The Coconino sun., 1926-10-29
A WondermlTr Trip Thru
Nature S Wonderland
By REV. H. F. SoFTLEY

One often hears about the marvels
of Arizona, also the slogan "See Ari-
zona First" and reads the countless
pamphlets about Arizonas glories,
but it takes an auto trip through the
state to appreciate properly the
truth of these statements. With my
family l took such a trip recently.
Excluding the Grand Canyon, the
marvel of which so many are familiar
with and which beggars description,
a trip through the Navajo reserva-
tion, where nature in its prehistoric
dinosaur age and other natural sur
prises is a delight in itself, an educa-
tion in beauty and awe, we travelled
nine hundred miles along every de-
scription of road and through every
stage of human civilization, progress
and possibilities.
Leaving Flagstaff along excellent
dirt roads we reached Prescott, that
busy mountain city, in three and
half hours. Flying over that engin-
eering masterpiece, the White Spar
road, to Congress junction and
through Wickenburg to Phoenix we
agreed the past terrors of that route
were no more and Phoenix is only a
pleasure jaunt from Flagstaff, occu-
pying from lunch to dinner time, for
we ate lunch before we left and had
our dinner in Phoenix seven hours
later.
After staying in Phoenix for the
Synod of Arizona meeting we ran
down to Tucson, the rival of Phoenix
in four hours along concrete and dirt
roads in the best of condition.
From Flagstaff to Tucson all pha-
ses of industry and life are viewed.
Lumber industries, mining, farming,
orchards, grain fields, cotton, alfalfa,
great dairy herds, date palms, garden
stuffs, stone, lime and other quarries,
brick; practically all the varieties of
agricultural and physical industrial
activities. The towns vary from the
romantic typical western mining
and country town to the most mod
ern, alive and luxurious city type,
with the picturesque Indian and Mex
lean types thrown in for good meas
ure.
Leaving Tucson we returned to SUI
perior, which as typical mining
town of moving picture realism it
would be hard to duplicate Then a
thrilling surprise awaited US as up
the mountain we climbed through a
rugged canyon with precipitous walls. |
The grade and road was so easy and |
fine an engineering masterpiece that |
we went up son high" all the w8y1
round its curves and through the |
Claypool tunnel Still with a splen-
did road we wound round through |
the hills past ranches and mines to |
Miami, which we reached five hours
after leaving Tucson. Once more we
had viewed civilization in its many
phases. From a populous busy city, /
the seat of Arizona's education, the
university, the campus of which is
more beautiful than that of sixty |
other college and university grounds |
/ have seen, we roamed through the |
glamorous desert of sand, rock, des-
ert growth with its lonely sentinels, |
the giant cacti, through fields and |
pastures, grazing districts and teem-
ing mining centers to Globe. We left |
Tucson after lunch and had dinner in |
Globe
But now the fun begins. Leaving
Globe, which impressed US as beau
tiful permanent city of homelike quail
tiles, we ran over a good road to |
Rice, arriving there at nine pm. BY |
making inquiries and starting off on
the wrong road, we finally located |
the Springerville trail over two long |
sandwashes and climbing an abrupt |
hill to a mesa along which a fair |
road passed through a grazing dis
trict and also Through" ford of a |
small branch of the Salt river. |
Blithely in ignorant unconcern we
started climbing over hill, then |
some more hills and again over lot |
more hills. Surrounded on all sides |
by cedar, trees, deep canyons, high |
precipitous walls of mountain, we
travelled on through magic country |
bathed in silver sheen of pure moon |
light. Reaching an eminence we
looked back over limitless expanse of
country undulating far off beneath |
us out of sight into the blackness of |
night. 1t filled us with reverence
for the Creator and the marvel of |
His. handiwork By now the road had /
become a trail over rocks and rocky /
lodges, down gullies and winding
through the pines to the Black river
Bridge unsafe" was the legend there /
that greeted our eyes. So crawling /
down the bank we struck the river, /
which swirled and tossed over the |
rocks in its hurry to reach the Salt |
river. Down we went into a deep |
spot. Being low down with the water