Clouds threaten to disrupt the lake’s placid reflections and the sunlit display of colorful wildflowers at Point of Pines
Point of Pines, a high-country recreational area, sits within the borders of the San Carlos Apache Reservation. Created by Congress in 1897, the reservation covers a little more than 1.8 million acres in central and eastern Arizona and was formerly a division of the White Mountain Reservation established in 1871.
Sunlight shimmering through morning mist transforms dewdrops into sparkling jewels on pine boughs and bracken ferns
I'm at the southwestern edge of Point of Pines Lake in a small meadow surrounded by the remnants of late summer wildflowers and a deep forest of ponderosa pine trees. I was startled by what appeared to be a bald eagle perched on a bare branch at the top of a ponderosa pine on the opposite bank. An Apache man who had been watching his wife fish pointed at the top of the tree."Eagle," he said.
"I think so," I replied.
"Maybe a hawk," he said.But, it turned out not to be an eagle. When it moved, I saw its white belly and a line of black feathers extending from its eye to the back of its head, the unmistakable markings of an osprey. Ospreys migrate through the area in the fall, and this one was clearly attracted by the prospect of dining on fish from the lake.
A great blue heron surveys Point of Pines Lake’s shoreline, the source of its diet of small fish, insects, snakes, and frogs
The morning after my arrival, I took my kayak over to the mile-long lake. I paddled down the middle, scanning the steep embankment on the southern shore. From the high-water mark stained in the rocks, I could see how much the lake had dropped during the recent long drought.While I was lost in a reverie of missing rain, two great blue herons suddenly rose from a shadow at the edge of my peripheral vision. One swung over my head, arching through a small circle of the sky; the second one banked and moved wider, but both landed in the same pine tree, folding their smoky wings and becoming invisible against the backdrop of the forest.
Getting to the country up around Point of Pines is easy. Drive east of Globe on US 70. You can get the tribe's $7 recreational use permit at the Chevron station across from the Apache Gold Casino. The road to Point of Pines from US 70 is Indian Route 8 and the one up the mountain is Indian Route 1000. Neither is marked, but they're impossible to miss (right...I'd miss 'em! HJ).The paved road climbs gradually through a broad grassy area called Antelope Flat and leads eventually through 6.646-foot-high Barlow Pass. This area is well known as an archaeological trove once inhabited by Mogollon, Hohokam, Puebloan, and Salado Indians before the Apaches arrived sometime after 1450 AD.
