Room+17A

__**Joyce and Jaime and Joyce's Grand Canyon Photo Journal**__ We started our journey at the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon at its deepest point is 6000 vertical feet. In 1869 John Wesely Powell went through the Grand Canyon and made it possible for us to travel through it today. From the top of the Kaibab Trail to the next point across is 80 miles. At the Grand Canyon we took a hike down the Canyon and back up. The Canyon looked amazing, we've been there before but we still enjoyed the sight. From the south rim we could see the different rock layers. There was a lot of plant life and different rocks of different colors. Along the trail down we got to see fossilized seasponge in the Canyon walls. We learned that a long time ago the Grand Canyon was completley underwater and that's why there were seasponge fossils in the walls. We learned that there were different types of layers in the Grand Canyon. We first saw limestone then it changed to sandstone and last we saw shale.

There were so many squirrels there.The squirrel is the most populated creature in the Grand Canyon. We were told not to feed them because once a squirrel ate a lady's finger after she tried to feed him. Then you have to get a rabies shot in your butt. At the end of the hike was Ooh Aah Point. Getting there was really easy, but getting back up the trail from Ooh Aah Point was very hard and tiring because it was so steep. In the end we both thought that hiking down and back up the Canyon was so tiring, but we enjoyed seeing it. __**Grand Canyon Visitor Center **__ After hiking in the Grand Canyon we went to the Grand Canyon Visitor Center. We walked on this pathway to a railed area of the Canyon. It was an amazing view of the Canyon from where we stood. You could get up close and see the Canyon from the top. Believe it or not, but this was actually a photo we took of the Canyon from the railed edges of the Visitor Center. You could see miles and miles of the Canyon from this point. We both thought that this was a great place to see the Grand Canyon. On the second day of our trip we went to Glen Canyon Dam to take a river float trip. The deepest point in the Canyon is 85 feet and the Canyon walls were mad of limestone. It was freezing and cold out there, but down at the bottom of the dam was beautiful with all the wildlife and plants. We took a river trip on a boat through the Canyon and saw a lot of different birds. We saw ducks, Blue Herron, and swallows. Here are two pictures of things we saw during our trip. On the right is finger rock. John Wesley Powell discovered it on his second trip through the Canyon. Everybody on our boat was wondering what finger the rock was holding up. Lady on the Swing was not discovered by anyone, but everybody just thought it looked like a lady swinging.
 * __River Trip on the Colorado River__**

These were two other amazing things we saw on the river float trip. On the right is Poison Rock. Our tour guide told us that one drop will kill you. On the right is Needle Point. John Wesely Powell discovered it and named it Needle Point because he thought it looked like the eyelet of a needle. Along the river float we took a bathroom break and saw Petroglyphs. They were made by Native Americans a long time ago, at least 3000 years old.

In 1889 Hislop went through the Glen Canyon and discovered a cave. At the back of the cave he carved his name and date of when he found the cave. This is a picture of when the water used to run down the dark line. The water in the Glen Canyon has decreased from years ago. When you look at the Canyon walls at the very bottom you can see a black line of where the water line used to be. In the end we thought the river trip was the most fun thing we have ever done, but also the coldest. Later on our trip we visited the Wupatki National Monuments. There we walked through one of the large pueblos built by natives many years ago. It was called Wukoki which means Big House. If a person were to die in one of these pueblos the natives would seal the house up and no one would be allowed to live in the house again. We discoverd that the doors there were all VERY small. The people who lived in the houses must have been very short. The houses were amazing and sturdy. The pueblo was actually in great shape for being built by natives about 800 years ago. If someone now built a house, 800 years later the house would be almost destroyed and turned into rubble. We were able to see many rocks and different formations of them because of erosion. While driving we were in part of the Painted Desert. You could see across the desert for about 80 miles because it was so clear!!! The pueblos were built differently from things we build now. They used wood between the windows. The wood is mostly broken or worn down now, but it's still slightly visible. . On our way back to the buses the other guide spotted a glossy sharp rock. He told us it was an artifact left over from the natives called chert. Since the rock was sharp it could have been made into an arrowhead. Wupatki/Wukoki was so much fun. We were surprised they would let us walk through the old houses and enjoyed being able to see how natives might have lived back then.
 * __Wupatki National Monument, Wukoki Pueblo.__**

Last we went to Sunset Crater. Sunset Crater is a cinder cone volcano. It was named by John Wesley Powell. He named it "sunset" because he thought the colors looked like a sunset. I was suprised to learn that there was'nt actually a crater there, just a volcano. When we got there we toke a hike around the bottom of the volcano then back to the buses. The ground was covered is ash! The whole thing was black.
 * __Sunset Crater__**

Sunset Craters last recorded eruption was in 1075 A.D. and the lava flowed all the way to Kansas! The lava flow path is a mile long loop. If a tree was burned down it would take 200 years to grow back!!! There is so much lava and minerals that burn into the ground and it makes it hard to grow for the trees. There are few plants surviving in all the ash, but lichen grows all over the place there. Super-Man lives in the ice cave that was made by the lava flow. It froze over and now has ice in it. The cave was closed to visitors in 1973.

At the end of the trip we were both sad not to be able to see more sights like John Wesley Powell did, but happy to go home and sleep. ☺☺