Saturday, July 2, 2011

Stats for the day:

·          7215 steps (on pedometer)

·         83°F at 8am at 3620 feet at Wahweap Campground

·         97°F at 8pm at 5060 feet at Canyonlands Squaw Flat Campground

·         Total trip miles: 2921.7

·         Miles traveled today: 327.2 mi

·         Breathtaking sunsets from the top of a huge rock wall: 1

·         Cars decaying in a canyon from an apparent drive gone wrong: 1

Matt and I traveled to Natural Bridges National Monument on our way to Canyonlands.  Natural Bridges is out there, as in the path rarely ever traveled.  The road we took there was a winding, unpaved road, and at one point we looked into the canyon-type area and saw a car that’d been there for some time.  And the only way it was getting there was by accident.  Natural Bridges highlights three natural bridges, and they all provided some good contrast to Rainbow Bridge.  It was a quick trip through the monument area, and then on to Canyonlands. 

Canyonlands National Park is huge and is split into various sections.  We started in The Needles district, the southernmost part of the part.  Off of the interstate, it’s a good 40 minute drive to get to the park entrance.  Thankfully, there were campsites open and all of the campsites had good shade.  We set up camp, and then did the quick Cave Spring Hike.  It didn’t take a lot of energy, but featured an old cowboy camp, a few ladders to climb, some overhangs, and an intro to what hiking in this park would be like.

The second Newspaper Rock we've encountered.  This one is just outside of the Canyonlands, The Needles District.

Just before sunset, we climbed the huge rock walls behind our campsite and sat and watched the sunset.  It was fun scurrying up the rocks, and we had a great view.  At that point, we decided we’d get up and watch sunset from up there, too!

Math thoughts for today:

·         The natural bridges provide dimensions to work with to do comparisons with each other, as well as comparing the dimensions of these to other typical shapes.  This could be a good compare/contrast writing exercise to describe how the description of dimensions of an arch (or half circle if we make it simple) compare and contrast to those of a rectangle, for instance.

·         I’m curious about the number of visitors the various parks receive.  There is some data collection and graphing involved here.  Then, we could do some analyzing and make some conjectures (state testing loves the word conjecture) about why attendances are what they are.