Red red ..nope not wine... rocks!!!

Ribbons of a dark red snaking, twisting and turning.. bright yellow right down the middle and this takes us through sage brush in blue.. can you even imagine? Scrubby brush-like spruce and twisted and gnarly pines..
Red sand and pinks, yellows, mauve's, bronze and deep terra cotta rocks of every imaginable type.. Slick, rippled, gigantic almost Easter Island formations, something to scintillate your every sense.

Yes instead of telling you all about what went wrong and what irritated me no end I decided to let you know I was handed lemons and made the best dang lemonade ever!!!

Lee and I went with our friends to see Pipe Springs..
a beautiful place of many contradictions.
Kiabab Paiute's were the hunters and gathers here for centuries..
 they had acres upon acres of sun flowers and their corn.. but the Mormons decided that way back when with being persecuted in New York and the mid west...
 they and the polygamist way of life were going to get out and head south and west.
 Settling colonies in Arizona, Utah hoping to go into Mexico
 with the idea of a  "a great destiny" and without persecution.
BUT..........
The American government passed a Law against polygamy
 and decided there must be a division between church and state.
So the Mormons moved further away from the prying eyes of the law makers and Government men. In doing so they disrupted the life as the Indians of this area knew..
 the Mormons also tried to convert these heathens .
 To the natives this was something they did not understand and had no concept of in any manner of speaking.
 But the Indians did learn that if they let the Mormons dunk them in the water they would get all kinds of things given to them.

The Mormons brought their cows, the cows grazed all the plants and corn the Indians used for food..
it was a definitive chore trying to have the peace returned to the mesas of Pipe Springs.
 The WATER was the very essence of life to the Indians
and the Mormons re-routed it for their own use and the natives were in a terrible way.

One man spoke on their behalf and decided to take their issues to the government..
 and in later years the territory was returned to the native Indians all 188 square miles.

The Mormons once again moved on apparently not enjoying the separation of church and state (which is not possible in their ordination).
Today Pipe Springs is a National Monument on Indian land..
 and the ranger Benn is a full blooded Kiabab Paiute..
wonderfully dry sense of humour and very quietly funny about all of the history.

We toured this facility and were amazed to meet a retired horse formerly with the Washington State mounted patrol
and a mule retired form guiding to the bottom of Grand Canyon..
also had the pleasure of meeting a huge Texas Longhorn that would have made any rancher from Texas so proud..

From there we ravelled on what started out to be a real nicely paved road..
 but if you have gone anywhere with us
you will well remember we travel many a less travelled road.
16 miles of rd sand and dirt...
wonderful to see the back country..
Came out at the Coral Pink Sand dunes..
and they are in late afternoon sun delightful..
 and the sand when seen in all the glory makes one wonder why the name..
 sand is sand right?
Wrong.. upon closer inspection it really is a coral pink hue..

A drive to Kanab to see when to put the names in for the WAVE lottery.. hahahaha 8AM!!!
There are about 50 people showing up each morning
so Lee and I will be there early in the morning to see if we will be the lucky ones for the next day..

We came back through the Canyon..
as in ZION!
From the entrance... we had exactly 7 minutes to make the first tunnel and at that time they would allow us to go through by ourselves as we were too wide...
BUT... they were closing the tunnels in 8 minutes...
the ranger would call ahead..
we just made it but I will tell each and every one of you..
 that has to be a world record getting from the entrance to the first tunnel...
 my goodness I am about three years old again with wet drawers!

So our day came to an end..
 still cannot do a doggone thing with the Internet in the RV..
 but I am in the office and it is not working like gangbusters
 but it is allowing me to do this.

Tomorrow we put our names in for the WAVE
then Angel Canyon home of Best Friends.Org..
coming back through the canyon again.
This time with time to stop and shoot..
 there is still great colour in there...

Thanks for coming with us once again..
Peace