Category Archives: Uncategorized

Help Arizona Game & Fish Catch Saffel Canyon Vandals

Arizona Highways

Courtesy of Arizona Game & Fish Courtesy of Arizona Game and Fish Department

Our friends at the Arizona Game and Fish Department need your help to catch vandals at the Saffel Canyon OHV staging area in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests. We hope you’ll help spread the word by sharing this post.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) is asking for the public’s help investigating multiple acts of vandalism at the Saffel Canyon OHV staging area. Vandals destroyed at least two sections of wood-pole fencing around the Saffel Canyon “tot-lot,” a training area designated for inexperienced OHV and motorcycle users. Vandals used the broken fence sections to enter the tot-lot on more than one occasion and cause damage to the facility.

“It appears that the person or persons responsible used a large pickup truck to destroy the fencing, and then used their vehicle to carve deep ruts into the tot-lot,” said Game and Fish OHV Officer Nancy Huser. “This…

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History at Your Fingertips at the Arizona Capitol Museum

What a great idea, and something I didn’t know about, despite a life-time of living in Arizona. Thanks.

Arizona Highways

Courtesy of the Arizona Capitol Museum Courtesy of the Arizona Capitol Museum

If you haven’t yet made a trip to the Arizona Capitol Museum, you should — and soon. First, it’s free. Second, the museum specializes in teaching Arizona government and civics, using, per their website, “a balance of technology, hands-on activities, historical artifacts and public programs to help visitors learn about and interact with the government of the 48th state.” Third, a new exhibit at the museum, “Arizona Takes Shape,” will show visitors just how Arizona came to be, and it includes a cool interactive component called “History at Your Fingertips.”

Below, Jason Czerwinski, the museum’s on-site experience manager, talks about this exhibit:

Talk to us about “History at Your Fingertips.” What is it exactly, and what can visitors expect?
“History at Your Fingertips” is actually a smaller component (or an exhibit within an exhibit, if you will) of the Arizona Capitol Museum’s newest exhibit, “Arizona…

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K is for Kaibab

Kaibab is a Paiute word meaning “mountains lying down.” The Kaibab-Paiute people are one of ten member tribes of the Southern Paiute Nation. The Kaibab-Paiute Reservation is on the Arizona/Utah border and covers over 120,000 acres of plateau and desert grassland along Kanab Creek in northern Arizona.

According to the Forest Service, there are six National Forests in Arizona. The most northern of these is the Kaibab National Forest.  It is divided into separate regions and varies in terrain from mountain lakes and deep canyons to high plateaus and prairies. 

Deep Canyons

 

South of Kayenta

 

Kaibab also refers to the Kaibab Plateau, which is part of the larger Colorado Plateau. The Colorado Plateau  is a unique region of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico that is geographically uniform and defined by flat-lying sedimentary rocks surrounded by rocks that have been folded and deformed. The Kaibab Plateau is bordered on the south by the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon is separated into North and South Rims by a 277 mile long canyon a mile deep.  You cannot access both parts of the Park from a single entrance.  Most visitors go to the South Rim entrance, which is open all year. There is airport and rail service and is a 90 minute drive from Flagstaff and Williams.  The North Rim is more remote and has a short season from May 15th through October 15.  The North Rim is 30 miles south of Jacob Lake on highway 67,  and the visitor center is an additional 14 miles south of the entrance station.  There is no airport or rail service to the park at the north rim.

Kaibab squirrels are found only on the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  They are one of two Arizona tassel-eared squirrel species.  Kaibab and Abert Squirrels were one species before the Grand Canyon divided their habitat.  Now the Abert Squirrels live on the south side of the Canyon, and the Kaibab Squirrels only on the north. Kaibab squirrels have white tails, black bellies and brown on their heads and backs, as well as the furry tassels on their ears.

Is this a Kaibab Squirrel? It is a real trick to distinguish between them, but no, this is the southern cousin, the Abert Squirrel.  Here is the (link) Kaibab Squirrel.Abert Squirrel

Within the Grand Canyon there are two Kaibab Trails, North and South.  They are part of the Arizona Trail, which traverses the entirety of the state north to south. It is possible to do day hikes partway into the Grand Canyon on these trails, but to stay overnight requires passes from the back country office. Such passes are in high demand, so plan ahead.

The South Kaibab Trail begins on the south rim.  You take a shuttle bus to access the trail and begin hiking south of Yaki Point at elevation 7260 feet.  This trail is also used by the mules with packs and riders. There are wonderful views along this trail and going down seems easy.  Save your energy for the hike back out, and plan on twice the time to climb up. I have hiked this trail with preteen Girl Scouts who were experienced hikers.  As with all Grand Canyon trails, you must carry plenty of water. On the South Kaibab there is little or no shade.  This is not recommended as a day hike all the way to the Colorado River and back.

The North Kaibab Trail begins on the North Rim and is the least used and most difficult of the maintained park trails. The trail head is almost 1000 feet higher than then South Kaibab Trailhead. The trail descends steeply through aspen and evergreen trees and wildflowers.  It passes through tunnels carved through the rock wall of the canyon.  Side trails lead to Roaring Springs and Ribbon Falls.  There is a campground before the trail enters the inner gorge.  This trail passes through temperature extremes, from cool, even icy Rim to dangerously hot inner gorge.

There you have it.  K is for Kaibab.

Kaibab: Mountain Lying DownKaibab mountain lying down

 

 

 

 

 

Historic, even pre-historic!

Southeastern Arizona Riparian area

Prehistoric times:

 

People have inhabited Arizona for a very long time, more than 12,000 years. The San Pedro River runs northward from Mexico through southeastern Arizona. The upper San Pedro Valley  contains the highest concentration of preserved Clovis sites in North America. Studies of the Murray Springs site uncovered many distinctive stone Clovis spear points. Because  they found these Clovis points associated with the bones and teeth of now extinct mammoths, bison, camels and horses, scientists conclude that these Paleo-indians remained in the San Pedro Valley to pursue these large game animals.  The climate was much different at that time, being much cooler and wetter.  The climate became warmer and drier and by 6000 BC the megafauna had died off. The people had to change their way of life to survive.

The people living in Arizona after the Paleo-indians have been called the Archaic people.  They were hunter-gatherers who moved over the land as the seasons changed.  Because of the variety of stone projectile points found, it’s apparent that different groups ranged over a wide area. They also must have had contact with people living in present day Mexico. Trade items found by archeologists include shell from the Gulf of California, turquoise from southern Arizona, parrots and copper bells.   Eventually they learned to farm and settled into stable communities.  Several general groups of people emerged.  Those that lived in the south have been called the Hohokam.  They constructed irrigation canals along the rivers in the area that is now Phoenix.  The Mogollon people lived in eastern Arizona, the Patayan lived along the Colorado River and western desert areas and the ancestral Puebloan peoples lived on the Colorado Plateau in northern Arizona. Pottery sherds we find today reveal differences in cultural style and the remains of their homes vary widely according to the area they inhabited and the climate there.

Primitive housing

WupatkiThe Sinagua people created Wupatki in northern Arizona after the eruption of Sunset Crater in 1064 AD.  The cinders from the eruption made the ground more arable, and they were able to live in one place in a puebloan culture.  The Tsegi phase sites at Betatakin and Keet Seel were built by the Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) people in the natural alcoves in the sandstone canyons of northern Arizona.  These sites are maintained by the National Park Service. The ancient people who inhabited Arizona led the way for the modern native americans you will find there.  More in next post.  Historic Arizona