Utah, Day 5... Edge of the World

 Day 5

Friday, September 8, 2023

    According to the Google, the drive to Hurricane, Utah would take about two and a half hours.  That left plenty of time to hang out at the North Rim for a while.  What better way to start the day than sunrise from Bright Angel Point.  

    Sunrise itself wasn't that spectacular.  What it did to the canyon was another story.

There are a bunch of overlooks from the North Rim you can drive to.  Some

 even have short hiking trails.  With another day, I definitely would have                explored   more of them. Instead, I just picked a place called Point Imperial.       There's an eleven mile trail back to the visitor center from here.  I did about a        half mile where it hugs the rim.                                                                                                                                                 

From the Point Imperial Overlook...                                                                     

                                                          

    It was time to leave the Grand Canyon and head back into Utah.  Highway 67 and 89A took me back as far as Fredonia.  From there Hwy 389 took me west into though the Kaibab Reservation, home of the Kaibab Paiute tribe.  Within the reservation sits Pipe Springs National Monument.  

    This natural spring was discovered by the Anasazi, then later used by the Paiute who settled here.  Since the spring provided a steady water supply, they grew crops and settled in.  

    In 1858, Mormon explorers stumbled upon the spring.  Two years later, they set up a cattle ranching operation on the site.  It didn't exactly go over well with the locals who felt they were being once again pushed off their land.  

     By 1866, the Black Hawk War was already in full swing.  Black Hawk was a Ute War Chief.  The war was a series of skirmishes and raids by a combined force of Paiute, Navajo, Ute and Apache tribes.  

    As a result of the fight over Pipe Springs, a fort was built over the spring.  Cattle ranching continued.  Anson Winsor was hired by the church to oversee the ranching operation.  The fort picked up the nickname Winsor Castle, its name to this day.

     Everything changed in 1887 with the passing of the Edmunds-Tucker Act.  The main purpose of the bill was to end polygamy in the Mormon community.  Due to its remote location, the fort became a sanctuary of sorts for polygamist wives.  Faced with the threat of raids by federal marshals, the church sold the property to a private owner in 1895.  

     Today, the immediate area around the fort is owned by the government and run by the U.S. Park Service.  Since it sits on the Paiute Reservation, the museum and gift shop are owned and operated by the Paiute.  As for the water, it gets split three ways between the government, the Paiute and area cattle ranchers.

      Along with the fort and pools of spring water, there's also a corral with a few Texas Longhorns and sunflowers.  Native to North America, they were one of the plants grown here by the native americans for their seeds.  Much like today, the seeds were dried and eaten.

     

     On the way back through the museum, I asked about nearby hiking trails.  Since I was headed west, they suggested a place called Water Canyon in the town of Hildale.  It sounded perfect.

      Hildale is adjacent to Colorado City, my next stop anyway.  Breweries in this part of the world aren't as plentiful as they are in Georgia.  Edge of the World Brewery also served food.  How could I pass it up.  Over lunch, I asked about Water Canyon.  When the first response it, "what are you driving" it generally means a rough road.  

      I did find the dirt road and started slowly working my way back. It's two miles to the trailhead.  By the half mile point I knew this wasn't a road for a rental sedan, so I turned back.   The blog page American Southwest has a description of the trail, along with some photos.  One more for a future adventure.  

        My home for the next two nights was the Roadway Inn in the town of Hurricane, Utah  The town was named by Erastus Snow, one of the original Mormon apostles.  He observed a whirlwind ripping the top off a buggy and said, "We'll name this Hurricane Hill."  

     Why was I staying in Hurricane?  Because I booked too late to be any closer to Zion National Park.   More on that tomorrow.  

      Feeling a bit restless, I did a search for Hiking Trails Near Me.  There were a few nearby.  Three Falls Canyon seemed to fit the bill nicely.  

     The first waterfall is an easy walk through a rocky wash.  The second includes scrambling up a steep hillside.  I was happy with just the one.  

     The waterfall was dry at the moment, but still worth the short walk to see.  The YouTube channel Diabetic Hiker did a video on the rest of the trail.