Band will be featured the second night of the holiday weekend, Saturday, July 5. Expect to hear country sounds made famous by Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, George Strait, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Miranda Lambert and more. Local favorites John Carpino and the Hot Cappuccinos and the John Scott Band perform in mid-July. The Carpino group is slated to entertain with its far ranging variety Saturday, July 12. The John Scott Band, Payson’s own rocking blues band, will bring the sounds of Stevie Ray Vaughn, B.B. King and more to the Green Valley bandstand Saturday, July 19. Closing out the 2014 Summer Concert Series will be Breaking Point Band Saturday, July 26. The group plays a variety of music including top 40 sounds, jazz, blues and country. Put every performance on your calendar; bring a blanket or lawn chair and plan on great entertainment under the beautiful Rim Country sky at Green Valley Park Saturdays (and Friday, July 4). 2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 55
Live Music venues in Rim Country •AYOTHAYA THAI CAFÉ, of Hwy. 87, about 20 miles south of 404 E. Hwy. 260, (928) 474Payson), (928) 474-0679. Jam session 1112. A variety of live music from 6-8 p.m. every Thursday; from jazz to country from 5:30Bobby Cook 5-8 p.m. every other 8:30 p.m. every Thursday-SaturFriday; and live karaoke featuring day. Bobby Cook every other Sunday •BUFFALO BAR & GRILL, from 1-4 p.m. •JOURNIGAN HOUSE, 202 W. 311 S. Beeline Hwy., (928) 4743900. Live music at 9 p.m. on Main St., (928) 474-2900. Live classic weekends and a classic country country music featuring Plan B from jam session featuring Junction 6:30-9:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Fri87 from 5-9 p.m. every Sunday. days. •CARDO’S PIZZA & ITAL •SIDEWINDERS TAVERN & GRILL, 6112 Hardscrabble Mesa IAN RESTAURANT, 203 E. Hwy. 260, (928) 468-1626. A variety Road in Pine, (928) 476-6434. BarJunction 87 plays at the Buffalo and elsewhere. of live music from 6-9 p.m. every becue ribs and live blues music from Friday. 6-10 p.m. every Friday and rock or country music from 6-10 •DIMI ESPRESSO, 612 N. Beeline Hwy., (928) 951-1198. or 11 p.m. every Saturday. Visit www.sidewinderssaloon.com Open mic from 6-9 p.m. every Saturday; live piano music for schedule. In addition to these venues, the Tonto Community from 11 a.m.-noon every Thursday; singer-songwriterguitarist Chris Pajak performs from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. every Fri- Concert Association has for decades scheduled a series of top-notch entertainers to perform in Rim Country. Visit the day. •JAKE’S CORNER BAR, 57564 N. Hwy. 188 (3 miles East TCCA website at www.tccarim.org/concert_schedule.htm.
BOOTLEG ALLEY
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56 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
Creative Quilting Award-winning Custom Machine Quilting by
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See how their garden grows From a few plots, to nearly 200. From a few bags of extra produce, to nearly 15,000 pounds for the local food banks. From a few pumpkin seeds, to the largest patch around each October. Just in its third year, Payson’s Community Garden has grown into one of the biggest and most successful community gardens in the state “bar none,” said Mayor Kenny Evans. It also exemplifies the spirit of a small town with a big heart. Rim Country has a surprising wealth of community and volunteer organizations devoted to the welfare of the community. Those organizations help foster a volunteer spirit, whether it’s finding homes for abandoned pets, providing after-school programs for struggling families, or raising money for scholarships. The community garden on Tyler Parkway near the KMOG radio station perfectly captures that spirit. Local churches launched the effort mostly to help food banks help people get through the recession. But the spirit of the garden has blossomed as it has grown into a center of community activity. Even adolescents on probation are working time off by tooling around the garden. Evans said it is amazing to watch them grow simply by working the ground. Helping these teens and the garden in general is a great group of volunteers, said organizer Roger Kreimeyer, who dreamed the garden up with Evans. In its third year, the garden now attracts almost 200 gardeners, each paying $60 for a 6-foot-by-18-foot plot. Meanwhile, donations to the food banks grew from 3,500 pounds the first year to 15,000 pounds last year.
Promoting Art and Art Education in the Rim Country. Monthly meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month (except December) with a demonstration and refreshments. We have two art shows each year, the Open Studio Tour in May and the ARToberFEST in October at the Mazatzal Casino. For more information, visit: www.paysonartleague.org or call Sue Jones 928-472-8147
The Humane Society of Central Arizona
Thrift Shop & Vintage Boutique We’re open Mon-Sat 9-4:30 at 510 W. Main Street in Payson 928-468-6419 Donations welcome during business hours!
Payson Community Kids Inc., is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that serves under-served children and their families residing in Payson, Arizona.
(928) 478-7160 paysoncommunitykids@gmail.com Mailing Address: P.O. Box 1856 Payson, AZ 85547 Location: 213 S. Colcord Rd.
Announcing new SHOW DATES for 2014! Mazatzal Hotel & Casino Exhibition Hall Payson, Arizona Show-Classes-Vendor Mall Set your Fall Getaway for the Rim Country Show held Oct. 10, 11 & 12, 2014 Classes held Oct. 7-11, 2014
Join us for th e
10tha l Annu
Classes by Sharon Schamber and Anelie Belden
Senior Center
514 W. Main St. Payson, AZ 85541 Phone 928.474.4876 Fax 928.474.6054
Senior Thrift Store
512 W. Main St. Payson, AZ 85541 Phone 928.474.3205
Soroptimist International of Zane Grey Country
Celebrates 35 years of service try
SOROPTIMIST Best for Women
to Payson and the Rim Coun try
We are an international volunteer organization for business and professional women who work to improve the lives of women and girls
2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 57
Dining Guide ALFONSO’S MEXICAN FOOD 510 S. Beeline Hwy, Payson
928.468.6902
Open Mon-Thur 7-10, Fri 7-11, Sat-Sun 7-10
Breakfast Burritos • Fajitas • Talacios Burrito • Don Ponchos Burritos Combination Plates served with Rice and Beans • Menudo Sat & Sun Tostadas • Tacos • Enchiladas • Tortas • Rolled Tacos Come try Alfonso’s Mexican Food ~ Muy Excelente!
A guide to Rim Country restaurants Alfonso’s Mexican 510 S. Beeline Hwy., Payson (928) 468-6178
Aliberto’s Mexican Food 219 E. Highway 260, Payson (928) 468-9000
Ayothaya Thai Cafe MEXICAN FOOD
Dine-In or Take Out 219 E. Hwy 260, Payson • (928) 468-9000 Lunch • Dinner • Takeout Open 7 Days a Week 404 E. Highway 260, Payson 928.474.1112 www.ayothayapayson.com Email: ayothaya03@hotmail.com Find us on
58 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
acebook
404 E. Highway 260, Payson (928) 474-1112
Beeline Café 815 S. Beeline Hwy., Payson (928) 474-9960
Buffalo Bar & Grill 311 S. Beeline Hwy., Payson (928) 474-3900
Butcher Hook Old Highway 188, Tonto Basin (928) 479-2226
Beeline Cafe
Oldest family owned restaurant in Payson 5 Generations of Owners serving Generations of families since 1962 Daily Specials • Homemade Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner World Famous Food and Pies
815 S. Beeline Hwy, Payson • 474-9960 • Open 5-9
ED T O V BEST
OF RIM COUNTRY 928-474-3900 311 S. Beeline Highway Payson, Arizona 85541
Cardo’s Pizza & Italian Restaurant 203 E. Highway 260, Payson (928) 468-1626
Chili’s Grill & Bar
& Italian Restaurant 203 E. Hwy. 260
Open 11am to 9pm Daily
(928) 468-1626
900 S. Beeline Hwy., Payson (928) 468-7036
900 S. Beeline Hwy. Payson, AZ
Cedar Ridge Restaurant Inside Mazatzal Casino Hwy. 87, Payson (928) 474-6044
Creekside Steakhouse 1510 E. Christopher Creek Loop Christopher Creek (928) 478-4389
Crosswinds Restaurant 800 W. Airport Rd., Ste. B, Payson (928) 474-1613
(928) 468-7036
C ROSSWINDS R ESTAURANT AT THE AIRPORT
Home of the Million Dollar View 800 W. AIRPORT ROAD, PAYSON • 928-474-1613
Denny’s
If you’re open to some great American food at America’s diner, we’re open for you.
312 S. Beeline Hwy., Payson (928) 474-4717
Dimi Espresso 612 N. Highway 87, Payson (928) 951-1198
America’s diner is always open.
(928) 474-4717 312 S. Beeline Hwy. Payson, Arizona
Come and see us for your fill of, well, whatever it is you’re in the mood for. Fluffy pancakes, crispy bacon, a juicy burger or something from our Fit Fare® Menu – you’ll always find delicious value and variety at Denny's. And like any good diner, the coffee is always brewing.
2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 59
Lunch Specials Delivery or Carry Out 307 S. Beeline Hwy.
(928) 472-9000
Domino’s Pizza 307 S. Beeline Hwy., Ste. D, Payson (928) 472-9000
Early Bird Café 620 E. Highway 260 - Payson | 928-474-7455
Open for Lunch & Dinner | Mon-Thurs 11am-9pm | Fri-Sat 11am-10pm | Sun 11am-8pm Please visit us at www.fargossteakhouse.com
The Flying Grizzly You won’t “Bear” to eat elsewhere! Strawberry’s Best Place for Fine Food, Cold Beer & Wine Live Music on Weekends 5079 Hwy 87, Strawberry • 928-978-1412
Catering Services Available
Arizona Highways Magazine Best 25 Favorite Restaurants
GERARDO’S PASTA • BRICK OVEN PIZZA • SEAFOOD • WINE BAR G E R A R D O
M O C E R I ,
KFC of Payson
303 S. Beeline (928) 474-3533 Open 7 Days a Week Special Orders Available
60 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
C H E F
512 N. BEELINE HWY. PAYSON
468-6500 www.gerardosfirewoodcafe.com
#HowDoYouKFC
3618 N. Highway 87, Pine (928) 476-4092
El Rancho Mexican Restaurant 200 S. Beeline Hwy., Payson 474-3111
Fargo’s Steakhouse 620 E. Highway 260, Payson (928) 474-7455
Flying Grizzly Pub & Grub 5079 N. Highway 87, Pine (928) 476-3064
Gerardo’s Firewood Cafe 512 N. Beeline Hwy., Payson (928) 468-6500
Historic Journigan House 202 W. Main St., Payson (928) 474-2900
KFC 303 S. Beeline Hwy., Payson (928) 474-3533
La Sierra Mexican Restaurant Voted ‘BEST MEXICAN RESTAURANT’ 2014
800 N. Beeline Highway, Payson d (928) 468-6711 Family Owne Mon-Fri 11-9
Sat-Sun 10-9
& Operated
Home of the Hot-N-Ready Large Pepperoni & Cheese Pizza for $5 400 E. Highway 260, just east of the Bashas’ shopping center • 928-474-4677
La Sierra Mexican Restaurant
Macky’s Grill
800 N. Beeline Hwy., Ste. A, Payson (928) 468-6711
• Open Daily for Lunch & Dinner • Great Food & Service • • Pets Welcome on the Patio • 40 New Menu Items •
Little Caesars Pizza
Located next to Sawmill Theatre 928.474.7411
201 W Main St. Payson 400 E. Highway 260, Payson (928) 474-4677
VOTED “BEST OF RIM COUNTRY” BY THE COMMUNITY OF PAYSON BEST PLACE FOR LUNCH AND BEST HAMBURGER
Highway 87 in Pine, AZ Smoked Specialties • Steaks • Seafood
Macky’s Grill 201 W. Main St., Ste. J, Payson (928) 474-7411
Open for lunch 11-2 and dinner 5-Close
Reservations (928) 476-2222 Private Seating for up to 20 Guests
Maverick Steakhouse 3854 N. Hwy. 87, Pine (928) 476-2222
Mazatzal Coffee Korner Inside Mazatzal Casino Hwy. 87, Payson (928) 474-6044
Miss Fitz 260 Café 803 E. Highway 260, Payson (928) 474-5881
M & M Reno Creek Café 270 S. Highway 188, Ste. C Tonto Basin (928) 479-2710
Go where great friends ..
and great food meet! Awesome Home-Style Cooking for Breakfast • Lunch • Dinner 803 E. Highway 260 in Payson 928-474-5881 2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 61
Come in for Home Style Cookinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; at
CafĂŠ Family Owned and Operated
1001 S. Beeline Hwy, Payson, AZ 85541
(928) 474-2890
Voted Best of Rim Country! 1":40/ t 238 E. Highway 260
WE DELIVER!
PIZZA & PASTA, CALZONES, SANDWICHES, SALAD BAR, VIDEO GAMES, PARTY ROOM 01&/ %":4 8&&, t %*/& */ 5",& 065 %&-*7&3:
Wood-Fired Brick Oven Pizza Full Bar Patio Dining Delivery Available
(928) 478-6979 3870 East Highway 260 in Star Valley Open at 11 a.m. Wednesday through Monday Closed Tuesdays
BREAKFAST LUNCH PASTRIES CAPPUCCINO CATERING GIFTS GUEST COTTAGE
3821 Hwy 87 P.O. Box 428 Pine, AZ 85544
928.476.4077
Pizza Factory 238 E. Highway 260, Payson (928) 474-1895
Pour House 3870 E. Highway 260, Star Valley (480) 772-2755
Randall House 3821 N. Highway 87, Pine (928) 476-4077
$1.00 Tacos Open 7 Days â&#x20AC;˘ 11 to 8 1111 S. Beeline Hwy. â&#x20AC;˘ 928-474-4305
ICE CREAM & ESPRESSO Sawmill Crossing ~ Payson, AZ
62 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
1001 S. Beeline Hwy., Payson (928) 474-2890
â&#x20AC;˘ GOOD FOOD & GIFTS â&#x20AC;˘
Tuesdays:
Featuring the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Best Green Chili on Earthâ&#x20AC;? Authentic Mexican Food
Pinon CafĂŠ
Ice Cream, Coffee, Free Wireless Internet, Games and Fun for the Whole Family!
Sal & Teresaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mexican Restaurant 111 S. Beeline Hwy., Payson (928) 474-4305
Scoops Ice Cream & Espresso 201 W. Main St., Ste. H, Payson (928) 474-3957
The Best Bar on the Mountain! Located on Hwy 87 in Downtown Pine, AZ (just a short drive away). Friendly atmosphere, attentive bartenders, WiFi, Jukebox, 2 Patios, 6 TV's, Texas-Hold-Em Poker, Great Bands, a wide selection of Beer, Spirits and Wine, and Great Food make Sidewinders the place to be! A FREE $10.00 Off Voucher on Your Next Visit When You Sign Up For Sidewinders Rewards! Sidewinders Rewards Program is a unique program that rewards you every time you visit us. Visit us today and ask a team member for an application to start enjoying valuable benefits. Visit us on Facebook for the latest events and information.
6114 W. Hardscrabble Mesa Road 928-476-6434
Sidewinders Saloon 6114 W. Hardscrabble Mesa Rd., Pine (928) 476-6434
Summit Swirls Frozen Yogurt
G et t o th e
Summit Swirls Frozen Yogurt
! S um mit
600 E. Hwy 260, Suite 2 • 928-478-6824
summitswirls@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/
summitswirls123
600 E. Highway 260, Payson (928) 478-6824
Sweet Shoppe 201 W. Main St., Ste. B, Payson (928) 468-6296
THAT Brewery & Pub 3270 N. Highway 87, Pine (928) 476-3349
The Grille Inside Mazatzal Casino Hwy. 87, Payson (928) 474-6044
Custom Cakes, Fruit Arrangements, Cookies and more
928.468.6296
201 W. Main St., Suite B • email: The Sweet Shoppe Payson@yahoo.com
THAT Brewery & Pub
Locally Locally Made Made Craft Craft Beers, Beers, Great Great Food, Food, Bar/Wine, Bar/Wine, Outdoor Outdoor Dining, Dining, Horseshoes, Horseshoes, Sand Sand Volleyball, Volleyball, Saturday Saturday Live Live Music Music Open Wed-Sun at 11 am & Holiday Mondays
3270 N. Hwy 87, Pine Az
www.thatbrewery.com
928-476-3349
Tiny’s Family Restaurant 600 E. Highway 260, Payson (928) 474-5429
TINY’S Family Restaurant & Lounge • BREAKFAST • LUNCH • DINNER • • COCKTAIL BAR • OFF TRACK BETTING • Open 7 Days • 600 E. Hwy. 260 • 928-474-5429 2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 63
Lodging Guide
Hotels & Motels Americas Best Value Inn WIFI AVAILABLE • CABLE TV • HBO • LIMITED PETS
811 S. Beeline Highway, Payson 928-474-2283 www.americasbestvalueinn.com/ bestv.cfm?idp=460
Comfort Inn 100% NON-SMOKING • INDOOR POOL/SPA • PET FREE COMPLIMENTARY BREAKFAST • FREE HIGH-SPEED INTERNET
206 S. Beeline Highway, Payson 928-472-7484 www.choicehotels.com/hotel/az347
Days Inn & Suites FIREPLACES • INDOOR HEATED POOL/SPA • PETS OK COMPLIMENTARY BREAKFAST • FREE HIGH-SPEED INTERNET
Americas Best Value Inn
• WiFi available
• Cable TV
• Restaurants nearby
• HBO
• Near Mazatzal Casino • Fax 928-474-5448 • Limited pets
SM
by Vantage
• 24-hour Front Desk/Lobby
811 S. Beeline Hwy. • Payson, AZ 85541
928•474•2283
www.americasbestvalueinn.com
Knights Inn PETS OK
101 W. Phoenix Street, Payson 928-474-4526 knightsinn.com/Payson
Majestic Mountain Inn
N AAA Approved N Entirely Non-smoking / Pet Free N Heated Indoor Pool & Hot Tub
FIREPLACES • POOL/SPA
602 E. Highway 260, Payson 928-474-0185 www.majesticmountaininn.com
N Free High Speed Internet N Complimentary “Your Morning Breakfast” BY CHOICE HOTELS
301-A S. Beeline Highway, Payson 928-474-9800 877-474-9800 www.daysinn.com/payson
Mazatzal Hotel & Casino
928-472-7484
206 S. Beeline Highway, Payson, AZ 85541 • www.choicehotels.com/hotel/az347
100% Non-Smoking AAA, AARP, Government and Military Extended Stay Discount Indoor Heated Pool & Hot Tub Complimentary “Day Break Breakfast” Every room has a Refrigerator, Microwave, Iron, Ironing Board & Coffee Maker Luxury Suites with In-Room Spa & Fireplace
POOL/SPA • NO SMOKING • FITNESS CENTER
Highway 87, Mile Marker 251, Payson 1-800-777-PLAY (7529) www.777play.com
Motel 6 FIREPLACES • POOL • FREE COFFEE, HIGH-SPEED INTERNET & HBO • PETS OK
1005 S. Beeline Highway, Payson 928-474-2382 www.motel6.com
928-474-9800 301 S. Beeline Highway, Ste. A (behind Burger King), Payson, AZ 85541 • www.daysinn.com/payson
Quality Inn FREE WIRELESS INTERNET • FREE HOT BREAKFAST
Falcon Crest Bed and Breakfast
928.474.5249 602.359.7113
Hosts: Allan and Linda Pelletier Email: falconcrestinn@yahoo.com Website: falconcrestbandb.com
1105 N. Falcon Crest Drive ~ Payson, Arizona
64 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
801 N Beeline Highway, Payson 928-474-3241 www.QualityInn.com/Arizona
Super 8 Inn & Suites FIREPLACES • POOL/SPA • PETS OK
809 E. Highway 260, Payson 928-474-5241
EVERY KNIGHT. JUST RIGHT®
Hotels & Motels
101 W. Phoenix Street Payson, AZ 85541-5439
Tonto Basin Inn
928.474.4526
MANY EXTRAS INCLUDING AMPLE PARKING FOR BOATS
Fax 928.474.0263 www.knightsinn.com
Highway 188, Milepost 260, Tonto Basin 7 miles north of Roosevelt Lake 928-479-2891
MOTEL 6 PAYSON
Cabins & Lodges
1005 S. Beeline Hwy. (928) 474-2382 Seasonal Pool • Mini Refrigerator Shuttle to and from Mazatzal Casino Check In 3:00 p.m. • Check Out 11:00 a.m.
Cabins at Creekside 1520 E. Christopher Loop, Christopher Creek 928-478-4389 www.cabinsatcreekside.com
Cabins on Strawberry Hill SPA SERVICES AVAILABLE, INCLUDING MASSAGE AND AESTHETICS
5306 N. Highway 87, Strawberry 928-476-4252 www.azcabins.com
Christopher Creek Lodge Motel RESTAURANT • FIREPLACES • PETS OK
1355 E. Christopher Creek Loop, Christopher Creek 928-478-4300
PAYSON QUALITY INN 801 North Beeline Hwy (87) Payson, AZ 85541 PH 928.474.3241 FX 928.472.6564 QIPayson@swhm.com www.QualityInnPayson.com
Get Your Money’s Worth
15% OFF WITH PRESENTATION OF THIS AD
Grey Hackle Lodge OPEN MAY 15 through OCTOBER 15
1441 E. Christopher Creek Loop, Christopher Creek 928-478-9980 www.greyhackle.com
Kohl’s Ranch Lodge
Free wireless Internet • Free SuperStart® Breakfast • Outdoor heated pool & spa • Multi-lingual staff Suites with hot tub & fireplace • All rooms with microwave/fridge, coffee maker & hair dryer Free Local Calls • Cable TV with HBO • Truck/large vehicle parking • Children 17 & under free with adult
Super 8 Payson 809 Highway 260 East • Payson, AZ 85541 • (928) 474-5241
Destination Super
®
SUPER8.COM 1.800.800.8000
Operated under franchise agreement with Super 8 Worldwide Inc.
RESTAURANT • FIREPLACES • POOL/SPA • PETS OK HORSES • CABINS ON THE CREEK
17 miles east of Payson on Highway 260 928-478-4211 • 800-521-3131 www.kohlsvacation.com
Bed & Breakfasts Falcon Crest Bed & Breakfast 1105 N. Falcon Crest Drive, Payson 928-474-5249 www.arizonabednbreakfast.com
RV Spaces Payson Campground CAMPGROUND AND RV RESORT • FULL HOOK-UPS • 95 SITES GAME ROOM • FREE WI-FI • WASHER AND DRYER • SHOWERS DOG-FRIENDLY
808 E. Highway 260, Payson 928-472-2267 www.paysoncampground.com
Up The Creek Bed & Breakfast FIREPLACES
10491 Fossil Creek Rd., Strawberry 928-476-6571 www.upthecreekbedandbreakfast.com
2014 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 65
Roundup Media Company Community Newspaper & Digital Media
PAYSON ROUNDUP the rim review
payson.com
Z
paysondeal .com
PAYSON M ARKETPLACE .com PAY S O N
Homefinder.com Happy Va
lenti
Covering all of Rim Country
ne’s Day! Find a frie nd for life - 3B Feelin’ th Girls ba e love - 4A sk rested h etball team Kids who e love to co opening ading into ok - 8A ro state to und of u
PAYSO N.COM
Readers playing favorites Who will be
tate
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ECHMAN REPORT
ER
BY LEX ho serves IS EC ROUNDU HMAN Mexican up Rim Country P STAFF REPORT food? Ste ’s ER overnight ak? Fis Develop . h d who LaRo again sho ers are finall rea wing int y once managern Garrett, assista (jeweler lly has the bes wit erest in h , sai nt town ), sev uts and vehicles (deale t ments noweral housing Payson, largest develod so far the r) bolts (ha tw de ing stages in the very ear velop- submit plans pers have yet o rdware to . ly talk“In today’ to the town. out Mond One pro s eco ay kn jec nom du ow t is nea Roundu ring the struction y, you what you rin are going never gala at thep’s annual readment firm and a major g con- he said. to see,” developMazatzal The projec no. acres of this month bou Hotel t dy, Ro Walmart prime real estate ght 27 Mud Springs furthest along is un talking . A third develonext to 19 single-famiRoad and includoff 1,200 bal dup readers to gh paper lots both online Co developin the town aga per is Christian sch ly lots where es ool nstruc in behind towg 35 acres on Ma about a new school planned to buthe he newspaballots. about at tion has started ild nzanita Frontier n hall. before least fou on the Blu ur years per launched All tol Ele bu r potentia ago Verde En mentary School ying eventuallyd, the propertie l housinge Ridge pipeline a larger , the event . gineer s include pla as devel projects. homes. d be tha crowd every more tha could as ns for the 5.8 ing worked on opers fin Pho nk n 500 ally begin to courtesy Town Forest Rid -acre site kn es and dris to the free Town off of Payson ow tal ge n pre kin Phase II nks, but liminary g to Pay encouragi icials say the people are we and son pla nation, bu ng after years news is ted to the town. t has been submi a business proud to tPhase dreds of t they don’t exp of stagough the es who have ect complete I of the project is homes rec to springhunalr on the we everal hu ession. st side of eady up around ndred peoSe Mud e Develop tab ers, page ere full, les and 2A e casino lined the tions ros ’s banqu e et BY P to $455,0 a heartening 12 ETE A LESHIR heered, months 00 for the firs percent years. ROUNDU E the P EDITOR ategories nomimoney of the fiscal yeat seven • State-sha mostly Only con r. The ref sal hey cam fidgeted red Rim lec es, ments incom ts Coun one ing in mo tinued under e The rep tors of eco of the leadin new car reflec rose 9 perce e tax payst -sp ights for hoping ues to gai ty’s economy ort inc tionary g indica contin- the budge departments ha endn nomic gro figures, luded two cau - incomts the increase nt, which t pre ders namethe year cent impro ground with a s • how in e tax col vem 7 per- according to cariously balankept cen The report ref wth. lections statewide mi Money paid for ever. out everyt d their ed on Payso ent in sales lected t rise a yea the Janua ced, report The ts to act building n’s Janua ry od in sta to $632,000 for a 6 per- hold. r ago as the rec more than tracking ude coo hing. perry finan - lined gain in local sal report. the periof new proually start con te-shared The state report. overy too ks, cops inc cia es lec struct rea l ted statew collec sal k jec Payson sta doctors, almost acr ses in tax col headsal ide and es tax, col- tio tewide and dis ts the money 4 percent to ts actually droppion bas lec oss ed tio , auto me den- jumped $19 es tax collec trib distribute ns n of it to abo on popula the boa ed ing sta tio chan- for 1,0 cities bas utes a por- figure indicates ut $95,000. Th dog groom the first 00 to $3.1 mi ns vehicle te sales and rd, includ- indicates tha tion. That fig d tion. ed on pop e despite incom ure t Rim license economy ula- interest in future a ris and ban ers, fiscal year seven months llion ning • Pla Co taxes an e tax, is number ker fees. projects, e in d plan- statewide keeping pace untry’s prisin n review fees of projec period a compared to the of the are a litt s. the with the g 44 ros con ts The recove year ago le same lagged . best ind percent to $65 e a sur- fro struction has decactually under p stream difTh brightenione exception behind ry, after havin m ,00 ica lined mi e rise in tax lin las 0, tor g in ng ed t yea to the the slightly the past fisc of pro tig ocus mo In addit r. re on som ated an oth revenues has the form of al picture cam two pip jects entering thenew building ion, the e in erwise a small s, like e budge eline. building developm wo bes decline per ent ments a worrisom report docun best ham t wafer-thin t picture, given rriin Highlight mit fees. e decline reserv the - the tow in gas See Pays n starte es with which tion to the s of the report in d the yea on, page the second taxes inc 7 percent gain addir. 2A lud in sales lso receiv • Vehiclee: e license top three tax collec t only the
Rim Cou
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Sales ri se plan rev 7% as Payson’s iew fees jump 44 %
ing grou
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School p rograms threaten Kids h d L
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Credit fo r
66 | SUMMER VISITORS GUIDE | 2014
To subscribe, call (928) 474-5251, ext. 108 or visit www.payson.com
KOHL’S RANCH LODGE Payson, AZ
• Spacious rooms • Kitchenettes • On-site restaurant • Outdoor hot tub • Heated pool
1.928.478.4211 Use promo code: ZRGD KohlsRanch.com
Rest, Relax & Revive at Christopher Creek! Steakhouse & Tavern / Cabins Serving Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Open 7 days a week (928) 478-4557 or email: Info@CabinsAtCreekside.com 1520 E. Christopher Creek Loop, Payson, AZ 85541
CHRISTOPHER CREEK LODGE Front Desk (928) 478-4300 email: info@ChristopherCreeklodge.com 1355 E Christopher Creek Loop, Payson, AZ 85541
Grey Hackle Lodge www.EnjoyArizona.com
Reservations (928) 478-5050 email: info@greyhackle.com 1441 E Christopher Creek Loop Payson, AZ 85541