Ok - so I like to play in Grand Canyon. A LOT. Most of you know that. But did you know that some of my most memorable trips were these big epic loops out in far Western Grand Canyon? Many of these exploration trips were under the shadow of the biggest, grandest, point in all of Grand Canyon. Kelly Point juts off the North Rim of the Shivwits Plateau some 25 miles south into the heart of Western Grand Canyon. Its so big that the Colorado River takes a 50 mile detour to get around it. You can hike for weeks visiting stunning site after stunning site. Slot canyons galore! But that may be coming to an end. Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument is closing the access road to Kelly Point from mid Nov through March, and with it goes any hope of accessing hundreds of thousands of acres of Grand Canyon wonders below the rim. They say its only a Winter closure. Of course, you cant hike there from roughly April to mid October due to heat and water availability. The summer 4WD visitors and the fall hunters are still good to go though. I should feel better, right? Hikers and canyoneers should have the right to visit this place even if winter conditions often make access difficult or even impossible. Land managers should not limit our ability to visit with arbitrary policies. Im all for policy that better protects the environment out there, but there are many ways to do that without an outright closure. Its laziness. The Coalition of American Canyoneers is tackling this issue and we need your help. Go here: americancanyoneers.org/gcnp/kelly-point-access/ Click through to the Kelly Point Closure NPS press release. From there you can send a comment directly to Scott Sticha. Tell Scott that the law requires a public process before a substantially controversial closure is made. Thank you for helping preserve our access to these great places! Rich
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 04:42:59 +0000
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