Saturday, June 25, 2011

Stats for the day:

·         15187 steps (on pedometer)

·         Hikes completed today in Zion: 2

o   Emerald Pools, Lower and Upper Pools

o   Kayenta Trails

·         75°F  at 8am at 3880 feet at Zion Canyon Campground

·         Virgin River Stream Flow Rate Peak: 165 cubic feet per second

·         Local Farmers’ Markets visited: 1 (with delicious peaches purchased)

·         Wonderful steak dinner: 1

I’d seen a sign for a Farmers’ Market and thought that’d be a great place to pick up some fresh groceries.  It wasn’t a large market, but we did get some great peaches that’d just been picked.  As we reached camp, it was time to do a little cleaning and reorganizing.  At this point I’ve been on the road for almost two weeks, more or less living out of my car.  And I’m a bit OCD.  Plus, it was nice to think about being camped in the same spot for a few nights in a row – setting up and breaking down camp can get old. 

Once we got the steaks in some marinade (Italian dressing – fancy), we headed for the shuttle to take us into Zion.  We headed for the stop at the Zion Lodge, which has the trailhead for the Emerald Pools Trail.  The hike to the lower pool is a pretty easy one, but we continued on to the upper pool which was a bit more difficult and there were rewarded with seeing someone repelling about 700 feet down to the pool.  He said it was a 16.5 hour hike to get to the top where they started.  Crazy.  We tool the Kayenta Trail back down to the Grotto stop (I’m putting names in there for anyone who’s been to Zion before) and headed for camp.

We had our first campfire tonight, and while I made some orzo salad with cucumbers and tomatoes (I’ve gotten Matt to eat tomatoes finally), Matt cooked the steaks.  It was a fabulous dinner.  I haven’t eaten too poorly, but this was a treat. 

Math thoughts for today:

·         Photos of the waterfalls and trees against the gigantic rock walls will be good for scale factors and proportions.

·         It’s hard to really describe just how large the rock walls around you are.  SO, if I give the students a height of the walls and have them do some conversions to compare it to “so many” of something they do know how tall it is, we might get some perspective.