Room+19A

=__Grand Canyon Trip 2011!__= Elisabeth Carter and Kaeli Otto

Grand Canyon National Park
__**﻿April 21st **__

Let’s start with saying that we finally realize why it is called “The Grand Canyon." It was amazing! We weren't even able to see the bottom! The top layer, the youngest layer of the Grand Canyon, is about 270-300 million years old. The rise of the Grand Canyon was caused by the Pacific and North American plate colliding together. The canyon ranges from a quarter of a mile to 18 miles across and over a mile wide. Through the canyon you will find over 2,000 species of plants and many types of rocks and animals. Unfortunately some of the animals are endangered. For example, the Colorado Condor. Thankfully, due to breeding programs, we are able to see more of these beautiful birds in the Grand Canyon today.

We only hiked three quarters of a mile down the South Kaibab Trail and three quarters of a mile back up. This trail was formed by limestone with fossils inside the rock. As we traveled farther down, the temperature increased. Although the way down was easy, the way back up was a lot harder and colder. Another thing that we noticed was sometimes there were a lot of plants (ex. trees) in some areas, but in other parts there were not as many. The reason why is that the plants grow better in shade and when water flows down on them. One of the trees was a Ponderosa Pine, which is one of the bigger pine trees. Sadly, pictures and words can't describe the beauty of this amazing canyon. It surely does takes your breath away every time!





River Trip through Glen Canyon
On April 22nd, we started our day with a three hour boat trip through Glen Canyon. This was definitely one of our favorite parts of the trip. It was the perfect temperature out, it was really pretty, and overall it was really fun! On our trip through the Glen Canyon we learned so many things. We learned about the Glen Canyon dam, desert varnish, and about the Tamrisk Tree. The Glen Canyon dam was amazing! It was huge! The base of the dam is 300 feet. An interesting fact was that the dam has enough concrete to build a four lane highway from Phoenix, AZ to Chicago, IL. During our trip we got to see the 2,000 to 10,000 year old desert varnish. Desert Varnish is a result of a chemical reaction. Desert varnish is the blackish color on some of the walls of the canyon. The darker areas are 10,000 years old and the lighter ares are about 2,000 years old. After making a stop and looking at rock art created by Native Americans we got back on the boats and learned more about the Tamrisk Tree. The Tamrisk Tree is a unwanted plant in Glen Canyon that is harmful to many of Glen Canyon's native plants. The Tamrisk Tree makes vegetation hard to keep because the plant drinks nearly 70 gallons of river water everyday. Another problem with the Tamrisk Tree is that it sweats salt which is a problem for the surrounding plants. A way of getting rid of the Tamrisk Tree is by trying to burn it. Unfortunately, the tree has spread so much that even with burning it can not completely kill it all off.
 * __April 22nd__**

__Some interesting facts:__ - Horseshoe Bend was 1,000 feet high (picture under section called "more pictures") - There are 15 layers of sandstone - The river was 60- 80 feet at some points and just 5 feet at others - The waterfall shown under the section "more pictures" was caused by a diagonal fault line


 * __April 22nd__**

On Friday, April 22nd, we toured Wupatki National Monument. Wupatki is an ancient house that is almost 1,000 years old. It was built by the Hopi Native Americans. Inside this four story house are about 100 rooms including a small burial site located near the back. We walked along the path and went into the “trash room”. Inside this room was a small window for trash to be thrown out of. Eventually the trash would pile up. The rock that this large building was made out of was sealed with some type of clay that the Hopi made and the bricks were mostly sandstone. The Hopi were adjusting to life in their new “mansion” and all of their supplies, however this wasn’t a good thing. While walking around we noticed that there was a lot of supplies left behind such as pottery and we wondered why. It turns out that the elders thought that the Hopi had to much and it was resulting in loss of faith. Eventually they left going to start a new life somewhere else leaving everything behind. After seeing Wupatki, we realized that it was truly a very special building. We would have never imagined that a building this old could have lasted all these years, especially with out the technology that we have today to build buildings.

Sunset Crater

 * __April 22nd__**

On April 22nd, the last place we visited was Sunset Crater. Sunset Crater is a dormant volcano that has not erupted in about 1,000 years. This cinder cone volcano is a mile wide and 1,000 feet tall. At first we thought that Sunset Crater was just a small mountain because of all the trees growing on it.

Once we traveled around it and saw the basalt, volcanic rock, it was clear that it was a volcano. We hiked a loop around the base of the volcano, occasionally stopping to learn about all of our surroundings. We learned that many ago lava flowed from the base of the volcano quickly cooling and hardening into many unique shapes and patterns. This created what is called a "squeeze up." Squeeze ups can from when molten lava oozes out through cracks in solid lava shells.

One of the last things we saw was the "ice cave." It is a lava tube that is cold enough inside to keep ice year round. We got to go down near the entrance of the ice cave and feel the air. Since the lava tube could possibly collapse, it is no longer open for the public to go in. Although we couldn't go in it was really amazing to be able to see it.

__More pictures...__