Room+13A

Leanne Yelle and Emily Otto

**Grand Canyo****n**

Phew, what a long, tiring day of driving! A lot of the 7th graders had woken up quite early to get ready to leave at 6:30AM, but we didn't mind, because we were going on the Grand Canyon field trip! After the many hours of driving, we arrived at Grand Canyon National Park, but we couldn't quite see the canyon as we pulled up. Our tour guide, Chris, told us to close our eyes and imagine we were Spanish conquistadors who had wandered into the land, not knowing what lied in front of us. When we were at the rim, we opened our eyes. What a view! The incredible canyon spanned for miles and miles right before our eyes. I could pick out the layers of rock in the expansive canyon. I saw the Colorado River slicing through the rock like a knife. It was spectacular.



No wonder it was named 'Grand' Canyon, what's not grand about that? Chris took us on a hike down into the canyon. I learned a lot about how the canyon was formed. An important process that helped carve this mighty World Wonder is erosion, which is the wearing down of rocks by wind and or water. And did you know the canyon was once a mighty ocean? It's hard to believe, but it's true! That's why so many oceanic fossils were found in the layers of the canyon. We even saw a few for ourselves! Being an ocean, the Grand Canyon also has lots of different layers of rock and mineral in it. In the picture below, a layer of limestone sticks out from the rest of the rock!



After the hike, we ate dinner and ended the day watching a beautiful sunset!



**River Boat Ride**

We woke up early, again!, to get ready for a river boat ride! On a pontoon boat, we would cruise through the dammed Glen Canyon. When we all were safely loaded onto the boat, we saw the dam!



Pretty cool, isn't it! Well, the breathtaking views didn't end at the Grand Canyon! We sailed through so many cool places! I saw some ancient petroglyphs. Native Americans made them long ago. It was very neat!



Along the river, we saw some beautiful rock formations as well!



We saw lots of fishermen and heron as well. It was very cool! After being on the boat for three hours though, we were tired and hungry! Luckily, lunch was right after that! Then we were off on the road again! <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> **Sunset Crater**

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> What a tiresome day! Shortly after our journey through the Wupatki monument, we arrived at Sunset Crater. This immense cinder-cone volcano is the creator of the lava-rock forests surrounding it. The first thing you will encounter is one of the biggest ponderosa pine trees at the park, and the best smelling too. We like to call him the Butterscotch tree. The ponderosa pine tree has an unusual scent to it, that reminds most of butterscotch or vanilla. This quality is common among the species. As you work your way along an ashen path, you will be able to mingle among the many lava rock sculptures. After a long walk up a hill near the foothills of Sunset Crater, you run into the 'nest'. The 'nest' was formed from a mini volcano. You then descend down a small hill and reach the ice cave. Some call it Superman's ice cave even though the cave is really an old lava tube. The tube is iced all year long and has a nice cold breeze that blows out. Native Hopi Indians, use it for their 'man hood rituals' and believe that the ancient Hopi wind spirit resides withing the cave. Afterward, we returned to the buses and began out long journey home.

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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">**Wupatki National Park**

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Wupatki National Park is home to some of Arizona’s oldest Indian ruins. One of these is Wupatki, which is between 900 and 1000 years old. Did you know that Wupatki means ‘house cut up’ or ‘long house cut short’? It certainly makes sense seeing that most of the houses are very large, and have multiple smaller rooms. Before it was abandoned, at least 200 people lived there, When the Wupatki Indians decided, to leave, they left behind a lot of artifacts that scientists are using to try and figure out why they left. Some theories they have are that there was a lot of war-fare going on and they had to leave in a hurry. Other scientists think that they left because of drought or starvation. Whatever the cause, most are still unsure of the real answer.

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