Cut Off by the Grand Canyon

 

From this ridge you are looking south over the Arizona Strip. This high plateau is cut off from the rest of Arizona by the depths of the Grand Canyon, which lies unseen over the far horizon. Only footbridges cross the Colorado River between Navajo Bridge in Marble Canyon to Hoover Dam—some 220 miles.

 

 

Kaibab Plateau
This game-rich upland was the traditional hunting ground of the Paiute people, who consider it the center of their world. The word Kaibab comes from the Paiute term meaning “mountain lying down.”

Kanab Canyon
The rugged canyon you see far in the distance to the east served Paiute people as a gateway down into the Grand Canyon. Kanab comes from the Paiute word for willow.

Once rich grasslands
Imagine the 8,000 square miles of the Arizona Strip covered in native grasses belly-high to a horse, as it was in 1860.

 

 

Honeymoon Trail
Look for traces of an old wagon road leaving Pipe Spring below to your right. From 1877 to 1928 many Mormon newly-weds from the Arizona settlements farther south traveled this trail to seal their marriages at the Temple in St. George.

Mount Trumbull
Paiute people called this peak Unikaret, which means “Pine Mountain.” The beams for Winsor Castle and the cabins were cut here and hauled 50 miles to Pipe Spring.

 

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