Day 71 May 14

Starting the hike down to the bottom

Letting the mules pass

Break time

A view of the trail and the river at about half way

At the bottom, 120 degrees

 We got started early around 7: 45 (Although it was recommended that we start at 6 or 6:30 but it is difficult to get four people up and going early).  We hiked down the South Kaibab Trail 7 miles descending a mile in altitude.  The color of the trial would change color every time we got to a new rock layer.  It was hard on the legs because it was like going down seven miles of stairs.  This is hard of on the calf muscles.  The dry desert air sucks the moisture out of you we each drank about 3 quarts of water on the way down.  The amazing thing is we sweat that all out.  It took us about 5 hours to hike down.  By the time we reached the bottom it was 115 degrees.   

River temperature was around 50 degrees

Anna and I could not resist the Colorado River and stopped as soon as we reached it to put our feet in.  The sand by the shore was burning hot and the water was very very cold.  My feet cramped right up and we could not hold our feet in the water long even though it was over a hundred degrees out.  We checked in at the dormitories and discovered that they had showers in the dorms.  Each dorm cabin could hold ten people in 5 bunk beds.  I did not bring an extra shirt so I bought a t shirt and took a shower.  The water turned red from all the dust that was on us.  It felt very good.  One of my bunk mates rated the shower as one of the top ten showers of his life.  The bunk house was air conditioned so after a short nap I was very refreshed.  The men’s dorm only had four middle aged guys in it so we each got our own bunk and got along very well it was very quiet and relaxing.  The female dorm was a different experience with ten girls and women sleeping in the same cabin with little regard for each other’s sleep or personal space.  So showering was good but napping was not an option. 

Female Dorms

We met back in front of the Ranger Station and went to Phantom Creek to cool off some more.  They served lemonade in the little café down in Phantom Ranch it was very refreshing and very good and worth 2.50 a person.  They also serve a dinner , breakfast, and a bag lunch.  It is all very expensive because all the supplies have to be brought down by mule.  We opted to just have breakfast which was 17 dollars a person.  The temperature of the creek was nice you could sit in it without freezing to death.  Jane and Anna worked on their Junior Ranger Books too.  There is a separate patch that you can only get if you hike down to the ranch. 

The Rangers say not to hike down and back up in one day.  One group of young girls passed us on the way down.  They were running and climbing along the path unsupervised.  They did not have enough water with them either.  All the other hikers were very concerned for them.  The group made it to the bottom and they had lunch and headed back up against recommendation with their aunt and uncle that had caught up with them. 

Bright Angel Stream at the bottom was much warmer than the river making it a better place to cool off.

Day 70 May 13

Mothers day

Day 3 at the Grand Canyon

In the tower

In the morning we went to the reservation desk to see if they had a cancellation at Phantom Ranch.  We missed an opportunity to get a cabin by oversleeping the day before but we were lucky to get spaces in the dormitory for the four of us at Phantom Ranch.  Since we had to report at 6:30 am Mrs. Barnes and I took advantage of the morning and had breakfast at the Bright Angle Lodge for Mother’s day.

We went back to Coulter Tower at the Desert View overlook.  The tower was built by Mrs. Coulter as a tourist attraction and a way to preserve the beauty of the area.  It was designed to stay in keeping with the Indian dwellings of the  area as well as pay respect to their art work.  The original furnishings were made of natural material found in the area.  The art work and motifs in the tower were done by local Indian artisans.  The top of the tower offered spectacular views of the canyon and the upper plateau.

Colorado River one mile down from the rim

We had purchased cactus when we were at Saguaro National Park.  The ride in the trailer shook the cacti out of their loose soil. Mrs. Barnes devised a way to anchor the plants so that the soil could shake around a little but the plants would still stay. 

In the evening we packed up backpacks with water, food, and extra socks for our hike down to the bottom of the Canyon.  We are glad we did not have to pack all the camping equipment.   Each person had to carry a gallon of water.  The temperature in the canyon at the bottom was suppose to be close to 100 degrees.  It is nice and cool in the morning on the rim but gets hot by 9:30 or 10:00.  So the more hiking you do in the morning the better. 

Day 69 May 12

Day 2 at the Grand Canyon

The long drive and late night the day before forced us to sleep in.  After breakfast we went to the visitor’s center, we found out about the trials and Junior Ranger programs in Grand Canyon.  We tried to see about reservations to stay at Phantom Ranch or the Campground at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  We put ourselves on the waiting list for both.  We would rather stay at Phantom Ranch even though it is more expensive to save hiking down and up with sleeping bags and tents.

 Jane and Anna have been doing the Junior Ranger Program since we learned about it after Carlsbad Caverns.  It is an educational program offered to kids 16 and under and involves doing a number of educational activities to learn about the park.  When you are done you have to present your work to a ranger and show him or her what you have learned.  This can take 15 or30 minutes to present your work if you complete the tasks to the rangers satisfaction you earn a Junior Ranger patch or Badge that you can only get by completing the program.  The activities are different at different parks but some are the same.  Jane and Anna have gotten very good at Identifying different cactus because of all the parks that we have gone to in the desert.  One of the things some of the Parks require is that you go to a Ranger Talk.  Most Rangers have advanced degrees in science and are experienced presenters so it makes for very educational experiences for all.

Later in the day we went to a Ranger program on Geology and the formation of the Canyon.  The Ranger centered his talk around an acronym: A DUDE.  To explain the geologic forces that produced the canyon.  The canyon is cut into the Colorado Plateau which covers a huge area. 

Jane and Anna at the South Rim

At the bottom of the canyon are basement rocks laid down in the Precambrian era this was called by the Ranger A for accretion. The rock is a combination of shists and igneous rock.  A mile of sandstone and limestone layers was deposited on top of the basement rock (D for deposition).  The Sandstone and Limestone layers were deposited when the whole area was covered by a great inland sea.  Over time the Sea expanded and shrank at different times.  When water was covering the area limestone was formed from the marine organisms and when the water was low the sand of the shore areas was deposited.   This was able to continue because of the lack of rain in the area so once a layer was deposited it tended to stay.  U is for uplift.  The tectonic plate movement squeezed this area and pushed the entire Colorado Plateau upward to in some places 10000 feet.  D is for down cutting.  Water tries to flow to sea level for the most part.  Water flowing down 10000 feet has a lot of power to cut through rock layers,  the Colorado River and its tributaries (like the Bright Angle and Phantom Creeks) cut through the layers of sedimentary rock to the harder basement rocks of the canyon floor.  E is for erosion.  Rain and weathering further shape the canyon by erosion to make some of its other interesting features.  Buttes  form where layers of harder rock protect layers of softer rock  within the canyon making flat topped pillars in the canyon. This is how the Ranger explained the formation of the canyon through A DUDE ( Accretion Deposition Uplift Down cutting and Erosion).

After the seminar we did about two miles of the Rim trail.  We dropped the car off in one parking lot and walked the trial.  At the end of the section of the trial we got on a shuttle back to the car. 

A Butte in the distance

A picture cannot capture the size of the canyon

Still waiting on decent WiFi

Every Day has a detailed write up to go with it that I can start posting when I get high speed internet again.  It can take up to half an hour just to get my email.  So you can imagine that uploading pictures takes an eternity.  Over the July fourth weekend we will have Internet again and I will start posting details and pictures with each day.  Needless to say we are having a great time and learning a lot about our country’s history and geology.  We will be back soon now around the middle of July.

Day 93 June 5

We spent the day at Yosemite hiking and driving.  We kept an eye on the transit of Venus, we got some good pictures. 

Day 94 June 6

Drove into San Francisco and parked on the street in front of Laurie and Owen’s  apartment.  The trailer and truck together would not fit so we had to on hook and park in two different areas.  It was a very nice visit.

Day 95 June 7

The girls went out and explored the city.  Alcatraz was all booked so they walked the pier and did a little shopping.

Day 96 June 8

Left  San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge.   At sunset we happened by a State Camping area right on the ocean so we stopped for the night. 

Day 97 June 9

Drove the rest of the way to Redwoods forest.  We found a camping spot at Klamath CA

Day 98 June 10

 We hiked the Lady Bird Johnson grove and saw lots of Elk. In the evening we went down to the beach area and saw whales.

Day 99 June 11

We drove on a dirt road through the Jedidah Smith section; this had amazing Red Woods Better than the day before.  Toward evening we went to another overlook and watched whales and seals. 

Day 100 June 12

 We drove to Crater Lake National Park and camped between 6 foot high snow drifts.  The snow  at the top of the mountain by the crater was 15 feet. Because of the snow none of the trails were open but there were plenty of overlooks we could get to with the car.  It is a very beautiful place, the pictures are coming. 

Day 101 June 13

We drove all day and made it to a random campground that was very beautiful at Bully Creek Resevior State Park in Oregon. 

Day 102 June 14

 We drove to a campground near the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument in Idaho.  This is probably the lamest National Monument and not worth visiting even if you lived there.

Day 103 June 15

Camped at Crater’s of the Moon National Monument in Idaho and spent the day hiking around the park.  We explored the lava tubes and all the volcanic structures contained in the park. 

Day 104 June 16

Spent the day at my college friend and his family.  A very nice day.

Day 105 June 17  My Birthday

 Drove to Yellowstone National park and got a nice spot in the Norris Campground.  We then got the Junior Ranger books at Norris Basin and explore the Norris Basin geysers and hot springs. 

Day 106 June 18

Yellowstone

Day 107 June 19 Anna’s Birthday (the quest for cake)

Yellowstone

Day 108 June 20

Yellowstone

Day 109 June 21

 We drove to a campground near Little Bighorn National Memorial.  On the way we stopped at Pompei’s Pillar National Monument on an unplanned stop.  We also stopped at Wal-Mart for much needed groceries.

Day 110 June 22

Drove to Devil’s Tower National Monument in .  On the way we stopped at Little Bighorn National Historic Site and

Day 111 June 23

We spent the day at Devil’s Tower National Monument and hiked around the monument with a ranger that told us the geologic and Indian lore history of the just amazing rock formation.  We went to an evening program on Porcupines.  Anna and I went to go view porcupines and found two rattlesnakes and a raccoon instead.

Day 112 June 24

We drove to Wind Cave National Park and set up in their very nice campground and went to the visitor center to plan our day.  We went to an evening program about star stories of the Lokota Indians.

Day 113 June 25

We spent the day exploring wind cave.  We went on a regular tour in the morning and then I went on a special tour in the afternoon that took 4 hours.  We drove to Mount Rushmore for the evening lighting ceremony, which was very cool.

Day 114 June 26

We drove from our campsite at wind cave to Badlands National Park.  On the way we stopped at a rock shop and spent a lot more money on rock samples.  We also stopped at National Grasslands of Buffalo Gap and they gave me all sorts of posters for my classroom.  We camped at a commercial campground within sight of the park.  It is 105 degrees so we needed the pool and the AC.

Day 115 June 27

Anna and I started the morning with an all you can eat pancake breakfast and then went to a Junior Ranger program on fossils.  We went to the Minuteman Missile National mounument and saw a missile silo.  We did not get to go on a tour because it was all booked.  We drove to Wall for some shopping and found a place to get the oil changed.  We went to the Prairie Homestead Museum.

Day 116 June 28, 2012

I got up early and got tickets to tour the missile launch facility.  I went on a geology walk with a ranger.  We explored the visitor center and went to the fossil laboratory to watch workers clean and prepare fossils.  At 3:30 we are going on a fossil walk with a ranger. 

Yosemite falls

Venus transitting the sun. Venus is near the 1 o'clock position. 

Seal in San Francisco

View at the end of the street



Sunset from the camper window

Redwoods



Where the Ewoks roam.



Crater Lake with Wizard Island



Sunset at Bully Creek

Another Brief

Unfortunately we have been traveling to National Parks and they do not have Internet service, so this is going to be another brief update.  A fully detailed update on each day will be uploaded when we get a high speed connection.  Needless to say we are having a good time and learning a lot.  
We did lose another tire for some unknown reason (there was not enough left of it to tell what caused it).  It only took us one and half hours to get a new one and we were on our way.

Day 84 May 27

 We were able to get a spot in Zion even though the signs said camp ground full. This was a very busy park.

 We drove to Great Basin National Park,Nevada toured the cave in the afternoon. Got to use a solar telescope to see sun spots.   We used telescopes in the evening.  Great Basin is one of the darkest spots in the United States.

Day 85 May 28

Hiked to see the oldest trees in the world and to a glacier, it was a very nice hike in the snow.  We stayed up late to take pictures of the Night Sky.

Day 86 May 29

 We drove to Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. A lot of westerns and other movies were filmed here including Star Trek Generations. In the evening the girls drove in to see Las Vegas.

Day 87 May 30

We toured the park and drove to Death Valley.  It was very hot.  We stayed the night, the night time temperature 104, and there are no electric hook ups in the park.

Day 88 May 31

 We went to the lowest place below Sea Level in the North America.  We drove to Vasquez Rocks, but only got to see the park for about 40 minutes.  We lost a tire on the way which held us up.  We drove from the rocks to a park that had camping at Castaic Lake.

Day 89-92 June 1-4

We went to Sequoia National Park. This is a amazing place.  The hiking is great and the trees are awesome.

On the June 4 we drove to Yosemite a very busy park.  We could not stay in the park because it was full.  We stayed outside the park, we were too late to go into the park and it was raining.  This was the first rain we have had on the trip in about 2 months .  We went and did laundry

Day 93 June 5

Yosemite was very busy because California had the day off for primary day so a lot of people decided to visit the park for the day.  Not to mention that it is the 2nd most visited national park with the Smokey Mountains being the busiest. We did see some cool sights and got some pictures of the transit of Venus. 

This is a brief Blog just to catch you up.  Internet service is a luxury that the National Parks have yet to embrace.  So our only internet service has been the occasional McDonalds.  The Parks also do not have electrical hook ups so I am sitting in the car to write this in hopes that we will find a Wifi signal to be able to send this.  From this point on we are only staying at National Parks so the Blog will not be fully filled in with pictures and explanations for a while.  We are writing about every place we go so when the time comes you will have all the exciting details.  Here is a brief overview of the last two weeks since May 11

Day 69 May 12

                Day 2 at the Grand Canyon

                                We went to a Geology seminar about the canyon and learned about A DUDE

Day 70 May 13 Mothers day

                Day 3 at the Grand Canyon

                                Got reservation for Phantom Ranch and  went to Coulter Tower

                                Repotted cactus

Day 71 May 14

                Day 4 at the Grand Canyon

                Hike down to Phantom ranch using the South Kaibab Trial 7 miles

Day 72 May 15

                Day 5 at the Grand Canyon

                Hike out of Grand Canyon Bright Angle trial 9.4 miles

Day 73 May 16 Happy birthday Dad

                Drove from Grand Canyon to Mesa Verde

                Stopped at Four Corners

                Got to camp late

Day 74 May 17

Toured everything we could at Mesa Verde

                Cliff Palace

                Balcony House

                Spruce Tree House

                Mesa Houses

                Than went shopping and had a late  Pizza

Day 75 May 18

Durango for shoes Lesley’s shoes did not survive the Grand Canyon Hike the last couple of miles were rough with broken shoes.  A word of advice do not buy cheap hiking boots.

Crossed continental divide where there was snow on the ground and a snow flurry was happening.

Drove to Great Sand Dunes and 95 degrees and very windy went to dunes to see sunset

Day 76 May 19

 Anna and I climbed the Sand dunes to about 600 feet.

Mom and Jane did the Montville trial to explore the abandoned village

Went to a Ranger talk on dunes and eclipse

Drove back across the divide to Devil’s Canyon

Day 77 May 20

Slept in and went to Natural Bridges

Hiked

Ranger program and watched eclipse.

 We got great pictures of the Eclipse!

Hiked down to a bridge at night

Day 78 May 21

Drove from Devils Canyon to Arches

Squeezed into a sight but had to wait till six before they would give us a sight so spent the day hiking in the 98 degree weather

Skyline arch at sunset

Ranger program on animals adaptations

 Day 79 May 22

Some more Arches Drove to Capitial Reef but the campground was full so we camped in the National Forest  in a random dirt road.

Day 80 May 23

Capital Reef (great park) did scenic drive and hike explored old farm, drove to Bryce it is supposed to snow this weekend (Bryce is at 8000 feet so it often snows in May)

 We stopped at a RV park to Recharge batteries shower and have internet but the internet did not work.

Day 81 May 24

Went on a 10 mile horse ride through Bryce Canyon

Day 82   May 25, 2012

 The High wind warning prevented us from going to Zion National Park today some roads were closed. So we slept in a little. We fixed the camper in the morning and hiked two trails one in the afternoon and one at sunset. It was a great hike with awesome views.

Day 83 May 26

Got up early to Drive to Zion in order to have most of the day there.

Day 84 May 27

Found a McDonalds on the way to Great Basin NP

There is a lot more to say on each day plus nice pictures I hope to be able to show them to you soon.

Watching the Eclipes at Natural Bridges National Park

Arches National Park

Bryce Canyon at Sunset

Day 68 May 11

Jane had her AP History exam at Flagstaff High School in the morning.  While she was doing that we packed the camper and picked her up in the parking lot of the school pulling the trailer.  The area did not have trailers in mind so it was a little tricky.  We then went to Wal-Mart and picked up some supplies for the week including light weight sleeping bags so that we could backpack and sleep in the bottom of the canyon.  We also had to by lots of high carbohydrate snacks because the trails are quite strenuous.

We stopped at Wupatki Indian ruins on the way to Grand Canyon.  These ruins are interesting because they are not Cliff dwellings.  They also showed that the Aztec culture influenced there building style and recreation.  There is a constructed ball field similar to what the Aztecs used.  The Blow Hole was also here near the blow hole.  Air rushes out of the ground here, it is thought because there might be a huge system of caves or cracks and there is only a few places with small openings for the caves to balance out the pressure with the outside.  Check out the pictures. 

Wupatki Indian Ruins

Fossilized ripples in the sand



The weird Blow Hole

Sunset at the Grand Canyon

Then we drove to the Grand Canyon and arrived at the first overlook just as the Sun was setting.  We got into Mather campground just as the rangers were closing up for the night.  This was only the second time we arrived at a campground in the dark.  Fortunately we had made reservations a few weeks ahead.

Day 67 May 10



A cicada, these make a different noise than the ones we have.

"Twenty miles long, 400 feet deep and ¼-mile wide, it was carved by Walnut Creek over a period of 6 million years. Within its winding walls are natural riches – an abundant mix of plants and animals drawn there by water and varied topography. It seems a timeless place.

Walls of buff sandstone form the canyon’s inner gorge; the rock contours reveal their origins in the wind-scoured dunes of an ancient desert. The limestone ledges of the upper canyon contain delicate marine fossils, remnants of a later sea. Much later, the people of this canyon built their sturdy homes in shallow alcoves along these ledges. "
Quote from the National Park Web Site on Walnut Canyon.

The creek at the bottom of the canyon only runs part of the year.  So the Indians devised methods to store water for the dry periods.  They made large vessels and stored water in separate rooms next to their dwellings.  They used up all the resources in the area and moved on.  They merged with the Hopi and brought with them their crafts of pottery and weaving. 

Dwelling on the opposite wall of the canyon



The lower level of the canyon is made of fossilized
 sand dunes formed at the edge of a sea. Notice the
transition line to regular limestone.  The sea covered
what was once the shore and coral laid down the
upper layers. 

Well preserved room.

Notice the black on the walls from 100 years of cooking fires.

All the ciders you see in the pictures of the volcano look like this.

Sunset Crater is a young volcano that erupted around 1000 years ago.  It was a fissure eruption and resulted in a series of cinder cone volcanoes.  The Indians were around to witness it and even pushed corn into the molten lava as a form of offering maybe.  Rock with the impression of corn  has been found in the lava flow.  Scientist date the flow three ways.  One by the dwellings the ash covered,  two by tree ring Data, and three by magnetic data of the rocks. All of which points to the area being active for a relatively short time about 1000 years ago.  The ash from the eruption had a nice effect on the surrounding area by acting as a fertilizer.  The cinders acted as a mulch and allowed for the soil underneath to hold onto its moisture longer allowing the Indians crops to grow more effectively with less rain. 



Sunset Crater with one half covered with cinders.

Aa lava flow around 800 years ago

Side of sunset crater layered in cinders

Day 66 May 9

Shopping and Errands

An exciting day of running errands! First we went to Walnut Canyon National Monument to try squaring away a problem with our Annual pass for the national parks, (seems we were issued last years pass and no one picked up on that until last week) then to check out Flagstaff high school so we are all set for Friday. Next, we stopped at a local orthodontist's office for some maintenance for Jane and Anna. Many thanks to the staff at the office of Dr. McLaughlin for being so friendly and accommodating! All appliances are fixed, and Anna has an appointment on Friday to have her band re-cemented. We rounded out the day getting groceries, and a couple of new pairs of jeans for Anna...she just keeps growing! Back at home we studied for AP and watched some original Star Trek :)

Day 65 May 8

Boiler and steam engine used to run the winch.  The hole was dug
to search for the meteor in the bottom of the crater.

The tour guide took our picture.

Meteor crater in Winslow AZ. A very different geological site than we have seen so far. The impact of meteor measuring 150 feet across impacted the earth here about 50000 years ago. It broke into smaller fragments when it entered the atmosphere. The largest fragment is on display in the museum for visitors to see and touch. It is made of 92% iron, 7% nickel, and 1% trace minerals. The crater created when the meteor hit the earth is believed to have been 700 feet deep originally, but due to erosion since the impact is now about 500 feet deep. The circumference of the rim is 2.5 miles, and it is about   3/4 mile across. It is estimated that it hit the earth at a speed of 11 miles per second! One way to discern an impact craters from volcanic craters by the condition of the rock strata surrounding them, which is upturned, or even reversed by the impact. Also, the crystalline structure of the rocks surrounding the impact are changed by the decrease in pressure and temperature after the impact. Finally, there is a type of rock that is found only many impact sites called a shattercone that is created by the impact. Although these are things that seem easy to reason out today, it was not as evident in the recent past. One of the things that solidified this way of thinking was comparing the similarities of meteor sites and nuclear test sites. In the afternoon, we headed to Flagstaff, where we will stay for a few days to see some area attractions and to give Jane some final preparation time for the AP US History exam on Friday.

Anna at the rim.

Day 64 May 7

Today we went back to Petrified Forest National Park and visited the Painted desert side of the park as well.  We learned that tons of petrified wood was taken from the park as soon as the rail line went through.  All the plundering of the area led to its protection as a national park.   The Painted Desert part of the park is formation of layers of rock and soil of vastly different colors.  The layers we laid down over millions of years with slightly different chemical compositions.  The greens are from copper and the reds from iron those are the main ones.  The colors also show up in the petrified wood. 


End of a log sticking out of the side of a hill

Note the different colors, reds are from iron, black is from a combination of
 Manganese,carbon and iron.