Another Giant Hole: Utah Lots of Parks part 9

Day 10: That’s how you die in the Grand Canyon

A while ago I came across the book Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon which is basically a chronicle of over 500 people who have died in and around the Grand Canyon in the past 150+ years. Most have fallen, drowned, or died of exposure. Needless to say the statistics of the book spell out that if you’re male and in your 20s that you’re probably going to die if you go to the GC.

None of this stopped us of course. We didn’t fit the profile so we put on our jellies, grabbed a bottle of booze and practiced our sweet parkour moves before heading out for the day.

Another Giant Hole : Utah Lotsa Parks part 8

Day 9 aka We Finally Reach the Mecca of Giant Holes in the Ground

 

 We left our campsite in Virgin fairly early, beating the heat and headed south on 59 to the Arizona border. Needless to say, we were sad to leave Utah. What a stunningly beautiful state. I am in forever in your thrall.

So we cross over into AZ and it’s boring. Boring, boring, boring. So out comes the guidebook. Discovery: the “Arizona Strip” is the land north of the Grand Canyon south of the Utah border. It’s the state’s most remote and least populated regions. Many of the only 3000 inhabitants in this area are polygamy practicing fundamentalist LDS weirdos. And let me tell you, stuff looked rough out there. Later on, after we left the North Rim we drove thru another juicy nugget of Arizona called Lees Ferry, where a guy named John D Lee took part in the massacre of 120 emigrants from Arkansas. He fled with his 19 wives and 50+ kids to an outpost and ran the ferry that was there. He was eventually tracked down and executed, but they decided to name the town with the ferry after him. Oooookay.