One of my duties here at Pipe Spring National Park has been sewing historic costumes. I’ve made aprons, skirts, blouses, and bonnets. One blouse in particular gave me fits. Here is a picture of the blouse but the picture looks better than the blouse actually is. First, even though I was sewing a size 14 …
From September 2018
Lees Ferry, the Start of the Grand Canyon
Early explorers to northern Arizona had a problem. In order to get anywhere, they had to cross the Colorado River. The indigenous people in the area – Paiute, Hopi, and Navajo – showed them the one place within 700 miles you could safely cross the river. When the Latter Day Saints “settled” the area, the …
Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River
One of the most photographed parts of the Colorado River is Horseshoe Bend just outside Page, Arizona. Although you can’t drive to the river, the rim of the canyon around Horseshoe Bend provides a large overlook. The Bend is stop #10 on the Marble Canyon Loop. Horseshoe Bend is part of Glen Canyon National Recreation …
Antelope Canyon on the Navajo Reservation
Yesterday I wrote about the Marble Canyon Loop. Tom and I took several days to do most of the stops on the loop. One of the most beautiful is stop #12: Antelope Canyon on the Navajo Reservation. Tom and I have hiked some slot canyons. We did a lot of them in Death Valley and …
Marble Canyon Loop and Big Water Visitor Center
On a recent day off Tom and I completed the Marble Canyon Loop. The Marble Canyon Loop is one of the “trail” maps available in Kanab. The Loop has 14 stops, so it would be difficult to complete it in one day. Fortunately Tom and I have done parts of it on other days so …
Quicksand Creates Ranger Danger
A couple of weeks ago, two of our adventurous rangers – Sarah and Drea – went on a backpacking trip through Buckskin Gulch and Paria River Canyon. They were prepared to hike four days through deep water, over logjams, and around quicksand. Not quite my kind of trip but they were excited. The first day …
Pow Wow of the Kaibab Paiute at Thunder Mountain
Tom and I are living in the middle of the Kaibab Paiute Reservation for the summer. Pipe Spring is paying for us to stay at the Kaibab Paiute Campground, across the street from the monument. Because we live on the reservation, we are invited to special events. One of those events was the Thunder Mountain …
Catstair Canyon and Squaw Trail
Although Tom and I have been visiting the National Parks and monuments around us, we don’t have to drive very far to go on a good hike. In between “weekend” trips, we are also taking shorter hikes in the surrounding area. Kanab has an excellent selection of hikes and has a very nice trail map …
Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada
There are so many gorgeous state parks around us that sometimes we get a little blase about their beauty. So, as we are driving, we have discussions like “do you want to stop?” “Eh, we’ve seen canyons before. How is this one different?” But we had two good reasons to stop at Cathedral Gorge State …
Ridge Trail at Pipe Spring National Monument
Here at Pipe Spring we don’t have a lot of hiking trails. Compared to Zion and the Grand Canyon, you could say we don’t have any hiking trails at all. But saying that would be untrue. We do have a hiking trail. One. A half mile trail called the Ridge Trail. The Ridge Trail climbs …