{"id":27867,"date":"2025-08-22T21:13:59","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T03:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=27867"},"modified":"2025-08-22T21:21:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T03:21:18","slug":"gone-fishin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=27867","title":{"rendered":"Gone Fishin’"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When my dad died 16 years ago, I actually kept his backpacking rod and small tackle box with a decent spinning reel, but I haven’t fished since I was in high school. And most of that was with Grandpa, in Midwestern rivers and ponds, for small fish like perch and bluegill that Grandma fried at home. I still prefer inland freshwater fish like that over any kind of seafood or anadromous fish.<\/p>\n

But this week I was heading to a fishing-centric retreat in search of something more elusive \u2013 recovery from stress I simply couldn’t handle at home.<\/p>\n

The drive north was an adventure in itself, through a couple of cloudbursts in some of my favorite country.<\/p>\n

\"Heading <\/a>
Heading north in early afternoon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0298\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"IMG_0308a\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This is usually the most dramatic view of our high mountains <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0319\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"My <\/a>
My favorite mountain along this highway north – virtually inaccessible <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

I’ve been visiting this remote mountain resort for fifteen years, first discovering it on a ski trip to the nearby slopes run by Apaches. It’s a narrow valley carved by a tiny Western river out of a volcanic plateau. The plateau was discovered early by cattle ranchers, and the surrounding forests by loggers. The valley, which extends only about three miles before dead-ending, lies at 8,300 feet, stays cool all summer, and has become a popular hot-weather retreat for folks from Phoenix and Tucson.<\/p>\n

There are bed-and-breakfasts and scores of cabins for rent, but I stay in the only motel, with eight small rooms with varying numbers of beds and an attached convenience store \u2013 the only one in the valley.<\/p>\n

\"Interior <\/a>
Interior of motel room <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0496\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0494\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0495\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0399\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Gas, groceries, and other necessities can be found in predominantly Mormon towns up to a half hour away, but the valley has a legendary historic restaurant, an excellent cafe for breakfast and lunch, and other options which come and go. I especially like the quaint museum honoring an early Native American painter and his family.<\/p>\n

It’s a resort, and lots of palatial vacation homes are hidden in the forest above the valley, but it retains a modest family orientation, rooms and cabins are affordable, and I’ve always felt welcome there. One of the main draws, apart from trout fishing, is the nightly ritual of elk \u2013 a large herd \u2013 coming out to feed in the roadside meadows. And there are often Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep grazing along the highway into the valley.<\/p>\n

\"Looking <\/a>
Looking up the valley from the historic restaurant <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Lunch <\/a>
Lunch on the porch of the cafe <\/div> <\/div>
\"At <\/a>
At the mouth of the valley, signs of the wildfire in May <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The plateau, averaging 9,000 feet in elevation, extends about 20 miles east to west and about 30 miles north to south, and the northern two-thirds of it consists of gently rolling grassy meadows punctuated by low forested ridges and clear lakes.<\/p>\n

At its western edge, the plateau rises to its highest point, a sprawling 11,400 foot mountain lined with spruce-fir-aspen forest that spawns three major rivers. On the morning of my first day, I headed there from the valley on a dirt forest road.<\/p>\n

\"Heading <\/a>
Heading across plateau toward highest peak, at left <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Highway <\/a>
Highway south along west edge of plateau <\/div> <\/div>
\"Spruce-fir <\/a>
Spruce-fir forest at 9,400′ <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

From the foot of the mountain, the southbound road curves east into the meadows. The grassy meadows covering the rest of the plateau extend farther than the eye can see, and hence seem to be endless. Others have suggested that country like this is common farther north, in Colorado or even Utah, but I’ve never seen or heard of a plateau that sits like a table in the sky like this, without a wall of mountains to contain it. And here, it rises directly from the southern desert.<\/p>\n

\"Heading <\/a>
Heading east across plateau <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Simply <\/a>
Simply magic <\/div> <\/div>
\"Logging <\/a>
Logging survives on a very small scale here <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"11,400' <\/a>
11,400′ peak getting rain, on horizon near center <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

At the center of the plateau, I turned off on another road that heads to the northern rim.<\/p>\n

\"Looking <\/a>
Looking east to second-highest mountain, on horizon, at 11,200′ <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Heading <\/a>
Heading north <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0369\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Dreamlike <\/a>
Dreamlike landscape <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0373\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Dropping <\/a>
Dropping down the northern rim of the plateau <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

And once back on the east-west highway that skirts the northern edge of the plateau, I decided to check out a trailhead I’d used once, on a fork of the river. It turned out that a wildfire in May had damaged the trailhead and campground and the road was closed.<\/p>\n

\"Looking <\/a>
Looking west up the river valley <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Rocks <\/a>
Rocks on rim <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Rimrock\" <\/a>
Rimrock <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Star <\/a>
Star of David, embraced by local Mormons <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

On my second day, I did an experimental hike – the first with my recently-unlocked knee brace. And on the third morning, I headed home \u2013 back into the nightmare.<\/p>\n

\"Coal-rolling <\/a>
Coal-rolling is a popular fuck-you gesture to liberals and environmentalists <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  When my dad died 16 years ago, I actually kept his backpacking rod and small tackle box with a decent spinning reel, but I haven’t fished since I was in high school. And most of that was with Grandpa, in Midwestern rivers and ponds, for small fish like perch and bluegill that Grandma fried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,84,83,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2025-trips","category-mogollon-rim","category-regions","category-road-trips"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_0399.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27867"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27912,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27867\/revisions\/27912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}