Photo's From My "Exploring Escalante" Trip

I was leading a trip up in the Escalante Canyon region of Utah during the week of April 16. Many members of our group contributed photographs. Have a look at them and the captions will explain much of what we saw. Thanks to photographers John Grahame and Kate Killibrew.

The Cottonwood Canyon Road has been washed out since January so we took the Skutumpah Road instead and got a view of Bull Valley Gorge. This is a narrow slot canyon cut into the Navajo Sandstone.

Our first hike was to Calf Creek Falls. This little oasis is a gem in the red rock country. John's photograph here is on the approach.

And a clear view of the 100 foot fall

Vandalism on a rock art site above the Escalante River

But there was lots more that was untouched

This pictograph is called 100 Hands but requires a big climb to access it

Enjoying the view

On the trail

Photographing the rock art

Another great panel just above the Escalante River

John G. the trusty assistant

Wayne and Carolyn at dinner

New Exhibits at Grand Canyon National Park

Regular readers of Earthly Musings know of the fantastic changes happening at Grand Canyon National Park. In October, 2010, the Trail of Time was dedicated. And in January of this year, the 100th anniversary celebration of the Kolb Brothers historic river trip was commemorated with an exhibit at Kolb Studio.

The National Park Service has installed new exhibits at the Visitor Center and Helen and I toured them recently while visiting the South Rim. Here is the press release on the new exhibits.It is definitely worth a look when you next visit the park.

Exploring Canyonlands in Utah - Part 2

Here is the continuation of the posting for my five-day trip to Canyonlands. This includes photo's and discussion from days 3, 4, and 5.

On Wednesday we made the 2.5 mile hike along Negro Bill Creek to Morning Glory Arch. It is an impressive span in the Navajo Sandstone.

View from beneath Morning Glory Arch. While we were here, a tour group arrived on top of the arch with the intent of rappelling down the 120 vertical feet. The rope thrown over the edge nearly hit our party!

One of my favorite places on all of the plateau is Fisher Towers. These spectacular monoliths protrude from a mesa with the strata tilted on the east side of the Professor Valley salt dome. The cap rock is Moenkopi Formation and most of the tower composed of the Cutler Group. This is the same stratigraphic horizon as the layers seen in Monument Valley. Bet here, the deposits were derived from the near flank of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains and thus they are much coarser-grained and undifferentiated as individual formations. A true geologic "must see."

Pointing out something or another to the group. I have to say to say that it was such a pleasure to travel with folks who were keen on learning all they could about geology.

Day 4 say us visiting Arches National Park and we took an early morning hike up to Delicate Arch. That is the five of us standing beneath the arch.

Before lunch we walked on the Sand Arch Trail into these fins of Entrada Sandstone. They have formed along joints that run parallel to the Salt Valley diapir, a salt dome that punched through the strata.

It is along these narrow fins that many of the arches are formed. This is Partition Arch along the way past Landscape Arch. These thin walls, in combination with the presence of an aquaclude in the lower  Dewey Bridge Member of the Carmel Formation, make for the perfect setting to form arches. See here.

Day 5 and time to head back south to Flagstaff. We stopped by the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. Here is a view of the Needles, carved into the Cedar Mesa Sandstone.

From left to right, Ed H., Georgia; Wayne R., Arizona; Howard C., Tennessee; Kent C., Arizona; and Inge H., Arizona

Discussing the paleoclimatic implications of a fossil pack rat midden. These little piles of poop help to preserve a record of the Ice Age climate in the Southwest. Pack rats (genus Neotoma) only travel 100 meters or less to collect material for the nest. Since the climate of the Southwest is perfect to preserve the specimen, the plant material that is cemented into the amberrat gives a first hand account of what was growing here up to 50,000 years ago. Wetter climates then meant that vegetation communities were depressed almost 1,500 feet lower than they are today. Imagine Ponderosa and Lodgepole pine growing in the Needles!

Our final stop was at the Goosenecks Overlook along the San Juan River. I've completed many trips in my years in the Southwest through here and it would be nice to offer a trip down here again for geology enthusiasts again! Thanks for reading.

Exploring The Canyonlands in Utah - Part 1

Last week I was up in the Canyonlands area near Moab, Utah leading a small group of enthusiasts with the Museum of Northern Arizona Ventures Program. We had an excellent time with all of us being veteran geology buffs excited to see the world-class stratigraphy that this area affords. One of my participants, Kent Colbath, is a great supporter and volunteer at the Museum and came along with his camera on the excursion. Long time blog readers of Earthly Musings will be familiar with my photography here, but this time I thought it might be fun to see how one of my participants viewed the places visited on our five day trip. I will do this in a few different blog postings and here are the first two days of our trip. Have a look at what we saw and learned about.

Our first stop on the way to Moab was Monument Valley. Here we took a 3.6 mile hike around Mitten Rock, seen on the left. Monuments here are capped (top to bottom) by thin outcrops of the Triassic Shinarump Conglomerate and Moenkopi Formation. The major part of the cliff is composed of Permian  De Chelly Sandstone with lower aprons of the Organ Rock Formation. This sequence would be observed many times during our week in Canyonlands. The floor of Monument Valley and not visible here is the Cedar Mesa Sandstone.

After passing through Mexican Hat, Utah, we saw the Raplee Anticline where the Pennsylvanian Halgaito Shale (top red) and Honaker Trail Formation (lower red and gray) create a kaleidoscope of color along the San Juan River.

Our first day on the ground took us to Island in the Sky in Canyonlands National Park. Here is a NASA image of Upheaval Dome, an odd structure located atop the plateau. If you look very closely in the upper left, you will see the paved road that crosses the upturned Navajo Sandstone ridge and enters one of the inner rings of the structure.

Our first stop on the ground was Whale Rock, seen in the foreground. Here you can see a semi-circular outcrop pattern within the Navajo Sandstone. This is the outer ring of Upheaval Dome. Studies in the last 15 years have shown pretty good evidence that this is the result of an impact crater from a meteorite that hit the earth in higher (now eroded) rocks back in the Cretaceous Period (about 90 Ma). Another popular theory that is now mostly discredited is that the dome formed from the movement of underground salt. While on Whale Rock, I showed our small group a series of three NPS pamphlets that explain the formation of this structure. The first one was from 1983 and highlighted the salt some theory with only one sentence at the end dedicated to the impact theory. The second pamphlet was from 1991 and contrasted the two theories equally within it. The last pamphlet is from 2009 and the impact theory was given the vast majority of space in it. Inadvertently, I have assembled a crude history of thought on Upheaval Dome!
 

We hiked about a mile to two overlooks that allowed us to peer into the core of Upheaval Dome. What a mess! The impactor likely hit rocks that were about 4,000 higher than this. Subsequent erosion has removed the overlying material.

Beautiful Indian paintbrush on the trail near Upheaval Dome

Later in the day we hiked out to Grandview Point, the southernmost projection of the Island in the Sky. On the way back, Kent took our picture with the La Sal Mountain laccolith in the distance. See two of my previous blogs on lacccoliths here and here.

With a positive thinking group, we drove down the Shafer Trail off the rim of plateau. This old uranium haul road was a thrill and a half! Our van made it too.

Our van on the lip of the Shafer Limestone. This is near the place where Thelma and Louise drove off of the "Grand Canyon" in the famous 1991 movie.

Here I am pointing out the geology at the end of a fantastic day of geologic touring!

Grand Canyon Installs New Exhibits at the Visitor Center

Workers at Grand Canyon National Park are busy installing new exhibits at the Visitor Center this week. Recent visitors will know that in 2010 the Park added a 200-seat theater with movie ajacent to the Vistor Center. You can order a copy of the the DVD, "Grand Canyon: Journey of Wonder," here.

Check out the new relief map of Grand Canyon that was installed on the walls of the Visitor Center today. I am sure that this will be a great tool to help visitors learn just how large the Grand Canyon really is. Geologists can use this too when students are brought to the canyon. The link is here. The entire exhibit suite will be finished by April 7. Plan your next trip to the park now!

How Big and Small Everything Is

Take a look at this astounding web site, forwarded by Jim in Michigan. It really puts things in perspective.

It's Going To Be A Cold Night!

Compare to photo 1 in this mornings posting. The sun has broken through this epic storm! I measured the total snowfall at 255 at nearly 30 inches. The Arizona Snowbowl on the San Francisco Peaks recorded 54 inches! It's going to be a very cold night but the return of spring-like weather is on its way!

Morning in Flagstaff

The big news this morning is the snow! I figure we're pretty close to 22 inches total here at 255. Another 1- to 12 inches fell after we shoveled yesterday and got the driveway cleared. We're headed back out this morning to do that next 12 inches. But the sun is peeking through the remnants of this awesome storm.

The San Francisco Peaks are out there somewhere

The snow began as rain so the lower layers are wet and slushy. Later snow is quite powdery.

It's a blanket everywhere

It flocks the trees in huge clumps

The project this morning is to get the driveway cleared so Helen can go to work. NAU cancelled classes on Saturday before one flake fell. Unprecedented to my knowledge.

Sunshine is on the way as well as above normal temperatures the rest of the week. Such is the history of a late winter storm.

Trip's End

And so this journey comes to an end. We wake up and drive through a hazy Jordanian morning, two hours to Aqaba. The guide stops the bus at a panoramic view and we struggle to see the shredded landscape of Petra through the fog, smoke and dust. Were it clear, we would see one of the most spectacular sandstone canyon systems anywhere. Another Colorado Plateau look alike! In spite of the haze, I am pleased.

We've seen a lot of bad air on this trip. With the exception of South Africa, all of our destinations were shrouded in haze, smoke, dust and just plain old bad air. The next time someone complains to me about "government regulations" regarding clean air, I am gong to remind them what the alternative is. Thank goodness for the air we breathe in the USA and the laws and rules that have turned our skies into inspirational messages to us, visible each day.

Our jet circles around to the south so as not to prickle Israeli sensitivities about jets originating in Arabian nations. They certainly have reason to feel prickly as their neighbors have been petulant about their return. But they said yes when offered a chance to settle in their ancestral homeland, in spite of the fact that the others had stolen it from them fair and square and were now ensconced there with their own families. I wonder if some them now wish they had said 'thanks but no thanks' to the offer, and had asked for a piece of Jordan instead (or maybe Maryland?). It's amazing what some humans will do to soothe ancient roots, that serve at the same time to also incite present terror.

And then I recall the lion kill we observed in South Africa. I had just given my second lecture the day before, "Africa, The Cradle of Human Evolution", and visions of early humans descending from the trees onto grassy plains rife with lions and leopards filled my head. Climate change had prompted that descent from the trees and somehow, enough of us survived the lions but not the "scare". I wondered if we still fight wars in the 21st century because of some ancient fear that a lion lurks behind every clump of grass? Probably.

We got a few nice views of snow-covered Macedonia and the town of Graz in Austria. And then a cloud covered all of the rest of Europe. Over Bavaria, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Amsterdam. As we descended into London, the cloud still stretched to the western horizon  towards Ireland and who knows how much farther (Omaha?). Europe sure does clouds!

These are the thoughts that go through my mind in the early AM hours in London - when I should be sleeping to prepare for a 21-hour, coach class, flight marathon. I'll be trashed when I get home but my sweetie will be there waiting for me in Phoenix. I have missed her so much, so it is very appropriate for this trip to come to an end.

The pilots of our 757 gave us the final statistics for the trip. In all, we flew 41 hours and 41 minutes on our private jet and traveled 19,936 miles (statute). With the 11,000 miles I racked up on commercial flights, I traveled 31,000 miles in the air - one and one-quarter times around the globe! Amazing. Our jet consumed 48,776 gallons of jet fuel in 24 days, making for an average of 2.5 miles per gallon. Not too bad considering our heaviest take-off weight was 235,430 lbs. and there were 72 people on board. We used only 1.5 quarts of engine oil. In all of this travel, the jet's engineer replaced one air conditioning valve, while carrying 3,500 lbs. of spare parts. The jet and crew was fabulous!

We've seen amazing things, all too fast of course, but what a trip of this kind lacks in 'hours on the ground', is more than made up for with education and learning. It's been a seminar really. Each stop with knowledgeable guides sharing their expertise. Thank you one and all.

And thank you for reading this blog. After my "recovery" from flying home, I'll be exploring more of North America and the Southwest and you can check back here to see what I am up to and what there is to see on this wonderful planet.

Tiger's Nest Monastery in Bhutan, March 8, 2012

Flying Over "Forbidden" Countries

Our airline crew on this trip has been fantastic! First Officer Phil Gardner always comes to my seat before the flight and gives me a print out of our routing, which in this part of the world is often not in the straight line path you would expect. For example, when leaving Jodhpur, we had to route south for about 20 minutes because the straight line track to Jordan would have taken us directly over India's nuclear missile silos pointed at Pakistan. (We also had to fly around Israel as no aircraft leaving Arab countries can fly across their space). Anyway, Officer Gardner's thoughtfulness has really reaped dividends for all of us, since I like to point out to folks all of the things of interest we are flying over. If I know what's coming up, I can get people to look out the windows more often. The flight stewards are professional and truly interested in the experiences we are having. They stay at different hotels than us and so when we return home to the "mother ship", we exchange stories of our different experiences. It's a fun group!

We had a great flight west from India that took us over some countries with tantalizing names to Americans - Pakistan, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia. As always, when ever I mention that we are crossing into these territories, many people always ask, "Are we allowed to?" The answer is yes but the flyways are strictly enforced. We were not allowed to fly over Afghanistan or Iraq but we came close. The day was extremely hazy and the photo's not the best. But when seen from an altitude far from the war-like calls from governments, these counties look like any other with regards to their geology. How I would love to be on the ground in south central Pakistan and southwest Iran, places that approximate things we see in the American Southwest!

I thought I would give you a view of the interior of our jet. Seventy-four first class seats in a jet that can seat as many as 250.

This is David Keeling my fellow lecturer on the trip. He is a Geography professor at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. We have had a great time together on this trip.

The stewards will often don dress that is native to the local culture. We never know what we'll see when we return back on board. My seat for the second half of the flight has been Row 6 Seat A, visible on the far right. This is where I have been getting my photo's from and why the jet engine frames many of my pictures.

Jill, wearing a bindi on her forehead, is part of the wonderful crew that has served us. The crew is from England.

Interesting settlement pattern in northwest India where a small town is located along a river as roads converge from all directions

We passed in to southern Pakistan and soon saw the great Indus River, draining a great portion of the western Himalaya. Note the high standing mesa bordering the west side of the river valley

And then Pakistan revealed a landscape so familiar to travelers in the American Southwest. Folded sediments were arched up in great swaths across the desert landscape west of the Indus River. I am guessing that this is part of the Kirthar Range.

Some areas were quite similar to the folds we see on the Colorado Plateau. This one looks a lot like the Raplee Anticline near Mexican Hat Utah but is located in Pakistan. I continue my search for landscapes worldwide that approximate the Colorado Plateau!

We crossed into Iranian airspace and the wonders folded strata continued. Here is an eroded anticline with the various colors of the strata highlighting the structure beneath.

A recent snow storm had dusted this mountain. Note the small city at the foot of the snow. I am sure that I will be able to located this city after spending time on Google Earth.

Passing across the Zagros Mountain in southwestern Iran, we saw domed mountains dusted with snow.

This line of cliffs reminded me of the Straight Cliffs near Escalante Utah. A small reservoir can be seen in the lower left.

We finally crossed over the northern end of the Persian Gulf and this is where the air quality got especially bad

And this is the reason why - a giant sand storm was blowing across much of the Arabian Desert in Saudi Arabia. In the air, our jet was fighting against 150 mph headwinds.

It finally cleared up somewhat over southern Jordan and we were treated to an aerial view of Wadi Rum below

The rock formations here are beautiful and are composed of Cambrian Sandstone sitting on top of Precambrian crystalline rocks

Coming in closer to the airport, the sandstone has been stripped off completely here and the granite is exposed entirely

The Gulf of Aqaba and the Israeli port city of Elat

It is about a two hour drive from Aqaba to Wadi Musa and Petra. The highways are very modern as Aqaba is a free port with no taxes. This is turning rapidly into a highly populated and commercial area and I noticed incredible growth since my last visit 5 years ago. This is near the junction of four countries, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Egypt.

Here are those crystalline rocks as seen from ground level. Many black dikes pervade the sequence.

More black dikes in the granite and a small cap of sandstone on the upper right cliff

Here it is! The Great Unconformity as seen near Wadi Rum in Jordan. Precambrian granite is capped by Cambrian Sandstone in the center of this photo. The gap in time is many hundreds of millions of years at this unconformity.

As we drove north, the Precambrian rocks disappeared into the subsurface and the sandstone was at ground level. I was hoping to take the day trip on March 11 back to Wadi Rum but I experienced my first bout with travelers stomach and was forced to stay in my room the whole day. The best geology on the trip and I had to miss it!