Vegas!
Dear Friends and Family,
Another month has gone by, and so has another epic trip out west. After Dad and I returned from California in early August, Jim decided he too needed to take a vacation out West. He informed me that he would be taking a week off from work, and I suggested wrapping a road trip around the Badger-UNLV college football game in Vegas on Labor Day weekend.
We flew direct out of Milwaukee and rented a car with unlimited miles. The 'unlimited' part was important, as we eventually would put 1,900 miles on the little spring green Ford Focus that we rented! Our first hotel stay in Vegas was at the Stratosphere. The Stratosphere tower resembles Seattle's space needle and rises 1,500 feet above the Strip. Jim and I rode a carnival ride which hangs off the edge of the pinnacle when it's in motion. Jim never opened his eyes once. This was the first of many challenges with altitude that Jim would face during the trip.
After our first two nights in Vegas, we drove to Zion National Park in southwest Utah. I had remembered the beauty of Zion from Dad's slides of his scouting trips out west in the '60s (?). The park lived up to that memory. Zion possesses some of the world's highest sandstone cliffs. These spires of striated stone have a very other worldly quality. (First below, a fire burns near Zion; second below, the Virgin River carves a gorge and waters exotic desert swamps in the park; third below, the interplay of light and dark in the park)
I very much came to appreciate the unique geology of the Colorado Plateau during our road trip. This region has endured a steady and unusually even uplift, amounting to thousands of feet, over the last five million years or so. This rise has allowed the Colorado River and its tributaries to carve gorges and canyons through two billion years of sedimentary and volcanic depositions. Thus, more northerly Arches and Bryce Canyon represent relatively recent strata of soft stone, whereas Zion signifies a denser middle layer. The Grand Canyon carves through deeper, and thereby much older, bands of rock. Thus, the canyon lands of the west represent a globally unique constellation of geological forces.
After Zion, Jim and I drove through the lonely extraterrestrial highways of east-central Nevada to Ely, Nevada (pronounced, "EE-LEE"). Ely is a quaint mining and administrative center with a history as old as the state. We stayed at the historic Hotel Nevada, a place that Bob also visited on one of his travels. It was outmoded, but homy and cosy.
The reason for our stay in Ely was to use the town as a base to revisit Great Basin National Park one-hour's distance away. Nevada falls almost entirely within the Great Basin, a giant area of the west where water does not escape to the sea. In this region, long chains of mountains stand above arid sees of sagebrush range. The mountains catch water that the range below does not allowing for different types of climatic zones and ecologies along their slopes.
At the tree line of Great Basin National Park, about an hour-and-a-half hike up the mountain, stood a magnificent stand of "gnarly" old bristlecone pines. The bristlecone pines are true miracles of nature. They can live up to five thousand years at the tree line. The tough environmental conditions of these alpine redoubts inure the trees to the cold and encourage tenacity and longevity among individual trees. The bristlecone pines are so steeped in protective resin that dead trunks can stand for hundreds of years. Rather than rot, the dead trees weather away to wind and rain like rocks.
After visiting the bristlecone pine grove, Jim took a rest as I continued on the path toward the glacial cirque of Wheeler Peak. The small glacier that I approached, but did not reach (due to the treacherous morrain,) is the southernmost glacier in North America.
After our trip to Zion and Great Basin National Parks, we returned to Vegas to watch the game. The high temperature that day was 107 degrees fahrenheit. It was a dry heat, and a steady breeze kept us cooler if dustier. The Badgers won 41-21.
After another short stay in Vegas, we visited the Grand Canyon. It was grand, but full of obnoxious Italian tourists.
After the Grand Canyon, we headed north up to Cedar City, Utah and Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument. The colors were amazing, and the steady rain that day only brought out the vibrant pinks, yellows, and vermillions all the more. The temperature was about 45 degrees when we left; the ridge above Bryce Canyon rises to about 9,500 feet, so it's high up there.
On the way back to Vegas to fly out the next morning, we revisited Zion, this time via the east road.
We had fun. Thanks for reading.
Another month has gone by, and so has another epic trip out west. After Dad and I returned from California in early August, Jim decided he too needed to take a vacation out West. He informed me that he would be taking a week off from work, and I suggested wrapping a road trip around the Badger-UNLV college football game in Vegas on Labor Day weekend.
We flew direct out of Milwaukee and rented a car with unlimited miles. The 'unlimited' part was important, as we eventually would put 1,900 miles on the little spring green Ford Focus that we rented! Our first hotel stay in Vegas was at the Stratosphere. The Stratosphere tower resembles Seattle's space needle and rises 1,500 feet above the Strip. Jim and I rode a carnival ride which hangs off the edge of the pinnacle when it's in motion. Jim never opened his eyes once. This was the first of many challenges with altitude that Jim would face during the trip.
After our first two nights in Vegas, we drove to Zion National Park in southwest Utah. I had remembered the beauty of Zion from Dad's slides of his scouting trips out west in the '60s (?). The park lived up to that memory. Zion possesses some of the world's highest sandstone cliffs. These spires of striated stone have a very other worldly quality. (First below, a fire burns near Zion; second below, the Virgin River carves a gorge and waters exotic desert swamps in the park; third below, the interplay of light and dark in the park)
I very much came to appreciate the unique geology of the Colorado Plateau during our road trip. This region has endured a steady and unusually even uplift, amounting to thousands of feet, over the last five million years or so. This rise has allowed the Colorado River and its tributaries to carve gorges and canyons through two billion years of sedimentary and volcanic depositions. Thus, more northerly Arches and Bryce Canyon represent relatively recent strata of soft stone, whereas Zion signifies a denser middle layer. The Grand Canyon carves through deeper, and thereby much older, bands of rock. Thus, the canyon lands of the west represent a globally unique constellation of geological forces.
After Zion, Jim and I drove through the lonely extraterrestrial highways of east-central Nevada to Ely, Nevada (pronounced, "EE-LEE"). Ely is a quaint mining and administrative center with a history as old as the state. We stayed at the historic Hotel Nevada, a place that Bob also visited on one of his travels. It was outmoded, but homy and cosy.
The reason for our stay in Ely was to use the town as a base to revisit Great Basin National Park one-hour's distance away. Nevada falls almost entirely within the Great Basin, a giant area of the west where water does not escape to the sea. In this region, long chains of mountains stand above arid sees of sagebrush range. The mountains catch water that the range below does not allowing for different types of climatic zones and ecologies along their slopes.
At the tree line of Great Basin National Park, about an hour-and-a-half hike up the mountain, stood a magnificent stand of "gnarly" old bristlecone pines. The bristlecone pines are true miracles of nature. They can live up to five thousand years at the tree line. The tough environmental conditions of these alpine redoubts inure the trees to the cold and encourage tenacity and longevity among individual trees. The bristlecone pines are so steeped in protective resin that dead trunks can stand for hundreds of years. Rather than rot, the dead trees weather away to wind and rain like rocks.
After visiting the bristlecone pine grove, Jim took a rest as I continued on the path toward the glacial cirque of Wheeler Peak. The small glacier that I approached, but did not reach (due to the treacherous morrain,) is the southernmost glacier in North America.
After our trip to Zion and Great Basin National Parks, we returned to Vegas to watch the game. The high temperature that day was 107 degrees fahrenheit. It was a dry heat, and a steady breeze kept us cooler if dustier. The Badgers won 41-21.
After another short stay in Vegas, we visited the Grand Canyon. It was grand, but full of obnoxious Italian tourists.
After the Grand Canyon, we headed north up to Cedar City, Utah and Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument. The colors were amazing, and the steady rain that day only brought out the vibrant pinks, yellows, and vermillions all the more. The temperature was about 45 degrees when we left; the ridge above Bryce Canyon rises to about 9,500 feet, so it's high up there.
On the way back to Vegas to fly out the next morning, we revisited Zion, this time via the east road.
We had fun. Thanks for reading.Until later.
jkb
posted by jkbinturkey at 8:18 AM
3 Comments:
You are making me homesick for Utah, a feat that I didn't realize was possible. Bryce is one of my favorite places in UT! You sound like your brother in the descriptions of the Great Basin.
Awesome, awesome, awesome pictures!! That trip looked fun and incredible!
lulu
I can't believe how behind in my blog-reading I was-!!! Better late than never, though... this was a blog worth reading! Great pics and great commentary on your travels. I especially liked the part about the bristlecone pines! What amazing trees those are.
Post a Comment
<< Home