Scott Thybony Commentaries

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. It was a landmark conservation law that gave new protections to more than 100,000,000 acres of wilderness across the country. To celebrate the milestone, commentator Scott Thybony shares the story of his first wilderness experience in the Grand Canyon.

Wild burros have been living in the Grand Canyon for well over 100 years. They have a reputation as being ornery and stubborn...and destructive to the environment because they overgraze. Back in the 1980's, the Park Service tried to tackle the wild burro problem by allowing people to trap and relocate them before wildlife officials shot the rest. At least one burrow was captured. And, as commentator Scott Thybony tells us, that lucky burro went on to live a life that no one could have imagined.

Every experienced hiker, river runner and climber I know has made mistakes of one sort or another. Usually it takes a string of them to get into serious trouble, but even then some people manage to pull it off. Whether they do so on skill alone or pure luck is never clear. I once found myself deep in the Grand Canyon clinging to the side of a cliff, unable to move up or down.

Northern Arizona is full of river runners, many of whom take their dogs downriver with them. Whether it's the Verde or the Salt River, many a mutt has gone along for the ride. And though dogs aren't allowed on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, commentator Scott Thybony says that doesn't mean it hasn't been done.

Writer Scott Thybony loves a good mystery, especially when it involves the Grand Canyon. In his latest commentary, Thybony shares the story of how a missing canteen might be connected to a missing cowboy.