Grand Canyon N P - Kanab Point & Paiute Cave (4/14/2018)

I am now back in Colorado, but there are still a few travelogues in the pipeline.

It seems that every morning and every evening there were really nice sunrises/sunsets on the Paiute Reservation.  I hope you still enjoy them.

After my adventure at Toroweap Point, the weather took a bad turn.  There were several days of extreme wind, steady 30 mph with gusts to 60 mph.  It did not encourage me to do some of my planned activities, especially the one that required hiking in a stream.  I used the time to catch up on chores and commiserate with others stuck in the campground.  Finally, I decided I had to get out, even though it was still somewhat windy.  Instead of hiking the canyon with running water, I chose to drive to Kanab Point.

Kanab Point is where Kanab Creek enters the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River.  It is similar to Toroweap Point except it is even more remote and gets much less visitation.  I would be surprised if even 500 people per year make it to this spot.  It is a 50 mile drive, moderately rough road until it crosses into the national park, when it becomes very rough for the last four miles.  The park service seems to want to make it a challenge to reach these overlooks.

There are three overlooks that one can drive to, which limits the views somewhat.  To see more requires hiking in very thick sagebrush, but I had no desire to do that.  The views that are available are spectacular, and I was awestruck by the canyon created by a small creek.  I suppose it isn't always small, but it has certainly created an awesome canyon.

Since it was still early in the day, I thought I would look for a site called Paiute Cave.  I had heard about this place, actually a lava tube, from the tour guide I met at Toroweap.  He had given me only a general location, on the road from Toroweap to Colorado City.  Subsequent research told me the "cave" has very unusual pictographs.  As I left Kanab Point, I met some BLM rangers  on the road.  They told me the "cave" was on a two-track trail on top of a cinder cone the road went over.  If you go off the cinder cone, they said, you have gone too far.

With no other information, I drove to the road in question and started looking for two-track trails.  The first three I tried had lava rock scattered about, but no lava tubes.  The fourth trail looked more promising and I soon came to a stack of lava rock almost hidden by dirt pushed up to make a pond.  Walking up to the pile, I could see an opening at the top of a twenty foot pile of large rocks.  As I climbed the pile, I reminded myself what a mistake it would be to fall on these sharp rocks.  Further, I thought how this would make a great home for some critter, even a snake hibernating in the rock pile that would be unhappy if disturbed.  I was careful as I could be, given both hands were full with my camera, a flashlight and a lantern.

The lava tube was actually not that dark.  It was small and had an extra opening that let in light.  I looked and looked for rock art, but there was none to be found.  Bummer!

Back outside, I observed that the trail continued on, and there was a large butte half mile away that appeared to be lava rock.

Driving toward the butte, I suddenly saw a pile of lava rock off to the side, with a BLM registry box  indicating this was definitely the place.  There was a sizable depression with a thirty foot wall of lava boulders, and an opening near the top of the wall.  Fortunately, the trail I found led to the middle of the pile, not the bottom.

This time I only brought the flashlight, not the lantern.  As a result, it was considerably darker in here.  I could see markings on the boulders down below, but could not tell if they were the art I was after.  I took a few photos using the flash.  With the flashlight, I thought I could see synbols about twenty feet down the rocks.

Scooting down the boulders on my bottom, I began to see some of the most unusual rock art I have ever seen.  The technique seemed to be painting a solid background, then painting the image on it.  The paints used, even after hundreds of years, were very bright and colorful.

There were a few places where it appeared the background had been painted in preparation for more images that had never been added.

Needless to say, this was an exciting find, well worth all the effort it took to get there.