Room+18A

Bryce Silvas and Tyler Meeks

1. The Grand Canyon Hike. We took a hike down the Kaibab trail on the first Day. It took us about 45 minutes up and down. The trail was pretty steep. Half of the trail was sand and half was dirt. Our trail guide told us many facts along the way. Some of the facts included: Before we actually went down the trail we were told to watch out and stay clear of the mules on the path so we do not interfere with them. We also learned some interesting things about these animals. Most common inquiry when visiting the Grand Canyon is related to squirrel bites. (Tyler was inches from petting a squirrel.) We really liked the trial hike. One of us (Bryce) has never been to The Grand Canyon so when he first saw it, he was pretty amazed. He didn't imagine that it was so big and deep.
 * The Grand Canyon is 3/4+ of a mile deep.
 * The layers are filled with different types of sedimentary rock.
 * The grand canyon is made up of "DUDE". Dude refers to:
 * Deposition
 * Uplift
 * Down cutting
 * Erosion
 * The limestone was once under the sea.
 * Flooding helped erode away the rock.
 * The widest distance from cliff to cliff is 20 miles. It is 1 mile deep and 10 miles to the bottom.
 * The mules have 10 years of training before going to the cliffs.
 * They make funny noises.
 * They have big ears.
 * Mules with big heads are the best of the best.
 * Mules carry eggs.
 * Mules have good feet which allow them to be good trail animals.

2. River Trip on the Colorado River The 2nd day of our trip at 9am we went in a raft down the Colorado River. It took us 3 hrs to get from the dam to Lee's Ferry. The water was 40 degrees so too cold to swim. We saw a lo of Rainbow Trout swimming in the water. Our guide was very informative and gave us a lot of great information about the Grand Canyon and the river.

Bryce has never been on the Colorado River and thought that is was amazing. Tyler has never been on a boat down the Colorado River but has boated on the other side of the dam at Lake Powell. Both of us thought the raft trip was out of this world!
 * The dam has enough concrete for a freeway to be contructed from Phoenix, AZ to Chicago, IL.
 * The Taurus trees were brought The Grand Canyon by Spanish settlers in the 1800's to put a stop to erosion and landslides on the side of the canyon walls. Unfortunately these tress are killing off the natural born wildlife so the park ranger introduced the Taurus beetle to feed on these trees to decrease the population of Taurus trees.
 * We saw a small natural spring running into The Colorado River called Little Niagara. This water is known to be the purest drinking water because it goes through so much sediment that it is completely filtered.
 * The rock cliff walls were up to a mile high and mot were straight up and down.

3. Wupatki National Monument Our 2nd stop on our 2nd day was to ancient indian ruins. We stayed for over an hour. We toured the ruins which included the house, the auditorium, the blow hole and the ball field. These ruins were located out in the middle of the dry endless desert with some slight hills and mounds. They were surrounded by these slight hills and mounds.


 * The house was most likely owned by a rich indian. This house included many rooms which were used as multi purpose rooms. They cooked, slept, ate and socialized in most rooms of the house.
 * The auditorium was half reconstructed due to detoriation. This reconstruction was kept with the same original form. It is so accoustic that people can hear the meetings and music from a long distance away. This is why they were so precise on where to place thier auditorium.
 * Since this town was a trading central many other cultures brought their ideas to make it such a unique place. One culture introduced the game played at the ball field.
 * The natives that still live out int he desert tell the story of why their ancestors left. With so many personal belongings left behind it is said that they must have left due to losing the faith in their original culture and getting too rich and greedy.

This was something new for both of us. We were completely fascinated by how the indians lived and how they could build things without modern day tools. 4. Sunset Crater National Monument

The last stop before departing home was Sunset Crater. The inactive volcano is only half the size that is use to be because when it erupted it blew off the top. When the volcano errupted it left behind a lot of black rock and burnt landscape. There were some green trees rooted in the rock that adapted to grow their roots shallow and spread along the surface instead of rooting deep down.


 * Sunset Crater is an inactive volcano that blew up 1000s of years ago.
 * The ancient indians believed that the wind spirit rested in the ice cave at Sunset Crater
 * The trees at Sunset Crater smelled like butterscotch and vanilla.
 * This crater use to be open to the public until the volcano started eroding away.

Neither of us have ever been to a volcano. Bryce thought it was prety cool and liked the smell of the trees. Tyler thought it was kind of stupid that he couldn't go up to top of the volcano.