White White Moutains

From a long time ago...

"A few weekends ago I went up to the White Mountains, AZ, east of Show Low and north of Alpine. This is really in central AZ, not northern AZ. Arizona has some high country in the White Mountains, then elevations taper off a bit toward Utah and Colorado. It's still high country up there -- Colorado Plateau -- but flat red rock and desert. The White Mountains are largely volcanic, made up of several large volcanoes, lava flows and cinder cone fields. Does any state have more cinder cones than Arizona? I doubt it. They're easy to find here: big fields north of the San Francisco Peaks and north of the White Mountains proper. I drove up to Mt. Baldy, second highest peak in the state, but found the access road closed until December 31, 2006. I got a late start from Tucson, so I didn't get to Sunrise (ski area) until early afternoon. I browsed through the hiking guidebook and picked something down south of Baldy, turned the car around and headed toward Greer. That's when the blizzard hit..."