sedimentary layering

This was a favorite picture of mine from Moab on the Pritchett Canyon trail we did earlier this year. Not only can you see the different silty layers (tilted up), you can see an unconformity (where the banded silty layers are "sheared" off and a new, less silty layer is deposited over the top). With any luck we'll be camping in the region again soon. Moab is four hours Southeast, we are planning on heading to Goblin Valley which is about the same distance Southwest. I read one of those "you know your from Utah" jokes some years back and one of the indicators was you know how far everything is in hours, not miles. I have said I would never claim to be from here (I'm from the Mid-West) but I really thought everyone did that. I could tell you how many hours it takes to drive to at least 13 cities ~ even ones in neighboring states ~ with and without potty stops and even account for traffic differences depending on the time of day and day of the week. I have absolutely no idea how many miles it is to work, let alone anywhere farther.

Wow this is a busy week. Paul and I each have something planned for every night after work and it's month end which is an accounting headache and I just realized that month end is Thursday not Friday. Funny how things that are stagnant on the calendar sneak up on you. I have the evening news on while working and just heard it's 77 in Moab.... that sounds good right now. The 77 degrees and Moab, both sound good. Here's another picture from our trip of Nathan being a goof.

Moab pics part II

These are our new friends Darren and Lauri from California we met on our Friday trail. We had dinner together Saturday. They were going to head back Sunday but had trouble getting out of town so they headed over that night for beers and s'mores by the campfire. We are going to try and keep in touch and maybe get out to their way to do the Rubicon with them. Thankfully technology (facebook,e-mail, etc) makes that easier so it should be possible! The rest of the pictures are from our Sunday trail - Pritchett. It's the hardest "official" trail down here and I only know of two harder. They won't run those two with the groups. The official group that headed out for this one earlier in the week started with 22 jeeps and only 11 were able to drive back to town. We got lucky (experience doesn't even guarantee you making it out, you need luck as well). Our group had eight jeeps and none of us even sustained body damage. This is the view up Pritchett Canyon.

This guy actually wasn't in our group - he and another guy ended up in the middle of us but this shows a really nice view of the difficulty. This obstacle is rocker knocker. You need to be headed up on the left like he is, but you can't get there unless you start from the right and do a bouncy slidy thing to get over to the left, if you try to start out there you tip over and roll down hill. This isn't a long trail, but it literally one obstacle after another.

This is our group waiting for our turn on rocker knocker. Most of Moab, and especially this trail is a lot of hurry up and wait. But I can't wait to go back.

Moab pics part I

I'm going to have to upload the pictures in a couple different posts due to the file size limit. The kids said some memorable things through out the weekend I'll quote throughout. Here is the view of Castle Valley from the Porcupine Rim trail. It's one of my favorites because we found a back way in so we have a short drive to an amazing view. The trail bores Paul so we only do it when we have a newbie who hasn't seen this amazing creation. Nathan was trying to play his game boy and was frustrated it was bumpy and asked up to slow down and Andrew said to him " This is Mo-lab. Mo-lab is bumpy!"

This next view is from the trail we lead every year on Friday - Kane Creek. It's not the most difficult (unless it's raining, then it's impassable) but it is one of the prettiest just from the variety of scenery standpoint. I realized we've done this trail so often that even though it changes a bit from year to year, it doesn't really chance and I only remembered to take a few pictures. Sometime this morning life for Andrew fell apart. He's been on this trail more times in his life than all the others put together. Not sure what happened, no one had an accident or anything but every time we hit even a 1% grade, even on predominantly flat and even dirt road he started screaming that we were going to tip. We finally had to tell him to put his head in Nathans lap and close his eyes.

These next few pictures are all from the Saturday trail Cliff Hanger. It really did have an amazing view looking out over the Colorado and Johnsons flat. Andrew's day was rough again and finally Nathan looked at him at one point and said "no screaming the jeep"... we might make that into a bumper sticker. Andrew and I ended up walking about 3/4 of the five mile trail. He never asked to be carried, he just wanted me to hold his hand and not be in the jeep.

Sometime after lunch Andrew got over his fear...good thing the next day we did the most difficult official trail down there!

EJS 2009

Well we made it, almost half a day after I'd like to have been. We pulled into town around five on Wednesday. We have caught up to old friends that we only see once a year and made some new ones on our trail today. My sister and her boyfriend are down here as well and we did a new trail with them yesterday. We tried to find Copper Ridge and see the dinosaur tracks and couldn't find it, but we did find Mill Canyon and saw lots of dinosaur bones you can walk right up to. Then we took them out on Porcupine rim and today did our usual Kane Creek. The water level is down a bit and there were only 59 creek crossings (as per a ten year old in another jeep). We got lucky and only had 28 register for our trail. Of those only 19 showed up at line up and two turned back. We got off the trail around 3:20 which might be the earliest ever. Last year we had 52 register. That makes for a long day. I'll post some pictures later. My internet connection isn't the best but I'm in Moab so I won't complain. I'm sitting on a porch with a cup of coffee looking at the red rocks and La Sals and the kids are entertaining themselves on a play ground. Can't get much better than that. Our trail tomorrow is Cliff Hanger which freaks me out a bit because of the cliff altough I was almost talked into doing them Moab Rim yesterday. Cliff Hanger is apply named for a 3000'+ cliff. I have done it once before but I was so tired (and more than a little nervous) that day I actually got out of the jeep before lunch and took a nap on a rock and waited for the jeeps to come back - that's a trail you go out the same way you came in, most are not like that. Apparently I missed the best part. I think you're supposed to be able to look over the Colorado River and maybe the confluence from the plateau at the lunch spot. Anyway I'm looking forward to it. Sunday we might try Pritchet which is might be my second favorite but we have a leak in a Straub tube (or something like that) in one of the tires and might not be able to go. If that's the most we break we'll consider ourselves lucky. Sunday should be exciting no matter what we decide to do. We have Easter and one little boys birthday on the same day. He thinks he's turning five and a half.

drop your drawers

This time last year we were in the midst of potty training. We were headed to Moab and would be on a trail for at least eight hours a day. There aren't bathrooms outdoors. This could be a problem, or an advantage. We told Andrew he could pee on any rock or bush he saw. He took full advantage of it and dropped his drawers anywhere, everywhere, in front of everyone. Most people - or at least the ones I talked to thought it was amusing (I think they'd been there themselves). Especially the day he tried to pee into the wind. That doesn't work so well. But, this method of potty training actually worked in case you're struggling with this and need a new method to try.
This is the trail head to our Friday Kane Creek trail. It's our absolute favorite trail down in Moab.

Ripple stone

Ready for a geology lesson. This is one of my favorite things to find. I really go ecstatic. It's called ripple stone. It is formed when a shallow fast moving stream flowing over a silty/sandy bed forms ripples in the sandy stream bottom and then the stream dries up leaving the ripples. A younger sandstone - usually aeolian - which means deposited by wind forms over the top preserving the ripples. Later when the two break apart at the disconformity between the layers, you can see the ripples as they were millions of years ago. Most of the red sandstone in Moab is from the entrada formation which is between 140 and 180 million years old. This was at the end of the Jurassic era and there are places in Moab you can find dinosaur tracks. We've seen some down there before and may do a new trail this year that is famous for them. We found these specimens on the jug handle arch trail which turns off the road running along side the Colorado River West of Moab where my last picture I posted of Moab was taken from. I'm scheduling this post so with any luck by the time you see it, I'll be down there.

Fingerprint Friday

Fingerprint Friday
There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that says:
I can see the fingerprints of god
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of god
And I know its true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of god

So look around you and see where YOU can see God's fingerprints. Is it in nature? Kids? Animals? Where do you see them? Here's how to join in, click the link above to go to Beki's page and add your own fingerprint or view others...

This along the Colorado river in Moab, Utah. We will be there soon, very soon. Not soon enough! I can't wait to feel the wind blowing through my hair and the warm sun on my skin. I always marvel at the landscape. I have a background in geology and I look at the cliffs and think of how the wind moved every grain of sand into a pile and then time cemented them together and then wind and water moved every grain away carving canyons. EVERY grain of sand. That's almost beyond comprehension. It makes me feel very small. I like feeling very small out here, it puts problems into perspective. And its normally, unusually quiet. Did I mention cell phones usually don't work unless you are right in town. I like that.