Recollections: The Fire Tower over Flagstaff

Mt. Elden as seen from the streets of Flagstaff. 
The mountain's two peaks are more obvious 

from this perspective. From the summit, they 

are linked by a saddle of sorts, and travel 

betweenthem is easy. -S. Kramer, Photo

Mysterious Mt. Elden

During my first trip to Flagstaff, I was feeling a bit under the weather, lonely and nervous. I had travelled into town with some coworkers who, it turned out, had used me for a ride to the nearest major city so that they could spend their paycheck. While waiting in the car, I noticed a prominent peak outside of town, with radio towers, and what I thought was a fire tower as well. I envisioned a story, in which a young person, weak and sickly, stumbled into town, and climbed the mountain so that she could spend her last days among the trees. Instead the ranger in the fire tower took her in, and she went on to save the city. This was just a story—one I never finished—and at the time I had never seen the top of the mountain. However, looking back, I think this fictional young person made a chose a good place to settle down.

Leaving the Desert Behind...

Looking across the summit to the lower ridge.
Flagstaff, and the forests surrounding it spread
out beneath the ridges like a shaggy green carpet

-S. Kramer, Photo

...and traveling south on US 89, the desert of the four corners gives way to Juniper scrubland, then towering forests of Ponderosa as the highway enters Flagstaff. Mt Elden towers 2,300 feet above the city, and so its forests are richer still, with aspens, Douglas Fir, and meadows of grass and wildflowers. One of the San Francisco Peaks, Mt. Eldon has a volcanic history, and at over 10,000 feet, its summit could scrape the clouds. 

For anyone who grows to love the forests of the Pacific Northwest, Page, Arizona is a lonely place: the desert had a charm of its own, but after a few months it dried out my soul, like the sun-bleached sticks on the shores of Lake Powell. The forests I found on top of the mountain were like a drink of fresh water, quenching the thirst of a lonely soul. And then there’s the intrigue of an unexplored mountaintop. I couldn’t stay away for long. My first stop on my next trip to Flagstaff, or “Flag” as some call it, was at the Visitor’s Center to get directions to the summit. I got these with little difficulty from a kind elderly gentleman, and after watching a few Chicago-bound freight trains charge through Flagstaff

The afternoon sun seen from within a grove
of aspens growing near the summit.

-S. Kramer, Photo

Access to the mountain is easy...

...along the aptly named “Elden Lookout Road” but finding this road is not easy: ending up on a private drive in a small country neighborhood is far easier. The road to the top—once it is found—offers a challenge in itself: a steep gravel forest service road, which twists and winds around ridges and ravines at grades exceeding 4%. Even driving an automatic, I had the truck in low gear in places. But those who reach the summit are rewarded. (The road is so narrow that the only option is to reach the summit, but the sentiment remains.)

The fire tower, and its garden of radio towers.
The fire tower can be accessed during some times
of the year, when rangers are stationed there.

-S. Kramer, Photo

         The forests on the summit of Mt. Elden, are quiet and largely empty. Stands of radio towers scatter the summit like gardens of steel, and a network of dirt roads wind to and fro along the mountainside, but aside from this, there are few disturbances, and you will encounter few people here. Those who you do meet go about their own business: empty pickups, footprints, and ruts of well-used roads are the only clues that you aren’t alone. On the side of the mountain facing Flagstaff, trees stand barren and silver, stripped of bark and life, after a wildfire in 1977, and leaving the meadow beneath them slowly recovering. The fire tower is accessible by another road, snaking up to the ridge to the summit, dividing groves of Aspen, from the dead and dried forest. The fire tower is accessible if it is occupied as well. Even without those extra hundred feet provided by the fire tower, between the lack of trees and the summit elevation, the view of Flagstaff is breathtaking, with the highway, railroad and shops forming a scar through the forest, with houses peppering the woodland surrounding it. Facing away from town, the San Francisco Peaks, higher still, tower, dark and imposing on the horizon. 

The dirt road and pine needles shine
 in the last sunlight of an early 
summer evening. -S. Kramer, Photo

An Alpine Refuge

           Mt. Elden is only one of the San Francisco Peaks, the most accessible, and lowest, and even such, it was inspiring for me. Of all my memories of my trip to the southwest, my first visit to Mt. Elden is definitely one of those I will hold on to. Exploring every dirt-road spur, climbing to the fire tower on foot, watching as the sun turned from silver to gold as it descended to the horizon. The wind, and distant road noise from US 89, mixed with the wind from the aspens and pines make a symphony of sorts. I suppose in a way, I based that sickly young person from my unfinished tale on myself. And like her, I sought refuge on the mountaintop: not on my last legs like she was (though sunburned shins made it feel that way), but nervous and homesick none the less, running from the desert, and taking refuge among the pines, firs and wildflowers of the Coconino National Forest. -KP

Source, and further information:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/coconino/recarea/?recid=55140