Desert Spring Break - Thursday and Friday
Finally we have reached the last day of this adventure. Thursday morning we wake refreshed, grab omelets from a cute diner in downtown Flagstaff, and hit the road for the Grand Canyon.
We stop at two places of interest along the way. The first is Sunset crater, which is one of many volcanic craters in this area. The reader may find it surprising that there are extinct volcanoes in northern Arizona, but in fact there are many along the edge of the Colorado Plateau. Sunset crater last erupted fairly recently (~1100 AD) and is still surrounded by hardened lava. All in all really interesting. Here's a picture of the San Francisco Mountains, also volcanic, with a lava flow from Sunset Crater in the foreground.
Next we stopped at Wupatki National Monument. It's the ruins (somewhat reconstructed) of ancient Pueblo people. It's a complex and beautifully built structure. I'm not sure how I feel about it being partially reconstructed.
Finally we were off to the Grand Canyon, which is indeed quite grand. It is actually quite surreal. The shear size of it completely defies comprehension. Your brain simply can not grasp it. I can't tell you how many times I stared into it and thought, "I'm looking a mile into the Earth." Then, being the physicist that I am, I started to calculate how long it would take for a rock to hit the bottom. It was something like 30 seconds to a minute. I mean really. That's damn big hole. The colors are also astounding. The first photo taken at Desert View, and the river at the bottom is the Colorado.
And just for fun, here I am squinting into the Sun.
My forehead's about as red as the Redwall rock.
Eventually it was time to head back to Vegas to catch a redeye back East. We ended up cutting it pretty close driving back. This was rather unpleasant part of the trip, so I'm just going to say that we made our flight in time, I managed to sleep on the plane (gasp), and the drive back to Ithaca from Rochester was uneventful until....
we got a call from a certain former roommate saying that she and her boyfriend *finally* got engaged. Yah! Congrats!
Das Ende
We stop at two places of interest along the way. The first is Sunset crater, which is one of many volcanic craters in this area. The reader may find it surprising that there are extinct volcanoes in northern Arizona, but in fact there are many along the edge of the Colorado Plateau. Sunset crater last erupted fairly recently (~1100 AD) and is still surrounded by hardened lava. All in all really interesting. Here's a picture of the San Francisco Mountains, also volcanic, with a lava flow from Sunset Crater in the foreground.
Next we stopped at Wupatki National Monument. It's the ruins (somewhat reconstructed) of ancient Pueblo people. It's a complex and beautifully built structure. I'm not sure how I feel about it being partially reconstructed.
Finally we were off to the Grand Canyon, which is indeed quite grand. It is actually quite surreal. The shear size of it completely defies comprehension. Your brain simply can not grasp it. I can't tell you how many times I stared into it and thought, "I'm looking a mile into the Earth." Then, being the physicist that I am, I started to calculate how long it would take for a rock to hit the bottom. It was something like 30 seconds to a minute. I mean really. That's damn big hole. The colors are also astounding. The first photo taken at Desert View, and the river at the bottom is the Colorado.
And just for fun, here I am squinting into the Sun.
My forehead's about as red as the Redwall rock.
Eventually it was time to head back to Vegas to catch a redeye back East. We ended up cutting it pretty close driving back. This was rather unpleasant part of the trip, so I'm just going to say that we made our flight in time, I managed to sleep on the plane (gasp), and the drive back to Ithaca from Rochester was uneventful until....
we got a call from a certain former roommate saying that she and her boyfriend *finally* got engaged. Yah! Congrats!
Das Ende
posted by laura s at 11:26 AM
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