INTRODUCING THE FAR WEST
HIKING THE GRAND CANYON'S NEGLECTED BOUNDARY
As previous posts described, rectifying the Grand Canyon’s eastern boundaries led us into the tangles of governmental and legal actions. Cutting through that thicket, however, we found the physical legal boundary between the Park and Navajo Reservation is easy to navigate: down the left/south bank of the Colorado from the Paria River junction to the Little Colorado, then up that one a bit.
The Park boundary in the Canyon’s west end, an area much less known and visited, apparently offers no legal tangles since the land is all under NPS administration -- the Park or Lake Mead NRA. Sad to say, the current western boundary ignores the Canyon’s topography and geology, using straight lines that fail to emphasize the true significance of the Canyon’s western finale.
Therefore, if we are to adhere to the idea of using the Grand Canyon drainage to figure out what to protect and proclaim within a complete National Park while not infringing on Navajo, Havasupai, or Hualapai land, then for the western end, there are new questions to answer. Pleasant surprise, that challenge invites us to scout out a newly defined line, one we can follow on foot — a hikable, likable, line.
