Explore Arizona's northern tiny desert towns with lyrical journalist Karen Biddle as she rafts the Colorado River from Page at Glen Canyon Dam where Colorado River Water roams its way to the Grand Canyon. See slot canyons and whole canyons where wave runners find their way and helicopters land on House Boats there. Meet history in cave talk of native peoples and hear Indian Maiden Little Eagle, Howling Wolf Dog Moon Song and Great Bird as they discuss the travels of man along famous waters leading to this great new world. Discover secrets of brave settlers of the Great Southwest. Read about Rocky Mountain Folk as they fry up fresh water Trout for breakfast. Cruise by shepherding dogs on lazy roads of Navajo Red Rock Reservation. Hear talk of fly fishermen's paradise in Marble Canyon and find ghosts in copper mining town of Old Jerome where winds whisper secrets to the hearts of wanderers. See tiny desert rodeo children gather in Willow's Creek in Page Springs on the way to old Victorian Wild West Town Prescott and discover Yellow of the Southwest as it draws Searching Souls, gifted painters and sculptors to Sedona's mecca of European travelers and art collectors. Opera stars have been known to sing among cliff rocks in rocky churches along Oak Creek Canyon where water fountains are created by locals. You might like to find the Four Directions and your place in their folklore among vibrant blue sky and misty rain showers. Gurgling creeks reveal their language to rocks along meandering streams where poets have found their calling, New York City financiers evolving into craftsmen and jewelry makers of carved silver and unique gold expressions. Find a crazy, wild spirit of self discovery and poetic babblings among Golden Suns on desert ponds with darting lizards and waltzing quail. You might find Whispers of the Wind on shores of Babbling Waters. Might take up a paint brush, fishing pole, wave runner or canoe. And after all this time, might find your own self 'round there. You never know.
About the Author: A descendant of Rocky Mountain Gold Rush settlers, Iowa journalist Karen Biddle began to explore the Southwest after a career as newspaper reporter and teacher, settling in Jerome in 1992, then Page in '96, discovering the Golden Sun of Desert Towns and the gossiping creeks of river waters as they find their way to her wandering days of self discovery along the Colorado River. She meets Wolf Dog in Flagstaff and Wise Woman along the shores of Navajo Mountain Snow Melts along the sandy beaches of Glen Canyon Dam, where international visitors are often found. She and Wolf Dog travel through northern Arizona's mountain sides, Indian reservation towns and Sedona's mecca of Red Rock artists and craftsmen freely roaming as friends while listening to Mesa Winds, to transformed sculptors in art stores and gifted craftsmen of wood and jewelry in Sedona, through crooked old wooden shops of potters in Jerome and feel a spirit of freedom and renewal. Songs of Sunny Days on Mountain Tops, of Visions and Dreams come flooding in to former childhood days and the author turns poet as she can hear over and over again the talk of ancient waters falling over cliff rocks, along rushing, flowing streams and throughout caves inside desert trail. The author decides to transform from a city dwelling reporter south of Cleveland, a Kent State English major and high school educator to a Searching Soul and Desert Wanderer after raising a family in Iowa from 1972-1990 when she took her son to school in a place unknown to her- near Sedona, Arizona, in a cowboy desert town along Oak Creek Canyon meeting dedicated sculptors among high rocks, potters of clay and paint, reformed businessmen and women turned artists and craftsmen. With her trusty dog at her side, she gradually becomes one of them when she meets a Wise Old Woman who moved to Page from Michigan and together they explore Utah south to Flagstaff. Meeting multi-cultural life styles all in one place: cowboy, Indian, Mormon, visiting European and artists from around the world. Ship captains, House Boat owners who arrive in helicopters and land on their roof tops with stories of boundless waters of the Glen Canyon Dam. The author begins to wander shores and high places, losing herself in the process. Then finds answers to old Visions and Dreams when she discovers herself on Canyon Waters among world travelers and becomes a Poet to the Sun. Hearing Tall Tales of Indians and Cowboys, Europeans and locals, she finds new life.