San Francisco Peaks
— the mountain thirteen nations carry a name for.
Not only on a wall.
San Francisco Peaks, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“Drive north out of Flagstaff and the San Francisco Peaks lift past the ponderosa rim — Humphreys at 12,633 feet, the highest ground in Arizona, with Agassiz and Fremont shoulder beside it. The range is the eroded remains of a stratovolcano. It is sacred to thirteen Native nations, who carry their own names for it. In autumn the aspen on its lower slopes go a clear gold against the dark pine.
The place, in three passes.
The San Francisco Peaks are a cluster of summits north of Flagstaff, Arizona, inside Coconino National Forest. Humphreys Peak crests at 12,633 feet, the highest point in the state; Agassiz follows at 12,356 and Fremont at 11,969. The range is the eroded remnant of a stratovolcano that collapsed roughly 400,000 years ago, and the cirque that remains opens to the northeast. The mountain is named after Saint Francis of Assisi, given by Franciscan friars in the 17th century. Native nations carry their own names — the Navajo Dook'o'oosłííd and the Hopi Nuvatukya'ovi among them.
Flagstaff sits at about 7,000 feet, and the peaks above hold snow well into June most years. Late September into mid-October is the aspen window, when the lower and middle slopes turn a clear gold against the dark ponderosa. The summit ridge carries small populations of bristlecone pine, the southernmost in the species' range, and a delicate alpine plant community above 11,400 feet — the only true alpine tundra in Arizona. Winter brings the Arizona Snowbowl ski area on Agassiz's western flank, open roughly December through April.
The peaks are sacred to at least thirteen Native nations, including the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Havasupai, Hualapai, Yavapai-Apache, and several Apache tribes. Each carries its own name and ceremonial practice tied to the mountain; Hopi tradition holds the peaks as the home of the katsinam for part of the year. A long-running dispute over the use of treated wastewater for snowmaking on Snowbowl ran through federal courts from 2005 to 2012. The mountain is approached on the trail with the awareness that it is a living religious site, not only a recreation area.
