Grand Canyon: Part I ~ Description & Early Exploration

Post by Kristy McCaffrey

This will be the first installment of a 4-part series on the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon National Park, located in Arizona, is known for its overwhelming size and its intricate and colorful landscape. Over time, the elements have scoured and carved the dramatically splendid Grand Canyon, known as one of the world’s seven natural wonders. The distance from the South Rim to the North Rim varies from half a mile to eighteen miles, and the canyon has a maximum depth of 6,000 feet. This great range in elevation allows for a variety of climate, flora, and fauna; of the seven life zones on the North American continent, four can be experienced within Grand Canyon.

The most prominent feature in the Grand Canyon, besides the deep gorges exposing millions of years of rock layers, lies at the bottom—the Colorado River. Named in 1776 by a Spanish missionary, Padre Francisco Tomás Garcés, it means “red” in Spanish, which is how the river would have appeared back then. Due to the construction of Glen Canyon Dam in northeastern Arizona in 1964, the river is now clear, clean, and cold.

Here's me on the Colorado River on a week-long boat trip
through Grand Canyon.

The river begins as a tiny stream in Rocky Mountain National Park, eventually flowing into Lake Powell, formed by the Glen Canyon Dam. Below the dam, it begins its journey through Marble Canyon by joining with the Paria River. At the confluence of the Little Colorado River does the Colorado finally enter Grand Canyon National Park, flowing 217 miles until it reaches Lake Mead Recreation Area.

John Wesley Powell

The first documented expedition of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon was accomplished by Major John Wesley Powell in 1869. Powell, a Civil War veteran with only one arm, and nine companions became the first men to journey 1,000 miles on the river, part of it through Grand Canyon. They braved rapids, heat, plummeting morale, and the loss of three men. Powell’s account of this expedition, Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries, made him a national hero as well as brought the canyon to the attention of the country. The Paiutes called the plateau that the canyon cuts through ”Kaibab” or “Mountain Lying Down,” but it was Powell who first consistently used and published the name “Grand Canyon” in the 1870’s.

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In addition to setting her 1877 historical western romance The Sparrow in Grand Canyon, Kristy will also have a short story featuring this natural wonder in Lassoing A Groom, an anthology coming this summer from Prairie Rose Publications. A U.S. Deputy Marshal hunts a fugitive in Grand Canyon, but is saddled with an unwanted companion when he rescues a young woman who may not be what she seems. To stay up-to-date, visit Kristy's website.

The Intuitive Process Of Writing

Post by Kristy McCaffrey

I didn’t begin my writing career until I was 33 years old, when I decided to write a book (called a manuscript until it’s published—I knew so little). I’d been writing all my life, but at that moment I made a conscious decision to refine the process. The difference between a published and an unpublished writer is really the desire to trim, tighten, and tuck that mash of creativity into something coherent. Working with a story, I believe, involves a great deal of intuition. As a writer, I’ve had to learn how to trust the process, and it’s not always easy. This element of faith is not unlike a religious leaning—you simply don’t have all the answers. If you’re lucky, they come at the end of the work, but sometimes they don’t. Writing is nothing if not a learning process.

My first book (yay, it was published so went from ‘manuscript’ to ‘book’) took four years to write. The Wren, a historical western romance, features a Texas Ranger reunited with a woman he thought was murdered by Comanche as a child. The seeds of this story came to me when I was 15 years old. There wasn’t much—just a girl who knew two brothers, and a ranch (which I assumed was in Arizona since that’s where I’ve lived most of my life). The characters became Molly and Matt, and his brother Logan, but when I decided to refine the story I had to become more specific. I soon realized the setting wasn’t Arizona, and after reading an entire tome on the history of Texas (Lone Star: A History of Texas by T.R. Fehrenbach), I knew I’d found the locale. It continued to be a back-and-forth process, however, between research and following the inherent thread of the story, a thread I wasn’t always aware of. (Often this becomes the underlying theme of a work. In The Wren it was the idea of home, and the many ways we define that.) But I trusted, and this book is still the most well-received of any of my stories.

My second book, The Dove, was a bear to write, which is probably why it’s the shortest novel I’ve published. In this story, Logan, the brother, decides to track down Claire Waters, who, it turns out, lives in a brothel but hopes to become a doctor one day. Looking back, I didn’t trust my intuition enough, which I think is why I ran out of story. I tried to manhandle my characters too much, of which I had too many to begin with. I struggled to keep them all straight, along with motivations and what each of them might know from moment to moment. My editor had her work cut out for her, but helped tremendously in fixing the many problems.

My third book, The Sparrow, follows Emma Hart (sister to Molly) and her desire to enter Grand Canyon, an audacious endeavor considering the year is 1877. A Texas Ranger joins her and off they go. I wrote the first half of this story entirely on intuition. After the struggle with my last book, I knew I needed to trust the inner workings of my imagination. Unfortunately, it led me to a dead-end at the halfway point—ugh, the
vagaries and whims of creativity. It took me several years to figure my way out of this one. (I did raise my children at the same time, so wasn’t writing full-time.) The problem was that the journey Emma undertook wasn’t just physical, and I didn’t understand it until I found a book on shamanism. The light bulb went off, and I spent over two years delving into the subject. It turned out my intuition had been spot on (isn’t it always?), and I was finally able to complete Emma’s pilgrimage. As a side note, this book has received a mixed reception. Following one’s inspiration doesn’t always result in far-reaching connections with readers. However, I believe that an adherence to intuition draws an authentic voice from the author, a commitment that is important to the writer herself.

With my fourth book, Into The Land Of Shadows, recently published here at Prairie Rose, I think I finally found a balance between trusting the creative hits alongside the nuts-and-bolts research. I certainly had the most fun writing this one. Perhaps that’s what experience bestows—knowing that those dark spots during the writing of a project won’t always remain. While it’s difficult to trust those whispers nudging you in a certain direction, there’s always a bigger picture, in life as well as in stories, and a writer needs to learn to have faith and become the channel for that narrative to be born.

Be sure to stop by my website www.kristymccaffrey.com and enter my February contest!

  Happy Valentine’s Day!