The News from Grand Canyon

Town Government Rejected by Tusayan

Tusayan voters have rejected creating a town government for their small community just outside Grand Canyon National Park.

Voters turned down incorporation 69-56 in a divisive election over development issues.

"We once again said no to massive commercial development here in Tusayan," said Clarinda Vail, a spokeswoman for the Vote No on Tusayan Incorporation group.

Canyon Gateway Tusayan Awaits Vote on Town Status

Grand Canyon visitors may not feel political tension gripping the tourist gateway of Tusayan, but they could see big changes on the road to the national park depending on how the community settles its differences next week.

Fewer than 175 voters will decide Sept. 2 whether to turn Tusayan into a town with its own council. It's an issue that has split the community's 500 residents who work in its strip of hotels and roadside attractions, and it has big implications for future development on the main route to the Canyon's South Rim.

Typo Vigilantes Answer to Letter of the Law

Two self-anointed "grammar vigilantes" who toured the nation removing typos from public signs have been banned from national parks after vandalizing a historic marker at the Grand Canyon.

Jeff Michael Deck, 28, of Somerville, Mass., and Benjamin Douglas Herson, 28, of Virginia Beach, Va., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Flagstaff after damaging a rare, hand-painted sign in Grand Canyon National Park. They were sentenced to a year's probation, during which they cannot enter any national park, and were ordered to pay restitution.

Looking for Labor Day Park Lodging? It's Not Too Late

With Labor Day a week away, you may think you have a better chance of making a hole in one blindfolded than getting space at a campground or a park lodge for the holiday. But it's not quite that grim.

Grand Canyon National Park Remains Unscathed by Nearby Flooding

Grand Canyon National Park remains open and trouble-free amid the rains that have prompted flooding and rescues in Supai Canyon, an Indian reservation about 75 miles west of the canyon’s South Rim.

“The primary area for all of this going on is … west of the primary village and just south of the Grand Canyon corridor,” said spokeswoman Shannon Marcak. “Within the Grand Canyon, we have not received any known damage."

Maplewood Boy Scouts Are Evacuated near Grand Canyon

A group of Boy Scouts from Maplewood on a backpacking and rafting trip near the Grand Canyon were evacuated by helicopter Sunday after an earthen dam failed and flood waters threatened their campsite.

The six boys and three adult leaders were among scores of people rescued from campgrounds and tribal lands after days of heavy rains caused flooding along two creeks that flow into the Colorado River.

"Some boys had enough time to grab their backpacks and some did not," said Bridget Lai, whose husband Michael and son Kyle, 13, are on the trip. "There's not a whole lot you can do about a dam breaking. There's not a lot you can prepare for."

Off-Roaders Drive the Grand Canyon

Part of the pride in putting o n the iconic flat hat and the green and grey National Park Service uniform is knowing you work for an organization that tries to protect some of the most beautiful and historic places in the world.

After serving the National Park Service for 32 years -- the last nine as superintendent of Shenandoah National Park -- a passage in the National Park Service’s mission statement in the 1916 Organic Act resonates with me deeply:

The agency exists “…to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

Hundreds Evacuated Near the Grand Canyon after Flooding

Working through the challenge of darkness, rescue helicopters continued through Sunday night to evacuate hundreds of residents and campers stranded by the flooding caused by a breached dam near the Grand Canyon.

As of late Sunday night, officials had not reported any deaths or injuries, but they will press on today with their rescue mission as more rain is expected.

About 400 people were evacuated Sunday, including tourists and some of the 400 members of the Havasupai Tribe who live in Supai, located about 250 miles northwest of Phoenix, north of Seligman. The village is in a side canyon of the Grand Canyon.

Park Staff Free Private Raft Stuck In Colorado River

On the afternoon of Tuesday, July 29th, park dispatch received a report via satellite phone from rafters on a private river trip advising that one of their boats, an 18-foot cataraft, was stranded on the rock garden at Crystal Rapid, located just past river mile 98 and about 11 miles downriver from Phantom Ranch. This is the same location where a 36-foot commercial raft became stuck a week ago. Due to the late hour, rescue operations could not be begin immediately, but were instead arranged for the following morning. On Wednesday, park personnel and equipment were flown via helicopter to a landing zone near the rapid.

This is last summer for 102-year-old Grand Canyon shop

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. - At a time when tourists visited the Grand Canyon in stagecoaches, they did their souvenir shopping at a tent set up by a man named John George Verkamp.

It was 1898, before the Grand Canyon was a national park, before there was a National Park Service and before Arizona was even a state. Not many had the means to visit the mile-deep gorge, so it was mostly just a handful of adventurers, prospectors, the American Indians whose people had lived there for centuries and the Verkamps.

These days, the Grand Canyon has luxury lodges and cute coffee shops. The only thing it won't have come September is the Verkamps and their store, Verkamp's Curios.

Heights and nerve rule the Canyon

GRAND CANYON - Starting out on a six-day series of wilderness hikes in the Grand Canyon on unmaintained trails where even a minor misstep can cost you your life is probably not the best time to discover you're terrified of heights.

The "learning adventure," organized by the Grand Canyon Field Institute, was called "Six Days, Five Trails" and I was only five minutes into trail one, the steep Tanner Trail, when I panicked. Surveying the terrain, the drop, and what Grand Canyon-ophiles refer to as the "exposure" (defined as how close you are to the edge of a potentially lethal fall - in this case very close), I had concluded that this adventure might be a huge mistake.

Rescue at the Grand Canyon

More than a dozen tourists and two guides had to be rescued from the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon after their raft became stranded. They were taken from their raft to the shore by the National Park Service's inflatable rescue boat.

A Southwestern Panorama for First-Time Visitors

The Grand Canyon has long been near the top of our "to see" list, and my wife and I agreed that this would be the year we would move it to the "been there, done that" side of the ledger.

We had set aside one week for a late-spring vacation, and we knew we could spend the entire time at the Grand Canyon. The canyon is one mile deep, 10 miles wide and winds for 277 miles; that is a lot of territory to cover. If we spent a week, we would be able to take an overnight mule ride into the canyon. We could also find out if we trusted the engineers who built a glass-floored observation platform which hangs over the canyon with no visible means of support. And we still would not see it all.

Grand Canyon Is Subject of Free Photo Workshops

The Grand Canyon can be overwhelming, especially for photographers. How can you capture a spectacle so enormous, so magnificent, so . . . well, grand, with a mere camera?

Learn how (or at least get some ideas) during the next two weeks at one of the free photography workshops sponsored by Canon and the American Park Network, which publishes national-park guides and holds educational programs to support and promote national parks.

Cast Of Thousands Keeps Grand Canyon Humming

Grand Canyon National Park may be one of the planet's Seven Natural Wonders, but few realize how many people it takes to keep the 4.4 million annual park visitors safe, fed and happy.

For Casey Murph, who manages mule operations on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, the day starts well before sunrise. Beginning at about 4:30 each morning, he goes over the day's schedule, sets out buckets of oats for the mules and opens up the tack rooms in a huge, surprisingly clean 101-year-old barn.