The Parks and Rec Trek - Week 3

CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK, Needles District

Ancient message board?

Canyonlands is an interesting park, because it is divided into three main districts. Since we were already in the general area, we decided to visit the Needles District - not as popular as the Islands in the Sky, but interesting nonetheless.

On our way in, we stopped at Newspaper Rock, an interesting panel with petroglyphs dating back over 2000 years. They don't really know what the figures mean - maybe messages, maybe prayers, or maybe just ancient graffiti. Even so, it was pretty impressive to see.

The Needles, Canyonlands

In Canyonlands, we stopped to see the main overlook into the Needles. This area was created when sandstone began shifting over a layer of salt leftover from an ancient sea. This caused the sandstone to fracture in parallel cracks, which gradually eroded the exposed rock. Over time, it eroded into spires known as the Needles.

You may not see it, but tons of life lives in these dried potholes!

It was also interesting to see the potholes in the sandstone. We hiked around Pothole Point, which was dry now that its summer, but for a few months, fill with rainwater. During this time, lots of different organisms thrive in the tiny pools, some living their entire lifecycles in a few short weeks. They lay eggs, which lie dormant during the dry season, until it because wet enough for them to hatch. Animals such as tadpole shrimp, fairy shrimp, toads, and winged insects all live in the potholes.





NATURAL BRIDGES NATIONAL MONUMENT

Owachomo Bridge

Meandering streams cutting into canyons are what form the bridges at Natural Bridges NM. There are three main bridges that can be viewed in the small park, which you can view from overlooks. These bridges are formed when a slow river makes horseshoes as it meanders in its path. At some point, the river decides to cut a detour, eroding through the thin neck of rock that separates the flow. The stream undercuts the barrier, and seeping moisture weakens the top and helps it to erode - until finally it breaks through and a bridge is formed.

We hiked to the bottom of the canyon to see Owachomo Bridge from a different viewpoint. It was a bit unbelievable to know these bridges are all still eroding, and eventually they'll crumble and collapse, even as new bridges are forming.

The view from Muley Point

On our way to the next stop, we drove through some pretty spectacular Southwestern landscapes. We drove the Moki Dugway to the Valley of the Gods, then stopped for the night in Monument Valley. We stayed in a traditional Navajo hogan, a circular dirt/timber/clay structure that had been built in 1934 by our host's great grandmother. Really cozy, and quite comfortable!

RUN FORREST, RUN!

Monument Valley

The hogan where we spent the night...

Surprisingly spacious and cozy inside!

NAVAJO NATIONAL MONUMENT

The relic forest on the floor of Tsegi Canyon

This small park is interesting since the two main viewpoints, Betatakin and Keet Seel, are both Ancient Puebloan ruins and not Navajo. The park is named because the Navajo moved in later on, and still occupy the land. But back in the 1200s, the ancestors of the Hopi people came and built in alcoves of Tsegi Canyon. Because the Navajo believed it was bad luck to enter these sites, they stayed basically untouched, and to this day they are some of the best preserved ruins in the area.

We got lucky and made it in time for the guided ranger hike down to the canyon bottom, where we could see Betatakin up close. Normally you can't go down into the canyon, so it was nice having a semi-private tour (there was only one other person). The bottom of the canyon has a lot of water, and has a relic forest still there with aspen trees, gambel oak, and horsetail. Looking down, it is really really green considering we're still in the middle of the Arizona desert!

Betatakin - an Ancient Puebloan Site

The clan symbols - deer, fire, flute, and water

One of the coolest things at Betatakin was the pictographs seen on hill to the side of the site. There are four clan symbols - Deer, Fire, Flute, and Water. The Fire symbol was interesting because it looks like a man doing a fire dance, and it has a supernatural feel to it. The Flute symbol was the strangest - not sure why it represents a flute, since it looked more like a pie chart or a Pacman. Even so, it was cool seeing them all lined up.





GLEN CANYON NATIONAL RECREATION AREA

The Glen Canyon Dam - that dammed up
the Grand Canyon

An unexpected stop on our way to Kanab was the Glen Canyon Dam, and the visitor center there. We stopped to talk to Ranger Don, who was really knowledgable about the area and gave us great information about not only the Dam, but the entire area. The Dam was built in the 1960s after a long debate about where to build it; the Sierra Club fought against damming the river at Dinosaur National Park and won, and since the Page area at the time was completely unknown, its where they decided to build. They first had to build a bridge, then the dam, and as it was happening, the town of Page grew. Its actually unfortunate, because they flooded many ancient ruin sites, as well as damming the source of the river that created the Grand Canyon.

Hanging Gardens, grown in an
alcove seep spring

Nonetheless, its necessary to protect the water that goes to seven states as well as Mexico. It also provides a lot of hydroelectric power to the region.

We went on a short hike to the hanging gardens, an area near the dam where an entire wall of an alcove is growing with ferns and other plants because of a large seep. Not sure why that place in particular was so lush, but it was interesting to see, particularly because it is so much hotter here than it has been in the last few places where we've seen alcoves.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, NORTH RIM

Angel's Window

For a bit of a change of perspective, we went to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. This side of the canyon, because of continuing uplift, is actually 1000 feet higher elevation than the South Rim - which means totally different climate and feel. There are meadows and aspen and pine forests on the way to the rim, and the canyon itself is more gradual (as opposed to the South side, which has a steeper dropoff).

We hiked to Bright Angel Point, which had a sweeping overlook, then drove to Cape Royal for another look into the canyon. From there we could see Angel's Window, a hole in the Kaibab limestone layer. There's also a fantastic view into the canyon all the way to the South Rim - you can tell you're looking down a more gradual slope than you would from the South Rim of the canyon.

The view towards the South Rim

PIPE SPRING NATIONAL MONUMENT
When we drove back down towards Kanab, the temperature quickly rose from 62 on the rim to the upper 80s. By the time we got to Pipe Springs, it was hot and really windy, with lots of lightning. At the end of our picnic lunch, fat raindrops had begun to fall right as we were walking over for the Fort tour. We met a ranger on the way back who was carrying fresh eggs; she gave us 4 of them and we decided to bring them back to the car so that we wouldn't have to walk around with them. Just as we were heading back, the skies opened up and a monsoon downpour began - the 2 minute run to the Fort (also known as Winsor Castle) got us completely drenched.

The "birthing room" in Winsor Castle - named because many
Mormon plural wives gave birth here at Pipe Spring while in
hiding when polygamy became illegal in the US.

This was an interesting monument, mainly because the history that is preserved isn't necessarily the most kind to the Native Americans. In the 1860s, the Mormons were paying tithes to the church in the form of cattle. This meant the Church owned hundreds - maybe thousands of head of cattle, with nowhere to put them. Brigham Young looked around for a place, and decided Pipe Spring was the perfect place to build a fort. The problem was, he built it directly over the 'spring' of Pipe Spring - the only water source for the local native Kaibab Paiutes that already lived in the area. They essentially took away the only source of water, and on top of that, their cattle destroyed the native grasses that the Paiutes depended on for survival. In essence, the settlement decimated the Paiute population - driving the number from around 1200 to a total of 76 in the span of less than 50 years.

On their own survival story, the Mormons were trying to preserve their way of life and establish their own sovereign 'kingdom,' away from the rules of the US Government. The main bone of contention at this point was the practice of polygamy, and Winsor Castle was a hiding place for many plural wives of mormon settlers from further north. It also became a stopping point for people passing through on to the big Mormon temple at St. George, where many couples went to get married.

CEDAR BREAKS NATIONAL MONUMENT

Point Supreme Overlook (right before the thunderstorm hit)

After a stopover in Vegas to pick up Anil and Gemma, we headed to Cedar Breaks - one of the lesser-known parks in Utah. Unbeknownst to us, the park is famous for its wildflowers, and we arrived in time for the best viewing.We went on a ranger talk, learning about several of the endemic wildflowers that were currently blooming.

Cedar Breaks is actually known for the 'amphitheater', a canyon eroded by freezing and thawing water that breaks down the layers of limestone that had been formed by the shallow seas that once covered the area. With no river or stream system, the erosion creates different formations - hoodoos (fingerlike towers), rather than arches or bridges. Cedar Breaks is commonly compared to Bryce Canyon, but at 10,350 feet in elevation, it's much cooler (temperature-wise!) and has a very different look.

Brian Head Peak

The only problem was that we had timed our trip for the new moon and the Star Party (since Cedar Breaks is an International Dark Sky Park), but it was overcast and stormy almost the entire time we were there. We did have a great geology talk from Ranger Zach, who also talked to us for a while about his thoughts on the park and what we should be sharing to our students.

In between, we went up to Brian Head Peak (the highest part of the park), and also went down to Brian Head for dinner. We actually went to the peak twice - the first time, it started raining pretty hard and Anil didn't even make it past the car; the second time, we had a slow drive up so that we could watch the marmots playing around on the rocks.

We stopped at Sunset Overlook for a view of the entire amphitheater (but the sunset was basically hidden by the clouds - bummer), and the stargazing was canceled but we did go to Zach's astronomy talk. It was quite good, talking about the importance of dark skies and giving fairly easy ways that individual people can help - namely, by making sure lights are pointed in the right direction (not up towards the sky), are turned off if not needed, and are a warmer color.

ZION NATIONAL PARK
We made it to Zion the next morning, taking the shuttle in from Springdale and first stopping at the visitor's center. Zion is known for its geology - similar to many of the parks along the Grand Staircase, it is part of the Colorado Plateau and was also subjected to the same uplift. Over 200 million years, sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone layers collected as a result of sediment from shallow inland seas. In addition, it was later the site of a huge sand desert - the largest in the history of the Earth. These many layers were eventually eroded by rain and rivers, forming the valley and narrows that Zion is famous for.

The view from the Human History Museum

From the valley floor, it's easy to see the main layers that form the canyon walls; the colorful sandstone gets red with iron oxide, and there are several types of trees that add a pop of green to the landscape. Unfortunately, a huge flash flood a few days ago (maybe the same storm that we drove through on our way to Las Vegas?) washed away many of the main trails in the park. Because of that, Angel's Landing was closed (a huge hunk of the trail was washed away, and they don't think it will reopen any time soon...), along with the middle and upper Emerald Pools and the Grotto. They were also warning people against hiking the Narrows, but we're going to try anyway...

Weeping Rock

Because of the trail closures, we changed our touring plans. We visited the Lower Emerald Pool (which was a ridiculously crowded trail) and Weeping Rock. We decided to try hiking Hidden Canyon, and made it up to the first overlook before the thunder and lightning started - it was basically a high, open spot (and Anil was essentially carrying a lightning rod with his 360 tripod), so we got scared and started back down. Just as we began, it started raining and ended up raining on us the entire way back down the mountain.

Since the weather was making everyone flee the park, we left as well; stopping first to get our junior ranger badges, then checking into the hotel and picking up a picnic dinner in Springdale. We wanted to drive up the West side of the park to Lava Point, up the Kolob Terrace Road. It's not a very popular road and few visitors go that way; we stopped halfway up the road to take photos, and ended up witnessing a motorcycle accident. The last rider in a group of four Harley Davidson's was going a bit too fast around a curve and lost control, skidding in the gravel. We all heard the skidding so we turned to look and saw his girlfriend fly off the back of the bike and down into the dirt and brush on the side of the road. Gemma and Anil got to them first; another car had been driving the opposite direction and also saw the whole thing happen. None of the riders were wearing any protective gear, so she was lucky that she didn't hit her head on the pavement. She did have bad road rash across her body and a hurt hip (and maybe broken rib), and the driver scraped most of the skin off his knee but was otherwise OK. Dave helped stay with her until she was taken away; first a NPS Park Police officer came and helped, then the local police department. They called a life-flight helicopter, who showed up about 5 minutes after an ambulance arrived. The helicopter did end up landing in the middle of the road, but luckily she didn't need to take it and was transported away by the ambulance. Quite an exciting evening!

So even though we missed most of the sunset view that we were hoping for, we had a lovely picnic lunch at the top of Lava Point, including a world famous bumbleberry pie...

Hoping there's no flash flood!

The next morning started off bright (well, dark) and early, with us getting up at 5:15 so that we could get a jump on the Narrows hike. And it was well worth it - this hike up the north fork of the Virgin River is one of the most iconic hikes in America, going up through a really tall slot canyon. Being in the canyon in the early morning meant we had shade for almost the entire trip up, and there were several curves in the trail where we had the river to ourselves. The hike itself is fairly flat, but the majority of the time we're in ankle- to knee-depth murky water and we couldn't see the slippery, loose rocks on the riverbed. We'd rented neoprene socks, wet shoes, and a hiking pole, and we were so glad that we did!

We ended up hiking about 4 miles up the canyon, just past Wall Street. The canyon walls at that point were almost straight vertical cliffs, and much more narrow than at the mouth (Temple of Sinawava). It was easy to see how people could get trapped in flash floods, particularly since we ran into several downed trees and piles of logs and branches.

King Anil, the ruler of all his domain...

We went back to the hotel to shower, change, and grab some food, then later in the evening Gemma, Dave and I went back into the park for a few ranger talks. We heard about the way five different animals use their senses to help them adapt to their environments, then went to a separate talk about Science in the Sky.

Canyon Overlook

Checkerboard Mesa

In our last day at the park, we drove up through the Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel and stopped at Canyon Overlook for a view down the Upper East Canyon into the valley and the East Temple.

Driving out of the park, we had a view of the interesting patterns on Checkerboard Mesa, caused by horizontal cross-bedding of an ancient sand dune mixed with vertical cracking of the sandstone during the winter freeze and thaws. A lovely end to our Zion adventure!