Insight Guides Arizona & the Grand Canyon by Insight Guides

Author:Insight Guides
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, Arizona & the Grand Canyon
Publisher: Apa Publications
Published: 2018-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

Although the landscape can appear harsh, a number of animals make the desert their home.

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The Kaibab Plateau

The road winds onto the 8,000ft (2,400-meter) Kaibab Plateau through old-growth ponderosa pine forest. The turnoff for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is at Jacob Lake % [map], named for Mormon missionary Jacob Hamblin, whose exploring party came through in the 1860s. Starting in 1866, Franklin Woolley, followed by his brother Edwin “Dee” Woolley, explored the plateau’s potential for lumber, grazing, and Mormon settlements and hatched numerous schemes for development.

Woolley’s most extravagant caper came in 1892, when he and Brigham Young’s son John, on a mission in England, hired Buffalo Bill, whose famous Wild West Show was currently in London, to escort a party of wealthy English nobles interested in game hunting and ranching in the region. None of the Brits decided to purchase ranches, but they stopped at Jacob Lake, where Buffalo Bill reputedly said grace at one meal, offering thanks for many blessings, specifically “Emma Bentley’s custard pie.”

Excellent homemade pies and milkshakes are still served at historic Jacob Lake Inn, operated by descendants of Edwin Woolley. Jacob Lake Visitor Center has exhibits and information on visiting the rough backcountry of Kaibab National Forest. One of the best hikes is Snake Gulch, home to remarkable Virgin River Anasazi rock art.

From Jacob Lake, Highway 89A spirals 3,000ft (900 meters) off the plateau, descending from ponderosa pine into pinyon-juniper dwarf forest. Views of the western Arizona Strip and southwestern Utah’s Color Country are breathtaking. It’s hard to drive and goggle at the scenery, so pull off at Le Fevre Overlook. From here, you can see the geological formation known as the Grand Staircase, including the White Cliffs of Navajo Sandstone in Zion National Park.

At the base of the Kaibab Plateau, the small Mormon community of Fredonia ^ [map] (a contraction of the English word “Free” and the Spanish word “Doña” to signify a free woman – a reference to the town’s polygamous past) has small motels, Mexican restaurants, gas stations, and convenience stores. If you’re heading south, you can also pick up information on Kaibab National Forest at the US Forest Service headquarters.

Mormon outpost

Turn west on Highway 389 and continue to Pipe Spring National Monument & [map] (tel: 928-643-7105; www.nps.gov/pisp; daily June–Aug 7am–5pm, Sept–May 8.30am–4.30pm), a small 1870 fortified ranch where the Mormon-owned Canaan Cattle Company ran the Church’s large tithe cattle herd. The two-story fort was ostensibly built to enclose springs from the nearby Sevier Cliffs and to keep out Navajo raiders; in reality, there was more to fear from government officials hounding polygamous families (including Dee Woolley and his young wife Flora). The women were kept busy making pies, bread, and stews for travelers, explorers, miners and, after the St. George Temple had been completed, Mormon newlyweds who had been “sealed” and were returning home on the Honeymoon Trail. John Wesley Powell used the West Cabin as a headquarters during his 1872 survey, which ascertained that lands originally thought to be in Utah were actually in Arizona, creating the area we know today as the Arizona Strip.

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