United States travel - Robert Scheer's Blog

Cave Art, Architecture And Ghosts Near The Grand Canyon

We bounced along a deeply-rutted dirt road from the Indian cave with its 3,000 year old petroglyphs and pictographs. We were heading back to see the Grand Canyon at sunset, keeping an eye out for mountain lions, bobcats, elk and deer. The driver was also keeping an eye out for potholes in the road. He wasn’t avoiding them to make our ride more comfortable, but for the benefit of the local wildlife. It had rained recently, and the water-filled holes in the road would be sources of precious moisture for the countless varieties of mammals and birds that live in the Kaibab National Forest, just south of the Grand Canyon.

One mile from the South Entrance of Grand Canyon National Park is the town of Tusayan (TOO-see-on), a Payute name that means “land without water.” Actually, the upper part of the Sonoran desert gets an average of 40 cm. of rain per year, with almost all of it falling in July and August. But there are essentially no wells, springs, reservoirs or any other natural source of water available to the people who live and work near the Grand Canyon. All their water is brought up in tanker trucks from Tucson, at a cost of 11¢ a gallon.

Ironically, it was water that created this one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World. It took seven million years for the Colorado River to carve the 460 km. long, 1.7 km. deep Grand Canyon. Today’s visitors spend an average of only 15 minutes at the canyon itself. Fortunately, there are scores of other attractions nearby to help make a Grand Canyon vacation memorable.

Grand Canyon Deluxe Tour

I was enjoying Grand Canyon Outback Jeep Tours’ three hour “Deluxe Combo,” which included tours of the Kaibab National Forest and an ancient Indian cave. We stopped at a dry ravine and our guide, Jay McEvoy, described the dramas that unfolded 3,000 years ago. Anasazi natives, who lived in the Canyon, went there to hunt the giant Merriam’s elk. The hunters, teenage boys, would wait in the bushes upwind from the river where the elk came to drink. The animals stood over two meters tall and weighed 400 kilograms, but the young hunters would attack them with hand-made spears. They’d prepare the meat in a cave above the river, and then carry it back home, a walk that would take several days.

Jay led us on a short walk up to the cave, which was unknown to white people until a cowboy stumbled onto it in 1920. On the wall under a stone outcropping were pictures of elk, bighorn sheep and wolves, along with rows of puzzling geometric designs. A checkerboard pattern might represent a barrier fashioned from tree branches and used in elk hunting. A triangular shape could refer to a volcano that erupted 600 years ago near Flagstaff, 125 km. away. The red pigment used to create the paintings was found to have been made from a mixture of iron oxide and pine sap, but when scientists analyzed the elk pictures, they also discovered traces of both human and animal blood, possible evidence of a spiritual meaning to the rock art. Perhaps there were ceremonies to celebrate successful hunts that included spilling some of the blood of the hunter, mixing it with that of his prey, and then immortalizing their combined life force on the wall of the cave.

As the tour moved on, Jay pointed out a ledge where, a few weeks earlier, he had seen a bobcat with two kittens. The most exotic wildlife we saw were several groups of mule deer—mostly females—grazing among the pines and junipers, then bounding away into the forest.

Historic Architecture by Mary Colter

Anyone with an interest in Southwest Native art and architecture will enjoy visiting some of the nine buildings near the Grand Canyon that were designed and/or decorated by Mary Colter for the Fred Harvey Company between 1905 and 1937. In an era when most architects copied traditional European patterns, Colter became famous for designs that grew from the American landscape. Her first building at the Canyon, Hopi House, is a gift shop that was inspired by Hopi dwellings in Old Oraibi, Arizona, one of the oldest continuously occupied villages in the United States. Bright Angel Lodge is a hotel in the style of early pioneer log cabins. The interior of the Watchtower, an observation tower resembling the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings, is decorated with ornate paintings by a Hopi artist, recalling the Snake Dance and other ancient traditions and legends.

Before Colter started drawing the blueprints for her buildings, she dreamed up fictional histories for them. The La Posada hotel in Winslow, Arizona, considered to be her finest achievement, was based on the fantasy that it had been the estate of a wealthy Spanish aristocrat, built in 1779 with additions over the next 150 years. Actually, it was newly built in 1930. The rambling hacienda was filled with museum-quality antiques. Colter not only designed the building but also most of its contents. When she couldn’t locate enough of the furniture she wanted, she ordered a factory built across the street to create antique-looking reproductions. The architect even picked out the dishes for the dining room and the uniforms for the maids. Guests at the hotel have included Franklin D. Roosevelt, Howard Hughes, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Charles Lindbergh and many more notable personalities. Although it closed in 1957, La Posada is now in the process of being restored and is once again accommodating visitors to the Grand Canyon and other nearby attractions in north and central Arizona.

Haunted by Native Indian Spirits

It’s about 250 km. from the Grand Canyon to the Petrified Forest, and the area in between is littered with fossils, ancient pottery fragments and chunks of petrified wood simply lying on the ground. Any visitor tempted to take home one of these illegal souvenirs should be aware of two things. First: state and federal laws prohibit stealing artifacts, with punishments up to $150,000 and five years in prison. Second: some thieves who don’t get caught by the law discover they have a higher authority to answer to. At the Grand Canyon Visitors Center I read a letter from a tourist named Sylvia who had mailed back some stolen fossils. She wrote: “It does cause bad karma to remove [artifacts] from the park.” She listed a string of five disasters that had befallen her after taking the fossils, then she requested, “…ask the Grand Canyon Poobah to take the curse off me now.” This was not an isolated incident. A Ranger at another state park showed me a letter from a man explaining why he was mailing back potsherds he’d stolen. “I’m sorry I was ignorant and stupid,” he wrote, detailing how he was “haunted” afterwards. Three times each night, his bedroom door would open and shut by itself. He desperately hoped that returning the artifacts would remove his curse.

It isn’t only thieving tourists who have had supernatural experiences with Native artifacts. A Grand Canyon Ranger told me about a nearby restaurant that once had a beautiful collection of ancient Navajo vases and jars on display, until one night a worker noticed that the entire shelving unit and all the pots in it were vibrating—on their own! The pottery, which had been collected from gravesites, was removed and returned to the Navajo Nation.

Visitors who want to learn more about Native American traditions can enjoy programs, workshops, dance presentations and medicine man walks led by Navajo Elder James Peshlakai, at the Grand Hotel in Tusayan village.

Best Time to Visit the Grand Canyon

July and August are the rainiest months in the Canyon area. In May and September the temperatures are generally the most pleasant with fewer tourists. Five million visitors per year visit the Canyon, with four million of them coming in August. Because it is anticipated eleven million tourists will be coming to the Grand Canyon by 2010, plans are now underway to limit motor vehicle traffic. Within the next few years, private automobiles will be banned from the South Rim, and a light rail system and low-emission shuttle buses will convey tourists around the National Park.

If You Go:

Entrance Fee – A non-refundable $20 fee ($10 for pedestrians and bicycles) is payable at Park entrances and includes unlimited admissions for seven consecutive days to both South and North Rims.

Getting There – The most convenient major airport is in Phoenix, where it’s a 400 km. rental car drive through Flagstaff and Williams to the South Rim.

Accommodations – Lodging within the Park ranges from the Bright Angel Lodge ($44 to $116) to the more posh El Tovar Hotel ($114 to $279). For advance reservations call (303) 297-2757. There are also eight hotels and motels in Tusayan village, including the Grand Hotel (520) 638-3333, Quality Inn (520) 638-2673 and Holiday Inn Express (520) 638-3000. La Posada hotel in Winslow (520) 289-4366 is 265 km. from the Canyon.

Dining – The most elegant dining is at the El Tovar Dining Room. The Arizona Steakhouse near the Bright Angel Lodge and the Canyon Star restaurant at the Grand Hotel are also recommended. There is casual dining in the Park at the Yavapai Cafeteria near the Visitor Center and the Maswik Lodge Cafeteria, and numerous fast-food outlets in Tusayan village.

Tours and Attractions – Grand Canyon Jeep Tours, 1-800-320-5337. An IMAX theater in Tusayan shows films about the Canyon, (520) 638-2203.

General – The Grand Canyon Official Tourism web page is http://www.thecanyon.com.

The Arizona Office of Tourism is at https://tourism.az.gov.

2019 Update: I visited the Grand Canyon in 1999, and the prices mentioned above are now 20 years old.

Sedona – Amazing Energy in the Arizona Desert

Medicine wheel at Rachel’s Knoll

Why is Sedona such a powerhouse of transformational energy?

Drive north from Phoenix for two hours, up Interstate 17, and you’ll discover an area of awesome beauty and profound power. There are surprises at nearly every turn — a bend in the highway suddenly reveals majestic red stone castles on the horizon. The strong Arizona sun and crisp desert air are invigorating. Sedona even had the power to turn the plastic arches of America’s most notorious fast-food chain from yellow to green. It’s easy to be seduced by the wealth of Native jewelry shops, art galleries, New Age psychic and crystal retailers, but Sedona’s real magic comes from Mother Earth. So much has been written about the powerful vortices (or vortexes) that you may be tempted to discount such stories as too much hype, but it’s not hype. The vortex energy is genuine and tangible.

Since prehistoric times the Sedona-Oak Creek Canyon area has been sacred to aboriginal people. It is very likely that Hopi, Navajo and their ancestors came to meditate at the sites now known as the Sedona vortices. The term vortex was first used by trance medium Page Bryant, who identified Bell Rock, Cathedral Rock, Airport Mesa and Boynton Canyon as Sedona’s foremost energy centers. At least three other places of comparable power can also be found within the area: Oak Creek Canyon, Schnebly Hill and Rachel’s Knoll.

The three-night visit my wife Mary and I enjoyed was probably the minimum time recommended to appreciate the various energy vortices. Even with the help of several fine tour guides, we spent less time than we would have liked at most of the sites we visited, and there were a few we had to skip altogether. If you’re determined to “do” Sedona thoroughly, then plan to stay for at least five days.

Urban Sedona is divided into several areas, defined by their relation to the intersection of Highways 89A and 179, known as “The Y.” Uptown Sedona is northeast of the Y. Continue past Uptown on Hwy. 89A and you’ll reach Oak Creek Canyon and, eventually, Flagstaff. Northwest of the Y is West Sedona, the airport, and the road to Boynton Canyon, Rachel’s Knoll and Palatki. Below the Y, on Hwy. 179, is Bell Rock, the Village of Oak Creek and Cathedral Rock.

Airport Mesa is the most accessible and likely the least impressive vortex. It is located only about 1-1/2 miles from the Y, on Airport Road. From the parking area, it’s a very short walk up to the top of a small hill where there are several good spots to sit and meditate. It is said that you can identify areas of high energy by looking at the juniper trees. The more twisted the branches are, the closer you are to a power vortex. This seemed to be true at Airport Mesa. The actual vortex is defined as the “saddle between the hills, where the Juniper trees are very twisted.” Perhaps it was the masculine energy, but I didn’t want to sit and meditate there. I felt very active and energetic. Mary said she could feel “tingling waves” vibrating in the center of her body.

Almost all of Oak Creek Canyon is spectacularly beautiful, but West Fork Trail is probably the best part of Oak Creek. The only parking area near the trailhead doesn’t open until 9:00 a.m. The parking lot is one mile beyond Don Hoel’s Cabins, on the left side of the road. The trail is relatively easy to walk, but there are some places where you’ll have to wade the shallow waters of Oak Creek, so wear suitable footwear. The trail is less than two miles long, and on it many people experience feelings of peace and happiness.

At Cathedral Rock I felt nurtured and calmed by the gentle Mother Earth energy, which was very different from Rachel’s Knoll — a place so invigorating I was bouncing around like a jumping bean! Sedona was settled by ranchers, but it was artists who first began to understand the power of vortex energy. One of our tour guides told us it is impossible to live in Sedona and be unmotivated, but there is a danger of moving here without preparation. He said many sensitive people come to visit, fall in love with Sedona, move in, and then three or four months down the line have to leave because they are unable to withstand so much energy! Many older people who were never artistic in their lives suddenly bloom when they move here, starting painting, pottery or something else expressive.

Boynton Canyon can be initially off-putting because of the huge commercial development across the road. Our early morning hike was disturbed by the sound of many large trucks coming and going from the luxury resort. Risha Henrique, who visited the canyon recently, reported that it is a mysterious twilight zone or in-between place where Spirit is sometimes revealed. Others call it a “gateway to a vast unconscious realm.” Important to Apache and Taos people, the canyon is said to be the home of a mysterious presence. Some hikers have seen “the spirit of an old man with long white hair in a braid, having a kind but serious face,” Henrique wrote. He is a guardian who tells people, “Don’t desecrate this area.” In his book Return of the Serpents of Wisdom, Mark Amaru Pinkham described a psychic vision he experienced in Boynton Canyon. He hiked to a ledge, where he sat and meditated, and then saw elaborate temples and a silver pyramid — echoes of when Sedona was a colony of the ancient land of Mu, or Lemuria.

Sedona Spirit Journey and Vortex Tours
from: Viator

Why is Sedona such a powerhouse of transformational energy? In his book Star Temples in the Stones, Raymond Mardyks says that the rock formations in Sedona are all aligned with matching stars or constellations. Snoopy Rock and Twin Butte, for example, are aligned with Sirius, the dog star and Gemini, the twins. Mardyks believes Sedona is one of many sacred sites on the Earth that are “connected with the stars and other dimensions of time and space. When approached with the proper motivation and preparation, many of these sites offer the opportunity to experience very expanded levels of consciousness.”

A very different explanation is offered by Marty Wolf of Earth Wisdom tours. Sedona’s red sandstone rocks get their color from a high concentration of iron, a metal that stores magnetic energy. Sandstone itself is rich in quartz, the mineral from which computer chips are made. Added to this high concentration of geological energy, Marty says, is the fact that Sedona was settled by four aboriginal groups who came from the four sacred directions: Athabascans from the North, Apache from the East, the ancestors of the Hopi from the South, and Yavapai from the West.

Bernyce Barlow, author of Sacred Sites of the West, says that underground rivers, geological cracks, fissures and fault lines, along with high amounts of iron and magnesium in the soil, give Sedona “a personality all its own.” The vortexes “interact with so many other kinds of earth energies that the vortex experience can become a mental barbell workout.” Barlow says “before the Spanish arrived…pilgrimages were made to Sedona from as far north as Canada and as far south as Central America. The tremendous energies of the canyons were renowned…No one lived in the canyons; that would be sacrilege. They were reserved as a holy place for spiritual growth and knowledge.”

For more information on sacred sites of California and Nevada go to: Shifting Sands

Photos © Robert Scheer

I visited Sedona in 1998, and this article was originally published that year. Some of my observations from that time may no longer be accurate.

Virginia City Nevada Was Once the Richest Place in the World

It was a disappointingly ordinary looking bedroom, considering its rich history. Some of the most famous men in the world had slept there. I was in Virginia City, Nevada at the Mackay Mansion, built in 1860 by George Hearst, father of newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst.

In the 1870s it was the home of Comstock mine owner John Mackay, who later founded AT&T. One of the wealthiest people on earth, Mackay earned over $100 million in his best year. In the front room I saw the vault where it was not uncommon for one million dollars worth of gold and silver ingots to be stored before shipping to San Francisco.

Down the hall from the bedroom, the first flush toilet installed west of the Mississippi can still be seen. At the time they called it an “indoor outhouse.” More opulent than the bedroom was the downstairs parlor, with a gold chandelier, an original Tiffany window, and a mirror made from crushed diamonds. President Ulysses S. Grant gave a speech from the second floor balcony in 1879.

“When Johnny Depp slept here he saw a ghost,” the tour guide told me. The actor had been in town in 1995 filming the movie “Dead Man,” and reportedly saw the spirit manifestation of a little girl dressed in white, one of four ghosts believed to reside in the house.

The B and B where I stayed, Edith Palmer’s Country Inn, was not without its Hollywood connection. Marilyn Monroe stayed there in 1960 while filming “The Misfits.” Her autographed picture hung in my room. As I breakfasted on waffles with fresh strawberries, innkeeper Leisa Findley told me the Victorian building dates back to 1863. She and her husband, Pat, bought it in 2000, and spent three years re-building and restoring it.

I had come to Virginia City hoping to connect with the old west. I soon learned it wasn’t a “Cowboys and Indians” place, but instead had been a center for miners and millionaires. During the gold and silver boom from about 1860 to 1880 it was the richest place in the world. The trains that exported gold and silver ingots imported the latest fashions and Champagne from Paris, as well as fresh oysters on ice from San Francisco and luxurious furniture from New York.

Miners, who earned 25-cents per day elsewhere, were paid four dollars a day here. But their working conditions were terrible. I toured the Chollar Mine and thankfully went only 400 feet into the dark, narrow, slippery shaft, trying not to bump my head on the low, wooden beams. “It got as hot as 130-degrees in some of the mines,” said our guide, Chris. “They could only dig for ten minutes before they had to go into a cold room.” When he switched off the lights, we were in very uncomfortable pitch darkness until he struck a match and lit a candle, the light source used by the miners.

I celebrated my escape from the mine with a cold beer at the Red Dog Saloon. Now a pizza joint, the Red Dog is famous because its house band in 1966 was Big Brother and the Holding Company, featuring singer Janis Joplin.

The famous names associated with Virginia City are countless. I explored Piper’s Opera House, where Jenny Lind, Maude Adams, Lily Langtree and Buffalo Bill had performed. A few blocks away I found the Territorial Enterprise Newspaper building. It was here in 1862 that a young reporter, Sam Clemens, was hired. He was calling himself Mark Twain two years later when he moved to San Francisco. The building, one of Virginia City’s oldest, has a Mark Twain museum in its basement. Alongside antique printing presses, I saw the desk where Clemens once wrote. In the corner was a wooden privy with a sign, “Mark Twain Sat Here.”

My stay in Virginia City proved all too short. I never got to ride in the authentic four-horsepower stagecoach or take the steam-driven railway train to Gold Hill. My only dilemma about when to come back is whether to return for the annual Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival in March or the International Camel Races in September.

If You Go:

A gold plated chandelier in the parlor of the haunted Mackay Mansion
The Mackay Mansion bedroom where Johnny Depp saw the ghost of a little girl
The first flush toilet west of the Mississippi
Marilyn Monroe stayed at Edith Palmer’s Country Inn in 1960
Chris Kiechler leads tours into the old Chollar silver and gold mine
Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin were the 1966 house band at the Red Dog Saloon
A wooden privy in the Mark Train Museum, Virginia City, Nevada

I visited Virginia City, Ely and Elko Nevada in a June, 2010 press trip as a guest of the Nevada Commission on Tourism. This article was originally published in 2011.

Memories of Route 66 still live in St. Louis

It happened more than 60 years ago, when Bobby and Cynthia Troup were driving to California. Bobby was a composer and musician, and his wife suggested he write a song about the trip. Before the day was over, “Get your kicks on Route 66” had been born.

I learned that history lesson at Route 66 State Park in Eureka, Missouri, about 30 miles west of St. Louis. Housed in a former depression-era restaurant and roadhouse, the park’s Visitor Center includes a museum that’s the final resting place for nostalgic mementos of when Route 66 was the Main Street of America.

My St. Louis visit began with a walk across the original Route 66 bridge spanning the Mississippi River. The mile-long bridge opened in 1929 with a 5-cent toll to drive from Illinois to Missouri. Today, the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge is open on weekends from April through November as a hiking and biking trail, decorated with Route 66 motel and gas station signs.

I was very pleasantly surprised by both the variety and quality of the attractions, restaurants and entertainment St. Louis has to offer, and I wish my stay had been longer.

High atop my “want to go back” list is Grant’s Farm. Although it flies the Anheuser-Busch flag, you shouldn’t confuse Grant’s Farm with a theme park. This ancestral home of the Busch family combines the best qualities of a museum, zoo and historic site.

Luckily, I had Bill, an expert guide, to show me highlights of the 281-acre property. We stopped at a two-storey log cabin built by hand in 1855 by Ulysses S. Grant, who became the 18th U.S. President. Authentic Conestoga wagons and Civil War Gatling guns flanked the building, fronted by a fence made with 2,563 barrels from Civil War rifles.

There are more than 1,000 animals on the farm, including a sizeable herd of bison, but I was most impressed by the Ankole and Clydesdales. With horns that would humble a Texas longhorn, Ankole cattle, native to central Africa, are descended from extinct Aurochs. I viewed them from the safety of our truck, but I was able to get closer to the Clydesdales. Grant’s Farm is the breeding and training center for the famous Budweiser draft horses. At the stables, I was introduced to Matt, a gentle 13-year-old who regularly gets trucked to Los Angeles to star in TV beer commercials. I even got to pat young Kayla, a baby Clydesdale.

Somewhere between the giant tortoises and the bald eagles, I stopped to sample funnel cake. Like a large, tangled doughnut, it’s made by pouring dough through a funnel into a deep fryer before it’s topped with icing sugar.

In retrospect, many of my St. Louis memories involve luscious junk food. I devoured toasted ravioli, Gooey Butter Cake and legendary Ted Drewes frozen custard. The pound of chocolate fudge I brought home was my souvenir of Meramec Caverns, the oldest attraction along Route 66. The cave was once a hideout for the notorious outlaws Frank and Jesse James.

In 1874, the James gang had robbed a train in Gads Hill, Missouri, but a sheriff and his posse were hot on their trail.

Frank and Jesse knew of a cave not far away that had been used for gunpowder storage during the Civil Way, and they rode straight for it, carrying their loot in a locked strongbox.

Rather than walking into an ambush, the sheriff and his posse waited in siege for three days. Eventually, they went in only to find an empty strongbox and the outlaws’ abandoned horses. Obviously Jessee and his brother had discovered a secret exit.

The Meramec Caverns are not only a small museum of American history, they also helped make history. After the property was opened to the public in 1933, the owner, Lester Dill, taught his 11-year old daughter to put small advertising pamphlets on the rear bumpers of visiting cars, and in the process invented the world’s first bumper stickers! A pioneering showman, Dill is quoted as having said “I’ve put more people underground and brought them out alive than anyone else.”

This historic cave complex is one of the more popular day trips from St. Louis, being located in Stanton, Missouri, about an hour’s drive southwest of the Gateway Arch.

If you go on the 80-minute walking tour through the limestone grotto, you will see another historic spot where Kate Smith once sang “God Bless America.” At this writing, tour prices are $19.50 per adult and $9.75 for children 5 to 11.

Cave hiking works up an appetite, so you may want to have some lunch at the cave’s dining room after your walk. We enjoyed deep-fried Mississippi River catfish and hushpuppies as we chowed down under the watchful portraits of Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, and, of course, Jesse James himself.

Practically synonymous with blues music, St. Louis is the birthplace of such luminaries as Scott Joplin, Chuck Berry and Tina Turner. I visited BB’s Jazz Blues and Soups, located in a restored 19th century hotel and former brothel. The music was great, but after one beer, the cigarette smoke drove me out for fresh air, and back to my hotel room for one last slice of Gooey Butter Cake.

For more information:
Grant’s Farm website.
Meramec Caverns website.

Update: I visited Saint Louis, Missouri as a guest of the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission in the Summer of 2007, and this article was originally published in April, 2008, so the descriptions above may no longer be accurate.