The Sprangs moved to Sedona, Arizona in 1946, where he became interested in western pioneer trails. He spent much of his spare time between 1946 and 1963 surveying the northern Arizona and southern Utah area, especially Glen Canyon (before it was flooded). Sprang's first river trip in Glen was in 1950, and he and Lora divorced in 1951. Also in 1951, Dick made a two week river trip and a five week river trip, both in Glen Canyon. In 1952 on a six week Glen Canyon river trip along with Harry Aleson and Dudy Thomas, Sprang discovered the "Defiance House", an ancestral Puebloan structure believed to have been previously unseen by non-Natives. Dudy Thomas had explored the western United States extensively and accompanied Sprang and Aleson on multiple trips through Glen Canyon by raft in the early-mid 1950s. Thomas and Sprang were married in 1956. In 1956, he and Dudy moved to Torrey, Utah, and the next spring moved to nearby Fish Creek Ranch on where they ran cattle. Dudy passed away in January of 1958 and Sprang remarried that year to Elizabeth Lewis. In 1959, the two made a six week river run of Glen Canyon. They ran Glen one more time in 1961 before Glen was flooded by the reservoir named Lake Powell, created by Glen Canyon Dam. Sprang was also interested in photography and became a noted expert in the field of western pioneer trails; Sprang's voice can be heard on several National Park Service oral history tapes.