Room+15A

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Marisa and Judy :D The Grand Canyon!

The Grand Canyon was carved 17 million years ago by the Colorado River﻿﻿. It stretches 277 miles long up to 18 miles wide, and depth of nearly a mile at some places. Nearly two-billion year old rock is found in the canyon, layered up from past to present. What do you think of first about the Grand Canyon? Dirt? Rocks? Mud and other disgusting things? Well, think again and you might discover the true beauty of one of the seven natural wonders of the world.



**6:30** **am**
====At Wilson, we boarded the bus, ready to go. As the bus roared to life, we found seats right next to Lily and Connie, who were in our group. At first we were ok with it, and then we were so //BORED//! After about a century, we arrived at the Grand Canyon, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. ====

====After eating lunch on the bus, we had to switch buses since one broke down. We were squished between Lily and Connie and Marisa sat with Bennett. It wasn’t that bad actually. ==== ==== When we arrived, we first took a bathroom break and filled up our water bottles. The water fountains weren't on since it was winter and apparently it the water isn't turned off, it'll freeze in the pipe. We didn’t even try to taste it. It smelled terrible! We just dumped some bottled water into our bottles and set off. First, we followed our guide down to see the canyon. It was absolutely amazing and we wasted about five of our 27 pictures there (with a disposable camera). It was absolutely amazing. ==== ==== Afterwords, we took a bus to a little theater where a movie of the Grand Canyon. It was pitch dark and the movie was pretty cool. It ended quickly and we went back to tour the rest of the canyon. ====



====Our guide took us to one of the most popular trails in the Grand Canyon, the South Kaibab Trail. Kaibab literally means, ‘upside-down mountains’. On our way there, we spotted a deer grazing grass. //Click, click, click...// surprisingly that the deer didn’t get spooked by the camera flashes and run away. ==== ==== We also stopped to see some of the mules that could carry people down the canyon. They were very well trained, and this part of the country was one of the few places that still delivered mail by mules. One slobbered all over us and almost got his head stuck between the fences. ==== ==== It was really easy going down. Our guide stopped every few feet to talk to us about some parts of the canyon. The Grand Canyon has many layers. The top layer is only 230 million years old (why do we say ‘only’...that’s a lot!), and the bottom layer is 1.6 billion years old. That’s really old since our Earth is only 4.6 billion years old. The Grand Canyon has been around for some time! ==== ==== At one point, we saw many tall pine trees. They only grew in that part of the canyon while more pine trees dotted the horizon. Why only one place? ...Because that place had shade so it didn’t dry out, and just enough sunlight in the morning to keep it alive. We also say pretty flowers along the way. The flowers were bright shades of yellow, purple and a pretty orange. The colors attract insects to help them pollinate. ==== ==== Besides the plant life, we also learned about the canyon walls. There were layers of limestone, made from water and air, and also red stone that were old and at the bottom. Every year, the canyon changes, even if it’s only grown about a paper’s thickness. You can see the different layers and different colors; a really pretty sight. Squirrels frisk about, darting from one rock ledge to another. They were too quick for our cameras. One other thing you should know about the Grand Canyon...it’s easier down than up...ouch. ====



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<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 130%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">**6:30 pm**
====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 130%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">When we finished climbing up the Kaibab trail, we ate dinner at the Maswick Cafeteria and then went to see the sunset. I wasn’t too hungry for some reason and I didn’t eat much. We boarded the bus once again and traveled to Village Rim to watch the sunset. It was amazing how the colors of the Canyon really shone amongst the dark color the sky. When it was time to go, we clamored up the bus and set off for Page, Arizona, and to our hotel. ====

<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 160%;">The Grand Canyon...Day 2 4/23/2011

<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Breakfast time…
====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"> After we ate a big breakfast, we took a bus to Lake Powell, which so happens to be a dam (why’s that so funny?). Lake Powell was named after John Wesley Powell, the one-armed Civil War Commander that took a handful of ten men down to explore the canyon. What he saw was natural beauty; his men saw a terrible wasteland. Supplies were low and fighting broke out between the men. After 90 days, the six men remaining saw fishermen and were saved. The other four left the expedition. Three of the four were killed by the Native Americans, but that might not be true... Historians only think that. ====

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<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">**//White Water Rafting through the Colorado River//**
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====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Our guide separated us onto about five boats with a river-rafting guide on each boat. We went through the safety guidelines and put on our life vests. At first we went slowly, and then our guide called, “TURBO!” and we sped off. We were on banana boats, which is exactly what it sounds. The raft looked like four bananas tied together, except it was blue bananas and not yellow. We saw the walls of the canyon close up. Some walls were smooth, some were jagged. Some were just huge rock falls, and some rocks looked like they were about to fall on us. There were also lines of where the water was back in the 1900’s when the dam had flooded. ==== ====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> After a while, we reached a tiny beach and took a bathroom break there. We also went and saw a few drawings (petroglyphs) by Native Americans, then went back to the beach. Our guide said we could go ‘swimming’, and so we took off our shoes and socks and rolled our jeans up. Three words to describe. **ICE-COLD FREEZING**...But still, we waded in the water and ran through the water to a little island in the middle of the water. It was amazingly fun and by the end, we couldn’t feel our feet and our pants were just about soaked. When our teachers called, we were totally unprepared. We were all soaked and wet as we climbed back onto the raft. Another thing...sand doesn't come off your leg very easily...oh well. ==== ====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">We sat on the raft with one leg in and one leg out. The water sprayed out and we saw a double rainbow. It was fun as we went from the shade and then into the sun. Shade=freezing; Sun=burning. There must have been a twenty degrees difference between the two places. Eh-doesn't matter. That must have been the most fun experience on our trip. ====

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<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">**2:00 pm**
====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"> We arrived at Wupatki and saw the ruins of what once was an amazing nation of the Native Americans. It’s amazing how a 900 years-old houses are still standing. These historic artifacts are protected by the government, but we still need to chip in. ====

<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;">//1.// //Stay on the path//
====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;">//2.// //Don’t touch the artifacts.// ==== ====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;">//3.// //Respect the culture of the Native Americans// ====

====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">We also went to a little plaza that was reconstructed, but almost exactly the same. If you whispered in the place, anyone could hear. That was really amazing. ==== ====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Why did they leave? Was it from war? Drought? Famine? Historians think it was just because that the people were getting too rich and decided to leave everything and start all over again; without their prized possessions. They came to this conclusion because there were no signs of war. The people would try to take as much as possible if it was from drought or famine. It might have been from a totally different reason. It might have been maybe a sewage leak and the smell drove them out...personal opinion...who knows? ====

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====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"> Our last destination was Sunset Crater. It was entirely made from ashes and hardened lava. Before, people could climb up it and see the huge crater bowl, but now it’s protected by the government for research. Sunset Crater is a shield volcano and has eight feet trenches. It’s pretty amazing, even though we had to climb all over the rocks and ashes. ==== ====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">The mountain itself is black with a few pine trees growing here and there. It was like you could just pluck them out of the ground. Our guide told us all about it, and how the volcano erupted. It’s simply this: an earthquake happened when the magma came up. The earth’s center had too much pressure in it and had to let it out. As for the pine trees, if you smelled it up close, it had a sweet scent of butterscotch and vanilla. We totally cracked up. “There’s middle-schoolers for you,” Mr. Davi said. Actually, it’s not that hilarious. It’s just the word choice that our guide used. And we quote, ‘stick your nose deep in a crack’. ==== ====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"> Besides that experience, we also saw an ice cave. It’s pretty amazing for something like an ice cave to be somewhere in Arizona. The first thing you think of when you think of ‘Arizona’ is probably a saguaro in a desert with a cow skull next to it. Well, there’s more to it than that. The ice cave was cold and we’re just glad that they fenced it off with metal or else we would have been frozen. ====

<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Heading home…
====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"> The trip was pretty amazing and it passed really quickly. Before we knew it, we were back on the bus heading back for Tucson. It was a really fun learning experience, and next year we’ll do it again...somewhere else. ==== ====<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"> This trip in the Grand Canyon was really fun. We saw a lot of pretty cool things and a learned a lot of interesting facts. Hopefully, the next trip we’ll take it just as awesome as this one! ====

<span style="color: #1992e3; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; font-size: 140%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Marisa and Judy :D