The Grand Canyon - North Rim: via Pipe Spring National Monument

The best part of the Grand Canyon was

that the whole nutty lot of us were there.

Krista had just arrived for a summer break, and we were excited to be camping at the Grand Canyon.  Manuel had been able to find the only campsite available with showers inside the Park.  It was a group campsite.  So we called ourselves a group of 5 and signed up.

Traveling is always an adventure.  It seems when you're sitting next to a brother or sister, one feels a greater freedom to passionately express oneself.   With that kind of freedom, anything can happen -- from great cuddly pile-up to a massive meltdown.

Krista sat in the backseat with the boys.  Manuel had claimed shotgun, as chief navigator.  It was a fun trip and an easy drive.  It was not as fun, say, when the boys creatively entertained themselves by firing spitballs into a paper bag.  But that's another trip.

We stopped at Pipe Spring National Monument on our way to the Grand Canyon, near the intersection of State Route 389 and 89A.  Pipe Spring was formerly used by the Ancestral Puebloans and Kaibab Paiute.  In the 1860's, Mormom pioneers brought cattle to the area and developed a large ranching operation supported by tithing which supplied St. George, UT.  

Of course, there was a conflict between the Native American population who had been using the water from Pipe Spring, and the pioneers who became dominant in their water usage, diverting it for the crops and livestock.  Eventually, the Spring itself was covered with a house called Winsor Castle.  

The castle was intended to be a fort to protect the pioneers from Indian raids.  By the time it was completed, however, the Native American population still lived in the area, but had lost the fight; defeated by lack of water authority.

Pipe Spring was run as a successful ranching operation for 20+ years.  From 1878-1887, three laws were passed that made polygamy illegal and punishable with up to $800 in fines and 5 years in prison.  Second and third wives could be compelled to testify against their husband and serve time.  As a result, polygamist wives were sent to Winsor Castle as a refuge -- and to run the ranching operations and successfully at that.  In fact, the first telegraph office in Arizona was at Winsor Castle.

Ultimately, Pipe Spring was taken over the the federal government through enforcement of anti-polygamy laws.  The land surrounding Pipe Spring was made into a Kaibab Paiute Indian Reservation in 1907.  Pipe Spring became a National Monument in 1966.

We watched the movie in the Visitor Center and went on a very informative tour of Winsor Castle.  On the whole, we enjoyed our stop there.