Snowy Blue Ridge sunset
The reason I live here; the beautiful and rugged White Mountains of Arizona, USA. Even from other Americans in neighboring states, the usual response to my announcing that it’s snowing here is, ‘Snow? Don’t you live in the desert? I thought you were in Arizona.’
To which my typical response is, ‘I do live in Arizona – in the mountains, at about 7,500 feet elevation. Yep, we get snow here. ‘
Often, they still think I’m trying to pull one over on them. Apparently, most people believe that Arizona is just one big desert.
As some of my favorite posts I’ve come across on Steemit have been about the places other people around the world live and visit, I thought that perhaps readers may enjoy seeing some of my unique and little known corner of the world.
Far from just desert, Arizona has some of the most varied landscapes of any state I’ve been. One of the things I love best about this area in particular is that I can drive from where I live in any direction and within twenty minutes be in an entirely different terrain to explore. There is always something to do, someplace new to find.
I can lose myself in mossy, old growth forests, where the towering conifers and stately old aspens leave the springy forest floor below in shadow. These are fairytale forests with ferns and wild iris and roses, wild strawberries, raspberries, elderberries, and delicious gourmet mushrooms to find. I find a lot of medicinal plants up here, too. The mountain streams run clear and cold and the lakes abound with fish. The bugling of huge bearded elk, majestic kings of the forest, echoes across the mountain, a sound strangely reminiscent of whale’s song.
Rocky Mountain Elk - A member of the deer family as large as a horse with 6 foot antlers
We’re situated at the edge of a really big mountain valley. In the middle of that broad valley, grassy plains stretch away in gently rolling hills, where herds of Pronghorn antelope watch you curiously before racing fleetly away. The plains are dotted with the small cones of an ancient volcano field, the fourth largest in the world. These mountains were once very active volcanically, and because of that, we find a huge variety of different kinds of gemstones here, as well as gold and silver.
Pronghorn Antelope
In the other direction, as the land drops down into the red rock mesas and high chaparral of the upper desert, you can imagine being in an old western movie. In fact, nearby is where John Wayne’s old ranch, the 26 bar, is located, now owned by the Hopi indian tribe. You find some of the most beautifully colored petrified wood in this area, due to the rich iron deposits in the soil.
All of this, and much in between.
The whole area is rich in history. Old stories of lost treasures, like the lost Adam’s diggings or hordes of Spanish gold (as the Coronado Trail begins here) are frequent. From the pioneers and the old west, to truly ancient Native American history, there are many places here where you can lose yourself in time. Before the relatively more recent Navajo and Apache tribes lived here, there were the Hohokam, the Mogollon culture, and the Anasazi. Along the paths more traveled, there are a great many museums and historic sites. In exploring our local wildland, it’s not unusual to unexpectedly discover the remains of an old homesite or crumbling indian ruins, a rock face carved with prehistoric petroglyphs, or some ancient artifact lying at your feet.
Hohokam petroglyphs
There are places here that just feel holy, sacred. Places that are primeval and pristine, that can inspire the soul. When I’m out there, I feel the troubles of the world melt away for awhile, as though all of our great human constructs are just an illusion that we covet. And always, we seek to leave no harm in our passage…
This article is an introduction to a series of forthcoming pieces, sharing the local life, wilderness and history of my area. If you enjoyed this post, please follow my page to see more to come.
