At the head of Black River, between 8,000 and 9,000 feet, there are many nearly level or gently sloping areas, sometimes of considerable extent.  These are covered with open yellow pine forests, with many white-barked aspens scattered here and there, and an abundance of grasses and low bushes.  This was once a favorite summer country for elk, and I have seen there many bushes and small saplings which had been twisted and barked by bull elk while rubbing the velvet from their horns.

Immediately south and east of Black River lies the Prieto Plateau, a well wooded mountain mass rising steeply from Black River Canyon to a broad summit about 9,000 feet in altitude.  The northerly slopes of this plateau, facing the river, are heavily forested with pines, firs, aspens and brushy undergrowth, and are good elk country.  The summit is cold and damp, with areas of spruce thickets and attractive wet meadows scattered here and there.  Beyond the summit of the plateau, to the south and east, the country descends abruptly several thousand feet, in a series of rocky declivities and sharp spur-like ridges, to the canyon of Blue River, a tributary of the San Francisco River.  This slope, near the summit, is overgrown with firs, aspens and pines, which give way as the descent is made, to pinons, cedar and scrubby oak trees and a more or less abundant growth of chaparral.  Small streams and springs are found in the larger canyons on this slope, while far below, at an altitude of about 5,000 feet, lies Blue River.

The country at the extreme head of Blue River forms a great mountain amphitheater, with one side so near the upper course of Black River that one can traverse the distance between the basins of the two streams in a short ride.  The descent into the drainage of Blue River is very abrupt, and is known locally as the “breaks” of Blue River.  The scenery of these breaks nearly, if not quite, equals that on “The Rim” of Tonto Basin in its wild magnificence.  The vegetation on the breaks shows at a glance the milder character of the climate, as compared with that of the more elevated area about the head of Black River.  In the midst of the shrubbery growth on the breaks there is a fine growth of nutritious grasses, which forms excellent winter forage.

The entire southern part of the reserve lying beyond the Prieto Plateau is an excessively broken mountainous country, with abrupt changes in altitude from the hot canyons, where cottonwoods flourish, to the high ridges, where pines and firs abound.

The northeastern part of the section of the reserve under consideration is cut off from the rest by the valley of Nutrioso Creek, a tributary of the Little Colorado, and by the headwaters of the San Francisco River.  It is a limited district, mainly occupied by Escudilla Mountain, rising to 10,691 feet, and its foothills.  Escudilla Mountain slopes abruptly to a long truncated summit, and is heavily forested from base to summit by pines, aspens and spruces.  On the south the foothills merge into the generally mountainous area.  On the north, at an altitude of about 8,000 feet, they merge into the plains of the Little Colorado, varied by grassy prairies and irregular belts of pinon timber.