Here at Grand Canyon Gas Logs, every log has a story. Our logs are lifelike for a reason – each log is modeled after real logs that have been curated carefully from log hunting. Grand Canyon Gas Log takes the time, precision, and attention to detail to craft gas logs with character.
What is log hunting? When a log is dead and on the ground, with a permit, it’s allowed to be harvested. Grand Canyon Gas Logs has a team that goes log hunting in Northern Arizona, from Flagstaff to Payson, and beyond, to find distinctive logs with unique characteristics.
We sat down with Elliott White, Executive Vice President of Grand Canyon Gas Logs, to gain insight into the log hunting sport and process.
What species of wood does Grand Canyon Gas Logs seek with log hunting?
The Arizona Weathered Oak are molded from a specific style of oak called all scrub oak. Then, all of our Arizona Juniper wood is modeled after Juniper and Cottonwood, since they look very similar. The Quaking Aspen is created using birch or aspen wood, and those are a lot harder to find. Most Aspen only grow at elevations between 6,500 and 7,000 feet, and it grows in patches.
How did the Grand Canyon Gas Logs team start log hunting?
Prior to log hunting, we relied on the factory to create our logs. When we started to develop the GlowFire™ log set we made the change to cast our log from actual logs found in the forests of Northern Arizona.
The Grand Canyon Gas Logs team went up to Payson, Arizona. We took out a couple of side-by-sides, a cooler, and a chainsaw and went out into the woods. We found a great off-road trail and went out searching for anything we could find that was dead and down. We had an idea of what we needed to find logs for, and then, of course, you want to find trees and branches that have a lot of knots and twists. And that’s what we harvested for our top twigs that go across the top of the log set itself.
What happens after you log hunt?
Without giving too much away, once we’ve gotten the wood itself, and once we’ve burned it, and once we’re happy with the way the wood looks, then we’ll create molds of the logs, and finish them with hand painting.
What are some stories you can share about log hunting?
Our Arizona Weathered Oak Jumbo Series logs were found near the Vermilion Cliffs in Northern Arizona, near the Utah border. There was a tree that was struck by lightning. The lightning strike split the tree in half and came down to a woodpecker hole. Then, the bottom of the tree was missing all its bark; deer had rubbed their antlers on the log to remove moss, which caused the bark to be missing on that side, and the roots of this tree were completely gone.
We cut it up and molded a 62-inch log, which is our main Jumbo Series log, and then molded smaller sizes off of that. Today, you can still see where we cast the woodpecker hole in the log itself.
