We arrived to Zion pretty early in the morning. It was kind of overcast so the light wasn't doing much for the rocks, but they didn't need the help. The folds and faults and long lines of erosion were going in every direction in many different colors of rock. My comment was that it seemed earth got a bit drunk before forming that part.
It was awesome. Really, really beautiful. In fact, the drive into the park from the eastern side (Mt. Carmel junction) was possibly the most incredible part, with all of the drunk geology. There's a mile long tunnel through rock, which is kind of man made marvel of its own amidst some natural marvels. Just... awesome.
Mike, Katy and I hiked the Watchman Trail, at which point we collectively realized... we'd hiked SO MUCH that week. We were so tired. We must have stopped three or four times to decide whether or not to press on. We did. The top was lovely, looking around the canyon and seeing cars that looks like little toys. We gained a few hundred feet, but had a nice sit at the top of the trail.
The rest of the day, we took it easy. We drove the scenic drive, stopping to look around at the Patriarchs and Weeping Rocks, the latter of which I thought was pretty cool. There were all sorts of funny little ferns and mosses growing out the side of this rockface that had water seeping right through. Ferns! I didn't even hate them!
We stopped in Springdale, a cute little town just to the west of the park, for coffee and lunch before checking out the northern part of the park, Kolob Canyons. It was a beautiful drive. We hiked a short trail at the end of the drive and had a view that seemed to go on forever-- we could actually see the faint outline of the north rim of the Grand Canyon. It was crazy.
The drive back to Las Vegas and ultimately Bullhead City was just as weirdly interesting as the drive up, back through the Virgin River Gorge, back through the desert speckled with Joshua trees, back through the empty, empty part of the desert, back to the crazy city full of crazy lights and crazy people, and after a final meal together, dropping Mike's family off at the airport and heading back to Bullhead City, through what always looks like a moonscape to me when driving through at night. This time, it was a fuzzy looking moonscape, since the recent "rains" have brought a little life back to the desert plants. We saw an occasional campfire way out in the distance, perhaps ranchers settling down for the night. The emptiness was oddly serene, prepping us to sleep like champions upon returning to Bullhead after a week of long , active, beautiful days.
Showing posts with label charismatic geomorphology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label charismatic geomorphology. Show all posts
23 March 2013
Bryce Canyon!
I like the Grand Canyon. I think everyone should see it. That being said, I was in just as much, if not more, awe when I walked up to the edge of Bryce Canyon for the first time. It's amazing to park the car and turn around and see a big blank spot beyond the immediate trees, and know something huge is waiting there for me to see. I think the Grand Canyon is almost too big to really appreciate in the same way that I appreciated Bryce (and Zion, but more on that later).
Bryce is stunning. The recent snow left a lot of ice and mud on the trails, but a beautiful light blanket over the trees and hoodoos (weird rock spires). I've never seen rocks quite like this before. Katy, Mike and I bravely hiked down into the canyon, which was way more accessible than the Grand Canyon (we hiked to the bottom and back up in just a few hours, while they warn you to NOT do that in a single day at the Grand Canyon for fear of death by exhaustion). It was slippery and there was a lot of "surfing" downhill involved, but what a view. It was just as awesome to look up at the hoodoos as it was to look down. It was a beautiful clear day, so looking up had the added bonus of the bright blue sky behind the crazy rockforms and trees.
Tree of the day: limber pine, which is very complimentary to the hoodoos in its weird spindly appearance. They just grow out of the sides of canyon walls and on top of hoodoos and wherever they want, no matter how strange a place it is for a tree. So neat.
After an intense hike (that altitude will get to you!), we took it easy along the rim trail and then drove through the park, stopping at some of the viewing points. One was over 9000 feet. One had a pretty sweet natural bridge formation. The whole park was pretty incredible.
Bryce is stunning. The recent snow left a lot of ice and mud on the trails, but a beautiful light blanket over the trees and hoodoos (weird rock spires). I've never seen rocks quite like this before. Katy, Mike and I bravely hiked down into the canyon, which was way more accessible than the Grand Canyon (we hiked to the bottom and back up in just a few hours, while they warn you to NOT do that in a single day at the Grand Canyon for fear of death by exhaustion). It was slippery and there was a lot of "surfing" downhill involved, but what a view. It was just as awesome to look up at the hoodoos as it was to look down. It was a beautiful clear day, so looking up had the added bonus of the bright blue sky behind the crazy rockforms and trees.
Tree of the day: limber pine, which is very complimentary to the hoodoos in its weird spindly appearance. They just grow out of the sides of canyon walls and on top of hoodoos and wherever they want, no matter how strange a place it is for a tree. So neat.
After an intense hike (that altitude will get to you!), we took it easy along the rim trail and then drove through the park, stopping at some of the viewing points. One was over 9000 feet. One had a pretty sweet natural bridge formation. The whole park was pretty incredible.
Arizona, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Arizona, Utah
Brian had a flight out of Vegas on Wednesday (March 13) and the Smithbauers had a flight tour of Lake Powell and Antelope Canyon, so Mike and I drove from Flagstaff, Arizona to Kanab, Utah via Las Vegas, Nevada, which involved a lot of weaving in and out of states on weirdly beautiful highways.
Going from Flag to Vegas was weird, losing the beautiful snow cover as we went down in elevation, back into the juniper-pinyon elevation before the high grasslands and eventually the scrubby desert. It was probably in the teens when we woke up in Flagstaff, and kind of toasty once we got back to the Mohave Valley and Desert on our way up to Vegas. We hit the In-N-Out Burger, whose veggie burger is stupid (a hamburger minus the beef, so a bun, lettuce, tomato and onion) but whose fries and grilled cheese are adequate enough. That was the most local cultural thing we could think of.
The drive continued on through ALL of Clark County, Nevada, which is way bigger than I thought (Nevada, which is more than 12.5 times the size of New Jersey, has only 16 counties, while NJ has 21). It is all desert and passes through some wide open empty reservation land (Moapa).
Back into Arizona, I-15 passes through the Virgin River Gorge and over the Virgin River seven times. It was stunning. There is little in the way of geologic lead-up to the gorge, nor did I have any idea it was coming despite my frequent staring at maps, so I was in absolutely awe when we got there. For an interstate highway, it sure has views. We drove through more reservation land (Kaibab-Paiute) and saw a few gas stations and rest stops but little else.
Then Utah (the first time!). More little gas stations and rest stops till we got to Washington, then Hurricane (why is it even called that?!), before hooking a right and heading back into Arizona, through Navajo land before heading back into Utah.
We stayed in Kanab, which seemed like a sleepy little tourist stop (in the middle of the Golden Circle of national parks, including Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion). Most of the main roads were under construction, but we had a great meal at a Mexican restaurant across the street from our hotel. Even in town, we had a nice view of the beautiful mountains, which would only get better as we carried on to more national parks for the rest of the week...
Going from Flag to Vegas was weird, losing the beautiful snow cover as we went down in elevation, back into the juniper-pinyon elevation before the high grasslands and eventually the scrubby desert. It was probably in the teens when we woke up in Flagstaff, and kind of toasty once we got back to the Mohave Valley and Desert on our way up to Vegas. We hit the In-N-Out Burger, whose veggie burger is stupid (a hamburger minus the beef, so a bun, lettuce, tomato and onion) but whose fries and grilled cheese are adequate enough. That was the most local cultural thing we could think of.
The drive continued on through ALL of Clark County, Nevada, which is way bigger than I thought (Nevada, which is more than 12.5 times the size of New Jersey, has only 16 counties, while NJ has 21). It is all desert and passes through some wide open empty reservation land (Moapa).
Back into Arizona, I-15 passes through the Virgin River Gorge and over the Virgin River seven times. It was stunning. There is little in the way of geologic lead-up to the gorge, nor did I have any idea it was coming despite my frequent staring at maps, so I was in absolutely awe when we got there. For an interstate highway, it sure has views. We drove through more reservation land (Kaibab-Paiute) and saw a few gas stations and rest stops but little else.
Then Utah (the first time!). More little gas stations and rest stops till we got to Washington, then Hurricane (why is it even called that?!), before hooking a right and heading back into Arizona, through Navajo land before heading back into Utah.
We stayed in Kanab, which seemed like a sleepy little tourist stop (in the middle of the Golden Circle of national parks, including Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion). Most of the main roads were under construction, but we had a great meal at a Mexican restaurant across the street from our hotel. Even in town, we had a nice view of the beautiful mountains, which would only get better as we carried on to more national parks for the rest of the week...
22 March 2013
happy returns
To kick off Katy and Mike's spring breaks (and Brian's vacation and my general tagging along), we took a grand tour of Mohave County. We started with a drive to Oatman, where the burros were out in large numbers, including several babies (which we've taken to calling burritos) ranging from three weeks to about three months. We even caught the daily gun fight for once!
We took Old Route 66 to Topock on our way to Lake Havasu, where we stopped to see the London Bridge, walk along the water, and visit Barley Brothers. It was a lovely drive through the desert. It has "rained" (mostly been overcast and damp, more so than downpour, although the last time the skies deluged on Mohave County) all of three times since I've been here, which has lead to a lot of weird desert grasses growing, and all of the cacti and brush looking less dead, and... a rainbow of wildflowers have sprung up!
After a grand tour of where Mike's been living for the past nine months, we headed east to the Grand Canyon. It had snowed all weekend until we left Bullhead City, so we were greeted with a glorious, heavy, wet snow hanging onto the ponderosa pines in Kaibab National Forest (and thankfully, clear roads!). It was pretty cool to see the difference between summer canyon and winter canyon. The snow made everything very pretty, and it wasn't too cold out to walk around a bit. We mostly strolled along the south rim trail, catching sunset at Yaki Point, which was new for me.
On Monday (March 11), we went to Sunset Crater and Wupatki. Mike and I visited Sunset Crater Volcano in January, but this time we hiked a bit more and also explored the pueblo ruins. This pair of national parks was nuts. It was snow covered at Sunset Crater, but not the slightest evidence of snow up in Wupatki. The views were incredible, as were the hikes-- a very steep stroll up the side of a volcano cone, and a repeat of the good loop around the a'a.
The next day, we took all of Mike's people to Sedona. Katy, Brian, Mike and I hiked the perimeter of Red Rock State Park, like Mike and I did in January. It's such a beautiful park with great views. Hiking all of the trails is just the right amount of challenging-- a good workout, but not so hard that you can't do anything else for the rest of the day. It was nice to repeat this park, too, but we also managed to get in one more trail than we did last time (the Kisva trail along the creek).
It was so cool to show Katy, Brian, and Mike's aunt and uncle around these parks that we liked so much. I never get sick of looking at these crazy rocks, either. It was nice to be able to add new elements to things we already enjoyed, too. This all served as a good foundation for the rest of the week in Utah!
We took Old Route 66 to Topock on our way to Lake Havasu, where we stopped to see the London Bridge, walk along the water, and visit Barley Brothers. It was a lovely drive through the desert. It has "rained" (mostly been overcast and damp, more so than downpour, although the last time the skies deluged on Mohave County) all of three times since I've been here, which has lead to a lot of weird desert grasses growing, and all of the cacti and brush looking less dead, and... a rainbow of wildflowers have sprung up!
After a grand tour of where Mike's been living for the past nine months, we headed east to the Grand Canyon. It had snowed all weekend until we left Bullhead City, so we were greeted with a glorious, heavy, wet snow hanging onto the ponderosa pines in Kaibab National Forest (and thankfully, clear roads!). It was pretty cool to see the difference between summer canyon and winter canyon. The snow made everything very pretty, and it wasn't too cold out to walk around a bit. We mostly strolled along the south rim trail, catching sunset at Yaki Point, which was new for me.
On Monday (March 11), we went to Sunset Crater and Wupatki. Mike and I visited Sunset Crater Volcano in January, but this time we hiked a bit more and also explored the pueblo ruins. This pair of national parks was nuts. It was snow covered at Sunset Crater, but not the slightest evidence of snow up in Wupatki. The views were incredible, as were the hikes-- a very steep stroll up the side of a volcano cone, and a repeat of the good loop around the a'a.
The next day, we took all of Mike's people to Sedona. Katy, Brian, Mike and I hiked the perimeter of Red Rock State Park, like Mike and I did in January. It's such a beautiful park with great views. Hiking all of the trails is just the right amount of challenging-- a good workout, but not so hard that you can't do anything else for the rest of the day. It was nice to repeat this park, too, but we also managed to get in one more trail than we did last time (the Kisva trail along the creek).
It was so cool to show Katy, Brian, and Mike's aunt and uncle around these parks that we liked so much. I never get sick of looking at these crazy rocks, either. It was nice to be able to add new elements to things we already enjoyed, too. This all served as a good foundation for the rest of the week in Utah!
25 February 2013
Mojave Desert
We've taken to adding a prefix to anything we (Mike, his fellow teachers and I) don't understand: "weird desert ______". It's fitting, especially given some of the crazy and beautiful things I saw in the Mojave Desert last weekend.
Last Saturday, a few of us went to Joshua Tree National Park. The drive there down CA-95 was nauseating, not in appearance, but in the up and down and up and down and up and down of the road. We're not even talking serious mountains here, just a road that dipped and rolled with a horizon that looks deceptively flat. I'm to blame for the route though. I picked it because Google Maps suggested it took the same amount of time as the bigger highway, and figured it'd be more scenic. It was actually really interesting to look at-- desert as far as you could see, which I'm learning includes a lot of weird desert plants, more than I ever would have guessed. The southwest is actually not like the Sahara, I've learned.
Something we thought was especially interesting was that as we paralleled the train tracks, was this intricate sort of graffiti made out of sticks and different colored rocks. People's initials, dates, names, images. I've never really seen that before.
California Route 62 drives along the edge of Joshua Tree National Park for a while, but not one Joshua Tree was spotted until we were well within the other side of the park near Twentynine Palms, CA. They are almost Dr. Seuss like. I can only imagine their weird shapes are a long-perfected adaptation to windthrow or something, knowing that root systems and branches have some balance to them. The weirder looking their crowns, perhaps the weirder looking and more anchored the roots? I don't know. They were really bizarre but very, very cool to stare at as we hiked and visited different parts of the park.
In addition to weird desert trees, the geology in the park was pretty weird looking. Everything was smooth and rounded and curved, as though a child was given some green, brown and grey crayons and told to invent a new planet. It was very beautiful, but kind of eery. I've never seen anything else like this place.
We stayed in Barstow, and the next day, Mike, Dustin, Hannah and I headed to Death Valley National Park. My ears rejoiced as we hit sea level, and despite how hot it was at -282 feet (close to 90 degrees till the sun began to decline), it was a really cool place. You can see snow capped Telescope Peak (part of the range that Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental US is in) from the salt flats in Badwater Basin (the lowest point in the US). There were mountains in every color, a stunning natural bridge, weird salt formations, and of course, weird desert plants. I was amazed at how much was growing in the park (not much, but more than nothing).
After a good rest in Pahrump, NV (another weird desert gambling town) we spent the next day meandering back to Bullhead City, with a stop at Red Rock Canyon just outside of Las Vegas. This place was really beautiful, and really unexpected. For one, the desert heading into Vegas seems so barren and empty (although we were proven wrong later, there are way more plants, including Joshua Trees, visible when you drive south from Vegas during daylight); the desert in this park had a lot of weird desert plants, and even some wild horses. Again, the rocks came in every color, and the wind erosion created some really great rock scrambles. We were able to sit pretty high on top of some red rocks and have a great view of the place.
The drive back to Bullhead City was pretty direct, but like I said, we saw way more plants than we knew were there. Having only flown into Vegas at night, I've seen some of the brush by the road, but it mostly looks like you're on the moon when you drive through the Mojave Desert. It turns out, the incredible darkness of the desert is hiding all sorts of yucca, Joshua trees, distant mountains, and other weird desert things. Really cool. Well, warm, it is February, and it is up over 60 degrees most days already...
Last Saturday, a few of us went to Joshua Tree National Park. The drive there down CA-95 was nauseating, not in appearance, but in the up and down and up and down and up and down of the road. We're not even talking serious mountains here, just a road that dipped and rolled with a horizon that looks deceptively flat. I'm to blame for the route though. I picked it because Google Maps suggested it took the same amount of time as the bigger highway, and figured it'd be more scenic. It was actually really interesting to look at-- desert as far as you could see, which I'm learning includes a lot of weird desert plants, more than I ever would have guessed. The southwest is actually not like the Sahara, I've learned.
Something we thought was especially interesting was that as we paralleled the train tracks, was this intricate sort of graffiti made out of sticks and different colored rocks. People's initials, dates, names, images. I've never really seen that before.
California Route 62 drives along the edge of Joshua Tree National Park for a while, but not one Joshua Tree was spotted until we were well within the other side of the park near Twentynine Palms, CA. They are almost Dr. Seuss like. I can only imagine their weird shapes are a long-perfected adaptation to windthrow or something, knowing that root systems and branches have some balance to them. The weirder looking their crowns, perhaps the weirder looking and more anchored the roots? I don't know. They were really bizarre but very, very cool to stare at as we hiked and visited different parts of the park.
In addition to weird desert trees, the geology in the park was pretty weird looking. Everything was smooth and rounded and curved, as though a child was given some green, brown and grey crayons and told to invent a new planet. It was very beautiful, but kind of eery. I've never seen anything else like this place.
We stayed in Barstow, and the next day, Mike, Dustin, Hannah and I headed to Death Valley National Park. My ears rejoiced as we hit sea level, and despite how hot it was at -282 feet (close to 90 degrees till the sun began to decline), it was a really cool place. You can see snow capped Telescope Peak (part of the range that Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental US is in) from the salt flats in Badwater Basin (the lowest point in the US). There were mountains in every color, a stunning natural bridge, weird salt formations, and of course, weird desert plants. I was amazed at how much was growing in the park (not much, but more than nothing).
After a good rest in Pahrump, NV (another weird desert gambling town) we spent the next day meandering back to Bullhead City, with a stop at Red Rock Canyon just outside of Las Vegas. This place was really beautiful, and really unexpected. For one, the desert heading into Vegas seems so barren and empty (although we were proven wrong later, there are way more plants, including Joshua Trees, visible when you drive south from Vegas during daylight); the desert in this park had a lot of weird desert plants, and even some wild horses. Again, the rocks came in every color, and the wind erosion created some really great rock scrambles. We were able to sit pretty high on top of some red rocks and have a great view of the place.
The drive back to Bullhead City was pretty direct, but like I said, we saw way more plants than we knew were there. Having only flown into Vegas at night, I've seen some of the brush by the road, but it mostly looks like you're on the moon when you drive through the Mojave Desert. It turns out, the incredible darkness of the desert is hiding all sorts of yucca, Joshua trees, distant mountains, and other weird desert things. Really cool. Well, warm, it is February, and it is up over 60 degrees most days already...
25 January 2013
a'a-wesome: even more cool rocks!
Flagstaff was about 16° Fahrenheit (that's about -9° Celcius, if you were wondering) on Monday morning.
We bundled up in as many layers as possible (only having brought so many warm clothes to Arizona) and embarked on a search for breakfast.We had stopped in Flagstaff for coffee on our way to Sedona on Sunday and every coffee place we could find was closed. Monday though-- no problem. We found a little place called White Dove Coffee Shop, which had great coffee and tea and breakfast burritos. I'm not fully human until I eat in the morning, so after that, the adventures could begin.
We decided to take advantage of free National Parks admission to celebrate MLK Day and went up to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument to explore a little bit. This fit in perfectly with the rest of the weekend's theme of COOL ROCKS: volcanic rocks! A'a! The greatest scrabble word of all time, right there in front of me. We only hiked one trail because it was really cold out, and there was a lot of ice and little guarantee that the trails would be ok, but it was really beautiful. I especially enjoyed the juxtaposition of lava fields-- rocks that were laid down by hot, violent volcanic explosions-- and the fresh, clean, sparkling, peaceful snow covering the park.
Disappointing: you can't hike up the side of the volcano anymore, too many people doing that caused too much erosion. Still, you can look up 1000 feet at it and just imagine what it must have been like about 900 years ago, all melty and exploding. Kind of cool.
Good weekend. Tree rocks, sedimentary rocks, red rocks, volcanic rocks. You could say the weekend rocked. ha ha.
We bundled up in as many layers as possible (only having brought so many warm clothes to Arizona) and embarked on a search for breakfast.We had stopped in Flagstaff for coffee on our way to Sedona on Sunday and every coffee place we could find was closed. Monday though-- no problem. We found a little place called White Dove Coffee Shop, which had great coffee and tea and breakfast burritos. I'm not fully human until I eat in the morning, so after that, the adventures could begin.
We decided to take advantage of free National Parks admission to celebrate MLK Day and went up to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument to explore a little bit. This fit in perfectly with the rest of the weekend's theme of COOL ROCKS: volcanic rocks! A'a! The greatest scrabble word of all time, right there in front of me. We only hiked one trail because it was really cold out, and there was a lot of ice and little guarantee that the trails would be ok, but it was really beautiful. I especially enjoyed the juxtaposition of lava fields-- rocks that were laid down by hot, violent volcanic explosions-- and the fresh, clean, sparkling, peaceful snow covering the park.
Disappointing: you can't hike up the side of the volcano anymore, too many people doing that caused too much erosion. Still, you can look up 1000 feet at it and just imagine what it must have been like about 900 years ago, all melty and exploding. Kind of cool.
Good weekend. Tree rocks, sedimentary rocks, red rocks, volcanic rocks. You could say the weekend rocked. ha ha.
23 January 2013
more colorful rocks
On Sunday morning, we returned to Petrified Forest National Park to look at the Painted Desert in the morning light. Amazing. The hills were all shades of red and pink, and the park was empty (so even quieter and more peaceful). We stopped by the few overlooks we didn't check out on Saturday, and caught some great views of petrified forests. Incredible stuff.
After leaving Petrified Forest/Painted Desert and meandering through Holbrook (where we'd stayed the night before), a town that doesn't have much besides a railroad crossing and a LOT of dinosaur statues, we intended to visit Meteor Crater and check out Flagstaff. We stopped at Meteor Crater only to discover that it's not particularly cheap to get in. Could we have afforded it? Probably. Did we want to? No. We were offended by the blatant ripping off of tourists, so we continued on our merry way, and on a whim decided to check out Sedona instead.
Still got to see a big hole in the ground!
Sedona is absolutely lovely. It was pretty chilly in Flagstaff, looking so nice and wintery with pine trees and snow. We began the drive from Flag to Sedona and were happily surprised to find that the squiggly lines on Google maps was a gorgeous, winding road down into Oak Creek Canyon.
View Larger Map
The temperature jumped and it felt like spring. We enjoyed having the windows down and driving through the cute downtown area of Sedona, full of fun looking shops and restaurants. We decided to go to Red Rock State Park (over Slide Rock State Park, and good that we did, because apparently the main attraction there is playing in the river, which it wasn't quite warm enough for). That was a good whimsical decision.
Red Rock State Park is full of really great trails, and obviously, red rocks. They are beautifully maintained without being paved and excessively manufactured looking. We basically hiked the perimeter of the trails, probably 3-4 miles. It was beautiful. Stunning views, cool lizards and birds, bobcat scat (which we proudly identified correctly using our own logic of, it's fuzzy, so something that eats other fuzzy things, and it looks like cat poop), lots of cacti and trees, with a little stream running through (SO nice to be by water).
We stopped by a brewery in town and had a flight of samples of some great stuff before having dinner at a sandwich place and heading up to Flagstaff for the night. That windy road was less fun at night, but the infinite number of stars and the moonlight glowing on the snow as we gained elevation was pretty cool.
After leaving Petrified Forest/Painted Desert and meandering through Holbrook (where we'd stayed the night before), a town that doesn't have much besides a railroad crossing and a LOT of dinosaur statues, we intended to visit Meteor Crater and check out Flagstaff. We stopped at Meteor Crater only to discover that it's not particularly cheap to get in. Could we have afforded it? Probably. Did we want to? No. We were offended by the blatant ripping off of tourists, so we continued on our merry way, and on a whim decided to check out Sedona instead.
Still got to see a big hole in the ground!
Sedona is absolutely lovely. It was pretty chilly in Flagstaff, looking so nice and wintery with pine trees and snow. We began the drive from Flag to Sedona and were happily surprised to find that the squiggly lines on Google maps was a gorgeous, winding road down into Oak Creek Canyon.
View Larger Map
The temperature jumped and it felt like spring. We enjoyed having the windows down and driving through the cute downtown area of Sedona, full of fun looking shops and restaurants. We decided to go to Red Rock State Park (over Slide Rock State Park, and good that we did, because apparently the main attraction there is playing in the river, which it wasn't quite warm enough for). That was a good whimsical decision.
Red Rock State Park is full of really great trails, and obviously, red rocks. They are beautifully maintained without being paved and excessively manufactured looking. We basically hiked the perimeter of the trails, probably 3-4 miles. It was beautiful. Stunning views, cool lizards and birds, bobcat scat (which we proudly identified correctly using our own logic of, it's fuzzy, so something that eats other fuzzy things, and it looks like cat poop), lots of cacti and trees, with a little stream running through (SO nice to be by water).
We stopped by a brewery in town and had a flight of samples of some great stuff before having dinner at a sandwich place and heading up to Flagstaff for the night. That windy road was less fun at night, but the infinite number of stars and the moonlight glowing on the snow as we gained elevation was pretty cool.
21 January 2013
Petrified Forest
Rocks! Trees that are rocks! Rocks that used to be trees!
!!!!!!!!!!!
We began the long weekend (thank you, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for your good work for our world) at Petrified Forest National Park, a place that Mike mentioned he passed on his original drive west in July. He suggested maybe I'd be interested in going there sometime?
TREES THAT ARE ROCKS!
I really loved this park. The biggest impression Arizona has made on me so far is that everything is just so wide, so expansive, so vast-- Petrified Forest was no exception, but in a very different way than I've seen before. Grasslands as far as you could see, occasionally interrupted by a cluster of badland hills, with the Painted Desert around the northern edges. I think what made it feel so immense to me was the fact that I-40/old US-66 and the Santa Fe Railroad bisected the park, but you could watch a train with 100 cars go by and barely hear it. There was nothing for the sound to bounce off. It was sort of eerily quiet, but really peaceful.
We stopped and hiked a lot of the trails in the park. Most of them were reasonably short and accessible. The drives in between the trails were stunning, too, with amazing views of the badlands-- the stripes of sedimentation were really obviously and really cool colors. Grasslands as far as you could see with little specks of Painted Desert, badlands and petrified wood everywhere. So lovely.
The park sadly closes before sunset, but we got to stare at the Painted Desert in the northern end of the park as the sun got lower in the sky, and it was pretty awesome to see the colors just pop. Amazing reds and pinks and blues and greens, with the pale washed out grasses and the big, blue sky. Pretty awesome.
I just love petrified wood. I think it's really cool. Here are at least five reasons why:
1. They are trees and rocks at the same time! That right there is practically my top ten favorite things!
2. It's really pretty.
3. So many different colors from so many different minerals.
4. SCIENCE!
5. There are probably some good metaphors about living things that are somewhat frozen in time or things that are solid that also had life at one time or something. Very poetic, I tell you.
6. Did you know that it requires a diamond saw or dynamite to cut petrified wood? That stuff is serious business.
7. Petrified wood has so many interesting things to say about the geographic environment that it's in, and it's easy to see how that has changed, which is really cool (for example, a lot of the tree rocks we saw in the park were conifers. Conifers! It's all grasslands now with an occasional juniper and maybe another tree or two!).
Well, I got carried away with that. I would keep going on, except most of my reasons would probably just be me stuttering about how much I enjoy trees and rocks and trees that are rocks. It's true though.
Tree of the day: obviously, the ones that are now rocks
So, Petrified Forest? A raving success. That is a lovely park. It was a pretty beautiful day.
!!!!!!!!!!!
We began the long weekend (thank you, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for your good work for our world) at Petrified Forest National Park, a place that Mike mentioned he passed on his original drive west in July. He suggested maybe I'd be interested in going there sometime?
TREES THAT ARE ROCKS!
I really loved this park. The biggest impression Arizona has made on me so far is that everything is just so wide, so expansive, so vast-- Petrified Forest was no exception, but in a very different way than I've seen before. Grasslands as far as you could see, occasionally interrupted by a cluster of badland hills, with the Painted Desert around the northern edges. I think what made it feel so immense to me was the fact that I-40/old US-66 and the Santa Fe Railroad bisected the park, but you could watch a train with 100 cars go by and barely hear it. There was nothing for the sound to bounce off. It was sort of eerily quiet, but really peaceful.
We stopped and hiked a lot of the trails in the park. Most of them were reasonably short and accessible. The drives in between the trails were stunning, too, with amazing views of the badlands-- the stripes of sedimentation were really obviously and really cool colors. Grasslands as far as you could see with little specks of Painted Desert, badlands and petrified wood everywhere. So lovely.
The park sadly closes before sunset, but we got to stare at the Painted Desert in the northern end of the park as the sun got lower in the sky, and it was pretty awesome to see the colors just pop. Amazing reds and pinks and blues and greens, with the pale washed out grasses and the big, blue sky. Pretty awesome.
I just love petrified wood. I think it's really cool. Here are at least five reasons why:
1. They are trees and rocks at the same time! That right there is practically my top ten favorite things!
2. It's really pretty.
3. So many different colors from so many different minerals.
4. SCIENCE!
5. There are probably some good metaphors about living things that are somewhat frozen in time or things that are solid that also had life at one time or something. Very poetic, I tell you.
6. Did you know that it requires a diamond saw or dynamite to cut petrified wood? That stuff is serious business.
7. Petrified wood has so many interesting things to say about the geographic environment that it's in, and it's easy to see how that has changed, which is really cool (for example, a lot of the tree rocks we saw in the park were conifers. Conifers! It's all grasslands now with an occasional juniper and maybe another tree or two!).
Well, I got carried away with that. I would keep going on, except most of my reasons would probably just be me stuttering about how much I enjoy trees and rocks and trees that are rocks. It's true though.
Tree of the day: obviously, the ones that are now rocks
So, Petrified Forest? A raving success. That is a lovely park. It was a pretty beautiful day.
02 September 2012
CHARISMATIC GEOMORPHOLOGY!
Today, we woke up early and watched the sun rise in the Grand Canyon. I don't even know how to begin to describe how incredible it was to stare into this giant, awesome hole in the ground all day.
We left Bullhead City a little after 2 AM to make it to the South Rim in plenty of time for sunrise. It was cool and rainy, but the weather stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the sun pouring through the clouds, lighting up the canyon brilliantly. Even overcast, it was just so beautiful. Mike will tell you his favorite stupid thing I said today was probably just after sunrise, as we took pictures of the stunning canyon. I turned to this lovely Utah Juniper next to me and said, "I love this tree." You know, while standing next to the Grand Canyon. I was just in awe of everything I could see.
We decided to hike about a mile and a half kind of southeast from Mather Point (a great overlook closest to the first visitors center in the park) to Pipe Creek Vista. It just rained the entire time, and was so chilly and windy. I enjoyed the biodiversity along the trail in addition to the changing view of the canyon itself. It was really nice to just have a walk by ourselves, without loud tourists and worrying about getting in the way of other people's photos. We were so cold and soaked by the end of it that we were thankful when a park shuttle pulled up to the vista just as we finished a timer photo of our sad, soggy selves. We weren't really that sad though, just in need of some hot tea.
After we warmed up and dried off a bit, the rain mostly stopped for the day, just occasional spitting. We packed some snacks and my tree book into a backpack and took off, hiking along the rim trail about four miles to the west of Mather Point, stopping often just to soak it all in. I felt so small all day, but it didn't make me feel lonely or pointless. It felt cozy. I'm such a small part of such a big world, but things are pretty great. I mean, come on, I spent my day at the Grand Canyon. Didn't expect that this summer!
We hiked down the Bright Angel trail a little bit, though we had a short night of sleep to make it out to the canyon in the first place, and had already hiked quite a bit at a way higher elevation than either of us are really used to having grown up at sea level. We sat for a while on one little outcropping. We were tired. It was glorious, but we decided to take the shuttle back to the main parking area mid-afternoon.
I'd been doing so well, but as soon as I sat down on that bus, I was just beat. Done. I kind of nodded off a bit as we took the trip back, until we passed one little road with a lot of cars and people stopped and crowded around this little gully. The bus driver announced that we might want to look out the left side of the bus-- a bull elk was feeding there.
!!!
Charismatic megafauna of the day: BULL ELK. That woke me up! We got off at that next stop and hurried over to get some pictures. The elk didn't really give a care that everyone was watching him, just kept munching on trees and grass and knocking down branches that got tangled in his enormous rack. It was incredible. It almost didn't seem real. He was huge! And very peaceful. We kept a safe distance to keep it that way.
While taking pictures of the elk, we spoke to a nice couple from Flagstaff, where we're staying tonight. They recommended a sweet brew pub downtown. We made the trip to Flag, through some really heavy rains and some really interesting national forests-- Arizona just keeps blowing my mind. Rain! Trees! FORESTS?! It's so green at 8000 feet. I was also amused that the part of the Kaibab Forest that we drove through on Route 180 didn't even really have trees, it was mostly just open rangeland. Still really beautiful, and just awesome to see storm clouds in the distance dumping rain on the mountains surrounding us.
So that brewpub in Flagstaff: Beaver Street Brewpub. Really great beer and food. Good end to a great day.
Beer of the day: R & R Stout, a really smooth, rich but not offensive stout that even Mike liked
Tree of the day: That Utah Juniper probably deserves it most, but I also enjoyed familiarizing myself with Pinyon Pines (they look vaguely sprucey), Ponderosa Pines (really cool looking red and black bark once they mature), and the Gambel Oak (just because I was sitting at the edge of the canyon with my tree book open at one point, with one of those in front of me)
Charismatic geomorphology of the day: Grand Canyon. And when the term "charismatic geomorphology" is a thing in the coming years, I want everyone to remember where they heard it first...
We left Bullhead City a little after 2 AM to make it to the South Rim in plenty of time for sunrise. It was cool and rainy, but the weather stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the sun pouring through the clouds, lighting up the canyon brilliantly. Even overcast, it was just so beautiful. Mike will tell you his favorite stupid thing I said today was probably just after sunrise, as we took pictures of the stunning canyon. I turned to this lovely Utah Juniper next to me and said, "I love this tree." You know, while standing next to the Grand Canyon. I was just in awe of everything I could see.
We decided to hike about a mile and a half kind of southeast from Mather Point (a great overlook closest to the first visitors center in the park) to Pipe Creek Vista. It just rained the entire time, and was so chilly and windy. I enjoyed the biodiversity along the trail in addition to the changing view of the canyon itself. It was really nice to just have a walk by ourselves, without loud tourists and worrying about getting in the way of other people's photos. We were so cold and soaked by the end of it that we were thankful when a park shuttle pulled up to the vista just as we finished a timer photo of our sad, soggy selves. We weren't really that sad though, just in need of some hot tea.
After we warmed up and dried off a bit, the rain mostly stopped for the day, just occasional spitting. We packed some snacks and my tree book into a backpack and took off, hiking along the rim trail about four miles to the west of Mather Point, stopping often just to soak it all in. I felt so small all day, but it didn't make me feel lonely or pointless. It felt cozy. I'm such a small part of such a big world, but things are pretty great. I mean, come on, I spent my day at the Grand Canyon. Didn't expect that this summer!
We hiked down the Bright Angel trail a little bit, though we had a short night of sleep to make it out to the canyon in the first place, and had already hiked quite a bit at a way higher elevation than either of us are really used to having grown up at sea level. We sat for a while on one little outcropping. We were tired. It was glorious, but we decided to take the shuttle back to the main parking area mid-afternoon.
I'd been doing so well, but as soon as I sat down on that bus, I was just beat. Done. I kind of nodded off a bit as we took the trip back, until we passed one little road with a lot of cars and people stopped and crowded around this little gully. The bus driver announced that we might want to look out the left side of the bus-- a bull elk was feeding there.
!!!
Charismatic megafauna of the day: BULL ELK. That woke me up! We got off at that next stop and hurried over to get some pictures. The elk didn't really give a care that everyone was watching him, just kept munching on trees and grass and knocking down branches that got tangled in his enormous rack. It was incredible. It almost didn't seem real. He was huge! And very peaceful. We kept a safe distance to keep it that way.
While taking pictures of the elk, we spoke to a nice couple from Flagstaff, where we're staying tonight. They recommended a sweet brew pub downtown. We made the trip to Flag, through some really heavy rains and some really interesting national forests-- Arizona just keeps blowing my mind. Rain! Trees! FORESTS?! It's so green at 8000 feet. I was also amused that the part of the Kaibab Forest that we drove through on Route 180 didn't even really have trees, it was mostly just open rangeland. Still really beautiful, and just awesome to see storm clouds in the distance dumping rain on the mountains surrounding us.
So that brewpub in Flagstaff: Beaver Street Brewpub. Really great beer and food. Good end to a great day.
Beer of the day: R & R Stout, a really smooth, rich but not offensive stout that even Mike liked
Tree of the day: That Utah Juniper probably deserves it most, but I also enjoyed familiarizing myself with Pinyon Pines (they look vaguely sprucey), Ponderosa Pines (really cool looking red and black bark once they mature), and the Gambel Oak (just because I was sitting at the edge of the canyon with my tree book open at one point, with one of those in front of me)
Charismatic geomorphology of the day: Grand Canyon. And when the term "charismatic geomorphology" is a thing in the coming years, I want everyone to remember where they heard it first...
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