Epic Travel → North America → Mountain States → Arizona → Pipe Spring National Monument

Location: Kaibab area, Northern Arizona

Time Required: 1 – 3 hours

Red Tape/Notes: Open 8:30am – 4:30pm daily (extended to 8am – 5pm in the summer); admission is $10 per person (15 and under are free), which includes a $3 tribal fee.

What’s Nearby?: Johnson Canyon Movie Set

Pipe Spring is an interesting place, both geologically and historically. It’s geologically interesting since it’s one of the few continuous water sources in the desert, but as you can imagine, that made it an incredibly important resource for the people living on the Kaibab plateau. Ancestral Puebloans and the Kaibab Paiute raised crops and lived in the area for over a thousand years, and probably would have continued in much the same way except for the inevitable migrations of settlers moving west. In the 1850’s Mormon settlers discovered the area and started raising cattle there, eventually building a protective fort around the spring. This obviously greatly impacted the lives of the native people, but they have persisted over the years, fighting for compromise and a way to maintain their way of life amidst the changing population. The monument does a good job telling the story of the area from both sides, and being honest about the impact and damage the Mormon settlers did with regards to the Paiute and the native environment, but also the struggles of the Mormon settlers and the reasons they were driven into the area. A tour of “Winsor Castle” (the fort built by the Mormon settlers) is worth taking (they’re free with admission and are offered at various times throughout the day). Definitely worth a stop for if you’re interested in the history of settling the American west…or are just bored and need a break from driving along the highway between the Grand Canyon North Rim or Page, Arizona and the Zion National Park area.

Epic Travel → North America → Mountain States → Arizona → Pipe Spring National Monument