Pavin' the Way - To the Sky Deck at the West Rim - Grand Canyon!

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

I recently read somewhere that the final portion of Diamond Bar Road between Dolan Springs and the West Rim of the Grand Canyon has finally been paved.  I don't remember where I read it, but an article was published on line by the LA Times and may have been picked up by the OC Register Sunday travel pages (Sunday is my only newspaper day).

We once tried to go to the Skywalk, but never actually made it there.  The unpaved Diamond Bar Road was just too rough to drive.

Views from Diamond Bar Road

                                                            Views of Dolan Springs

 

Though the drive is probably much more reasonable due to the new paving, it is unlikely we would ever try going back.  The reasons being that the West Rim and the Skydeck have bad reputations. The facts that:

1. it is quite expensive to actually go out on the Skywalk; AND
2. you cannot take your own camera or camera phone onto the Skywalk; AND
3. therefore requiring you to buy expensive photo packages if you want a remembrance is just too much for many people to swallow. 

Yes, the tribe needs the money.  Yes, other native American sites charge fees.  Monument Valley, UT charge admission fees ($20/vehicle of 4) and commercial photography fees ($50).  Sky City/Acoma Pueblo, NM, charge for camera permits ($13) whether personal or commercial.  Skywalk prices far exceed these other native American sites.

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However, if you are in the area, I suggest you taking the Willow Beach cutoff, just south of Hoover Dam on US93.  Just before the road breaks to the right and the parking lots and boat launches, a non-descript turn-off to the left is visible.  Take that turn, fight the rough road, and drive slowly along the wash.  If you are lucky you will get to see bighorn sheep herds roaming around or a lonely burro hiding from the sun.

Good luck!                                    

The Less Dramatic Colorado River Crossings

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

I recently wrote about the Colorado River crossings in the Page, Arizona area of the Arizona strip.  Those river crossings consisted of dramatic steel arch bridges spanning hundreds of feet above the river.

In the Colorado River areas south of Las Vegas (Hoover Dam); down through Laughlin, Nevada; Needles, California; Lake Havasu City and Parker, Arizona; Blythe, California, and down to Yuma, Arizona.  We face a totally different environment as the river is fairly level with the terrain, but for the man-made levees used for flood control. 

These two bridges attach California with Cibola, Arizona and the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge.  I will write more on the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge at another time.

Crossing the Colorado River at Cibola, AZ

Looking North Up The Colorado River From Cibola, AZ (California on far side)

Crossing the Colorado River at Oxbow Lake, CA

Looking Up the Colorado River From the deck of the Oxbow Lake Bridge

 

 

Trolling Oxbow Lake, CA

Geograstrotrivial Question about the New York and Arizona Strips?

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

Question:

What is the difference between a New York Strip and an Arizona Strip?

Answer:

1.  The New York strip is cut of steak obtained from the short loin area of a cow.

2.  The Arizona strip is that portion of the State of Arizona north of the Colorado River.  Due to the Colorado River Valley being generally defined by the Grand Canyon, crossing the Colorado River in northern Arizona is pretty much limited to only one area, around Page, Arizona, at the Glen Canyon.  The Grand Canyon isolates the around 8,000 persons living in (on?) the Arizona Strip from their 5 million neighbors of the State of Arizona.

CROSSING THE COLORADO RIVER IN THE ARIZONA STRIP

Glen Canyon Dam Bridge 

The Glen Canyon Dam Bridge was originally built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation to facilitate transportation of materials for the Glen Canyon Dam, which lies adjacent to the bridge just 865 feet upstream. Carrying two lanes of US89 across the Colorado River, the bridge rises over 700 feet (210 m) above the river and was the highest arch bridge in the world at the time of its completion in 1959.

The Shadow of the Glen Canyon Bridge at Glen Canyon Dam

700 Feet Above the River

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Navajo Bridges

The first Navajo Bridge opened in 1929, but is now limited to pedestrian and equestrian traffic and some random native-American vendors.  The new Navajo Bridge opened in 1994.

Ironically, despite the 450+ foot height of the twin spans over the river, a river-level ferry crossing at Lee's Ferry was the only river crossing prior to the building of the bridge.

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The Arizona Strip

As access to the Arizona Strip is typically via Nevada or Utah, culturally, the Arizona Strip has much in common with the surrounding areas of Nevada and Utah.  For example, Since the area was first settled by Mormon Pioneers led by Jacob Hamblin in the mid-19th century, the Arizona Strip, and especially its largest community, Colorado City, has been one of the last strongholds of the nineteenth-century practice of polygamy, though this practice was disavowed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in 1890. Over the last century the region has been the subject of controversy because of the control minority polygamist Mormon offshoots exert within the region.

The Isolated Arizona Strip

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Bighorns of the Colorado River Wilderness...

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

As we have written about before, spotting bighorn sheep can be a major challenge.  The sheep stand on rock out-crops high in the mountains, safe from their predators.  Typically, if you are lucky, at most, you will get to see one or two at a time.

That was why I was shocked one day, to see a herd of bighorns just "hanging out" in the wilderness of the Black Mountains of Arizona (the same Black Mountains referred to here) between US93 and the Colorado River, below Hoover Dam and near Willow Beach. I was able to drive up pretty close to them, but they were on the other side of tall earthen berm that I did not exactly feel comfortable trying to completely cross, especially alone and carrying my camera equipment.

Note this one has an ear-tag for ID.

  It was in this very area, in 2011, that we saw a lonely burro, trying to hide in the shade on a hot day.  Today, I waved to a passing car to tell them they should stop and see the bighorns, but apparently not everyone find the bighorns as interesting as us.


Though the sun was in an poor photographic position, the bighorns were not in the least bit shy.