Room+18B

Welcome to Emily Derickson and Alexia De Leon's Grand Canyon Adventure!!!!
What We Did in the Grand Canyon: In the Grand Canyon, we hiked down a trail called South Kaibab Trail for about 0.9 miles down, and 0.9 miles up. Down the Grand Canyon was a breeze, up until we had to start heading up. We stopped at Ooh Aah Point, which was beautiful. During the hike, we discovered a common native squirrel, and some plants. We also learned some history about the Grand Canyon. The History on The Grand Canyon!: John Wesley Powell took 99 days to travel 1000 miles (which is the Grand Canyon) to travel through out the Colorado River. John Wesley Powell was the first charted explorer to discover the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. But Francisco Coronado, in 1540 was said to discover it before John Wesley Powell. Pictures of the Grand Canyon: > We think that the Grand Canyon is amazing and beautiful. It couldn’t be any where else in the world. The place is perfect and the weather is perfect. > The location couldn’t happen anywhere else, though because there is no desert where an ocean is thousands of miles away, and there are no plates that are exactly like the North American Plates. > The river may reach speeds of 8-10 miles-per-hour(mph) at steeper rapids. The average smooth water speed is 3-4 mph. Obviously, the drop in elevation and volume of water can impact the speed in the water. > > Ponderosa Pines: They needed water to grow, the igneous rock doesn’t give water. But mushrooms are symbiotic. The mushrooms take nutrients from the tree, but the mushrooms store water so the pines take the water. The Tassel eared squirrel lives in the Ponderosas. They take out the mushrooms so they can reproduce. They are all reliant on each other.
 * **What the Grand Canyon Looks Like:**
 * The Grand Canyon is an amazing place which looks like a lot of plateaus and a couple of rocks that stand straight up. This formation looks like a place between Tucson and Phoenix called Picacho Peak. The rock color in the Grand Canyon are hard to explain, Some vary from a light tan(toward the top) to a reddish purple(near the middle and by the river) to a black green.(at the bottom where there were low plateaus)
 * **The Grand Canyon Hike:**
 * Most of the layers on the top of the Grand Canyon are Limestone and Sandstone. (Sedimentary rocks)
 * How the Grand Canyon formed, and fossils: The Grand Canyon formed by the ocean and by plates moving. To be more specific, when the North American plates move and change, the ocean that holds where the Grand Canyon will be, moves out. So with the water levels lowering, the wind and the sand dunes blowing, the amazing Grand Canyon levels were born. In fact, every one step you take in the Grand Canyon, imagine going back in time for one-thousand years! And with the ocean gone, those poor animals who live in the salt-water die, and fossils are born. We like to think of their death as if they are famous today because they’re the talk of the Canyon!
 * Tamarisk is a popular plant in the Grand Canyon, that when on the shoreline of a beach, the Tamarisk plant would prevent erosion from happening. But, as the population of the Tamarisk got higher, there was no water for the other native plants, and the Tamarisk puts out a lot of salt water, which is bad for the other plants and animals. Soon after, scientists found a beetle that they like to call the Tamarisk beetle. This beetle ate the Tamarisk and the beetle became more popular. Therefore, the Tamarisk plant is endangered.
 * **Our thoughts about the Location!:**
 * The Grand Canyon is an amazing place to learn about geography, get a great exercise, and even to say OOOHH and AHHH (the point we hiked to)
 * **Southern Kaibab Trail:**
 * The Kaibab Trail is at an elevation of 7000 feet above sea-level.
 * The size of the Kaibab is about 1-2 million acres.
 * The river length is 277 miles.
 * The amount of plants in the Kaibab Trail, and in other places in the Grand Canyon are 1500 species.
 * There are 26 species of fish in the Colorado River.
 * There are 6 amphibian species in the Kaibab Trail.
 * There are 35 reptile species in the Kaibab.
 * There are 76 mammal species in the Kaibab.
 * **What the Colorado River Looks Like:**
 * The Colorado River looks like a normal river that goes a really long way from Northern Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. A lot of different fish live in it. At the beach, we saw some seaweed floating, just like the beach, and even some soft sand. It was beautiful, and most importantly, cold!
 * **What We Did in the Colorado River:**
 * In the Colorado River, we rafted from Glen Canyon Dam, to where the beginning of the Grand Canyon starts. In the middle of the rafting, we visited this beach which has carvings from the Indians. Scientists have tried and are trying to translate them today. We also had some free time on the beach, some kids (Emily) chose to take a dip, or got pushed in the freezing water. And others (Alexia) chose to laugh at the others who were freezing cold, and got sand over their clothes. (She didn’t really laugh)
 * **The Colorado River:**
 * Here is some common questions that we were curious about, and we are sure you are asking about.
 * How Deep is the river?:
 * The depth of the Colorado River changes from inches, to more than 100 feet! An interesting feature about the depth is how fast it can change.
 * How wide?:
 * The width ranges from 76 feet at Granite Narrows, mile 136, to about 750 feet at mile 193. But the average width is 200-300 feet
 * How Cold?:
 * The water, which is released from Glen Canyon Dam is about 46 degrees Fahrenheit, warming up to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit at Phantom Ranch, and even 60 degrees Fahrenheit at Lake Mead. Of course, the winter temperatures are somewhat colder.
 * How Fast?:
 * **About the Colorado:**
 * The river channels change frequently sometimes within a few hours of the day.
 * 90% of the water in the Colorado is vanishing.
 * The Colorado River is the lifeline for 7 states and Mexico.
 * Rainfall has been declining in the southwest for over a century.
 * The reddish color earned the Colorado River it’s name because the name Colorado is red in Spanish.
 * A couple of common crafts are riding on dories, kayaks, oar-powered rafts, and motorized pontoons. All for fishing. Another common craft is camping out on the Colorado. There are islands used just for that, don’t worry, there are outhouses!
 * **Our Thoughts About the Location!:**
 * The Colorado River is a very beautiful river which flows through a very long canyon. We thought it was the longest, but obviously, it isn’t. The river that has the name Colorado is unspeakable for words as well as the canyon. (The Glen and the Grand)
 * **Pictures of the Glen Canyon, and the River:**
 * [[image:gcpic10.jpg width="328" height="169" caption="This is where we rafted. This is the Glen Canyon. Beautiful?"]] [[image:gcpic11.jpg width="339" height="254" caption="Some of the Colorado river. If you look at the different colors you will see the layers."]]
 * **What Sunset Crater Looks Like:**
 * Sunset Crater simply looks like a volcano that hasn’t erupted in a long time. How ever, the land around it looks like craters from space. In fact, where the lava had gone, you can track exactly where it went. There aren’t any plants on the so called lava rock, though because the igneous rock doesn’t give out water. Therefore, there was only a few trees around those rocks. It was so pretty, yet amazing.
 * **What we did at Sunset Crater:**
 * At Sunset Crater, we hiked for about 5 minutes, because we didn’t have enough time, so we saw what the lava did to the land in near by while riding on the bus back home.
 * **Sunset Crater:**
 * At 1100-1180 A.D., Sunset Crater last erupted.
 * The lava helped store water.
 * First of all, we learned about something called Primary Succession, which is a biological and ecological example of plant life. Which basically means that it is a whole pyramid growing to create an ecosystem over time.
 * This Primary Succession happens with a plant, or fungus called lichen. Lichen grows on rock, eats nutrients out of the rock, then it dies, and dust and organic matter assemble moss. Moss grows, and adds more organic material, which in all makes soil and then is able to grow plants like Ponderosa Pine Trees. This is a process that has happened in and near Sunset Crater.
 * Sunset Crater is the Cinder Cone type of volcano which means it looks kind of like a cone.
 * **Near Sunset Crater:**
 * Near Sunset Crater are the San Francisco Peaks.
 * 800 thousand years ago, San Francisco peaks erupted.
 * The San Francisco Peaks used to be on a hotspot.
 * **Our thoughts about the Location!**
 * Sunset Crater was a really pretty sight. We wish we could have hiked all the way to the top, so that we could see what it looked like.
 * The Rocks around the Sunset Crater were really interesting to look at even though we didn’t get enough time.
 * Pictures of Sunset Crater:**




 * **What Wupatki Looks Like:**
 * Wupatki looks like an old pueblo house that must have taken a long time to make because it has stayed up for this long through the heat, and the rain. Anyway, the building structure looks like redder bricks than normal. We think that if the building was complete, it would be a mansion today.
 * **What we did at the Wupatki Trail:**
 * At the Wupatki Trail, we hiked for about 30 minutes and learned about the pueblo house and about the blow hole. Everyone else thought that the hole was air-conditioned, but we like to keep it a mystery.
 * **The Wupatki Trail:**
 * The Wupatki Trail is a trail that is preserving the Native American Pueblos or houses that were built. The color of the Wupatki pueblos are a dark reddish color. On the trail, there is only one pueblo (house) that these Native Americans built, but through out the desert, there are more pueblos.
 * These dwellings were built by the Anasazi, and the dwellings are still here today. They have been around since 1100 A.D.
 * **The Wupatki Trail Background:**
 * The Hopi Indians believe that who ever lived and died at the Wupatki are spiritual guardians. Although it appears abandoned, it is said to be very populated today because the Indians from Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, Bear, Sand, Lizard, Rattlesnake, Water, Snow, and Katsina Tribes return often to look back at their history, or family.
 * **Our Thoughts About the Location:**
 * The location of the Wupatki National Monument was an amazing sight to see. Maybe a little hot, but the blow hole cooled our hands off.
 * The pueblo house was beautiful to see because it showed how our ancestors built their houses back then, and how much architecture has improved!
 * Pictures of Wupatki Trail:**


 * =Bibliography:=
 * Thanks for giving us the facts!
 * Houk, Rose, and Tony Brown. An Introduction to Grand Canyon Ecology. Grand Canyon, AZ: Grand Canyon Association, 1996. Print.
 * Belknap, Buzz, and Loie Belknap. Evans. Belknap's Waterproof Grand Canyon River Guide. Evergreen, Co: Westwater, 2007. Print.
 * Price, L. Greer. An Introduction to Grand Canyon Geology. Grand Canyon, AZ: Grand Canyon Association, 1999. Print.

EVERYONE: THANKS FOR WATCHING WHAT WE LEARNED AT THE GRAND CANYON, COLORADO RIVER, SUNSET CRATER, AND WUPATKI TRAIL!!!!! IT WAS SUCH A FUN LEARNING EXPERIENCE!!!! :)