To start the day on Sunday, we had breakfast again at the roadhouse and then I took Lydia, Mary, Isabel and Emerson on a wildlife tour with my dad and Suzanne, and Lily spent time in the cemetery (I think) with Ammon, Clarissa and Amy.
I loved the tour so much because the tour guide was so knowledgeable. I learned that the white stuff in pigeon poop is their pee. I learned that ravens are insanely smart and communicate with each other and can hold grudges for generations. I also learned that minks are super vicious and that they typically are very unhappy at mink farms because they are too violent to be allowed near other minks, so they are caged alone.
We loved lunch so much yesterday that we ate again at the Best Friends cafeteria. We ate on the back porch. What a view!
We then said goodbye to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and hit the road. My dad and Suzanne hit the road and Amy followed us to Pipe Springs and Colorado City.
We were blown away by Pipe Springs. We learned that between about 1850 and 1900, Pipe Springs was a point of conflict between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Piute Native Americans and the U.S. federal government. The church was at odds with the government because of polygamy and having their prophet be their governmental leader among other things and the fort was often used as a place for polygamists to hide their wives so they wouldn’t go to prison. And the church was also at odds with the Piute Native Americans because it moved in and took over (with the fort) a spring (Pipe Springs) that the Native Americans relied on for survival. The church controlled it with their fort at Pipe Springs leading to fights and ultimately almost causing the Piutes to go extinct in that area. Also the new ranchers and farmers who moved in changed the land by planting farms and allowing their livestock to eat all of the wild grasses. Today the area looks very barren and has mostly sage brush.
After Pipe Springs, we drove right next to Colorado City, which Lily knows about from her study of polygamy. There are still many polygamists there and we saw a billboard advertising family services for plural families. We heard that you can often identify polygamist families by the simple, but very large houses, which we saw.
I have to say thank you to Lily for organizing the trip. She planned every aspect. I think she is the world’s best trip planner and I enjoyed ever single second. Thank you Lily, and happy birthday Lydia!!