| Show Cong Laurence Burton and Son Take Trip into If you have never peen been to Horseshoe Canyon you 00 ought to go Last week my nine year old son Laurence Shupe and I made the trip and it was a real ad ad- ad venture Horseshoe Canyon is located in hi the area of Utah so southeast of Green River City Absolutely do not try to get th there re unless you haVe a four wheel drive Jeep and an ex experienced experienced experienced ex- ex d driver r i v e r. r Ours was Bates Wilson of Moab who is Superintendent of Natural B Bridges r i d ge s. s and Arches National p Parks ks and Monuments Horseshoe Canyon is an area areat t being eing proposed as an addition to Park and I have always wanted to see for myself all these new areas of extension extension extension exten exten- sion and expansion that remove for single use preservation vast areas of the public do do- do main Horseshoe Canyon in my ju judgement gement should be added to the National Park system Its It's a long canyon with extremely sheer walls and descent into it itis itis itis is made via an old cow and wagon trail blasted out of the sandstone walls and called the Flint Trail The early pio- pio referred to the area as The B Barrier a r r i o r because the canyon was nearly impossible to cross and they had to detour miles around it Near there is Butch Cassiday's Robbers Roost Roost- Ranch and hideaway The ranch is presently owned by Art Arta a flinty tanned and colorful t tal talking al k kin i n g man of the saddle One of the high points of our trip was the opportunity to sit round the campfire and hear friend Art rt talk of the country and the personalities that he knows and loves so so well It was after after midnight before he left the fire and headed home in his four wheel jeep to the Robbers Robbers Robbers Rob bers' bers R Roo Roost o o s t. t t But Laurence Shupe wasn't the least bit interested interested inter inter- ested in his sleeping bag until Art le left t. t It was a great ex experience experience experience ex- ex f for r him and me to me-to to meet a guy in a white hat hat- like Uke Art The canyon and its environs are like Uke most of our southern Utah scenery very colorful It Itis Itis Itis is an area where there are a number of Indian ruins but the singular feature is the Pic to- to graph Indian writings writ writ- in ings s. s They are not to be dup dup- elsewhere in the world They are not ROt the usual little carved or pi picked ked figures of animals and hum humans an s that characterize most of this type of native art These are larger than life Ufe size pictures of natives and animals some of which are seen to eight feet in height and all are elaborately picked and painted These date from the so-called so F Fremont remont- remont Indian culture and their age is placed at nearly I 1000 years Some of the glyphs glyphs- had been destroyed when portions of the cliff fell away and shattered in tiny pieces I picked a portion of one of the broken glyphs that was the size of the palm of pf my hand There was no way of knowing of course what this Sherd had been but probably a very small part of a figure like Uke the seven foot tall ones that nature has not c crumbled rum bled and wiped out I wetted my finger and rubbed rub rub- rubbed rubbed rub rub- bed the ancient little piece of sandstone and was amazed to find that the paint when wet was still viable I used that little chunk to paint some genuine Indian war paint on Laurences Laurence's face race That pleased him so much I couldn't get him to wash his face for two days The The Indians made their paint by grinding flowers and shrubs bs and herbs for coloring and then mixing it with bear or porcupine porcupine porcupine por por- cupine grease Horseshoe Canyon is not an easy place to get to but once there it is a rewarding ex experience ex- ex We spent four days exploring Horseshoe and the Maze The Maze is also a proposed proposed proposed pro pro- posed addition to and will be the subject of next weeks column |
