Room+6A

Craig and Thomas’s Wiki Space Out trip started out with a long bus ride. Our first stop was at Anthem food court where we just took a quick bathroom break. We stopped somewhere in Flagstaff and ate sandwiches in a park. Then we got back on the busses.



We went to the Grand Canyon’s Kaibab trail first. We hiked ¾ of a mile down into the canyon. You could see for a while out into the canyon and the way down way down was not a very hard hike. We took a lot of pictures of interesting rocks and trees, the way down, and places where you could see a lot of the canyon. It started out pretty cold at the top of the canyon but during the hike it got a lot warmer and we could take off our second layers after a while only to have to put them on again once we got out and stopped moving again. Our guide was very good and told us about the history of the different trails in the Grand Canyon. At first people like miners owned land in the Grand Canyon and used touism to make money. They charged high rates to use the paths and people had to pay them because there was no other way. The federal government purchased some land in the Grand Canyon and built the Kaibab trail for people to use to hike into the canyon. This is as far down as we went into the canyon. It is called Ooh-ahh point. Here we rested a little on the rocks. You could see a long way into the canyon and it was a great picture spot. It was really interesting to see everything in the canyon and look up o see how far we had come. When we were there we could see all of the different colors of rock the canyon had. We learned that the areas of rock had different colors because they had fiferent properties and some rocks color changed over time as it was eroded away.

The hike up seemed a lot harder than the hike down did but it was till not too bad. You could see how the canyon changed as we came nearer to the top. Our guide told us that when there is a lot of rain by and in the canyon the water all flows down to the bottom of the canyon and makes the Colorado river even bigger and more rough for a while. He also told us when we were taking another break that the Canyon is still being eroded away by water and weather. The last thing we learned on the trail was that the canyon is so big and deep and the trails are so long thta it is pretty much impossible to hike to the bottom of the canyon and back. He said that people die from exhaustion when they try to hike too far at once. After we got to the top we sat on a bench for a couple of minutes before boarding the busses that would take us away from the trails and back to the tourist area. After the hike we walked to a spot on the south-rim where we could see a lot of the canyon. You could look over the rails and see a lot of rock and some trees. There was also an area where you could walk down that went a little bit down into the canyon. From that point you could see really far into the canyon. There were a lot of trees growing on the walls closer to the top of the canyon and you could see the change in color of the rocks. We could not make up the colorado river at the very bottom, however.

From the viewing area we drove to a visitor center. There we could get things like chicken dinners hot dogs, pastas, fruit, cereal, sandwiches, and ice cream. While we were eating it started snowing outside. It was fun feeling the snow and walking through it.

Our busses drove to the hotel when everybody was finished eating at the visitor center. It was a really long drive and we got to the hotel around 10.

On Friday morning we got up at 5:30 and ate dinner at the hotel. We then drove to Glen canyon. Because it is controlled by homeland security, we had to get off of our bus and board the homeland security busses to travel to the canyon. We were not allowed to bring any weapons or anything. The rules for what you can and cannot brign were like what they are in airports when you go past security. At the damn we boarded our rafts and our guides talked about the canyon and we started going towards a spot where there were petro glyphs on the canyon walls. Our guides name was Frank and he talked a lot about things in the canyon and how and why the Damn was built. We learned that the Damn provides hydro-electric power for energy we enjoyed lemonade and water on the rafts. Frank tolds us at the beggining that we were starting out with the canyon walls at about 700 ft high and by the end they would be about 1400 feet high. You couldn't really see the walls going up as we went through the river but at the very end you could tell that the walls had gotten a lot higher then they were at the beggining. In the middle of the trip we stopped along the shore at a place where there were some bathrooms in case anybody needed to go.

We saw a lot of fishermen during our trip. Frank told us that a lot of people like to fish in that area because they have a lot of fish and the waters are not as rough as some other places. We also saw a lot of different kind of trees. They have such a variety because there are naturally a couple of different native trees in that area we saw but also because there were non-native trees there. People wanted to see if other types of trees could survive in the same eco-system with the native trees so they planted some foreign trees they thought they would do well there. Frank told us that the trees have suvived but in some areas they are taking over other trees. There was a trail that led o some Petroglyphs on the wall after you pass the bathrooms. They were really cool and were pictures of people and animals. We learned that natives had engraved these petroglyphs onto the sandstone on the canyon walls. There were different sets of petroglyphs but there was one that had a lot in one spot. This was the one with the pictures of different people and different animals.

After getting into the boats again we kept going on the river. Frank explained that the Canyon walls were sandstone. A long time ago they were just big sand dunes. After millions of years they change into stone from wind, water, and other weather. The sandstone walls are slowly being eroded back into sand. The water had carved a path through the stone and is still hitting the sides of it eroding it into sand. Storms also erode some of the canyon wall but the most common forms of erosion are from wind and water.

Our boat came to the end of our journey after all of the other boats but it was okay with us because we stopped a lot to look at the canyon and we learned a lot. There we went to the bathroom and then got on the busses again. We drove to Wupatki National Monument after the river trip. We didn't get to see Wupatki, the biggest structure itself because there were too many people there. Instead we went to see a different structure. It was really big. We coud walk in it and look around inside it. It was really cool. The doorways were all really small because the people came in from ladders on the roof. They had some small square windows too.

The best part of the structure was the balcony. To the left of all of the rooms there was a big flat area of land that resembled a balcony. They think it might have been used for stargazing. The houses are made out of sandstone and were completed hundreds of years ago. The sandstone is good building material and the people who built these structures cemented the pieces of sandstone together well because most of the larger buildings have most of their structure intact. The natives who lived here were very advanced. They traded with people as far as the Pacific Ocean and were very good architects. Something caused them to all of the sudden pack up and leave very quickly. We still do not know why.

After visiting this structure, we got back on the bus and left for sunset crater. It was not very far away. It only took about 10 or 15 minutes to get there.

When we arrived at sunset crater we went to the bathroom and then walked a lava trail. You can see the mountain from the lava trail. It was pretty tall and at the top it looked like there was a big bowl. Most of the sand was black because it was actually ash form when the volcano erupted last. We learned that the black rocks are from when the lava flowed through that area. The rocks were rough and some were pretty sharp. They were all black. There were also a lot of caves in the rocks.

After walking the lava trail at sunset crater we got on the bus again and drove to a hotel where we ate subway sandwiches in a courtyard. We could then go to a souvenir store to buy things to help us remember the trip. There we went to the bathroom and then got on the busses again.

We drove to the Anthem food court to take another bathroom food and had some food. After that we drove straight back to school. Everyone was exhausted by the end of the trip.