A classic view from Locket Meadow, as one ventures into the heart of the San Francisco Peaks.
Prior to the Arizona Schultz Fire of June 2010, which burned over 15,000 acres of pristine Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest, these once lush-covered slopes would blaze yellow during Fall. Today, only a thin band of the cherished Quaking Aspens (Populus tremuloides) line the periphery of the Kachina Peaks Wilderness... A powerfully evocative reminder of what once was here.
Despite the 2010 disturbance, many would agree that this meadow still holds it magic; an island of emerald, ringed with aspens and high peaks! Listen closely, for it continues to echo the ubiquitous ‘genius-loci’ that it has always has, just perhaps a bit more quietly.
THE KACHINA PEAKS WILDERNESS
The Kachina Peaks Wilderness is among one of my favorite places to escape to. This 18,717-acre roadless woodland rises to majestic summits, and boasts the highest point in all of Arizona - the 12,643-foot Humphrey's Peak. It is a wilderness sculpted by both fire and ice, weathered and beaten-down by the sands of time. Because of its rich geologic past, including violent volcanic eruptions and lava flows, as well as the forces of heavy erosion and subsequent frosts, this wilderness remains one of the most unique yet fragile ecosystems within all of our state.
"The San Francisco Peaks are actually the remains of an extinct volcano. Millions of years ago this great mountain was shattered by an explosion similar to the one that devastated Washington's Mt. Saint Helens in 1980. Inside the now quiet caldera a lush alpine environment has blurred evidence of that cataclysmic event." - USFS
THE SAN FRACISCO PEAKS GROUNDSEL
Also worthy of mention is the delicate two-square mile piece of the only arctic-alpine vegetation growth in Arizona ... a very strange, austere environment waaaaay up on the top of the peaks. Here a very small ecosystem acts as a "life machine" to the San Francisco Peaks Groundsel, a small yellow flower from long, long ago. If you are accessing the west side of Agassiz Peak (the second highest point in AZ at 12,356 feet) via the Snowbowl ski-lift, you may stumble across a small simple plaque at the top, that truly tells the Groundsel's story:
"Many tens of thousands of years ago, when glaciers still hung on the flanks of these peaks and mammoths roamed in distant valleys, a small yellow flower grew on the plateau below. Gradually times changed: the climate became warmer, the glaciers melted, and the mammoths disappeared, but the small yellow flower survived by retreating high onto these peaks where conditions remained cool. The San Francisco Groundsel is a direct descendant of the flower which took refuge on this peak near the end of the ice age. It is the only flower of its kind in the world and it grows only here. Unfortunately, it has recently become threatened and its continued survival depends on you--and all visitors--to these peaks." - United States Forest Service
Prior to the Arizona Schultz Fire of June 2010, which burned over 15,000 acres of pristine Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest, these once lush-covered slopes would blaze yellow during Fall. Today, only a thin band of the cherished Quaking Aspens (Populus tremuloides) line the periphery of the Kachina Peaks Wilderness... A powerfully evocative reminder of what once was here.
Despite the 2010 disturbance, many would agree that this meadow still holds it magic; an island of emerald, ringed with aspens and high peaks! Listen closely, for it continues to echo the ubiquitous ‘genius-loci’ that it has always has, just perhaps a bit more quietly.
THE KACHINA PEAKS WILDERNESS
The Kachina Peaks Wilderness is among one of my favorite places to escape to. This 18,717-acre roadless woodland rises to majestic summits, and boasts the highest point in all of Arizona - the 12,643-foot Humphrey's Peak. It is a wilderness sculpted by both fire and ice, weathered and beaten-down by the sands of time. Because of its rich geologic past, including violent volcanic eruptions and lava flows, as well as the forces of heavy erosion and subsequent frosts, this wilderness remains one of the most unique yet fragile ecosystems within all of our state.
"The San Francisco Peaks are actually the remains of an extinct volcano. Millions of years ago this great mountain was shattered by an explosion similar to the one that devastated Washington's Mt. Saint Helens in 1980. Inside the now quiet caldera a lush alpine environment has blurred evidence of that cataclysmic event." - USFS
THE SAN FRACISCO PEAKS GROUNDSEL
Also worthy of mention is the delicate two-square mile piece of the only arctic-alpine vegetation growth in Arizona ... a very strange, austere environment waaaaay up on the top of the peaks. Here a very small ecosystem acts as a "life machine" to the San Francisco Peaks Groundsel, a small yellow flower from long, long ago. If you are accessing the west side of Agassiz Peak (the second highest point in AZ at 12,356 feet) via the Snowbowl ski-lift, you may stumble across a small simple plaque at the top, that truly tells the Groundsel's story:
"Many tens of thousands of years ago, when glaciers still hung on the flanks of these peaks and mammoths roamed in distant valleys, a small yellow flower grew on the plateau below. Gradually times changed: the climate became warmer, the glaciers melted, and the mammoths disappeared, but the small yellow flower survived by retreating high onto these peaks where conditions remained cool. The San Francisco Groundsel is a direct descendant of the flower which took refuge on this peak near the end of the ice age. It is the only flower of its kind in the world and it grows only here. Unfortunately, it has recently become threatened and its continued survival depends on you--and all visitors--to these peaks." - United States Forest Service
SAN FRANCISCO PEAKS GROUNSEL (Packera franciscana) - Photo by Steve Parker, M.D.
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