Lynx Lake is Beautiful in Autumn

     It's autumn and finding the colors of fall across Arizona can be a whole series of wonderful, road trip adventures.  A beautiful, nearby place is Lynx Lake in Prescott.  Hope you like our Lynx Lake story...

    A short 50-mile drive north of Anthem brings those looking to Find Arizona into the 1.25 million acre Prescott National Forest.  The northern lands of this national forest reach the cool, ponderosa pine covered summits of the Bradshaw Mountains.  Throughout this mountain range, gold and silver were common minerals sought by the early miners.  Yet modern day miners can today pan for Bradshaw gold by visiting the Lynx Creek/Lynx Lake Recreational Area.
     Arizona State Route 69 leads the traveler to Prescott, Arizona.  Shortly after entering the city limits of Prescott, turn left onto Walker Road (just past Costco).  Follow the paved Walker Road  just 3 miles and arrive at beautiful recreational area.
     The headwater of Lynx Creek is located high in the peaks of the Bradshaw Mountains. The cold stream of water picks up flakes and even nuggets of gold as it tumbles down the mountain side.  This Arizona creek yielded over $80,000 of gold from 1863–1940.  Today it is still possible to walk along the banks of Lynx Creek and pan for that Bradshaw gold.  Only gold panning by hand is legal; no form of motorized or mechanical equipment is allowed.
     Lynx Creek ends its downhill run from the Bradshaw Mountains in a beautiful 55-acre man-made lake call Lynx Lake.  The lake is regularly stocked with a variety of fish including rainbow trout and wide mouth bass.  All anglers over the age of 13 must have an Arizona fishing license.  Boats can be powered only by hand or by an electric motor.  A marina is present; boat rentals are available and no swimming is allowed.
     A 2 mile-long hiking trail allows the visitor to leisurely stroll along the pine-covered shore and travel totally around the beautiful mile high lake.  The north 1/2 of the trail is paved making the path ideal for strollers or wheel chairs.
     Lynx Lake has 36 camping sites and is a great location for hiking, picnicking, bird watching, and boating.  The Lynx Lake Store is a wonderful place to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner while enjoying the cool air and the beautiful autumn leaves that soon will be found at Lynx Lake. 



Lynx Lake is located about 50 miles from Anthem off Arizona Highway 69 on Walker Road in Prescott.  The GPS coordinates of Lynx Lake is N 34 31.311
W 112 23.286.  For more information about Lynx Lake visit the following web site: http://www.go-arizona.com/Lynx-Lake  For more information about panning for gold in Lynx Creek visit the following web site: http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/prescott/recreation/propect.shtml

There is a $2.00 day-use fee per car.

Lynx Creek

Walking path around lake

Lynx Lake

Fishing is good

Lynx Lake store

Urban Bobcats

Check out our September 2014 story for Live Science dealing with Urban Bobcats.  All these beautiful cats share our Arizona neighborhood with us.  Just click on the link and enjoy their beauty - http://www.livescience.com/48030-urban-bobcats-photos.html

A neighbor took this picture of a bobcat on our front wall.

Beautiful Hart Prairie

     Fall has arrived in northern Arizona and one of the great places to visit during the autumn season is Hart Prairie near Flagstaff.  Here is a story about visiting Hart Prairie we wrote in 2013.  Contact the folks of Hart Prairie to learn of this year's fall tours.


     It’s September and for those of us living in the Valley of the Sun the hope that cooler weather will soon return to our Sonoran Desert homes is often at the forefront of our minds. But by mid-September, ol’ Jack Frost has already been at work with his autumn colors in the high country of Arizona and no place does autumn better than the Quaking Aspen groves of the Hart Prairie Preserve.  Located just north of Flagstaff at an elevation of 8,500’, Hart Prairie is where desert dwellers can rediscover and enjoy the amazing colors of fall.
    It was the late 1870s when a group of German immigrants with family names like Michelbach, Hochderffer and Freudenberger came to homestead this land dominated by the majestic peaks of these ancient volcanoes.  They found beautiful mountain meadows and believed them to be ideal for raising sheep and growing potatoes.  Deer were so common in the nearby forest that they called this spacious land Hart Prairie which in their German language meant “deer prairie”.
    One settler, Gus Dillman Freudenberger was also a blacksmith and soon built a set of cabins on his land. Since the good folks of Flagstaff had a hard time saying his last name, he dropped that name and just became Gus Dillman.
    By 1892 the Dillman Homestead began to serve as a stage stop for a newly opened stage route that was now carrying tourists the 75 miles from the railroad depot in Flagstaff to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
    The Dillman Homestead, some 20-miles from Flagstaff, was and ideal place to change the team of horses, find water and have any repairs made. When two consecutive early winters ruined the potato harvests, most of the early German families had to abandon their mountain meadow homes, but Gus Dillman stayed. 
    Today the Dillman Homestead is the centerpiece of the 245-acre Hart Prairie Preserve.  Now owned and operated by the Nature Conservancy this land continues to be unique for its uncommon wildflowers, old growth ponderosa pines as well as the largest known grove of the rare Bebb willow in the world.
    Herds of elk and deer still graze in the large meadows which are also home to porcupines, prairie dogs and more than 40 species of birds.  In addition the many large stands of Quaking Aspen trees turn this beautiful and unique landscape into a spectacular autumn palette of golden colors.
    The Hart Prairie Preserve is closed to the general public most days although retreat facilities are available with proper reservations. But through October 7th, a free, guided 90-minute nature walk will be offered each Sunday beginning at 10:00 a.m.
    So if you are looking for some cool weather right now as well as some dazzling fall colors, then get out and travel to Flagstaff.  Join up with the guides from the Nature Conservancy and get ready to be “wowed” by one of Arizona’s really extraordinary places – Hart Prairie!

Link - northamerica/unitedstates/arizona/placesweprotect/hart-prairie-preserve.xml

In Search of Autumn

    “Road Trip” is a cry that anyone trying to find Arizona always loves to hear.  Whether cruising down the longest stretch of Old Route 66 still found in America, navigating the winding turns of Route 89A up through Oak Creek Canyon, or traveling the Wild West Highway of Route 60 to Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Arizona’s highways always lead to adventure. Moreover, when you add the annual explosion of autumn leaves, the months of September/October become the perfect time to get out and discover autumn in Arizona.
     Now we acknowledge that the red maple leafs of Maine and the yellow cottonwoods of the Ohio River Valley have no match in our Arizona, best known for its rugged mountains and cacti.  Yet there are many places in Arizona where the autumn leaf display is downright beautiful (and a heck of a lot closer) and well worth the effort to enjoy.
     From our high school biology class we remember that leaves don’t really turn color but those brown, orange and yellow autumn hues have been present since the leaves first unfolded last spring.  Green chlorophyll has been so abundant within the leaves all summer long that all those spectacular colors are simply hidden.  With the shortening hours of sunlight and the approach of Old Jack Frost the chlorophyll fades and the time comes again when the beautiful leaves of autumn take nature’s center stage.  Where do you begin to search for autumn leaves in Arizona?  Let us suggest a few places…
     The leaves on the trees nearest the timberline are usually the first to show off their autumn colors.  Knowing this fact, the Arboretum at Flagstaff becomes the perfect place to begin a search for the spectacular colors of fall.  
    Located on 200 acres a few miles southwest of downtown Flagstaff this botanical paradise transforms into ground zero for the explosion of yellow found on the aspen and cottonwood trees of Flagstaff and on the slopes of the San Francisco Peaks. This arboretum was once a working cattle ranch owned by Frances McAllister who in the early 1980s donated the land and structures to create this northern Arizona botanical haven.
        The Arboretum at Flagstaff offers more than just a botanical garden.  It also serves the people of Arizona as an environmental education center and a research center.  Its mission strives to expand the knowledge and understanding of the plants and plant communities of the Colorado Plateau. Over 2,500 species of high country plants inhabit the grounds and daily tours occur at 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.
       The Arboretum at Flagstaff will close its doors for another season on October 31st so the time to visit is now.  October brings the month long “Scarecrow Days” at the arboretum that adds to the fun of an autumn visit.  
     After visiting the Arboretum at Flagstaff let us suggest a leisurely drive around Arizona’s tallest mountain range, the San Francisco Peaks.  The San Francisco Peaks Scenic Road was designated in January 1990 as one of America’s best scenic drives. 
     Known by locals as the “Around the Peaks Drive”, this mountain road trip passes through five biotic zones of beautiful, Arizona high country.  In October the trees found along the 43 miles of well-maintained gravel roads turn the forests on the slopes of these ancient volcanoes into a showcase of color.  
     There are places along the road where one can stop to hike or enjoy a picnic.  These forest roads are all closed in winter due to snow, but in October the journey should take between 1 – 2 hours depending on how often you stop to take pictures or just to marvel at the view.  Throughout the trip an ever changing view of Humphreys Peak, Arizona’s tallest mountain at 12, 633 feet, will dominate the landscape and enrich the beauty of your road trip.      
     This web site provides specific driving directions for your “Around The Peaks Drive” - www.go-arizona.com/Around-The-Peaks-Scenic-Drive/
       For those in search of Arizona’s autumn, other paved and unpaved roads can be traveled while in the Flagstaff area.  The Schultz Pass Road wanders through the aspen/pine forests some 26 miles and brings travelers to some fabulous high country hiking and mountain biking trails.  The Snow Bowl Road is paved for its 15 miles of journeying through forests to the Arizona Snow Bowl Ski Resort, sitting on the slopes of Humphreys Peak and patiently waiting for the return of the snows of winter.


Arizona Autumn Leaves Hotlines

1.    www.fs.fed.us/r2/recreation/fallcolors/scenic_drives/
2.    www.fs.fed.us/r3/coconino/recreation/fall-colors/fall_colors.shtml
3.    www.fs.fed.us/news/fallcolors/
4.    Arizona Highways Magazine – October 2008 - www.arizonahighways.com/

Photos 16, 17 and 18 are courtesy of the Flagstaff Arboretum

Leaves of Prescott

Leaves of Keams Canyon

La Posada, Winslow

Trees of Flagstaff

San Francisco Peaks

Road to the Snow Bowl

Snow capped Humphreys Peak

Sunset Crater National Monument

Flagstaff Arboretum

The Amazing Desert View Watchtower

 This place is wonderful...

A short 57 miles from the Cameron Trading Post off Highway 64 in northern Arizona is found one of architect Mary Jane Colter’s greatest Arizona buildings, the Desert View Watchtower.  This site was selected by Colter to build her unique Watchtower because of its stunning view of the Colorado River as it comes out of Marble Canyon and continue its journey on through Grand Canyon National Park.

It was entrepreneur Fred Harvey who came to understand in the early 1900s that Americans and people from all over the world had a fascination with visiting the Wild West.  He took a chance and hired a rare woman architect, Mary Jane Colter, to design and build his tourist-attracting buildings. Colter would design and build five such treasures in Arizona, including the Watchtower at Desert View.

Desert View Watchtower opened in 1933. Colter designed this masterpiece to provide “the widest possible view of the Grand Canyon yet harmonizes with its setting.”  The 70-foot high tower was to reflect the Anasazi guard towers which once rose above the pueblo homes of these ancient people.  It was not designed to be a replica (no Anasazi tower was every 70-feet high) but was to be another of Colter’s interpretation of the Southwest cultures that she had come to know and love.

Colter oversaw ever aspect of the construction including the placement of nearly every stone.  She would wrap local stone around a steel frame and use natural elements to reflect both the modern and the prehistoric cultures of the people of the Four Corners area.  Her use of extreme texture in the masonry created a visual depth in the 5-story tall tower. 

Colter designed the main entrance to the tower to be the largest room of the building.  It is circular in form and was designed to resemble a Kiva.  Logs from the historic Grand View Hotel and Horseshoe Mesa at the Grand Canyon were used to make the ceiling.  The logs were laid in a prehistoric Native American pattern that Colter had once seen and remembered.  Today this room acts as a gift shop for the 1000s of yearly tower visitors.

The interior of the tower is the most impressive section of the building.  An open shaft circular staircase leads up through the tower’s additional four levels.  At the second level is found the Hopi Room with a snake altar at its center.  The walls are covered with murals painted by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie.  Here he depicts the snake legend, wedding scenes and other Hopi symbols. Small windows randomly appear on the wall creating a cave-like atmosphere within the historic tower.

The third and fourth levels highlight the replica of many petroglyphs found throughout the Southwest.  Artifacts and other museum-like displays highlight the ancient stories of the people who once made this part of Arizona their home. 

Upon arriving at the fifth level one finds a series of viewing windows.  From here, at an elevation of 7,522 feet, the visitor can view the South Rim of the Grand Canyon from the highest possible viewpoint.  A good telephoto lens can bring one to believe that they are standing on the canyon floor.  To say that the views from here are spectacular is a grand understatement.

The Desert View Watchtower of Mary Jane Colter was declared a United States National Historic Landmark on May 28, 1987.  With the canyon’s cottonwood trees changing from green to orange and yellow, fall is the perfect time of year to visit as the summer crowds have also disappeared. 

A bookstore, cafeteria, restrooms and the Desert View Campground are all available for visitor use.  The campground, open mid-May to the end of October, has drinking water but no hook-ups.  There is a $10.00 fee but no reservations are taken.