Month: September 2023

Topaz

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[Programming note: Monday posts for the rest of the year will be national parks. Thursdays will be other national park units and affiliates. And I may have a bonus post on a few Saturdays. I am catching up on a backlog of park visits, so even if the House Republicans shut down the parks, my posts will continue].

Off I-15 in Utah towards Great Basin, there’s an excellent museum about Topaz, one of the American Concentration Camps for US citizens of Japanese ancestry. Since it’s near the Bonneville flats, the incarcerated Americans collected shells to make art for sale (see photo), one of many detailed exhibits. The prison site itself was stripped bare, so there’s not much to see on the museum’s informative guided tour except barbed wire and a few foundations.

Fred Korematsu was one prisoner here. He lost at the Supreme Court 6-3 in 1944, but he eventually got his conviction overturned by a California court in 1983. In 2011 the DOJ issued a rare ‘Admission of Error’ in Korematsu’s case, for suppressing a military report dismissing the threat of spying by Japanese Americans (not already confined) and of racism motivating the military leadership. Another prisoner, James Wakasa, on the other hand, was shot without warning inside the fence while walking his dog. Over twenty men from Topaz died fighting in Europe for the highly honored 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Utah is a well ordered state, clean and conservative, like Japan in some ways. People prefer order to disorder, which is one reason many don’t like change. But mistakes must be fixed, or they typically get worse. Fixing the climate crisis will cause disruptions, but solving the problem is the only way to a better future.

Imperial Japan tried to impose ‘order’ on its neighbors through its military. One person’s order is another’s oppression. Order solves lots of problems, but when order is used to amplify an unfair policy, that’s what puts over 100,000 Americans including children in prison camps for four years, without trial, losing their homes, unable to communicate freely and pressured under harsh conditions.

A Japanese American project folded over 100,000 paper cranes, one to represent each American imprisoned. Orizuru are fractional wishes, and completing a thousand is meant to make a wish come true. Hanging many strings of cranes together is also an expression of solidarity, commitment and dedication in Japanese culture. But due to some failure of imagination, the cranes are kept here in storage, a few handed out to kids, instead of being displayed.

There’s not much enthusiasm at Topaz for establishing a joint venture with the park service, as the locals believe they’re doing a fine job alone. But the least the US government could do is organize a public display of the origami cranes at each of the American concentration camps it built. When order is used to coordinate and amplify wishes to make lives better, it can change the world.

Camp Hale – Continental Divide National Monument

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The first troops to join the war from Colorado’s Camp Hale were the Viking Battalion, comprised of Norwegian exiles and Norwegian Americans, who joined the war in Europe in 1943, most fighting in uniform, but some as spies for Wild Bill Donovan’s OSS, the pre-cursor of the CIA. By 1944, the Allies had liberated Paris & Rome, but the Germans stubbornly held the mountains north of Rome and Florence, despite numerous assaults. That winter, the 10th Mountain Division, specially selected for mountaineering, having completed months of rigorous high altitude training, including mountain climbing and skiing among the 12,000 foot peaks behind Camp Hale above, arrived in Italy to take over the assault. Despite heavy casualties, they pushed the Germans out of the mountains, across the next valley, and up into the Alps, before the Germans surrendered. One of the young 10th Mountain soldiers left for dead after terrible injuries in Italy was Bob Dole, who survived and served as US Senator for Kansas from ‘69 to ‘96.

President Biden recently made this area and some of the mountains beyond a national monument, managed by the forest service. At this point, there’s not a lot to see and the roads are in poor condition, but it’s easy to feel the altitude when walking around, even without 90 pounds of military gear. There are still alpine huts between the trails up on Machine Gun Ridge above, and after the war, many 10th Mountain Veterans helped start a boom in recreational skiing nearby in Vail and Aspen Colorado. Today, the 10th Mountain operates out of New York and is frequently deployed on dangerous missions abroad.

The Old Spanish Trails

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This post covers five national historic trails in the southwest. I hope they inspire your travels.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Road of the Interior, followed ancient Native American trading routes to connect the northern colonies of New Spain with the Aztec capital conquered by Cortés in 1521. In 1598, Juan de Oñate brought a colony of settlers north from Mexico City to the pueblos around Santa Fe, near Taos, Bandelier and Pecos. The trail crosses El Paso, past the Salinas Pueblo and past the Petroglyphs in Albuquerque. In 1680, 2,000 Spanish missionaries, settlers and soldiers fled south on this road after the Pueblo Revolt, before returning 12 years later. Santa Fe New Mexico became the crossroad of international trade in North America.

El Camino Real de Los Tejas, the Royal Road of the Friends, runs from the Mexican border near Laredo, through the San Antonio missions, into Louisiana near Cane River Creole. Tejas is a Spanish version of a native Caddo word for ‘friend’ and became the name of the state of Texas. The Spanish established missions at the east end of the trail in the 1690s, withdrew after conflict with the Caddo, and then returned in the 1710s to establish the capital of their Texas colony in Louisiana. Due to conflict with the French in Louisiana, they relocated the missions to San Antonio, after negotiating peace with the Apache, and eventually moved their provincial capital there. Unfortunately for the Spanish, the trail encouraged many American settlers to move in, and they fomented a revolt leading to the US annexation of Texas.

In 1775, Juan Bautista de Anza led another colony of Spanish settlers north from Mexico to establish San Francisco. The 1,200 mile trail is named for him, and it passes roughly through the following park sites in Arizona and California.

The Old Spanish Trail was also built on ancient native trade routes expanded by Spanish, Mexican and American explorers, including Kit Carson. It connects Santa Fe with Los Angeles, via a few alternate branches through Colorado, Utah, Arizona & Nevada, and the branches pass roughly through the following park sites.

After Mexican Independence in 1821, Americans found that they could travel to New Mexico without fear of being arrested and jailed in Mexico City. The Santa Fe Trail connects to St Louis, passing roughly through the following park units. Today, the Santa Fe & Old Spanish trails roughly parallel the BNSF Railroad and Route 66.

Curecanti National Recreation Area

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The 700’ granite spire above that rises out of the Gunnison River at the confluence of Blue & Curecanti Creeks is the Curecanti Needle, formed by an earthquake fault running straight across the canyon. The half dozen turkey vultures in the foreground below it are drying out after a brief rain shower.

There are much more difficult ways to get here than driving to Pioneer Point Overlook, including climbing down hundreds of steps with gear and paddling down the river (and then back up), but I took the easy way. If someone is nice enough to build an overlook, then it’s best not to waste it.

Upriver from the Black Canyon, there are several dams and large basins with powerboats, and a very small, but pretty hike through the Cottonwoods along the riverside Neversink trail before the town of Gunnison. I skipped the artificial reservoirs and didn’t see any wildlife on the hike, but driving through colorful Colorado in early fall is always a pleasure.

Colorado National Monument

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Have you ever wished that someone would build a road up along the canyon rim with cool tunnels and overlooks, so you could see the features up close and hike out on the points? Well, then this is the park for you! A man named John Otto began building that road over 100 years ago, including his trail out to view the point above.

The winding, tunneled scenic canyon rim road now has bicyclists and antique cannonball rally motorcycles. Besides the enviable promontory pictured, there are several 500’ deep steep canyons to explore along Rim Rock Drive: Ute, Red, Monument and more. Watch out for Bighorn Sheep—I saw one—and raptors—second time this week that one whooshed past my head as I stood on a cliff. I saw a flash of bright yellow, so I think this was a peregrine falcon. Watch your step along the cliff edge!

Rainbow Bridge National Monument

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Luckily Lake Powell is high enough for the boat tour, which cost $145 and took 7 hours, including an hour hike, 30 minutes at the bridge above (see people bottom right for scale) and a beautiful song sung at the site by our Navajo guide. That’s far better than hiking overland for at least two days. The boat trip alone is marvelous, as Glen Canyon just gets more stunning the deeper you explore into Utah. But the canyon up to the monument is a delight too, with wildflowers, echoing cliffs & alcoves and a spring, allowing you a glimpse of a glen before the dam tragically flooded most of them. Before our Navajo captain navigated the twisting channel for the return trip, a brief shower brought at least half a dozen waterfalls down the towering rock walls. Spectacular!

Arizona National Scenic Trail

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This forest service trail runs between the borders of Mexico and Utah. The southern Sky Islands section includes Coronado National Monument and Saguaro National Park near Tucson, and the terrain ranges from low desert to 10,000’ mountains. The next Sonoran Uplands section crosses seasonal desert rivers and passes by the Tonto National Monument (see photo). The Volcanic Field & Ponderosa Pine Plateau includes Walnut Canyon near Flagstaff. And the northern Plateaus & Canyons section crosses through the southern part of the new Grand Canyon National Monument and both south and north rims of the Grand Canyon before reaching Utah.

While I’ve visited the park units along the way, hiking long sections of the trail is too challenging for me, with risks from heat stroke to flash floods. But it would be an adventure! Driving to the parks along the trails is an easy way to see a few of the highlights, and I will be posting about several more trails this fall.

Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument

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Below Glen Canyon‘s Horseshoe Bend, there’s a low point at Lee’s Ferry where rafters put in to run the rapids down into the Grand Canyon. First they go under Navajo Bridge and through Marble Canyon. The Colorado River and cliffs here are still part of Glen Canyon, but there’s a large, ecologically important shelf or rim under the Vermilion Cliffs (distant above right) that was weakly protected. A few clever folks figured you could camp out right on the rim above and watch the rafts and stars go by.

I found this place above on the map, but it’s not well known. It’s called Rapids or Beaver Creek Overlook, and there’s a 2 mile dirt road from 89A not far from Cliff Dwellers & their destination charger and tasty restaurant. I asked a local Navajo woman about the road, and she described it as ‘nice and flat’. Which is true, because the views are lovely and the wide rim is basically flat. But it would have been easier in a high clearance vehicle. I guess she has a different standard for ‘nice and flat’. Still, my car is visible on the rim above to the right, so I can’t complain. If you go, please stay on the road or in one of the very primitive camping areas as the small cacti and desert soils are fragile.

Navajo and other tribes petitioned for better federal protection of such lands all around the Grand Canyon to prevent uranium mining and other damage. President Biden agreed. The park name means ‘where tribes roam’ and ‘our ancestral footprints’ in Havasupai & Hopi respectively. Even larger areas are now better protected in the west and south, including a large chunk of the Kaibab National Forest below the south rim. The new park is managed by the US Forest Service, so like Avi Kwa Ame it won’t count as one of the 425 official NPS units. Still, it’s new, important and on my way.

Avi Kwa Ame National Monument

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Back in March, President Biden declared Avi Kwa Ame—Spirit Mountain—a new park, so I took another look on my way back to the Rocky Mountain region. (The park is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, so technically it’s not one of the 425 official park units). The park is in the Cal-Nev-Ari bottom corner of Nevada, filling the gap between the southern end of Lake Mead NRA and the Mojave Preserve. Last year I rode my bike through the western part of it on my way to Castle Mountains, past Joshua Trees and Clara Bow’s ranch.

On Sunday, I hiked up the Spirit Mountain Overlook trail to take the photo (above) of the sacred mountain from a respectful distance. The mountain is actually just over the Lake Mead NRA border, but both the foreground and background to the left are in the new park, until Mojave in the distance. I relied on HikingGuy.com for directions, which were helpful, plus the NPS App: save the Lake Mead park info for offline use, then open the map to see your GPS position. There are natural springs up here, so there were birds along the trail. Connecting the parks helps protect the threatened desert tortoise. I saw one crossing Christmas Tree Pass Road when I drove up and again on my way back down (not sure if it was the same one;).

Whiskeytown National Recreation Area

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The 220’ three-tiered Whiskeytown Falls were a local secret known only to loggers and a few others until rediscovered by the park service staff in 2004. The ‘strenuous’ trail opened in 2006, and, since the shaded trail is in the 3% of the park not completely burned by the 230,000 acre Carr Fire in 2018, I decided to hike it earlier this summer, rather than broil on the water in my kayak.

But then these folks from Cal-Fire Bully Choop & Sugar Pine CC #9 passed me on my way up. Rather than complain, I gave them a bit of applause and thanked them for their heroism. They were taking turns cooling off in the 50° water. Of course, it’s not fair to expect these young people to risk their lives to protect our forests and property from the Climate Crisis we are all guilty of making worse, so they deserve our thanks all the more.

At the visitor center, I noticed that they are using an underwater curtain to block the warm surface water from continuing downstream from the dam. This innovation helps keep the water temperature low enough for Chinook salmon eggs and fry in the Sacramento River. I’m not sure how long it will work given the Climate Crisis, but it’s the least we can do after damming Clear Creek. Maybe we could ban gas-powered boats too?

I was disappointed to read the park newsletter with three long articles about the fire and zero mention of the Climate Crisis. I expect my tax dollars to be used more wisely. Denying the crisis only gives us less time to act.