Month: November 2022

ONLY STUPID PEOPLE WINTER CAMP: A Confession — by Jim Stiles (ZX#37)

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My buddy Tynes and I set out for Jackson, Wyoming on the 27th of December in an MGB convertible. We were 19. We battled snow and wind across the Great Plains and into Wyoming on I-80. When we exited at Rock Springs, conditions got worse. The road was snow packed for 180 miles. Near Bondurant, we struggled to put chains on the car but our hands froze after just a few moments outside the car. The MG itself provided very little respite–outside it was -37 F; INSIDE our little sports car, my thermometer read -5 F. Downright toasty if you measured things relatively. There was a small store there and though the lights were off, we knocked anyway, hoping to get a cup of coffee. A woman finally came to the door and opened it a crack. “We’re closed! Can’t you see that? Why are you out in this weather?”

“We’re trying to get to Jackson,” I replied through the blowing snow.

She looked at us like we were insane. “Do you know how cold it is? It’s 37 degrees BELOW ZERO!!!”

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Hank Schmidt’s Last 1942 Arches Nat’l Monument Monthly Report & Mac McKinney’s First…ZX#36

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Henry G. Schmidt, aka “Hank,” had been faithfully writing his Arches National Monument “monthly reports” to the Southwest Monuments division of the National Park Service since his arrival in 1939. But after three years in one of the hottest and driest units in the country, Hank was ready for a move. He must have dreamed of cooler weather and tall pines because he applied for and was accepted To Kings Canyon National Monument and it’s my guess, as he penned this last report in late June, 1942, he was already packing. He notes below that “the local weather station has reported temperatures of 104, 105, and 106 degrees on several days, and with the high winds prevailing, this heat mixed with clouds of hot sand at times, has made it pretty rough.

He spent much of his time fighting sand dunes that tended to cross and close the monument’s entrance road. Sometimes he couldn’t keep up and tourists managed to get themselves stuck. Visitation itself had plummeted; the country was now in a world war, or “due to present world conditions,” as Hank put it; few Americans had time to take a vacation. Among the 286 who made their way into the monument, was Lewis T. “Mac” McKinney. He was obviously there to se what he was getting himself into. In a couple months Mac would take over from Hank as the new Arches custodian.

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Encounters with the Sublime: Quentin Roosevelt’s Western Adventures —By Harvey Leake (ZX#35)

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“The man should have youth and strength who seeks adventure in the wide, waste spaces of the earth […]. The grandest scenery of the world is his to look at if he chooses; and he can witness the strange ways of tribes who have survived into an alien age from an immemorial past […]. The joy of living is his who has the heart to demand it.”

—Theodore Roosevelt, 1916

On July 13, 1913, fifteen-year-old Quentin Roosevelt peered into the depths of the Grand Canyon for his first time. He and his compatriots had just arrived by train at the South Rim, and they lost no time making their way to the edge to gaze into the awesome chasm. Leading the group was Quentin’s father, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, who called the view “the most wonderful scenery in the world.” Also on the team were Quentin’s older brother, Archie, his second cousin, Nicholas Roosevelt, and a skilled outdoorsman named Jesse Cummins from Mesa, Arizona, who would serve as the head cook, packer, and horse wrangler for the long excursion they were starting.

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INTO THE MAZE w/ Kent Frost & Ken Sleight (1965-1975) ZX#34… by Edna Fridley

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The Zephyr has been posting the remarkable photographs of Edna Fridley for many years. As some of you might recall, Edna’s daughter Marti gave Edna’s entire collection of color slides and journals to The Zephyr in the late 1990s. Her images cover the entire Colorado Plateau, including trips down Glen Canyon before it was flooded by Lake Powell. She became a close friend of legendary river runners, Harry Aleson and Ken Sleight. And the great Kent Frost.

In this installment of Edna Fridley’s photographs, we’re off to the Maze. Even today, the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park is one of the most remote, difficult to reach areas imaginable in the National Park system.

These photos are a compilation of several trips taken over the years going back to the mid-60s, just after the park’s creation…JS

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