THE WRINKLED PINK WALLS OF KANAB CANYON

For the 66 mile. Fuson & Nogales Rafiroad; the lonely Helvetia Copper Company Railroad with the smallest natrow gauge Shay locomotive ever outshopped by Linda and which wended its lonely way over steep grades la the Sania Rita Mounisins. There were the Dragoon Moun tẫn từ Northern Ruitroud, out of Dragoon; the highly impractical and improbably hamed. Mascot & Westers Railroad in the same area; the Tombstone Southern; the shon Eved narrow gauge Mohave & Miiltown Rall zoud with its engineer "who 'cussed twice a day regu lacly" when he had to stop his train and ger out to open and close a caule gate that crossed the the near Milltown; and of course there is still the Yama Valley Raibroad which continues to operate în qufet anonymity through the years by the grace of the Bureau of Reclam ation and the "Espoc."

There were the corumon carrier Juniber railroads that saw the noontide of the loggers in the state. Such roads as the Saginaw Southern, our of Williams; the Standard, in the Snowflake area; the Navajo Southern near Holbrook and the Susset. Legging Railroad, near Morenci, all contributed to the more than a thousand miles of track operated by the timber interests. There were the so called industrial and switching railroads, topped by the incomparable Six Companies Railroad at Hoover Dám which operated a fleet of steam locomotives in Nevada and Arizona that would have made many a small Class I tallroad of that day turn green with envy. Not to be forgotten were the streetcar and interurban lines in Phoenix, Warren Bisbee, Douglas, Tucson and Prescott which have all passed into the sunset, With With the partial exception of the long lived Phoenin Street Reihory, the streetcar lines in the state were conceived with wild promises, constructed in high optimism, equipped out of impecunious pocketbooks with the cast ofis of other more affluent lines and rapidly died of a partioulady virulent form of swangulation, namely a great lack of paying customers. "Sie transit gloria!

Last, but far from least, there was or there is you anay take your choice, the ar ville Arisona Suansen Railroad which operated between the Arizona California, at Bouse, and the mining community of Swansea. The Arisena & Swansea applied no less than five times to discontinue operation. Four times it reap plied for permission to resume operation. Finally in 1937 the company did indeed cease all operations and the line was torti up. In 1962. the Pacific Mining Company announced their intentions of mining iron ore neay Swansea on a large scale. The projected budget for the new operation included the sum of more than $2,000,000 to build and equip a milroad from Bouse to Swansea over the old rwadbed of the Arisons Steamed the railroad that refuses to die.

The great majority of Arizona's railroads are but a memory, having passed over the great divide to the long taugeur of eternity where the signal boards are forever green. Their passing left an indelible mark upon the land, for their histories were to a great extent the history of Arizona for more than half a century. Today, the remaining handful of railroads within the state makes up a prosperous highroad of commerce which caries the wealth of Arizona to marker, veritable twis ribbons of sted to Golconda.

The Wrinkled Pink Walls of Kanab Canyon By ROSALIE GOLDMAN Photographs: MELVIN GOLDMAN

Arizona has a lost canyon. If not lost, it is overlooked. Yet it is a major canyon, over one hundred miles long. It is Kanab.

Only a handful of people has been in it since a Powell survey party quit the Colorado River at Kanab Canyon in 1872. The gold rush may have brought a few prospectors into it before that. U. S. survey maps on the larger scale are not even available for its lower end. Kanab fills its many roles unknown, unspoiled, unvisited.

Kanab is a great gorge, winding down from Utah to meet Grand Canyon. It is a drainboard for the Plateau provinces and Kaibab Forest. It is a faucet pouring steadily into the Colorado River. It is an escape route for boaters shooting the rapids of Grand Canyon. It has been a lure for prospectors and a home for pre-historic people. It is a range for cattle. It was a world of beauty for three hikers who explored it in the Spring.

The three were my husband Melvin and I, of Chicago, and our very good friend Kent Frost, of Monticello, Utah. Exploring Kanab was a dream of Kent's for seventeen years, since he stopped at its mouth in 1947 as boatman for a Norm Neville trip. We were ready for our longest hike together. Mel and I had prepared, as always, by wearing our packs at home. Kent had prepared by studying maps.

It was a sunny April morning as we jeeped into the town of Kanab, Utah, searching for Preston Swapp. We needed information. Our plan was to enter Kanab Canyon thirty-five miles up at the start of its deep section, go all the way to the Colorado and hike upriver in Grand Canyon. But we didn't know where we could enter, and a Forest Service letter in our pockets warned us we would be stopped somewhere by a thousand-foot rock jump. Pres Swapp and Bob Riggs are stockmen with grazing rights in the canyon. But, even cowboys who graze their herds in the bottom prefer losing stock to trailing to the Big River after it. They have never been all the way down to Kanab's mouth.

Unsaddling his horse, Lady Gay, who takes him into Kanab Canyon, Pres told us he thought from hearsay we could get through to the river. He and Riggs invited us to enter by the trail they have carved in Hacks, a side canyon.

So, a few hours later, with 28-pound loads on the men's backs (twenty-two for me) we waved goodbye to the jeep and dipped over Hacks' rim, out of the world with people in it. The path down Hacks was a miniature Kaibab Trail, switching down the face of white limestone formations for an hour and a half and putting us in the middle of a wide and waterless valley.

Six miles from there, Hacks joins Kanab Canyon in a triumphant arena of redstone walls crowned with gargoyles. We made a dry camp near their juncture that night, passing a dead bobcat on the way, and didn't come to water until the middle of the next morning, just as Pres had advised. The few stalks of celery and carrots we carried were our only moisture until then, but it was unimportant. We were already absorbed in the isolated wonders of what was to be our home for fourteen days of continuous walking.

NOTES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

The discerning eye of the camera finds Kanab, the canyon of wrinkled pink, a wonderland of fantastic color.

By Melvin Goldman

OPPOSITE PAGE

"In JUMP-UP CANYON" This is where Jump-Up joins Kanab. Jump-Up Canyon is about eight miles below juncture of Hacks with Kanab. Exploring side canyons takes the plodding out of hiking. Jump-Up has a theatre-sized cave near its mouth. Water enters violently over the rock jumps at its head, heaping the floor with boulders. Mid-afternoon sunlight; distant canyon wall brightly lit; near canyon wall rather dark; canyon floor well lit. I exposed for the light on the floor, getting a meter reading of 100 Weston. Walls were approximately 40 Weston. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.11 at 1/60th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; ASA rating 64.

FOLLOWING PAGES

"DOWN THE TRAIL INTO HACKS CANYON" Hacks Canyon is several miles south of the Arizona-Utah line. It enters Kanab from the west. Here one is dipping over Hacks' rim and out of the world of people. Hacks' Trail is a miniature Kaibab, switching 1500 feet down the white limestone face to a wide and waterless valley. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.16 at 1/125th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; bright, windy day; Weston 400; ASA rating 64.

"ON FLOOR OF UPPER KANAB" Dry gorges are encountered where Hacks meets Kanab and a second tributary joins them. No water appeared until the middle of the second morning, several miles past this campsite. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.18 at 1/125th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; clear, bright morning sunlight; Weston 400; ASA rating 64.

"WIDE SECTION - UPPER KANAB" This is Upper Valley, just below Hacks' juncture with Kanab. Hikers with full packs start their second day in a world of beauty. Upper Valley is two city blocks wide with 300 feet high walls. No water. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.16 at 1/125th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; clear morning sunlight; Weston 320; ASA rating 64.

"WHERE JUMP-UP CANYON NARROWS" Kanab and tributary canyons narrow as hikers are about half a day below Hacks. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f. 1 1 at 1/125th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; late morning, sun high, ample reflected light on the shadowed portions of the canyon walls; Weston 200; ASA rating 64.

"CROSSING THE CREEK" Kanab Canyon echoed to the squish of wet feet as the hikers crossed and re-crossed the creek. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.5.6 at 1/125th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; strong contrast between foreground and background; sufficiently high shutter speed needed to stop the action. Weston 200 on background, Weston 10 on foreground. Picture shot at Weston 50; ASA rating 64.

"NARROW, WINDING KANAB" The force that carved the canyon, Kanab's pure water, appeared the second day to offer the hikers what they needed most. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f. 11 at 1/125th sec. Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; afternoon, clear sunlight; Weston 200; ASA rating 64.

"SOMETIMES THE GOING IS ROUGH" Easy Street now the canyon being continuously boulder-choked, the climbing was up and down over huge rocks, around deep pools. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.8 at 1/30th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; shadowed portion of canyon; Weston 25; ASA rating 64.

"EVIDENCE OF FORMER FLOODS" Lower end, two days from Grand Canyon. Even at wider places, there was usually only one slim, complicated way to get through. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.8 at 1/60th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; considerable contrast between foreground and the figures seen through the opening. Exposure was made for the distant figures before stepping back to take the picture through the rock opening. Weston 50; ASA rating 64.

"WILD ORCHID HANGING GARDENS" Hanging gardens water drips like gentle rain from a ceiling of wild orchids. This undercut is at the lower end of Kanab Canyon, half a day from Grand. Rolleiflex; Ektachrome Professional; f.4 at 1/30th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; very deep shadow; Weston 6.5; ASA rating 64.

"AROUND A BEND IN THE CANYON" Rushing to a rendezvous-the layered rocks bare their splendid geologic stories, as the canyon plunges violently in the last miles to reach the level of the Colorado River. Rolleiflex; Ektachrome Professional; f. 1 1 at 1/125th sec. Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; strong, bright sunlight, partially absorbed by the dark, shadowed portions of the canyon; Weston 250; ASA rating 64.

"CHANGING COLORS OF CANYON WALLS" Exciting skylines Kanab's rims are sharply weathered. They reveal glimpses of distant pink walls always promising more beauty around the next bend. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f. 11 at 1/60th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; midafternoon sunlight; distant wall brightly lit; near wall rather dark; canyon floor well lit; I exposed for the light on the canyon floor; Weston 100; ASA rating 64.

"SAND DUNES IN GRAND CANYON" Rippled dunes the present is the key to the past. Colorado River's windswept sandhills are a clue to geological formations of earliest times. One mile under Kaibab Plateau at bottom of Grand Canyon. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.8 at 1/30th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; early morning; clear faint sunlight; exposure based on the sand and portion of canyon wall just behind the tree. Weston 25; ASA rating 64.

"NEAR GRANITE CAVE BEHIND FISHTAIL RAPIDS" Granite camp granite walls streaked with dikes of pink marble served hikers as a camp down in the Granite Narrows of Grand Canyon. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.8 at 1/30th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April clear, faint sunlight; Weston 25; ASA rating 64.

"FISHTAIL RAPIDS IN GRAND CANYON" All the stupendous aeons unroll on the walls, enveloping the humble hiker in history that goes a mile deep in the earth. Taken in the Granite Narrows beside the incredible river that exposed it all the Colorado. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f. 16 at 1/60th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; strong contrast between bright sky and bright water and darker canyon wall a compromise exposure; Weston 200; ASA rating 64.

"ENTERING SURPRISE VALLEY GRAND CANYON" Photo taken in Surprise Valley in Grand Canyon. Deer Creek offers a drink before it dives into its self-carved narrows and tumbles over the falls out of Surprise Valley. The verdant hideaway was home to the ancient people. It furnished these hikers with savory menus "off the land." Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.8 at 1/60th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; afternoon light; strong absorption of light by surroundings. Weston 50; ASA rating 64.

NOTES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

"DEER CREEK FALLS - GRAND CANYON" Deer Creek Falls, a famous boating stop on the Grand Canyon run, forty-nine miles beyond Phantom Ranch. The exquisite falls make a sheer and slender plunge from Surprise Valley to a deep pool near the Colorado River. Hikers caught carp here for dinner. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.5.6 at 1/30th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; late afternoon, cloudy day; Weston 10; ASA rating 64. Continued from Page 18 "VIEW OF LONG CAVE GRAND CANYON" Long Cave a quarter of a mile undercut made by Kanab Creek in the pink lower canyon was a storehouse of ancient driftwood and a delightful campsite. Rolleiflex; Ektachrome Professional; f. 11 at 1/125th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; bright sun; deep shadow; a compromise exposure; Weston 160; ASA rating 64.

"SLIPPERY FOOTING ALONG THE GRAND" The privilege of lonelinesshuman bugs probe the silent vastness of Grand Canyon without a boat or motorcycle. A soul-filling experience. Occasionally in the Granite Narrows, bits of smooth beach are inserted between rough talus or sheer walls. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.11 at 1/125th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; clear, bright afternoon sun; Weston 250; ASA rating 64.

"THUNDER FALLS" Photo shows Thunder Falls at Tapeats Creek. Power jets of water spring from solid rock in a land noted for its dryness. Falls cascade hundreds of feet down to Tapeats Creek, out of sight far below. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f. 11 at 1/125th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; sunny day, some clouds; Weston 200; ASA rating 64.

"EMERALD POOL BELOW THUNDER FALLS" The Fountain of Youth if ever a pool were magic, this one of emerald green must be, hidden as it is in one of Kanab's side canyons at the lower end. Thick moss is a carpet to the water's edge. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.3.5 at 1/30th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; mid-afternoon, deeply shadowed place; Weston 5; ASA rating 64.

OPPOSITE PAGE "CLEARING SKIES AFTER A CANYON STORM" Hiking the heart of Grand Canyon on the return trip to Kanab from Thunder Falls, the hikers found a sky filled with remnants of the previous night's storm. The rain that fell in the canyon was snow on the rim tops a mile above in a colder world. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.16 at 1/125th sec.; Zeiss Planar 75mm lens; April; mid-afternoon; sky clearing after rain; Weston 320; ASA rating 64.

Continued from Page 17 On our hikes, we have found that canyons have moods. Kanab has two. Its first section is dry, wide, calm, full of cows. (Pres' cows are handsome and show the attention he has lavished on them.) The lower end is exciting. Its rushing creek and deep chasms constantly made us step up our pace to see what was around the corner. The upper valley was frequently six hundred feet wide with walls three hundred to five hundred feet high. The lower end closed down to forty feet in places, with walls over a thousand feet above us so narrow and winding that sometimes the only way to look was up. It is unusual to find a canyon in the Grand Canyon area with high sheer walls so close together.

CANYON EXPLORING

The second day, Kent predicted the canyon would soon narrow because of the steep floor drop and hard formation. It did, bringing other great changes with it. Now continuously boulder-choked, the going was rough, with lots of hard climbing up and down over huge rocks, around deep pools. Even at wider places, there was usually only one, slim, complicated way to get through. We had to cross and re-cross the creek. You could hear the squish, squish of our wet feet. If we didn't go a long way in a day, we certainly put in a lot of steps.

The first warning we ever had from Kent on falling rocks came here. He said there was more evidence of them in Kanab than any other canyon he had hiked. An expert's warning? "A rock can hit only in one place. Watch its direction, then step aside or run to the wall."

The colors also began to change. The dark red walls of the upper stretches gave way to orange shaded with brown. Late the third afternoon, we entered the land of pink. Imagine an elephant's wrinkled hide in pure, shell pink... dusted with soft grey. Seeping water has blackened the wall foundations and planted a horizontal band of verdant green between the pink and black. At times, an entire wall is encrusted with travertine - that patiently accumulated excrescence of dripping water. Bas reliefs of stalactites showed through maiden-hair fern and wild orchids. Undercutting has made delightful caves at floor level. One such cave has a suspended green garden on its ceiling, water dripping from its plants like gentle rain.

But the sculptural glory of it all is a travertine waterfall. Arching out from the wall in the very course the water itself must have taken, you can picture one drop of water at a time being replaced with one drop of travertine, until the action was frozen in midair.

Add to this some of the most unusual rim outlines provided by any canyon. Kanab's rims are sharply eroded and full of peaks, like sand-drip castles. This creates exciting skylines wherever you look and reveals glimpses of distant pink walls... always promising more beauty around the next bend.

Kanab has many side canyons. They take the plodding out of hiking. Any we had to pass on the way down we promised ourselves we would investigate on the way back. This turned out to be a fine plan, as we saved several glorious surprises for the return trip. Many are not named on any map, but the local names have been used a long time.

Jump-Up Canyon is a long one with a theatre-sized cave near its entrance. Its Indian name describes the rock jumps at its head, making it impossible to get out there. Past Jump-Up, the rock floors are cemented so solidly by Kanab Creek it is impossible to budge even the tiny stones. If you wanted to lay a cement road that solid here, you couldn't; the water would break it up. One small interesting side canyon had great slabs of conglomerate rock, the end product of the floor we were walking on - given a few million years. On our main street, wherever soft spots could reveal them, we would see tracks of bobcat, coyote and mountain sheep.

BY FOOT IS HARD WORK AND LOTS OF FUN

Another little canyon had big jumbles of rock, little waterfalls, and, over some slickrock, a water chute that would make an exiting slide.

A narrow side canyon, with a big rockfall at its entrance, rewarded us with redbud trees in bloom and a pool so beautiful we called it The Fountain of Youth. We made sure we stopped again on the way back for a second drink of what ought to be magic water, if there is any in the world.

Chamberlain's Cove has an old prospector's camp near its entrance. A coffee pot and frying pan still rest on a rock ledge. The rats have eaten everything but a box of polished rice.

Scottish Pool or Dripping Springs stopped us mid-way in its narrow path with big pools and steep boulders. Had the weather been warmer, we would have swum through. We enjoyed hearing afterward that Pres Swapp had once done just that.

"Let's start leaving caches along the way," said Kent, the second day. So, figuring penuriously, we dotted our highway with little bags of precious food, hanging high from sticks. How good each looked when the Great Pickup began, like coming home each time we arrived at one. We always eat heavily the first few days, then have to pull in our belts later. But, when we tried to cache other supplies to lighten our loads, all Mel could leave was one handkerchief and one pair of sox.

On our fourth day, there were signs we were coming to the Colorado River. Bigger fish were swimming upstream. The decline became much sharper. Then, three and a half days from Hacks, two carp and ten suckers later, we walked out on Kanab Beach in Grand Canyon!

Kanab has spewed out enough boulders into the Colorado from its rock-stuffed corridor to create one of the longest rapids of the Grand Canyon run with probably the biggest drop, an estimated thirty feet. There are two old camps at the mouth of Kanab. One, above the beach, had a sack-shaped pound of salt and some dynamite caps. The other, upriver a short distance, was elaborately set up long ago for two men.

Eating our first canyon fish for supper, lullabied to sleep by the freight train sound of Kanab Rapids, we all managed to wake up during the night to relish the remarkable amphitheatre view... 360 degrees of jagged black skyline against a starlit sky, with the stars dripping down into all the notches.

To understand Kanab, it is right and proper to go on into the great canyon and see them in relation to each other. We lived in the bottom of Grand for seven days,

first hiking all the way up to Tapeats Creek and back, then down to Olo Canyon and back.

Everything down there is hard. The water is rough. The land is rough. It takes a long time to get places. When we could, we rock-hopped along shore, because the big rocks were stable. When we took to the talus slopes, one leg seemed shorter than the other by the time we were through. Loose gravel, deep gullies and big, loose stones added to talus troubles, with constant gaining and losing of hundreds of feet in altitude. How glad we were that we had cached our sleeping bags at the mouth of Kanab and our loads were lighter.

This meant learning to sleep on the bare ground. We combined it with the thrill of getting down into the granite layer. Our first river camp was a granite cave in a bite-size, nameless canyon beyond Fishtail Rapids. Kent made us a heated mattress of hot coals underneath the cave's sand floor. But, by the time we camped next night in Surprise Valley at Deer Creek, we dispensed with all that work and just cuddled up to the fire. Kent found a rich ledge of copper in the bite-size canyon. Doesn't it seem like a good association to use the name of a man who was an expert Colorado River runner for nine years and who has walked the length of 85% of the canyons that empty into the Colorado and San Juan? We called it Kent's Canyon.

Sheer granite walls blocked our shore path between Deer Creek and Tapeats, but Kent spotted an ancient horse trail that took us out the back way of Surprise Valley. To reach it, we had to slash, beat and claw our way through a jungle of cactus, a thicket of cat's claw trees and dense patches of cane grass climbing over huge dead cottonwood trees, one so big two people could walk abreast on it over the creek it bridged. Once up on the Tonto bench, we found we were doing what people a thousand years ago had done when they must have lived happily between those two well-watered neighboring canyons. Kent found an obsidian arrowhead, ancient camps and strange, round roasting pits. He identified the eerie sound of a coyote pack for us up there on the bench. We'll surely know it ourselves next time we hear it.

We crossed one valley featuring barrel cactus six feet tall. The next valley was full of century plants. Our faint old trail finally landed us on the regular hiker's path to Thunder Falls, where we camped in a cave right beside the upper Falls and let it rain, since it chose to. The Falls roar in two tones, but before that night was over a third and louder tone was added that of a flash flood racing down Tapeats Creek a thousand feet below us.

Next morning we could see that, while it had merely rained on us, it had snowed on the Kaibab rim far above. It was grand to see the sun. I washed clothes, dishes, and myself at the Falls. Then we climbed up higher to watch the dancy water spring amazingly from solid rock. As we studied the fate of individual drops of water in those powerful streams, foamy above, glassy below, we began to realize that a big place adds importance to tiny things. The world's smallest bird, the humming bird,