Room+17B

Mary Grace DeSilva - Grand Canyon Hike and Sunset Crater  Danae Jacobs- Glen Canyon River Ride and Wupatki Indian Ruins **__The Hike on the Kaibab Trail (Day 1) 4/21/11__** I was very fortunate to be able to have the wonderful experience of hiking through the Grand Canyon on the Kaibab Trail. I learned so many new and interesting facts about this amazing creation! For example, I never knew that there were three different types of rock: sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rock, interesting right? Well, turns out that sedimentary rock can be broken down in to three other different types: sandstone, limestone and shale. Sandstone is basically made out of grains of sand that are compressed together. It is kind of like dry clay that has a smooth but at the same time rough texture. Limestone is what creates most of the Grand Canyon and is made of calcium, carbon and oxygen. So limestone is usually the strongest sedimentary rock.   I also found interesting that the history of limestone lays i n the deep, blue, ocean. That is why this rock has fossils of shells and sponges. The last type of sedimentary rock is shale. Shale tends to be the weakest rock out of the three but it depends on how it was made. Shale is practically compressed mud that eventually forms in to a somewhat sturdy rock, but not as sturdy as limestone! Speaking of limestone, it is usually the rock that creates the cliffs in the canyon. But, sandstone is also capable of making the cliffs. Just the opposite of a cliff is a slope, and the sedimentary rock shale is what creates them. The scenery was very beautiful when we started the hike at the to but the further we went into the canyon it got even more stunning. It took my breath away. When we made it to look out point. I could see miles in to the Grand Canyon. I could not stop admiring all the rocks and the colors that went along with them. The walls on the side of the canyon where we were walking was a mixture of the colors orange and red and they had a smooth but somewhat rough texture. The birds that flew over head were a nice addition to the to the gorgeous, natural atmosphere that I was surrounded by. I was kind of upset because I was really looking forwards to seeing on of those endangered birds called the California Condor. In the 1980’s there was only a total of 22 of them left. Ever since then many people have been working hard to try to save them and so far they are succeeding! 

__**Glen Canyon River Ride (Day 2)**__ __**4/22/11**__  The slow sailing river ride in Glen Canyon, was fun, interesting and wet! The river is always cold from about 45 tho 47 degrees Fahrenheit because the water comes strait out of the bottom of lake Powell.The canyon was formed about 260 million years ago by the Colorado river, it is about 25 feet deep on average, and has 16 hundred cubic feet per second. This means at any given spot, for one second, 16 hundred gallons of water   pass by. The canyon has so many beautiful land formations such as, hanging canyons, which are "loops" where the river used to run around about 100 million years ago, until it found its current route. It also has hoodoos on the tops or bottoms of cliffs where bolders have fallen and protected the sediment below it and protected the sediment below it and made it look like a golf ball on a tee.  The life in the river is presently trout, however, three other fish lived in the river until the damn for Powel  was formed. These three fish were the humpback chub, razorback sucker, and colorado pike minnow. They have left these waters because, as they were once much warmer, they are mow too cold to sustain the fish. As with being in a desert, only few plants live. Some native plants were cotton wood and few grasses. However beautiful the cotton wood was, the nonnative saltseeder, brought by the spanish, takes in 80 to 200 gallons of water a day, then it filters out the salt into the sand, which will not allow the other native plants to grow. Altogether, the Glen Canyon River is a beautiful site for anybody, and everybody! The Canyon has so many beautiful land formations,such as, hanging canyons which are "loops" where the river used to run throughabout 100 million years ago, untilit found its current, easier path. It alsohas hoodoos along the rim and at the shore line, where bolder have fallen and protected the sediment below it from erosion, which now makes it look like a golf ball on a tee!



__**Wupatki Indian Ruins (Day 2) 4/22/1 1 **__ <span style="color: #e68719; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> The third thing we visited this trip, was the <span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Wupatki national monument. The <span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">Wupatki was an area built about 900 years ago. These pueblo like buildings are now in ruins, however, the walls, corners, and four floors, were able to sustain over 100 anisasi indians. There were many different people and cultures who had passed through this area, the anisasi lived here, and on a stone, there was a marking, showing that the spanish had passed through. This explains the amount of different sorts of artifacts, such as parrots, valuable rubies, and sea shells. Thy this is all left you may ask, the archialogests are not sure exactly, but they believe he elders said they were to leave with what ever they could carry, as they are going to move to another area and start over. The elders may have done this because the pueblos were much like manchines, and all of the possetions of the people were pulling them away from their religion. So therefore, their is now a four story pueble in the desert, which explaines to us how indians lived in the past.

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<span style="color: #4949f8; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">__**Sunset Crater(Day 2) 4/22/11**__ <span style="color: #4949f8; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Sunset crater is one of the prettiest volcanoes in Arizona and I got the chance to visit it! It was such a site to see! There are four types of volcanoes: cinder-cone, composite, shield and lava dome volcanoes. Sunset Crater is a cinder-cone. The black rocks that were everywhere where <span style="color: #4949f8; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="color: #4949f8; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> actually pieces of hardened lava. It is very rare to see a piece of lava that is still hot, especially at Sunset Crater. This is because of two reasons, one is that sunset crater is an extinct volcano. That means that it will never erupt again. Actually sunset crater is the youngest extinct volcano. The second reason is because lava cools so quickly.As a matter of fact, there is a formation at Sunset Crater of a piece of hardened lava that has a bubble in it. The lava cooled so quickly, the bubble did not have time to burst! Near by the bubble formation, I got the chance to see a lava tube! This lava tube was called an ice cave because it was so cold inside of it! When the lava used to flow underground through the tube, it would get very cold because under the surface of the earth it is freezing and silica, which is inside of lava, is such a great insulator. It kept the tube as cold as an ice cube! It was really funny because Mr. Davi kept saying Super Man lived in the tube!