Shauna Stephenson and Patty Ellsworth

00:03 My name is Shauna Stephenson. I am 68 years old. Today is Thursday, October 15th, 2020. I am Las Vegas, Nevada. However, I live in St. George Utah. My partner that I'm talking to is my sister Patty Ellsworth.

00:28 My name is Patty Ellsworth on 69. Today is Thursday, October 15th, 2020. We are at my home here in Las Vegas, Nevada, and I'm so happy to be here with my sister, Shauna Stephenson.

00:44 Shauna what's going on vacation? Cuz they got to go now or the beach or other places Amazing Adventures. So our father loved then we grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. He loved the Red Rocks in southern Utah. And so that's where we went.

01:22 And even though sometimes we understood where it was. We were going a lot of the times in my mind. It was just Southern Utah and they all had Red Rocks and

01:36 So we we just got lots of places in southern Utah and I can't tell you whatever we went all the places we went. Well so dad was a Stereo By the time y'all remember they were building the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona that made Blake Powell and so Lake Powell and he wanted to record as much as he could on the stereo with on stereo cameras. So that was kind of the motivation for these crazy trip. The time today. Lots of people go hiking trips and biking and everything when we were there. We were the only ones there.

02:36 We had a death has a Willys Jeep that has a winch on the front and the

02:43 Iron steel plating underneath so that the rock didn't punch a hole in something important and we would just go off into the desert that other times we would get somebody from the BLM and get some Wranglers and somebody with horses or just a local Rancher beautiful beautiful the arches.

03:16 I just

03:20 Like native virgin country was beautiful.

03:23 And sometimes he would hire a private pilot to fly him down over the area and he would look and see where he wanted to go. And then he would just hire somebody to take us there Wiregrass do it like we would we would never know where we're going. We would get in the Jeep and then several hours later. We would arrive in Red Rock Country Club.

03:46 Work wherever it was. It was Southern Utah amazing photography, but it was before the the dam was built and I was just coming out of second grade and you were coming out of third grade night was 1960.

04:10 I'm though we and the one of dad's doctor friends. Our father was the orthopedic surgeon.

04:20 We and our heat our family except our little sister Wendy who was too young to go and his family went on a trip down the Colorado River really fond memories of this trip.

04:36 So I remember that we we drove to Hanksville and then we took it as a small plane to height which is where we got on the river and I feel how many trips it took to get us all there were waiting a long time in the sun while They Carried everybody over. I don't know why we needed a plane while we can drive but only 7 years old.

05:04 I do remember getting to the river and there was a cute with a pontoon boat and it had wooden supports on it to keep its shape and ropes to hold onto for when you went over the Rapids and I start on this great adventure down the Colorado River now want me to really great was our guy because we were gone for maybe a week 8 days that I say something like that and then he only took one shirt with him on the regular way one day and then you turn around and wear it I guess two days maybe backwards and then he turned it inside out.

06:04 A couple of days and then he had one pressured. I think therefore the last day to get back into civilization that. He would

06:12 At dinner time he would when we were cleaning up. We learned a different way to wash dishes. Yeah. I remember washing dishes at down by the river.

06:25 We took the stand in the river.

06:36 Cats get the from the yucca plant and chop them up and make soap and makes sense that you could wash with.

06:46 So probably the thing I remember most about that trip. We're pretty young but I remember hiking up to Rainbow Bridge do today Rainbow Bridge boat on Lake Powell Rainbow Bridge that when we were on the river, it was a pretty good hike Natural Bridge and huge natural bridge.

07:24 Right. So yeah, I remember that long hike it was hot that day.

07:30 Disappointed but now you don't have to walk down to the river with way more functions with John Hill and there were all these slick Rock slides that have water on them and it was like a giant water slide number. We live downloads wise one right after another and and in a pool of water, but that's way more fun. That was way more fun, but you will remember when we got out of the water. We were covered with suckers and Mom had a private.

08:19 What's a cat that I remember about that going down? The Colorado is the first day everybody was talking about the rapids, but I thought they were saying rabbits and I was scanning the shore for the I wanted to see those rabbits. I never did see the Rapids but that was a lot of fun to go over the Rapids and that of the other thing. I remember is the cathedral in the desert that we high temp to that was as beautiful as a large overhang out of the Red Rock and there was some sleeping Rock. So there was water there in the whole place was just covered with columbine flowers and

09:18 It's really like a temple in the desert. It was just

09:24 Mystic married some other great adventures. Dad. Wanted to take me out a little bit early from school, but I had to learn my multiplication tables and I was told if I don't wear in the mall, I would have to repeat third grade sentence with the with us Mom. Hardly ever with Mom didn't was not a camper did not like it but Dad and I went down the escalator Canyon.

10:10 And though

10:11 And we got tired of her to take us down into the Atlantic Canyon and we were down there for about a week going down the canyon and we would spot.

10:24 Indian Ruins up on the side of the canyon and climb up and take a look at them. So that was a venture that year. So the next year we have I think it was the next year that took you and I

10:41 Into a place that the

10:44 It's really remote. Well this we had to take pack horses in and also as an added benefit, we had a cute Wrangler that went with us. I remember that he was always interested in the older ones, but we always I always loved horses.

11:21 Well, I remember I got a beautiful Palomino and I thought a little white pony coming barely was off the ground. So I think you could have dragged on the ground. That's okay.

11:44 And the way he was taking pictures you did not bother him while he was he was getting off setup you have tripods and you know, he was getting his Cameron all set up and I said dad. Do you want your lens cap is on that very much like a dad story.

12:23 So going down back to the Grand Gulch. One thing. I remember is we mostly just went along the river bottom no signs. No Trails. No nothing. Actually. The people that we went with hand ever been down there. They're just kind of getting down into the canyon was very tricky horses weren't there. They were kicking stones and scrambling and trying to do was nice and we had horses.

13:23 The Canyons or whatever.

13:30 Is that the one day well Dad and the the guide we're breaking camp that you and I climbed up to this Anasazi ruin. That was nearby and we're just kind of walking around and looking at it and we found an Indian skeleton things like corns and bean pumpkin seeds and that kind of thing and we found a turkey carpet at a BLM Whataburger.

14:24 Do you know people have two people might be shocked to hear that today today? It's against the law is no law against it often times when we would find these abandoned abandoned. It's like that all over but we did take that with a little girl that was donated to The Landings at the blending Museum that it stayed for many years and eventually was returned.

15:25 Do I understand understand why people would be a skeleton and was put on the top of a pack horse and the coming up out of the canyon where this horse was scrambling to try to keep its footing and but it fell off the cliff at once. I was a cliff and once I was a straight-up mountain with so you just a really narrow Trail and that horse horrible horrible.

16:10 Amazing leave the horse survived and thought of you and your little pony out in the middle of this.

16:37 Muddy hole and you are sitting there on top of this horse has like that they did get you to you and got you out and horseback trips. We took in the Jeep probably more often than on horses and just camping out in the desert and then we would just take off in the desert.

17:15 Sometimes we have the a little Trail or something to follow sometimes not much, but I remember that some places that Dad felt like the even the Jeep.

17:30 Going up a very up or down a very rocky place where he felt like the Jeep might slip over that he made us walk. I remember one particular place called Elephant Hill that we went on a few times and I just always kind of walk down the hill and

17:46 Tell my assistant I didn't want to watch you just walked out in the open. I'm just for sleeping bags out on the sand that have an air mattress that we always had to blow up for him because Dad was he was in his forties when we were born. So by this time, you know, he was in his fifties mid-50s, but he always had lots of energy.

18:23 Well, I remember waking up in the morning and there would be little animal tracks around our sleeping bags. So what time we would sing our old the song from our Girl Scout camp days and the dad would pull out his harmonica.

19:04 So one thing that Dad did for me when I was younger that he made me a lizard got me.

19:12 That I would take when we went camping, but I don't like it.

19:26 Rubber bands and it was just on the wizard so you can catch them. So I was much more into the animals the wild animals and you were snakes around your neck. And what do they do? They look at the guy?

20:01 But I could be a pretty good lizard catcher. I remember that says dad like to take pictures of us. He always liked the dresses and clothes that he thought were what stand out.

20:26 I was personally horrified at the clothes he picked out for me.

20:31 Had no sense of fashion. I was dressed in bright pink pants and a red cowboy shirt, and I you are always dressed in red and I would rather pink and I was always in blue.

20:45 And this was the time before hiking boots. No, nobody had hiking boots at that time. So Dad would go and get us these construction boots hiking boots. Ankle. He did not want any of that kind of thing happening every morning and we hate it, but they were particular rock formation and it would be places where the Jeep couldn't go so I can we go on foot. Well, he always needed several lenses and several roll.

21:45 The film so all this stuff was carried in World War II ammo boxes that it would paint silver to reflect the Heat and so and there was a couple cameras and I don't know what else but what I remember is going off on these hikes through the Sandy Bottom River Bottom.

22:11 Do you remember the one time that you and I we just fizzled out with Dad we gone and walk and walk and dad still cannot find this our she was looking for so he found this overhang allege or if it was just in a narrow Canyon?

22:29 That would stand underneath it. And he said you girls just stay here and play and I'm going to just hike up a little farther up the river river and you to stay here. I'll be back for you.

22:45 We've gone a long time. It seems like we were happy until

23:00 We heard a we both looked up.

23:07 Did you hear that but we looked around and we we couldn't see it. So here we are two little girls in the middle of nowhere. Nobody knows where we're at. Who knows what happened to Dad and we both heard a cougar.

23:21 We we never saw it, but we certainly heard at that. We definitely we started trying to get rocks and sticks.

23:32 So which way you went because the walking mostly I'm sick Rock and said there was no Footprints. And so we got a little hole in the middle there and we decided to have a prayer you said you pray and I'm going to keep my eyes open.

24:03 Can we just waited up there until Dad came back?

24:15 Dad because of stereo photography. It was more the pictures were more exciting if you had something for perspective. So unfortunately, he like to use us for the effects of perspective. So often dad would put us on a bridge. I like a Natural Bridge arch for a bridge that we could possibly get on top. Right? He would have us go up there and hang our legs over the edge right and then he would leave us on the this and then he would go and get back far enough that you'll get a good picture leaving us sitting on this time, but I was terrified so angry if we tried to protest

25:14 Yeah, I don't know. It was pretty crazy.

25:17 Another one another one of these forays out into the desert that we always took. Why do we take these we had World War? I think her water can water cans on the side of the Jeep so that we had gone and on this one hike and it was again longer than what Dad has affected had a problem and was leaking water out of the radiator. So we had to put the water that we had from the cans around the side of the Jeep into the radiator and that left us without any water. That wasn't very smart. But we have to wear a sequence is not a river. It is not a stream that is not a pedal. It is water that is barely coming out of the rock or the sand.

26:17 I just a wet spot. It's a way for yeah, we had to climb down there. It was in a goalie and we had to climb down this tree and it with this tree was just color with these huge ants covered with them with these apps.

26:43 Yeah, I remember that. I know we got down and I was so looking forward to a drink of water. And what do I see we had to hike down and we find a way to get to the Sea and just a mud hole just mud pretty much a little bit of water but not very much their dad took his Hanky Panky and got some of the sand and let the water collect in in the little hole that we dug. I just remembered and having a sip the water out of a well, but also on that trip we learned how to skin a prickly pear cactus.

27:43 That was a place place where we could get water when we were really thirsty, but we did make it out. Okay, obviously that was in a desperate need of a drink of water. It was just kind of a hole but it was a U-shaped over there was a tree blocking the exit on the open part of the you

28:15 And this cow was must have been there for a long time cuz it was almost dead. Yeah, it was so we had found it and we were able to move the tree and the Allentown Let It Go.

28:38 Which is where the Mormon pioneers camped before they while they were making.

28:49 That possible so that they could put their wagons down to hole-in-the-rock. So it's not far from home the rock the butt dance hall rock is a huge big red rock that was kind of

29:07 Hollowed out a little bit on one side where they can so they can some dancing stuff that you could climb up on top of it. And of course they can kids we wanted to get up on top of the serious scary is the arches of bridges that dad put his hot and sweaty and so we thought

29:41 And so we did be stripped down tour underwear and started splashing around in some of these puddles up on top of dancehall Rock.

29:49 It is never doing that. We looked and saw a Boy Scout Troop coming.

29:56 You were horrified that maybe they didn't seem assault.

30:03 Well

30:05 So anyway looking back on these trips. It makes me realize that.

30:14 I want to know who I am and feelings I have about this incredible country that we live in we live in such a beautiful picture is a privilege bicycle in Spanish.

30:30 Spent time there and when they was totally.

30:34 Untouched really just to see it. I'm done with a blue skies the beautiful flowers that beautiful rocks with a probably should go spend time.

30:47 It was so one word story that I would like to tell is that

30:53 There is a large of Angel Arch that I've been to a few times and once again, there's no rotor and can you just go down the dryer steam the string bed to get to it and when you get to it and it looks like an angel that has her wings folded in the back this one particular time that we went. It was dad and myself and also his assistant. It is office Janet Gillette and her two daughters that were similar ages to me. And the rest we went down this Canyon we were we could see this guy getting darker and darker and we knew that a storm was coming and

31:39 Being in slick Rock country. Be very aware of flash floods and the zone.

31:47 They were getting quite concerned about this and we were almost to the arch and though dad was scamming the sides of the canyon or any place that we could get up. Who finally he saw a place of

32:02 Oh, I don't know maybe 20 or 30 feet up the canyon wall wasn't too steep for him that he was able to climb up and then up there. There was a flat space and also them an overhang where he thought that we could get in out of the rain. So we hold everything he helped us get up and we spent the night there.

32:30 That night we were sort of back in the little overhang area and we can build a campfire and this we were sitting there we could see these eyes glowing front at us from the other side of the fire.

32:50 Space

32:54 At the bed that night is under the overhang but apparently during the night and you don't have to have rain right where you are. Apparently the water came a flash floods and down into the canyon.

33:11 And in the morning when we woke up there were tree branches and debris everywhere in the canyons. And what happened a dry River bed now had a river in it.

33:21 Panda

33:24 So we we did not go to Angel Arch. We decided that we needed to get out of there and the wheel everything down and the got into the Jeep, but the only place to drive was down for the river and the cheek kept sinking in the quicksand.

33:39 And so every time the jeep was thinking the quicksand dad would get out and he would have to take the winch on the front and walk it over to the the bank and tie it around the loop around the a tamarisk tree of some sort. If we could do that. We would pull up cameras branches and put them under the wheels to get out. So that was a pretty exciting trip went down that River. We were just School.

34:10 Now you're never I was went to a flashlight in Zion's National Park.

34:23 Even though we didn't go on normal family vacations like normal families did when did the first open?

34:47 And now it's adults I can appreciate.

34:51 The different things that we did that other people never ever had the opportunity to do.

34:57 Our dad really gave us adventures and experiences that we never would have had if you hadn't been her father.