Ron Dungan

A few words about the wild west

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The wild West

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History

Hiking

Ralph Cameron

Things never really change, do they? Take the Grand Canyon, for example. A century ago, the canyon looked much the same as it did today, with its red cliffs, its pink sunsets, its gathering storms, its grifters on the Rim, looking for a way to make a fast buck. Read more

South Rim, Hermit Road. / Ron

Saddle Mountain Wilderness

Saddle Mountain Wilderness is home to a small population of Apache trout. The fish are small and skittish, and the casting windows range from tight to impossible. Unless you enjoy nettles, snags and fishless days, leave the fly rod in the truck. This is a place to hike. Read more

A short history of Jerome

Arizona’s mining towns frequently went up in flames

Jerome burned. And burned and burned. Three years in a row, the town burned, and merchants rebuilt the tents and shacks that sheltered saloons and cathouses. It was a mining town, where men dug furiously by day and drank away the night. Jerome ran on whiskey, dreams and laissez faire capitalism, a shining lie that has a certain appeal if you didn’t ask too many questions, but its limitations became clear each time the town burned.

Read more

Audrey Headframe Park, Jerome / Ron Dungan
Maze District, Canyonlands National Park, Utah. / Ron Dungan

Canyonlands National Park

A walk on the wild side

I don’t know what I can tell you, other than don’t go, or think about it, or, take a friend and make sure you stop frequently for a map check. Getting turned around in The Maze is easy to do, and it’s not much fun. Trails are few and hard to follow. Water is scarce. The Maze District is a remote section of Canyonlands National Park where every canyon leads to some other canyon, and some other canyon after that.

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The border, a history

Everything was up for grabs. For three centuries, England, Spain and France sent soldiers, trappers and merchants to plant flags, move goods, build forts. They drew maps to mark territory, signed treaties abused the natives, but their hold on North America was weak. All that time, Americans had put down roots along the eastern seaboard, streamed over the Appalachian Mountains and settled the Ohio Valley until that, too, began to get crowded.

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Sunset, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, southern Arizona. / Ron Dungan
Aravaipa Creek is one of the few remaining perennial streams in southern Arizona. / Ron Dungan

Hiking Aravaipa Canyon

Eddie thought we were crazy. He thought that all that wading on a cold day would end in disaster once the sun went down, but we didn’t listen. The canyon was calling.   

The forecast called for colder and getting colder, clear to partly hypothermic at night. It was December, and someone, I think it was Jason, had a permit for Aravaipa Canyon.

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American wilderness

For four centuries, the continent never seemed to run out of anything. No matter where colonists built, or settlers plowed, or soldiers rode, or trappers roamed, there was something new to discover and exploit. Tribes were slaughtered, then domesticated, money changed hands and maps were redrawn. Mines played out but new ones were found. Timber grew in the uplands and there was good ground in the heartland. The land was a collection of resources, a thing to consume, but sometime in the late 19th century that we began to look in the rearview mirror at the American wilderness, the hills covered in bison, the tribes in control of their destinies – all of it gone. It was not until then that we began to consider limits.

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South San Juan Wildernes, Rio Grande National Forest. / Ron Dungan

Hiking Soap Creek

Decades ago, I backpacked into a place Soap Creek, tributary of the Colorado River in northern Arizona. It’s possible that just about everything about our trip was illegal – our dogs, our campfire on the beach, our feasting like Viking lords on a fat rainbow trout, howling at the moon. We did not have a permit.

The local fishing guides who put us onto the place were short on details. They said something about shimmying down a rope ladder, but nothing about permits. So we went, took advantage of the campfire ring that was already there and nature’s bounty. It is possible that all of this rogue woodcraft was legal back then. I have no idea.  

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Stories

You can now hang out in northern Arizona and snag a permit for The Wave without waiting in line. / Ron Dungan

The Wave is one of the most famous red rock features in the Southwest, but permits to the popular hiking area on the Utah-Arizona border are hard to come by.

Visitors will soon have a more convenient option to getting one.

It’s possible to get a permit to visit The Wave through a lottery, months in advance.

The other option was to wake up early and stand in a long line. But in mid-March, the line is going away, and visitors will be able to get permits on their phones.

The advanced reservation system will remain in place, but a new system will allow visitors in the Four Corners area to reserve a spot through an app, says David Hercher of the Bureau of Land Management.

“But the beauty of it is, that, you apply, and then you go on about your business. I mean, you want to go to Four Corners? Go to Four Corners. You’ll get a notification if you’ve actually been awarded a permit,” Hercher said. 

Because service is spotty in northern Arizona, he recommends downloading the app before you travel.

Flagstaff mushers are making some changes - my story on Here and Now.

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/01/17/arizona-dog-sledders-climate

Brewing day at The Shop Beer Co. / Ron Dungan

How craft brewers adjusted during the pandemic.

https://kjzz.org/content/1631717/arizona-craft-beer-finds-its-way-during-pandemic

A meadow along Canyon Creek, Tonto National Forest.

Western wildfires story for Colorado station KUNC.

https://www.kunc.org/2020-10-22/as-western-fires-burn-focus-narrows-on-forest-management-but-its-easier-said-than-done

Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, southern Arizona.

The secret, probably illegal burial of Edward Abbey.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/best-reads/2015/04/17/edward-abbey-last-act-defiance/25930091/

El Camino del Diablo, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, southern Arizona.

The Border, a history.

https://www.usatoday.com/border-wall/story/us-mexico-border-history/510833001/

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