November 23, 2010 – Lovell Canyon, Cathedral Canyon, Queho

Today was Road Trip Day – Yea!!  

Our first stop was to explore the road in Lovell Canyon.  Lovell Canyon is in the Spring Mountains and the Toiyabe National Forest.  We first heard about it thru the Day’s End Directory from Escapees and decided to check it out.  The road goes for 12 miles before ending in private property.  And the scenery is, well, see for yourself:

 

A beautiful area and lots of trails off the main road – that I think we will explore next time, when the weather is warmer – :-))).

Our next stop was Cathedral Canyon.   We first found out about this place on RoadsideAmerica.com and wanted to see it.    Now imagine driving down this one lane sort-of paved road and coming upon what looks like a huge hole in the ground that had a wire fence all around and two suspension bridge supports.  Since we did not know what to expect, we pulled over and looked down and became fascinated…

The views from the top:

 

 

  This is what is known as a box canyon.  I was amazed at what was left of the statues and grotto areas. 

The statue above was a replica of Christ of the Andes – so sad now that the head and hands are missing.

Did you notice the doorway in the above picture.  If you look close you will see two of them.  When we got closer, they were little plastered rooms that seemed liked grottos.

So we made our way down to the floor of the canyon:

 

The picture is of the Sermon on the Mount.

 

Although this canyon attraction is now in disrepair, you could tell that there was a lot of work and passion that went into this.   So I did a little research when we came home.

Apparently it was built mostly by Roland Wiley, a lawyer from Las Vegas as a tribute to his daughter who died at an early age.   He put over one million dollars into it and dedicated it to peace and harmony among all of God’s creatures.  He died in 1994 and although others tried to keep it up, vandals destroyed much of it in 1999.

As I walked on the canyon floor, even in it’s disrepair, it felt “spiritual”, almost like being in a church.   Such a shame it has not been kept up.

I did find a video on the internet that was taken in 1993 of the canyon – WOW!:

Another great site about the Cathedral Canyon and it’s history is:

http://www.paranormalghostsociety.org/Cathedral%20Canyon.htm

Other sites with more info:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/1999/apr/14/cathedral-crumbles-religious-sanctuary-near-pahrum/

 http://aokbyme.blogspot.com/2009/04/sabrina.html

http://www.gadling.com/2007/07/26/las-vegas-haunt-cathedral-canyon/

 

Walking around we came upon this grave:

It was the grave of Queho, who killed quite a few people in the early 1900s. Apparently Roland Wiley purchased the remains when no one else wanted them and gave them a final resting place here near his Cathedral Canyon.

More sites about Queho.

http://www.paranormalghostsociety.org/Cathedral%20Canyon.htm

http://www.historynet.com/queho-an-indian-outcast.htm/3

 http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=2350982

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/nv-queho.html

http://www.1st100.com/part1/queho.html

http://www.historynet.com/queho-an-indian-outcast.htm

Of all the sites I have listed this is the best one on the Cathedral and Queho:

http://www.paranormalghostsociety.org/Cathedral%20Canyon.htm

 

A fascinating day!!

The weather is turning colder here – lots of snow on the mountains that is not going away. 

 

We need to head to warmer weather soon – :-)))