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Show Paria Canyon only for experienced backpackers For experienced backpackers back-packers only, Paria Canyon Primitive area east of Kanab is best accessible from the Junction of House Rock Valley Road at Buckskin, where the river cuts through "The Cock-coneb" Cock-coneb" fold. As you enter the primitive area from the north you are passing through the massive Navajo formation. The narrows and Wrather Arch are carved from this 1,700 foot thick layer of solidified sand. Just below Wrather Canyon you enter the Kayenta formation and then pass through the Moenave in a five-mile stretch. Near the water pockets you enter the Chinle which is the uranium bearing formation. Several claims were staked during the 1950's in the lower part of Paria Canyon, but claims . have never shown any significant mineral value. It is the Chinle formation that was laid down when the area was tropical and the formation for-mation contains the remains of prehistoric animals and petrified wood. The largest and most spectacular tributary to the Paria Canyon is Buckskin Arizona will compete each evening. The winners will go the PRCA National Championship Rodeo in December at Oklahoma City. Gulch. This twisting labyrinth has been eroded in the Navajo sandstone by a steep stream gradient and there are many interesting erosional features consisting of stairwells, caves, and natural arches. In places the gorge is less than two feet in width and the undulating, un-dulating, near vertical walls block skyward vision. A trip through the 40 miles long Paria Canyon constitutes con-stitutes a tour through 200 million years of geologic time. HISTORY The first white men to visit Paria Canyon were members mem-bers of the Escalante Expedition Ex-pedition in 1776. The expedition ex-pedition spent a week at the mouth of the Paria River while they searched for a way to get to the top of the rim. Almost one hundred years later, John Wesley Powell referred to "Paria Creek" in his epic Colorado River exploration in 1869. That same year Jacob Hamblin, the Mormon Missionary to the Hopi Indians, In-dians, crossed the Colorado at the point where the Paria comes in. John D. Lee built a ranch at the mouth of the Paria and established a ferry service in 1871. Many hundreds of pioneers crossed the Colorado at Lee's Ferry during colonization in Arizona, cont page 31 cont from page 30 Up the Paria Canyon at Judd Hollow, remnants of an old pumping station date from the 1920's when an attempt was made to pump water from the Paria to grazing lands on the plateau above. i |