Part 1 of 2 Kanab resident Scout Wilkins, creator of the WordTrails game, draws on a lifetime of outdoor adventures and varied experiences in her approach to bringing people together. Photo courtesy of Scout Wilkins. An unexpected idea in the Nevada desert has grown into an unconventional game created by Kanab resident Scout Wilkins, with a little help from friends, family and an assortment of unlikely circumstances. In May 2021, Wilkins was traveling to Montana when she stop

Photo courtesy of Brian Crane. For 35 years, cartoonist Brian Crane has found humor in the everyday lives of Earl and Opal Pickles, the retired couple whose gentle bickering and familiar foibles have entertained newspaper readers around the world. Now, with the release of his newest collection, 35 Years of Pickles, Crane is looking back on a career built one laugh at a time. “The thought that occurs to me when I contemplate all the thousands of comics strips I’ve created is ‘

The Colorado Plateau is home to some of North America’s most distinctive birds. Perhaps the most extraordinary is the California condor, a species that once faced extinction. The last one in the wild was captured in 1987 and placed in an ambitious recovery program. In 1996, the first captive-bred condors were released at Vermilion Cliffs, 50 miles southeast of Kanab. This year, more than 500 people celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Arizona-Utah program and watched as fou

There’s something wonderful about autumn in southern Utah. The temperatures finally become reasonable, splashes of gold appear across the landscape and stepping outside no longer feels like opening an oven door. An autumn walk offers an opportunity to enjoy the changing seasons while staying active and connected. Photo by Maria Boiko. But there’s another side to the season. The days get shorter, the evenings arrive earlier and, almost without noticing, we start spending more

20th Century Fox arrived in Kanab late in 1940 to begin shooting “Western Union,” based on the Zane Grey novel of the same name. Director Fritz Lang brought leading men Robert Young, Randolph Scott and Dean Jagger to headline the star-studded cast. Left to right, images via IMDb: Robert Young, Dean Jagger and Randolph Scott star in “Western Union” (1941). The theatrical poster for Western Union (1941), director Fritz Lang’s Technicolor adaptation of the Zane Grey novel. Openi

Snug as a bug beside her feline friend Gigi, Nosh takes a break from her usual kitten antics. Between wrestling with kitty friends, curling up with her people and watching the world from her favorite spot on the couch, she’s fully embraced kitten life. It’s a far different life from when Nosh arrived at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary with a potentially life-threatening illness. As Nosh’s happy purrs prove, all the dedicated care she received to get her to where she is today wa

Fall migration brings raptors and waterfowl to our reservoirs, warblers and wrens to riparian corridors, sparrows and thrashers to the flats, but one “resident” bird follows a different schedule - Pinyon Jays. These small dusty-blue birds with short tails travel widely across Utah, Arizona and Nevada in search of their favorite food: pine nuts. Pinyon Jays are unusual among members of the crow family. So unusual, in fact, that they occupy their own genus, Gymnorhinus. The sci