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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“100 miles” has a different meaning on this road.
AND NOW TO THE ‘DETACHED ” SECTION of CANYONALNDS NP- HORESESHOE CANYON. All photos are from the mid to late 60s. The NPS closed this road around 1971…
Tourists performing illegal act
TO COMMENT ON THIS STORY OR PROVIDE ADDITIONAL HISTORY (Or to point out a mistake we made identifying locations), please scroll to the bottom of this page to the ‘Comments’ section.
Thanks to them, our bills were almost completely covered.
Now I’d like to return the favor. Check out the link below and their online shop… JS
https://www.depuygallery.com/shop.html
(My Recent Encounter with the Mental Health Industry
Jim Stiles https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2022/08/07/grief-meets-orwell-the-cuckoos-nest-by-jim-stiles-my-recent-encounter-with-the-mental-health-industry-zx20/
(The Unspeakable Crime & the Enduring Mystery—Looking for Answers) by Jim Stiles https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2022/05/15/60-years-later-still-searching-for-dennise-sullivan-by-jim-stiles-zx8/
Had to reverse many times to be sure I saw the background, too! What wonderful pictures!! The Harvest is so beautiful, the best I’ve ever seen! My husband was a master at Dutch oven cooking. Nothing tastes better out in the wild. The views were absolutely great . And how could they even call that Horseshoe road a road?? the Bridge over San Rafael I think could hardly be called safe and that truck full of horses on it made me shiver!
The additional pictures at the bottom whetted my interest in all those stories, altho I knew the one of the feet toward the Cuckoo’s Nest!! Sadly! I well remember Navajoland and the sheep and their herders. The Indian Rodeo at Flagstaff annually wasn’t to be missed. Thank you for opening this morning’s terrific adventure!
Thanks for sharing these beautiful photos of the way it was. Amazing photographic history.
The Maze is one place that I wanted so badly to visit and never made it. A friend and even had permits to go in there and then the weather turned cold and rainy and we chickened out. It is so good to see those engaging photos.
Kay
Great stuff, Stiles. Seldom Seen Sleight seems to be sporting an unhealthily deep tan whilst “figuring things out” !
I’ve never been to the US and, therefore, am unfamiliar with the areas represented in these photographs but Edna’s excellent pictures taken in the Hite/White Canyon/Farley Canyon locale – hosted by this website – have provided invaluable insight into what would be lost when the holes were plugged 170 miles downstream.
So, hats off to Edna Fridley and three cheers for Canyon Country Zephyr !
Here’s a little in-joke for my stalkers from Dwayne’s Worms: I imply. You infer. You infer what I’ve implied.
Hey, Jim – I think your World Population Clock may be running slightly slow: “The global population is projected to reach 8 billion on 15 November 2022”, says the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Keep at it 🙂
Oh, Jim, you are a National Treasure to hold tight to but share these precious photographs. I enjoy them completely. Thank you for the commentary.
awesome–my visit to the Great Gallery (back in the late 80s) was punctuated by a fellow giving a concert with a baroque recorder (sounds like a wooden flute) in one of the canyon grottoes. That fellow was me… I was recently chastised by a National Park Ranger for doing the same thing somewhere in Zion National Park. It’s not just the campfires we miss!
Thanks for sharing. The Maze is my favorite place in UT. I like it even more than I did 20 years ago because most of the Instagram tourists don’t like to go somewhere without amenities nearby and can’t get in and out of it comfortably within a day. The solitude found there was amazing at one time.
Amazing pictures. I did a trip with Ken and Monte and Sand. Always an adventure. Spent a lot of time in that country in the late 70s and 80s. Didn’t take a camera so its nice to see it again…
A ladder? Can’t imagine negotiating that with a dog, but my 5 -year-old daughter and I made it down, and up, somehow without a ladder…just one of the obstacles as I recall. Good times, good adventures.
The photos are great. I remember sitting in the exact spot as Ken at the Flint Trail. Brings back memories of those Maze trips with friends. Even ended up on Google Earth in one of the Panorama shots taken by a plane flying by as we camped at Standing Rock. Last time I saw Ken and Kent was at an event, AbbeySpeaks, at Pack Creek Ranch in 2004.
Thanks again, Jim, for sharing Edna’s photos.
Any idea who did the pictures? Indian’s I’m presuming?
No, Armand. As the title says, the photographs are by Edna Fridley. She visited there many times. The subjects of many of her photographs are Native Americans who are members of the Navajo Nation.
I think what Armand was referring to was the pictographs which would (predate) to the Ancient Puebloans, I’ve seen many of these around that area and they are at least a thousand years old.
Good grief…you are absolutely right. I somehow thought Armand was commenting on the “Navajoland” piece we published a few weeks ago. My apologies to my buddy Armand…I have got to lay off the Jim Beam until later in the day…JS
*Chuckles, knowingly*