--- Front Cover Design ---
The vision I had for the cover of the Rock Jock’s Guide to Queen Creek Canyon guidebook was for the front cover to be mellow, and the back cover to be wild. I already knew that I wanted somebody with a mohawk on the back cover. Randi got to design the front cover and it came out fantastic!! The faded black and white background photo is of Lower Devils Canyon taken by Ed Pabst. A second photo was placed within the “Queen Creek Canyon” title words and is a photo of Lou Stack bouldering on the Shark Wall with Eric Johnson spotting. Photo by Marty Karabin. Randi let her design staff assist in the cover creation so also a thanks goes out to Mike Levario and Dawn DeVries.
--- Book Spine Design ---
A lot of thought was also put toward the spine of the book where I needed to have the perfect lettering and colors for the title of the book to visually stand out while the book was within somebody’s book case of many guidebooks. I wanted the spine of the book to scream…. “Queen Creek Canyon!” Randi Karabin design.
--- Back Cover Design ---
I asked my friend Bill Burns if he knew any rock climbers that had a mohawk. Bill said he had a mohawk while he was in high school and that “HE” really wanted to be the climbing star on the back cover of the guidebook. So Bill grew his hair for a year until the day that the photo shoot came to be. The night before the photo shoot Bill’s wife cut his hair and formed it into the perfect mohawk. A climber named Paul Woolson was working with Randi at the time and asked if he could be involved in the photo shoot and even be the designer of the back cover. I was totally psyched seeing the back cover vision becoming a reality!! The shoot was set for Saturday in the heat of May, heat being 100+ degrees. The photo needed to be set on a tall rock face where a extension ladder could be set below the top about 15’ and still provide enough exposure for the climber to appear high above the ground. The rock face had to somehow have quick access to the top of the formation, as well as quick access to the bottom of the formation and had to be in the sun. So we chose a route
named “Smash It Up” which is a awesome 5.11a route on Apache Leap. Of course Apache Leap is about a 40 minute hike/scramble just to get to the rock formation. Looking at the map you park at the top, then hike through the entire Mine Area, then skirt the Apache Leap through the many ripper bush trails, then cut through a corridor, then have to use a rope swing to get across a exposed gap and arrive at the top of “Punk Rock,” the photo shoot formation. All of the gear was passed through the many hands to get the gear to the summit of Punk Rock. The ladder was positioned off of “Punk Rock” route #9.
On Friday the day before the shoot myself with Bill’s brother Gary and Harvey Delos Reyes hauled out the load of gear and preset the extension ladder into place using ropes and a ton of other gear. Since there were no photo drones at that time, the ladder will provide a way of getting a photo which shows the entire climbers back, arms and legs as well as seeing the belayer below. The photographer had to be at least 8’ away from the wall to get the perfect angle for the photo. I figured that if Paul wanted to be the designer of the back cover, why not have him also be the one that takes the photo for the design. Paul was psyched.
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Saturday morning came along and the photo shoot was on. We knew the day was going to be long and a hot one and we didn’t want Bills scalp to burn on the hike to the photo shoot location, so Bill carried only a umbrella to shade his head and the rest of the crew carried the remaining needed supplies, much being gallons of water. So imagine being climbing in the Mine Area that day and suddenly seeing a crew hiking by with a person in a tall mohawk and umbrella waving and saying good morning. It was awesome!!!
Once at the photoshoot location, Rich LeMal was the climbers belayer at the base of the formation. We brought Paul the photographer to the ladder where he was already weary of even wanting to take the photo. The ladder was totally anchored to the rock but yet Paul had never taken any photos in this way before and the ground below was not necessarily flat. It was a hillside that fell away quickly so when looking down it seemed like you were already a few hundred feet above the deck. To reach the ladder it required a 20’ rappel. A top rope was preset for bill to hang off of to try to find a few different perfect climbing positions for him to be in 
while the few hundred photos were being taken. For the design of the photo, the rope that was above Bill will be photoshopped out. Gary was the summit crew lowering supplies to anybody that needed anything. Harvey was the roaming photographer taking pictures of the days fun from different angles. So the process was going well and Paul shot around three rolls of film then asked to go back to the summit since the exposure was getting to him. So I shot the remaining rolls of film in a upside-down manner while laying on the very tip end of the ladder. 
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Once we were out of film the crew broke down the ropes, the ladder platform and gear, and we hauled the entire load out in one push. Once back home Paul reversed the actual photo and colorized it creating the perfect wild back cover I was looking for all along. It was a lot of work but in the end it was totally worth it!! Randi finalized the overall cover adding the bar code and yellow lettering to the back cover. Once again many big THANKS THANKS THANKS to all who helped in the creation of the book cover to this awesome guidebook!!!