Category Archives: Grand Canyon

Kaibab Lodge hosts annual Star Party

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supermoonGRAND CANYON, NORTH RIM — The Kaibab Lodge will host the 7th Annual Star Party June 13-20 located at the lodge, just five miles from the entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park North Rim.

Astronomers from the Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) will be on hand with telescope to help visitors navigate the night sky. SAC is one of the larger amateur astronomy clubs in the Phoenix area.

“The sky here at the Grand Canyon is ideal for observing other planets, stars, nebulas, globular clusters, and many, many other objects in the night sky,” said Ellen Winchester, Kaibab Lodge owner and event host.

The Star Party will begin each evening with a lecture from 7 to 8 p.m. at the DeMotte Campground amphitheater followed by the viewing at 9 p.m.

Opening night will commence with a Star Party cookie party featuring regular and gluten free triple-chocolate “Deep Dark Secrets on a Starry Night” homemade cookies. Each night a pair of “El Winchester” earrings, designed especially for the Star Party, will be given away as a door prize.

“The Star Party is a wonderful educational event for the community. We especially welcome any children interested in astronomy. This is a fun and interesting science field trip, and a great opportunity to spend some quality family time together,” said Winchester.

Additional upcoming outdoor events on the Kaibab Plateau include:

Grand Canyon Ultra Marathon, 100 Mile Race, May 16-17
For more information: www.grandcircletrails.com

Rainbow Rim Trail Extension Volunteer Work Weekend, May 23-25
For more information: www.tinyurl.com/RainbowRim2015

7th Annual Star Party, June 13-20
For more information: www.kaibablodge.com

Grand Canyon Fat Tire Festival, 56 and 100 Mile Mountain Bike Races, June 19-20
For more information: www.gcfattirefestival.com/

SR 64 east of the Grand Canyon National Park reduced to one lane

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Grand_CanyonGRAND CANYON — Motorists traveling on State Route 64 just east of the Grand Canyon National Park can expect delays up to 30 minutes while the Arizona Department of Transportation crews apply a pavement preservation treatment on the roadway this Wednesday and Thursday, May 6-7 between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m.

During the work, one lane of travel will be closed with a pilot car providing for alternating travel through the work zone. ADOT advises motorists to allow for extra travel time and observe posted restrictions while crews work in the area.

Time for fishing

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White Horse lake panorama

WILLIAMS — We visited White Horse Lake and found that it filled quite well from our fair winter weather. It was restocked last month with trout.

Camping space directly around the lakes are fee-based camping spaces, but they do have free day use areas. Along the road to White Horse there are free camping areas laid out.

The trails to Bill Williams Mountain are currently open. The road to Buckskinner and to the Santa Fe Dam are also open.

It seems that all is in order for a good camping, fishing and hiking season in Williams. Some are already taking advantage of the opportunities as space are filling up.

Clean and Beautiful campaign good this year

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Volunteers direct the operation at the Williams Visitor Center.

Volunteers direct the operation at the Williams Visitor Center.

WILLIAMS — The Williams Clean and Beautiful campaign seemed to do better this year though they went up against the opening of the Williams little league baseball season.
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Still there were a few more bags lining the streets, this year, and a number of residents took advantage of the extra waste and electronics recycle dump at the Williams transfer station and Rodeo Barn.

American Legion post members man the barbeque.

American Legion post members man the barbeque.

After picking up, the workers enjoyed a lunch provided by the members of the American Legion Cordova Post #13.

Clean and Beautiful workers relax after the event.

Clean and Beautiful workers relax after the event.


It seems they finished just in time as the clouds were moving in and a 30% chance of thunderstorms exist today.

Balls for Dogs Golf Tournament next month

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WILLIAMS — The Balls for Dogs golf tournament will be held at the Elephant Rocks Golf Course next month, May 16 to help build the Save-Meant to Rescue shelter.

The tournament will include:

  • 2 man scramble
  • $75.00 per person
  • Hole in One – $10,000
  • Million $ Shoot Out

To help prepare you, we provide the following training films.


For more Information, please call Robynn 928-635-4726

Grand Canyon open for free this weekend

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grand-canyon-640-0119-37GRAND CANYON – The Grand Canyon will be be offering fee-free weekend on Saturday April 18 and Sunday April 19 in honor of the start of National Parks Week. All national parks are offering free entry this weekend.

Grand Canyon’s South Rim sits at approximately 7,000 feet. As a result, visitors should be prepared for winter weather and driving conditions, and should be aware that road closures and temporary suspension of shuttle service may occur with little or no notice if winter weather passes through the area.

Dogs must be on a leash at all times.

Kaibab National Forest seeks comments on adding camping corridors

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WILLIAMS — The Kaibab National Forest is seeking public comments on an Environmental Assessment released today that analyzes the potential effects of adding camping corridors and making other changes to the transportation system of the Williams and Tusayan ranger districts.

The document and background information are available on the Kaibab National Forest website at http://go.usa.gov/kpQV. The 30-day comment period begins today and runs through May 11.

Specifically, the Kaibab National Forest is proposing to:

  • Designate approximately 291 miles of camping corridors along all or portions of several system roads on both districts. The corridors would extend 200 feet from either side of the centerline of the road, except where limited by topographical factors, resource concerns or private land.
  • Add 15 spur roads to the open road system on the Tusayan district. These spurs total 1.3 miles and would provide access to areas historically used for motorized camping.
  • Close approximately 9 miles of currently open roads across the two districts.
  • Add approximately 16 miles of roads to the open road system across the two districts. This includes 12 miles of formerly closed roads and 4 miles of user-created routes.
  • Develop an adaptive management strategy for making future changes to the transportation system for the two districts based on changing needs and/or new information.

Besides the proposed action, the Environmental Assessment also analyzes the potential effects of other alternatives such as varying corridor widths.

The proposed action and alternatives were all developed based on several years of monitoring following implementation of the Travel Management Rule on the two districts, which included documenting public concerns about recreational access and other issues.

Additional information and methods to submit comments are available at http://go.usa.gov/kpQV

Fire managers issue moderate fire danger rating today

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forestWILLIAMS — Effective immediately, fire managers are raising the fire danger rating to “moderate” across the Williams Ranger District, Tusayan Ranger District and the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.

The fire danger rating on the North Kaibab Ranger District and the North Zone of the Grand Canyon National Park remain low, but North Zone fire managers are continuously monitoring conditions on the Kaibab Plateau and will increase fire danger levels to moderate when appropriate.

Forest visitors are reminded to use extreme caution when camping as warming temperatures, lack of precipitation, lowering humidity levels and high winds are ideal conditions for wildfires to spark up. Visitors are also reminded to check with local district ranger offices and ask if any fire restrictions are in effect, as this can quickly change.

Fire managers use the National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS) to assist in determining Preparedness Levels and when Campfire and Smoking restrictions may be implemented. Using this tool helps Fire Managers to identify critical times when fires can become difficult to control.

For more information on fire activity updates, please call or visit: Fire Information Line: 928-635-8311

Gosar submits bill for cull hunt of bison at Grand Canyon

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(Because of the deadline for this article, the office of Representative Gosar could not be reached for comment)

White Bison at Bearizona Wildlife Park.

White Bison at Bearizona Wildlife Park.

WASHINGTON — In 1906, Charles “Buffalo” Jones brought bison to northern Arizona in an unsuccessful attempt to breed them with cattle. The descendants of these bison have been managed since 1950 by the state of Arizona in the House Rock Wildlife Area (HRWA) on the Kaibab National Forest, through an inter-agency agreement with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In 1990 the 1990 the bison started moving to the top of the Kaibab Plateau and into the Grand Canyon National Park.

The Grand Canyon National Park began a request for input on a Bison Management Plan that ended in June of 2014. The effort was an attempt to balance their mission to secure natural vegetation, archeological sites and water resources while maintaining the bison as wildlife.

On March 18, Paul Gosar [R-AZ-4] submitted H.R. 1443 (S. 782 in the Senate by McCain) to permit a cull hunt for Bison at the Grand Canyon National Park.

The bill calls for the Secretary of the Interior to publish a management plan for Bison no later than 180 days after H.R. 1443 is enacted. The plan would be to reduce, through humane lethal culling by skilled public volunteers and other non-lethal means the population of Bison in the park.

Skilled public volunteers are defines as those with a valid hunting license issued by the State of Arizona and other qualifications the Secretary may require after consulting with the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

Kirby Shedlowski, Acting Public Affairs Officer at Grand Canyon National Park, said, “In order have allowed cull, there’s usually a very large management planning process.”

She said, “There has never been a cull hunt for bison at the Grand Canyon. There has been a cull on the forest. On the Kaibab Forest on the north side.”

Kirby said she was not sure of cull hunts for Bison in other parks, such as Yellowstone. “There are different culling hunts in different parks for different animals. Rocky Mountain did it for elk. Rock Creek Park has done it for white-tail deer. Getteysburg has done it for white-tail deer. But, as far as Bison go—I’m not sure. But Grand Canyon National Park has never had a cull for Bison.”

Good Friday procession begins Easter weekend

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todo-2WILLIAMS — Easter holiday begins today with a Good Friday procession starting at the Mustang Gas Station on the east end of Route 66 at 6:30. The procession will travel west down Railroad Avenue to the Family Harvest Church. Father Killian, of St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, announced at the Younglife steak dinner fundraiser that they could use eight strong men or seven women to carry the cross for the procession.

The annual Community Easter Egg hunt will be held at the Recreation Center on Railroad Avenue on Saturday, April 4. The event will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

On Sunday, Friends of the Williams Aquatic Center will hold their 5th Annual Ducky Egg Race. Tickets can be purchased at Safeway, today, and at the Community Easter Egg Hunt.

Except for some cold gusty winds, as high as 28 mph Saturday and 37 on Sunday, the weather for the weekend appears clear and warm.