Room+23A

Molly O'Brien & Kelsey Buechler
Our Grand Canyon Adventure! By: Kelsey Buechler & Molly O’Brien Grand Canyon Looking a mile down, The Grand Canyon is one of the many fascinating wonders of Arizona that stretches 14 miles from south rim to the north rim. Although The Grand Canyon seems bigger than the average human can take in, it is still growing! 5-7 million years ago the canyon was formed, but it is still a mystery of how it came to be. The Grand Canyon is made of limestone from salt water, and may have formed underneath the Colorado River due to the aquatic fossils found on the rocks. The Colorado River is approximately a mile down from the rim, and runs in zigzags throughout the canyon. Many people visit The Grand Canyon every year, and the majority of them are from out of the country. In the winter season, The Grand Canyon receives more than 100 inches of snow each year. After admiring the beautiful view from the top of the canyon, we started to hike down the Bright Angel Trail. In Fact, less than 1% of visitors at The Grand Canyon go below the rim. The long hike down was not nearly as hard as the torturous walk back up, but we managed to not fall off The Grand Canyon! Visiting The Grand Canyon was not only an amazing experience, but the information we learned will stick with us forever!

Glen Canyon

As we flowed down The Colorado River, The Glen Canyon Dam seemed to disappear as we went around the first bend. The farther we flowed down the river, the more beautiful the canyon became. As we came upon rapids are guide notified us that these rapids were nothing compared to the ones in The Grand Canyon. Although you may think that The Grand Canyon and Glen Canyon are similar they are really completely different. In the Glen Canyon every rock is made of sandstone compared to The Grand Canyon where the majority of the rocks are made of limestone. The Glen Canyon Dam is located upstream from the Grand Canyon National Park, and a 216 meter-high concrete arch dam controls the water flow from the upper to the lower Colorado River drainage basins. The dam generates an average of 451 megawatts, which contributes 6% of the total electricity generated in Arizona. Damming the Colorado River caused the Glen Canyon, which lies to the north of the dam, to become flooded, and has subsequently created the large body of water called Lake Powell. Riding on the river, on a banana shaped raft, was a very exciting and fun experience that we will never forget!



** Wupatki ** Many years ago, the Indian tribe known as the Hopi settled in this area called Wupatki. They left behind many treasures such as their pueblos, silverware, pottery, and many more. Today, this site is preserved for research and tourism, but everything is strictly off limits to touch or move. While we hiked through this beautiful park, we experienced many things such as the blowhole. The blowhole is a pressurized air vent that blows out if the outside air pressure is low, and sucks in if the outside air pressure is high. When we reached the blowhole, we discovered it was blowing air out. It was so strong it could blow a hat straight off your head. Next, we explored a circular place where the Hopi might have had meetings, ceremonies, or games. The acoustics in this place were great because you could hear everything around you. The Hopi Indians never had trouble hearing each other. No one is sure why the Hopi left so many valuable possessions behind. Although something bad might have happened to these Indians, it is good for scientist to learn the Hopi’s way of life.



** Sunset Crater ** Among the massive piles of ash, only one volcano has created it all. This mile wide and 1,000 ft. tall mountain is called Sunset Crater. It erupted many years ago and six different types of volcanoes surround this area, and one of them is called the San Francisco Peak. This volcano is different than the others, because most of the volcanoes around Phoenix are Cinder Cone. Although there are many volcanoes, none are active except for Sunset Crater. This cinder cone volcano wiped out all the wildlife in the area, but today it is just starting to come back. We saw trees growing through the gigantic blankets of ash but nobody knows how. Scientist who study volcanoes are called volcanologists and they have been studying this site for hundreds of years. However, Sunset Crater only became a national Park in 1930 when local citizens were outraged when Hollywood wanted to make a movie called “Avalanche”, out of the area. When President Hoover became involved, he decided to make it a national park. Today, over a quarter of a million visitors come to Sunset Crater a year. We had an awesome time in this forest and even went into an underground ice cave. We learned a lot from this trip and hope to see this park again in the future.

