Major Project Underway At Grand Canyon's Desert View

Above, the Desert View Watchtower. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Although now closed due to coronavirus concerns, Grand Canyon National Park's Desert View is now undergoing a major project for visitors when it does reopen.

According to the AZ Big Media:

The Arizona Lottery is teaming up with Grand Canyon Conservancy, Grand Canyon National Park’s official nonprofit partner, in their effort to reimagine the site at Desert View. Desert View represents the physical and cultural gateway from Grand Canyon National Park to tribal lands that surround it. In fact, in 2019 alone, one million park visitors visited Desert View to learn more about the 11 American Indian tribes that call the Grand Canyon home.

Perched on the rim of the canyon, the historic 70’ tall Desert View Watchtower is modeled after the architecture of the Ancestral Puebloan people of the Four Corners region. Visitors can meet cultural demonstrators to learn about local indigenous cultures, spot the Colorado River turning west, and glimpse the Painted Desert extending towards tribal lands.

The Arizona Lottery’s $100,000 Gives Back Sponsorship (matched by the National Park Foundation’s centennial appropriations for $200,000 in impact) will fund opportunities for this Inter-tribal Cultural Heritage Site to teach visitors about past and present indigenous life and culture in and around Grand Canyon. Visitors will have the opportunity to interact directly with tribal members, listen to their stories, and observe a variety of cultural demonstrations.

On part of the project is an improvement of the arrival experience by creating an Orientation Area, Shade Structure, Picnic Areas, and revision of the parking lots.

To read more, go here.

Grand Canyon East Entrance and Navajo Tribal Parks

Above, Monument Valley and other tribal parks can't reopen until the Navajo
 Nation attains orange level status for COVID-19. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To paraphrase William Shakespeare, "To reopen or not to reopen, that is the question." 

That, and when. This is what the Navajo Nation is pondering. Should they reopen the tribal parks and when?

According to the Navajo-Hopi Observer:

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — On Feb. 10, Grand Canyon National Park officials met with Navajo Nation leaders to discuss the reopening of the park’s eastern park entrance, which borders the Navajo Nation.

Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Edward Keable said the National Park Services (NPS) plans to reopen the east entrance May 21.

“Keeping safety in mind, we are not committed to this date and want to be good neighbors by incorporating the Navajo Nation’s interests in our plans,” Keable said.

During the meeting, members of the Nation’s Resources and Development Committee (RDC) presented their concerns for the safety of both Navajo Nation residents and Grand Canyon tourists in the event of a reopening.

“The purpose of our current health order is to expand the vaccine distribution and contribute to the Navajo Nation’s economic recovery plan. But, it is a balancing act and a race against time,” said Deputy Chief of Staff for the Office of the Navajo President, Milton Bluehouse, Jr.

Bluehouse indicated the Navajo Nation leads the country in vaccine distributions with more than 2,000 Navajos vaccinated on the weekend of Feb. 6.

Navajo Nation Department of Health Executive Director Dr. Jill Jim said the Nation is focused on staying ahead of a possible third COVID-19 positive case surge with new variants of the virus reported in surrounding states.

Above, the Desert View Watchtower on the east end of Grand Canyon National Park remains closed. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

On the question of reopening tribal parks (such as Monument Valley):

With the Navajo Nation under a level-red declaration red, the highest COVID-19 concentration-code level, Begaye said many in-person services, such as tours, have been canceled. Consequently, 15 to 20 of the 75 department staff have lost their jobs or have been furloughed.

Dr. Jim explained the HCOC’s data-driven approach to creating gating criteria for determining the Navajo Nation’s Covid-19 code levels involves an evaluation of the number of positive Covid-19 cases and other factors related to the spread of the virus.

Although Covid-19 numbers have gone down, Navajo tribal parks are not able to open until the Navajo Nation is in the orange phase.

The Navajo Nation made great strides in vaccinating tribal members. When the Nation can be put in the orange code level is anyone's guess.

To read the full article, go here.

Grand Canyon Open, Some Activities Close

Above, interpretation programs at the Desert View Watchtower are closed. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

For those who are planning to spend Spring Break in Grand Canyon National Park, there's good news and bad news.

The park remains open, but some some activities within the park are closed.

According to the Williams News:

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. – Grand Canyon National Park remains open, however, because of public health concerns related to COVID-19, some park facilities are closed and some related activities have been cancelled. 

According to the park’s website, all South Rim visitor contact stations are currently open. This includes Grand Canyon Visitor Center, Yavapai Geology Museum, Verkamps Visitor Center, Kolb Studio, Tusayan Museum and Desert View Watchtower. 

The Visitor Center Theater and the Science on a Sphere© Theater located at the South Rim Visitor Center are closed until further notice. 

Interpretation Programs on the South Rim are also suspend until further notice, including those at Desert View Watchtower. Desert View Cultural Demonstrations will be suspended through the month of March. 

Contact stations in the Canyon at Indian Garden and Phantom Ranch are open.

To read more, go here. 

Grand Canyon Looking To Expand Cell Service

Above, Desert View Watchtower at the Grand Canyon. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

On one hand, having expanded cell service in Grand Canyon National Park would come in handy in emergency situations.

On the other hand, it may encourage some dolts, who want to send an instant Instagram selfie, to not pay close attention to where they're standing and end up falling over a cliff and into the canyon.

Nevertheless, Grand Canyon National Park is looking to expand cell service.

According to Travel + Leisure:

Grand Canyon National Park is considering building a stronger telecommunications system, making it easier for visitors to document their trip in real time (read: You would be able to post your Instagram stories asap).  

According to a press release out Monday, the national park is looking into a plan "that would provide sufficient and reliable wireless coverage, data network capacity, and two-way radio communications to meet the needs of visitors." 

The idea could include the addition of up to five telecommunications towers, small-cell technology in areas of the park — where cell service is notoriously spotty — with high visitation and a fiber-optic communications cable to link the park to a broader wireless network. The park is also looking to match the connectivity needs of the businesses and organizations that operate within areas like the North Rim, South Rim, Desert View and Highways 64 and 67.

To read more, go here. 

Grand Canyon Watchtower To Be Native American Cultural Site

Above, the Desert View Watchtower. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Back in 1983, I took a solo trip into the Four Corners region of the U.S. One of my stops was at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park.

While there, I stopped at the Desert View Watchtower. At the time, it housed a gift shop and I bought myself a leather belt that lasted ten years.

I visited it again during my 2016 Metropolis, Illinois trip.

Today, it is to be made a cultural site.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (AP) — Officials at the Grand Canyon say they're expanding programming at a historic watchtower where visitors can learn about Native American culture. 

The National Park Service's Intermountain Region signed off on the plan last month. 

The Desert View Watchtower near the east entrance of Grand Canyon gives visitors expansive views of the painted desert and the Little Colorado River Gorge. It had housed a gift shop up until 2015 when the Park Service turned it into a cultural heritage site.

Above, a view of the Watchtower from one of the Grand Canyon overlooks. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To read more, go here. 

Grand Canyon and Tribes Mark Centennial

Above, the Desert View Watchtower at the eastern part of the South Rim. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

This year, Grand Canyon National Park is celebrating its centennial. Prior to the park's formation, it was home to Native Americans. It still is, and while relations between the park and tribes have improved, there is still some tension.

MPR News posted an article on the complicated relationship between Native Americans and the park.

They begin with:

Over the last century the geologic wonder of the Grand Canyon has inspired poets, painters, archaeologists and biologists. This week — on Tuesday, Feb. 26 — the Grand Canyon celebrates its 100 years as a National Park. But long before it became a national park, the Grand Canyon was a place many Native Americans called home. 

That's what Carletta Tilousi still calls it. 

"Most Americans think Native Americans are gone but we're still here," Tilousi says. Tilousi is a Havasupai council member and grew up in the Grand Canyon. 

"This is the home of Native Americans and our stories need to be told," Tilousi says. "I think Havasupai we've been ignored for a long time." 

In the late 1800s the federal government sequestered the Havasupai to a side canyon. It wasn't until 1975 that the tribe was given back some of their ancestral land.

To read more, go here. 

Grand Canyon's Desert View Watchtower May Be Converted To Inter-tribal Cultural Heritage Site

Above, the Desert View Watchtower at Grand Canyon National Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The Desert View Watchtower at Grand Canyon National Park is on the far east end of the park. Many visitors don't go that far and the tower is under-utilized (I last visited the Watchtower in 2016).

All that may change if a plan that is being talked about is implemented.

According to the Grand Canyon News:

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. — Located at the southeast edge of Grand Canyon National Park, the Desert View Watchtower rises high above the Colorado River — for many, it’s the first glimpse they get of the park. It’s also an area of great cultural significance, and as such, the National Park Service is planning a facelift for the area. 

Desert View Watchtower is, of course, on the National Register of Historic Places, but it’s a deceptively young building in relation to many other structures within the park. Designed by architect Mary Coulter, who had a knack for making the new look old, it was painstakingly built to resemble many Native American structures Coulter came across in her Southwestern travels. 

Hopi artist Fred Kabotie painted murals that still adorn the walls inside the tower — Coulter created the tower to serve as not just architectural eye candy, but to give visitors an experience. 

An experience that connects them to the Native people who lived on and revered the land for hundreds of years. 

It’s this experience that the National Park Service (NPS), along with the Intertribal Advisory Council and the 11 traditionally-associated tribes, hopes to improve by embarking on the Desert View Inter-tribal Cultural Heritage Site plan. The plan calls for transforming Desert View from a traditional scenic overlook and visitor services area into an Inter-tribal Cultural Heritage Site that provides opportunities for first-voice cultural interpretation from associated American Indian Tribes —including cultural demonstrations — and enhances visitor orientation to both the cultural significance of the site and greater park, as well as information about tourism opportunities on surrounding tribal lands.

To read more, go here.