Western Legends Round-Up

August 22-24

The Western Legends Round-Up is Kanab's biggest whoop-de-doo of the year and Parry Lodge's busiest weekend.  Being located smack-dab in the center of town plus housing most of the stars in attendance makes Parry Lodge 'command central' for the annual festival--a great opportunity for us to meet all the celebrities and see all the goings-on.

On the eve of Western Legends Round-Up, we happened to be in town when a huge 'chainsaw sculpture' grizzly bear was being placed in front of Denny's Wigwam.  The operation involved a heavy-duty forklift, four men, lots of straps and many sidewalk superintendents.  One of whom was western actor Dan 'Grizzly Adams' Haggerty. 

 

 After the bear was more or less upright, Grizzly suggested that Fred take a picture of me with him and Robert Fuller from "Laramie" and "Wagon Train."

Parry Lodge is in the background.

 

The Western Legends Round-Up included numerous types of events over the three days:

 

We saw In Cahoots perform twice and enjoyed their music and talking with them.

Neil Summers, actor and stunt man, at the celebrity autograph site.

 



Young Paiute dancer.

 



One of the tractors in the Saturday morning Parade of Power.

 

Jan with Dr. James D'Arc, author of When Hollywood Came to Town:

A History of Moviemaking in Utah

 



Stars of the 2013 Western Legends Round-Up in front of Parry Lodge

[including Mike Moroff, James Hampton, Ed Faulkner, Stan Corliss, Dan Haggerty, Darby Hinton, Wyatt McCrea, Neil Summers, Lana Wood]

Two Pine Arch and Clear Creek Wash

Tuesday, August 20
Day Off

Because the Western Legends Round-Up starts on Thursday, we only had one day off for the week.  Hiking Two Pine Arch and possibly Progeny Peak, on the east side of Zion, would keep us close to home and also let us tick off another item on the to-do list.

Finding the right parking spot was a challenge because the directions are written for those travelling from the west, the opposite of our approach, and uses a  missing road sign as a key landmark.  With the help of GPS co-ordinates we located the trailhead and headed up a wash alternately composed of sand and slickrock but uniformly hot and steep.  Even with an early start and patches of shade, we were soon breathing hard and sweating generously. 

Route to Two Pine Arch

 

Two Pine Arch is quite unusual because it's a rock 'rib' jutting from the side of the cliff like a flying buttress.  The trail description (thanks, Tanya and Bo!) includes a picture that helped us spot the arch and then trace a route across and up the 450' sandstone slope to reach it.  Sitting beneath the arch winded and hot, we debated continuing to Progeny Peak, a thousand feet higher, over slickrock in full sun with a forecast of 105*.   Descent was quicker, though trickier in several places, than our ascent.

 

Whew!  Made it.

View down-canyon from Two Pine Arch

Just south of our parking spot was an access to Clear Creek we had used in June to hike up-stream toward Route 9's short tunnel.  Going downstream we were soon enclosed in a narrow passage between tall, twisting, turning dull gray walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About half a mile below our entry point, the canyon abruptly pinched in below a sharp bend, trapping debris from recent storms and forming an unstable pile at least four feet thick.   

 

 

 

We made our way across the debris pile but feared walking in the wash beyond it because the mud was as unstable as quicksand.

 

Small Discoveries

Wednesday, August 21

Sunday's overcast and cooler weather offered ideal conditions for another search for those elusive star-shaped fossils in Mt. Carmel.   So after work, armed with additional, but not better, directions we drove the seventeen miles to the junction of US 89 and UT.  We walked further than necessary and climbed cliffs we didn't need to then heard a family talking excitedly as they hunkered down by an outcropping of rock. We went over to see what they were doing and saw that they were collecting 'star rocks.'  They soon returned to their car and we began to find them by the scores.

star-shaped columnals of the crinoid Pentacrinus asteriscus

 



On Monday evening we investigated the cliffs between the entrance to Best Friends and Moqui Cave in hopes of finding petroglyphs reported to be there.  We didn't find any petroglyphs but we did find this:

 

 and this:

 



 

(This appeared to be embedded seashells forming a horse.  It's 12'

up a sandstone wall so no closer look was possible.)

 



and this:





 ('1895' is incised in the center.)