| Show High Time See Wilderness By FLORENCE BITTNER In another ten years you'll have to make a reservation to look LAKE POWELL and the canyon of the Colorado cannot cannot cannot can can- not be explained they have to be seen Much of the area is still primitive and there are many many miles Jes between be be- between between tween fac facilities but as the world discovers the beauty of our land of rock the four corners country and Lake Powell w will ll become wonders of the world ord where everyone everyone everyone every every- one must go at least once We made the big circle two weeks ago with our boys over Spanish Fork Canyon through Price and down to Moab and on to Blanding Banding Then we drove through Navajo Nation where the rocks in Monument Valley look as if they had been sculptured in a childs child's sand sandbox sandbox sandbox box drenched with coral paint and left to dry streaked streak streak- ed and improbable TUBA CITY in Arizona ismore is ismore ismore more the size of a tuba than a city but it is where we turned to return north across jagged mesas and windswept emptiness an occasional hogan huddled under a vast and indifferent sky Glen Canyon Dam that plug in a rock drain so dwarfed by what it has created is too big to be understood There is no fanfare and little warning as the road bends to lead onto Glen Canyon bridge where the white concrete wall feet high bI braces ces its arms against solid stone walls to hold a hundred miles of lake water WE ASKED a Park Ranger about possibilities for in investing investing investing in- in vesting in a hunk of this unique real estate but he said unless you happen tobe to tobe tobe be a personal friend of the Secretary of the Interior forget it Five miles back from the shoreline of the lake there will be no property sold Marinas now in existence w will ll continue under supervision supervision supervision super super- vision of the Department of the Interior and the Park Rangers I KNOW now where all ui the the pickups with campers and trailers are going and I know Memorial Day is no time to see Lake Powell Last Memorial Memorial Memorial Me Me- morial Day Wahweap marina sent boats out Frand Wright who owns a chunk of Halls Crossing Marina Manna Marina Ma Ma- rina nna says the upper part of the lake is more spectacular than down by the dam and he should know He took Secretary Udall on a river trip when Glen Canyon Dam was in the discussion stage and Frank was a good guide He knew every bend of the river and as he has watched the filling of the canyon with water he watches the drowning drowning drowning drown drown- ing of a loved friend FRANK mourns the loss of his canyon and there are many who share his belief that we are losing as much muchas as we are gaining Before the dam was built no one saw the canyon except except except ex ex- a few daring and hardy river rats who loved the wild beauty more than they feared for their lives in that unforgiving unforgiving unforgiving giving wilderness It was al almost almost almost al- al most remote legendary inaccessible inaccessible in m. accessible treacherous even in our day still almost virgin NOW THERE are good roads and waterways to lay bare the undiscovered parts of this most inhospitable and start- start beautiful land Each year ear as people return to tell about the wonders in a lake Jake carved from stone more and more more people more people will come We se were gone from home just 48 hours and the trip home through Kanab was unhurried and we all agreed anyone who thinks Utah is only a desert state oi ot empty sagebrush hills doesn't know |
