November 7, 2023 – Although I had previously visited the beginning of the Salt River where the Black and White Rivers meet on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, I wanted to see the very highest headwaters, too. With that in mind, Leslie and I headed up to Springerville, Arizona, to visit the Black River where it begins in the White Mountains.
Mount Baldy is the highest peak in the White Mountains and the second highest peak in Arizona, reaching 11,400 feet. Baldy is an ancient stratovolcano within the White Mountain volcanic field. The White Mountain volcanic field itself has been mostly overlaid by the more recent Springerville volcanic field, and the entire area is characterized by literally hundreds of volcanoes jutting up across the landscape. Several glaciers existed around Mount Baldy during the last Ice Age, and Leslie and I planned to visit one of the glacial moraines, too.
We charted a path across several Forest Service roads that would take us to the upper Black River. Along the way we were treated to high mountain vistas of ponderosa pine and pine bunch grass meadows – so entirely different from the Sonoran desertscape we left at home. But we also quickly encountered the charred remains of the Wallow Fire, Arizona’s largest-ever wildfire. Although it has been more than ten years since the fire, the forest still shows the lasting effects even though it is recovering well in some places.
Our path took us across both the East and West Forks of the Black River. At this time of year, they are but small meadow streams that one could nearly jump across. The East and West Forks had escaped the worst of the Wallow Fire, and they seemed in good condition. We could imagine the native Apache trout hiding under their banks and vowed to return in the summer with our flyrods.
We also encountered a herd of feral horses grazing in one of the many open meadows. These horses are a source of great controversy in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. In fact, the Forest Service has been sued to remove the horses on the basis they are destroying the pristine habitat of threatened and endangered species like the New Mexico jumping mouse, Chiricahua leopard frog, and the Apache trout. Others argue the horses should remain and be granted protection. Nevertheless, signs were posted throughout the forest by the Forest Service indicating its intention to gather the horses and remove them from the ecosystem.
Eventually, we came to the road that led us down into the Black River Canyon. At the top of the road, we encountered a thick wall of smoke rising from below. It was ironic because we were literally standing in the remains of the Wallow Fire, yet here again was another fire burning in the watershed. We figured “the better part of valor is discretion,”, so we turned around and abandoned our quest to visit the upper Black River. Afterward, we learned the fire encompassed 2,500-acres and would die out when the snow began to fall in a few weeks.