Jared+G.+&+Andrew+S.

Room 13B (Andrew S. and Jared)
 * __The Grand Canyon__**

Jared and Andrew's Grand Canyon Space 

 This is Jared and Andrew at theWupatki pueblo. This stone structure was built about 900 years ago and was home to an Indian tribe.

On Day One (4/16/09), we all loaded two really nice, cool-looking buses at 6:30a.m. Although we were very tired from having to wake up so early, we both made ourselves comfortable and settled in until our first stop just south of Phoenix where we took a restroom break. Along the way, we noticed a change in scenery and as our tour guide told us, we were no longer in the Sanoran Desert. After another restroom stop and a stop in Flagstaff to eat lunch, we arrived at the Grand Canyon. When Jared opened his eyes, the first thing he said was "Oh, wow" and Andrew thought "wide". It was true. The canyon, infact, was very wide from where we looked at the South Rim.

A first look at the Canyon from the South Rim.

We took a different shuttle to the Kaibab Trail. This trail was a 7-mile long trail that had massive elevation. It led from the tip-top of the Grand Canyon all the way down to the Colorado River. We travled about 1 mile and then back. Along the way we were educated about the formations of the rocks and sediments we walked passed. We learned some really interesting facts. One Jared found very fascinating was that every step we made took us another 10 thousand years back in time due to the formations and the altitude of them. We got to see more and more of the Canyon and it was a great site. We learned that the rocks were conducted of sandstone, which is a sedimentary rock formed from sand, and limestone, which is a sedimentary rock formed from ocean fossils. We also learned that the rocks at the bottom of the Grand Canyon are 2 billion years old.

And it's a long way down the trail... Here are some of the ocean fossils in the rock.

__**The River Trip**__ We went on a fun river trip down the Colorado River. There was a dam and a bridge over the river where we started our trip. The rock walls around us were high and steep. There were two holes in the rock by the dam that were made for water to flow through when the dam was being built. We rafted down part of the Colorado river and stopped once to look at some petroglyphs and pictographs. One layer of rock that we learned was in the walls of the canyon was called xenolith. We thought the trip was pretty cool. The water in the river was really cold. **Bridge and dam where we started our trip down the river.** **Some of the petroglyphs and pictographs on our rafting trip.**

__**Burnt Tamarisk**__ Along the river, we found what looked like a valley of burnt trees. What it really was was burnt tamarisk. Originally, tamarisk, an invasive species, was put by the river banks to anchor the soil on the river bank. In other words, the tamarisk was supposed to stop erosion from washing away all of the soil into the river. The tamarisk did this by poisoning the soil. However, this became a problem. The tamarisk began to kill the soil. So the people at the Grand Canyon had to get rid of it. They could not cut it down because it would just grow back and reproduce. So intstead, they burnt it. That is why it is now //burnt// tamarisk.


 * [[image:Grand_Canyon_036.jpg width="499" height="334" caption="Burnt Tamarisk"]] ||
 * Burnt tamarisk. ||

Picture of one of the rafts on the river trip** ** __ Wukoki National Monument __ ** Wukoki means long house cut in half. It is a brick building with small doors and windows that was home to an indian tribe, but is now deserted. We walked around inside the building and we walked around the outside of it. It was built on sandstone and is 900 years old. The people who used to live there were called diffirent names, but one name was hotsosinin. We thought it was cool, but it didnt look really sturdy and the doors were really small.
 * [[image:GCy7k5nn90i_2538.JPG width="480" height="360" caption="GCy7k5nn90i_2538.JPG"]]

**Wukoki National Monument** **Upstairs part of the monument.
 * Window in the monument.**

__Sunset Crater National Monument__ ** There is a lot of ash and rocks around Sunset Crater. Near the base of it there is at least one small cave. We went on a short hike through the rocks and we climbed down into a cave near the bottom of Sunset Crater. Sunset Crater is actually a cinder cone volcano, not a crater. It erupted in 1064 A.D. It is dormant right now. There is lichen on the rocks around the volcano. We thought it was cool, but we could not see the top part of it, we just saw the bottom and the sides of it.
 * Rocks, trees and ash around Sunset Crater.**
 * Inside the cave.

__Visitor Centers__ The visitor centers were pretty big and some of them had food and other items for sale. We ate and had the option to buy some things at the visitor centers we went to. At one visitor center we ate outside and then had some time to look in the visitor center. When we were at a different one of the visitor centers it started snowing and it was cool. We thought the food there was good and they had lots of cool things for sale. **