Day 7: Zion National Park

Spent a restful evening at the
Bumbleberry Inn at Springdale, UT. 

View from the hotel balcony in the morning.

Shuttle Bus through Zion National Park.

The Three Patriarchs

Zion Canyon

    

Walking up Weeping Rock Trail was an amazing view. Spalling/delamination caused by erosional processes such as vegetation like algae, freeze/thaw processes of water, and mineral expansion can be seen in the photos above. Water running horizontally through the cracks in the rock precipitate out silica in the rock, creating the crystallization of silica on the rock surfaces.

The Virgin River running through Zion National Park was at a low level due to the end of the rainy season.







However, the power the river can produce is evident in the size of the rounded cobble and boulders seen strewn through the river and along its banks.

Undercutting of the banks is only slowed by the roots of trees holding.

After traveling through the canyon and tunnel, a slight change in scenery was observed.
Layering of the rock became tilted and much thinner.

The sloping layers observed had very similar grain size and covered almost the entire area of study, leading us to the conclusion this was an aeolian process and not fluvial.







What created these formations was hypothesized to be sand dunes and wind erosion.

The photo to the left shows the spectacular fall colors of the Zion Canyon.

After leaving Zion National Park we stopped at the Kaibab Overlook on Highway 89A. Looking at the Escalante, also known as the Grand Staircase, four formations of the Colorado Plateau could be seen. The cliffs seen in the distance: top layer being the Pink Cliffs, The middle the White Cliffs, and the bottom the Vermillion Cliffs. We were standing on the Kaibab uplift.

The last stop of the day was at the Navajo Bridge in Marble Canyon, AZ.

While at the Navajo Bridge, 6 California Condors were seen perched on the bridge and a nearby cliff. Each bird was tagged with a number: 02, 14, 30, 55, 73, 83.

Ending the day with a beautiful view of the Colorado River as we headed towards our next hotel  in  Tusayan, AZ.

Day 9: The Grand Canyon Hiking

It is our big day today. The breakfast in out hotel was amazing and we all packed up 4 liter bottles of water, sandwiches and snacks to get ready for the hiking at the Grand Canyon today. We met with Jon and his students from Arizona and we had a little 'lecture' together. He shared with us a couple of traditional ideas about the formation of the Grand Canyon and then gave us his theory that he worked on for his dissertation. It basically states that there was a large basin that filled to the point where it spilled over and the Colorado River formed and drained into the Colorado Plateau after the uplifting and cut through to form the canyons. Pretty soon after the lecture, we started our hike on the Grandview Trail. The trip one way was 4.31 miles long, which is together 8.62 miles (13.8 km) in total. The way down was relatively easy, and we were all hiking together except for Harry. Phil shared with us a lot of information about the different layers of rocks as we moved down the canyon and back in time through geologic history. The turnaround destination gave us an absolutely stunning view of the Grand Canyon from the inside. Phil gave us a small lecture on the geology and formation of the canyon after we ate lunch. From there, we packed up and headed back up the trail. Things got a lot more difficult for all of us on the way up. Pretty soon, the group became seperated and most of us got really tired of climbing up. People like Dave and Mary looked to be energetic and never got tired, but the majority of us were exhausted and the trail seemed endless and almost impossible for us to climb. The entire hike back up the canyon took 2-3 hours and we barely took any breaks. It was all worth it once we got to the top. Generally speaking, this 8.62 miles of hiking was amazing, great exercise and all in all, an experience of a lifetime. 

We drove directly to the Pizza House for dinner and then many of us went to the hot tub. Tomorrow will be our last day and we will be ending up in Phoenix and leave by midnight.

 

Picture Together

 

The Grand Canyon and the Colorado Basin

 

On the way down was a lot easier

 

I was exhausted and wet from climbing up the Grand Canyon

Day 5: Death Valley 10-17-2012

This is DAY 5 of our trip. We have been getting to know each other pretty well. The hotel in Stovepipe Wells was awesome, and we even lucky enough to find scorpions in our room! We had our free morning today, the time we left was 11:30 a.m.

There were many alluvial fans on the way to the Valley, we stopped few times to see the sand dunes, beaches, fans, and Harmony Borax mines. We were planing to go to the Salt Creek for Roy's Pupfish presentation, however, due to the construction we could not get to that location. Therefore, we moved the presentation into the visitor center. At that time, the temperature hit 102 F and marked the highest of the day.

Devil's Golf Course in the Death Valley Basin

 

 Devil's Golf Course, as part of the Salt Pan, shows a huge amount of cracked salt area. The intense heat and rapid evaporation caused the lakebed to buckle and create these formations as shown in the picture above.

Matt is tasting the salt to check if this is salty!

 

 As we went to the Bad Water, which is the lowest point on earth (elevation of 282 feet./ 85.5 meters), the salt there was smooth and white, and that is because of the spring still holds water to keep the area wet.

Picture taken at the peak of Death Valley (Elevation: 5449 ft.)

 The view on the top of the mountain was phenomenal!

We also saw a coyote on the way back to Zion.

 

When we left Death Valley, it was already late at night. The next day will be a good experience because we are going to do the rock climbing at Slot Canyon/Zion.

Warming up for the Grand Canyon with a little Mexican dinner!

Zion National Park!

Update: Thursday Oct 18th

After Yosemite, we traveled to Death Valley National Park. Upon arriving we hiked out to the mesquite sand dunes and spent the night looking at the stars. This has to be one of the best experiences we've had on this trip! We awoke in the morning in the heart of Death Valley and a few of us traveled to Ubehebe Crater, a large volcanic crater 600 ft deep and half a mile wide. Then, after meeting up with the rest of the group, we traveled across the valley and observed the many alluvial fans in this area. We stopped at Devil’s Golf Course, a vast plain of salt concretions, and then headed to Bad Water Basin, the lowest place in the western hemisphere (282 ft below sea level). Before ending the night in Mesquite, NV, we drove up to Dante’s View. This spot provided amazing views of Death Valley from 5000ft high.

This morning we’re going to Zion National Park to rappel into the canyon to experience Zion up close!  

Devil's Golf Course

The Crew at Bad Water Basin

Dante's View (Beautiful!)

Dante's Peak

Yosemite!

Big Basin Redwood State Park

Phenomenal drive up there!

Field Research: Fort Ord

Day 2:  We worked with four individuals from California State -East Bay and used Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), shown below, to image the dune substrate (above photo). GPR works by sending FM radio waves into the earth and measuring their reflections. 

 

Our study area was the Fort Ord Dunes, a decommissioned military base. We ran one 200m transect from a bunker in the south west area of the dunes to the north east (below photo). This transect ran across a number of old military bunkers which will be interesting to see how they influence our results. It was perfect weather and we learned a ton!