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St. George Utah

New Parish

New Parish is the name of my new book, which isn’t published yet, but it’s also a place in the book. The place is fictionally created in and around the place where I live, and the surrounding areas. I love exploring the wonders of Arizona and Utah, I also love learning the history, culture, and adventures that have happened here.

The ruggedly beautiful land, the uniquely different people, and the intriguing history are all fascinating to me. I have a long list of re-visits to do soonish… I want to go back to Pine Valley, Pipe Springs, Kanab and many other places when time and weather permits. It’s been so hot here lately, I’ve spent most of my time indoors. I guess that’s what you get when you live in the desert. Any who, back to my revisit list – Pine Valley is a great place to set some awesome scenes for the book I’m writing now. I think there will be at least one fun picnic in my story that’ll be set there. There are tall trees and there’s even water, which makes it an unusual oasis out here.

I want to revisit Pipe Springs for several reasons, 1, it’s beautiful, 2, it’s loaded with history, and 3, I get the feeling of walking where a lot of other very brave women walked. I can imagine how they longed to be with their husbands and family, and how exiled they must have felt… it’s a sort of solemn, almost a reverent place.

I also have several reasons for wanting to revisit Kanab, the cowboy lore that still lives there, the museum that has old cowboy movies sets, and I found out about a special section in their library that has some local history I really need to dig into.

Research, research, research…

Daisies
Flower Bird
Prickly Pear 1
Prickly Pear 2
Prickly Pear Rose2
Spring pond
CBT Film sets - Copy
CBT Film sets 2
Covered Wagon at the fort
Cowboy Trip 2
Cowboy Trip
Long Horn at the fort
Old Fort Noah campfire 2
Stagecoach

[Show slideshow]

The Rough and Rugged Honeymoon Trail…

There’s a rough and rugged trail that meanders from Snowflake Arizona to St. George Utah. Well, the rough and rugged trail used to be the only way to get from Snowflake to St. George, now it only takes about six hours to traverse the distance, back in the 1800’s it took 4-6 weeks. There’s a nice smooth highway for most to the distance now that allows you to take in the majestic scenes along the way with ease. The original rough and rugged trail is still mostly intact, though you’d need a four-wheel drive vehicle of some kind to travel on it, (I’m sure they would’ve loved to have a four-wheel drive back in the day as well.) That rough and rugged trail was dubbed the Honeymoon Trail back in the 1800’s, and is now a part of the western history I love to visit and write about.

A sign along the Honeymoon Trail.

There’s over four hundred miles of the rough and rugged trail that holds not only beauty but many dangers for those brave enough to take on the challenge. The settlers in the 1800’s would take on that extreme challenge because they wanted to get married (plurally or monogamously, I’m not prejudice either way) in the St. George Temple, thus the naming of the trail, The Honeymoon Trail.

The Pipe Springs Monument, that I wrote about last week, is one of the stops along the Honeymoon Trail. I’ve visited several points of historic interest, to me, along this trail. Hopefully I’ll visit a few more soonish. The Vermillion Cliffs was one place I was particularly entranced with. I wrote about an experience I had there in my book New Parish:

“… They spent a few moments enjoying the rare scenes of what was like a bygone era, then the plane flew past, and Brother Michael said, “There they are, the Vermillion Cliffs.”

            He was pointing to a range of mountains that were almost completely barren of vegetation. The cliffs had a rich purple hue with some of the coral earth tones of the New Parish mesas. They were much larger and longer in range, “Wow…” thought Sarah. The plane flew closer and closer and went along the whole of the cliffs giving the passengers an incredible view of the beauty that was there.

            Sarah jumped as her dad suddenly shouted, “Oh, oh! Look! There’s one!”

            Everyone looked to see the giant bird he was so excited about. It was circling just above the top of one of the cliffs. It flew slowly around and around spiraling higher and higher. They all watched as the condor ascended into the sky, at times looking like a kite hanging on the wind, frozen in time. The condor gradually soared out of sight… Sarah had been so wrapped up in the experience that she’d almost forgotten to breathe. She thought to herself, “Wow, they’re amazing…””

Seeing that condor soaring above the Vermillion Cliffs was truly an experience I’ll never forget.

 

Below is an article from True West Magazine about the Honeymoon Trail if want to know a bit more:

http://www.truewestmagazine.com/honeymoon-trail/

Gene Autry and Ann Rutherford Singing the Honeymoon Trail… I love old westerns!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKhAtgk5Ax4