60-60-60 - The Forces of Wind and Water

​WIND and WATER

While volcanoes and earthquakes throw up new features on the landscape, wind and water mold rock into fantastic shapes to create canyons, mesas, hoodoos, buttes, spires, and arches from the top down.  

Badlands NP of SD and Theodore Roosevelt NP in ND are prime examples, where erosion has created many of these formations in spectacular colors. Standing on the prairies and looking down into the vast expanse of layered rock formations, and realizing the red, orange, yellow and grey layers were once swamps, rivers, forests, or seas that produced different minerals and fossils, left us in awe of the  millions of years of changing climates and ecosystems that came before us and how very tiny our current existence is in geologic time. They are also astoundingly beautiful and another reminder of what currently exists beneath our feet.

Canyonlands NP, UT is another impressive example of wind and water creating  beautiful vistas of mesas buttes and spires. One interesting phenomena here was the sheer cliff faces covered with “desert varnish,” a black film of iron and manganese oxide and dust. We stopped at Newspaper Rock to view the many petroglyphs, some over 2,000 years old, carved into the blackened surface of the rock by ancient peoples as well as a few more modern travelers.

Arches NP, UT, was another graphic demonstration of the power of wind and water to shape the landscape. While the Delicate Arch is the most famous feature, the volume and variety of formations, including arches, bridges, hoodoos, spires an many more,  are the real stars.  The Park is full of an amazing array of wonderful red rock formations, created primarily by wind.

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, in Navajo Nation lands located within Arizona, is noted for the “monumental” sandstone buttes, some as much as 1000 feet high, that rise up out of the desert. Because they are  widely spaced, they are especially impressive. Even more impressive was the precipitous drive up and down the Moki Dugway, a narrow road that hugs the sheer edges of a huge butte, that was by far the best way to get to the Valley. (The word “moki” refers to a road that has been carved out of a hillside or cliff face.) Coming down the butte, we were treated to awesome views of the valley and the possibility of oblivion. Part of our experience was talking with Navajo women who were selling jewelry by the side of the road, and driving past many joggers who were re-enacting the scene from Forrest Gump, running along the same piece of road featured in the film.

One of the most consequential examples of erosion occurred during the Ice Age Floods when a glacier that had created a natural dam on the ancient Lake Missoula in Montana melted. A wall of water, ice and debris several hundred feet high rushed across eastern Washington, gouged out the Columbia River Gorge, and dumped into the Pacific Ocean. This happened many times over the millenia as the climate warmed and cooled. At Palouse Falls, part of the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail, the river cascades 200 feet over the sheer sides of the canyon and continues west. The place is significant because it is the last active year-round waterfall along the Ice Age Flood path. 

What is more impressive, though, is the huge Columbia River Gorge with its high basalt cliffs on both sides. The Gorge is about 80 miles long,from one to four miles wide (averaging 1.5 miles)and from the rim of the cliffs to the bottom of the river, about 4,000 feet deep in some places. Both the Falls and the Columbia Gorge are examples of the  dramatic result that can be produced by incomprehensible volume of water, ice and debris pummeling through the countryside.

The effects of water on the earth are not all above ground. Slower crafting of fantastic shapes was visible in the slow dripping of minerals and water in the caves of the  Black Hills in SD, where water eroded rock over millennia at Wind Cave and Jewel Cave. These two caves are among the longest in the world and are still being explored to document even greater length. Such exploration is not for the claustrophobic, as it involves crawling on your belly through very narrow passages. Both caves featured ranger-led tours that pointed out the various formations created by water flowing over and through rock.

We saw other examples of the erosion of rock over time by water and wind at Devils tower, WY,  

City of rocks, ID,  

Natural bridges, UT 

as well as the Oregon haystacks in the Pacific.

All these relentless forces of nature create much of the natural beauty of the earth, and inspire awe and appreciation for what we have and all that came before us. Each place inspired us to continue to seek more opportunities to learn more about our county and how it evolved over millions of years.

​60-60-60: Bones Rocks & Magma

Our cross country trip included a lot of parks celebrating the ancient history and geology of the United States. Below are a few of the highlights.

BONES

We visited six or more NPS sites where fossils were either the main attraction or at least part of the draw. We were impressed with how the Park Service made each site interesting by highlighting special features of the site. One of the things that struck us most profoundly is that huge areas of the US west of the Mississippi have massive fossil beds. This is partly because in ancient times the central part of the country was a vast inland sea. When marine animals died they sank to the bottom and were preserved in the low oxygen mud. There were also many volcanos and earthquakes as the Rocky Mountains pushed upwards burying ecosystems in volcanic ash and as mountains eroded they created layers of clay and silt deposits in the land below, where the effect of wind and water gradually exposes the fossils embedded in the rock for eons. 

At Hagerman Fossil Beds NM, ID and John Day Fossil Beds NM in eastern OR, the role of paleontologists is mostly to wait for a big rain to expose new fossils. It was also interesting to learn about the conditions that led to different things being fossilized.

Cliffs with fossil layers at Hagerman

Early horses discovered at Hagerman

John Day blue and green clay cliffs full of fossils!

  

At Florissant Fossil Beds NM, CO, a muddy lake preserved so many insects that the site has drawn paleontologists from all over the world. Volcanic mudflows preserved Giant redwood stumps from 34 million years ago, but the tops of the trees were lost.

  

At Agate Fossil Beds NM in NE, a huge drought between 19 adn 21 million years ago brought carnivores and their prey to die by the same watering holes, trapping and preserving them in the mud (we especially liked the “Hell Pig”). 

A salt lick in Big Bone Lick, KY, brought a similar array of giant mammals to the same location creating layers of fossilized bones.

VOLCANOES

We knew that there would be a lot of volcanos on the West Coast, because we were already familiar with Mount Rainier, Mount Hood,  Mount St Helens and others, because they are famous for their iconic cones dominating the landscape. But we didn't know there are so many and so many different kinds of  volcanoes in the area. 

Mt Hood from the Colombia River Gorge

A rather precipitous drive up the side of a huge ash cone on the edge of the Newbury Volcano caldera near Bend, Oregon, was an opportunity to look down the results of eruptions of a huge shield volcano. From the top we looked down into the 17 square mile caldera containing 400 cinder cones and vents, two lakes and a large sea of obsidian. Later we had a close up view of the obsidian field which covers about a square mile of jagged black volcanic glass. 

Crater Lake,  Lassen and Lava Beds NPS sites each gave us a different perspective in the volcanic experience on the West Coast Volcano trail.  

Crater Lake NP, OR, highlighted the ecological isolation that can be created by volcanic action. A huge stratovolcano, Mourt Mazama, erupted repeatedly over thousands of years, ever increasing its size. Finally, there was a mega eruption that caused the top of the volcano to blow up and then collapse under its own weight, creating a deep caldera in the middle of the remaining mountain. Centuries of rain and snowmelt filled the crater creating a very deep, beautiful crystal clear lake which is believed to be the cleanest water in the world.

In addition to lovely views, Lassen Volcanic NP, CA, had examples of all four types of volcanoes - plug (or lava) domes, cinder cones, shield volcanos  and stratovolcanos (composite). Lassen Peak had a huge eruption in 1915, causing massive devastation. The park also has many steam vents, boiling mud pots and lovely, hot turquoise pools, caused by the mass of magma roiling about five miles below the surface.

A lovely lake on Lassen Volcano, with Thor's Eye overlooking the melting snows (still in drifts in late July).

Erratic boulder thrown by the 1915 eruption

The Lava Beds National Monument, CA, gave us a sense of the immense scale of the huge shield volcanoes that dominated the area millions of years ago (the smoke from nearby forest fires made the scene even more dramatic). The two-mile loop road took us through the immense lava field created by the Medicine Lake shield volcano.  This site also included the battlefields of the Modoc War, including "Captain Jack's Stronghold" a favorite of Robinson Family lore.

In Idaho, Craters of the Moon NM & Preserve, another large volcanic area focused on different types of of lava  - a’a and pahoey-hoey, traditional Hawaiian names used by geologists. The pahoey-hoey is smooth lava that looks like coils of rope or fabric, caused by very hot lava that forms a skin on top as it cools as the hotter lava flows beneath it dragging and wrinkling the “skin.” The a’a is jagged with sharp points, and results from cooler lava that breaks up as it flows. The other feature of the park is the cinder cones that follow the fault lines across a vast plain, one of which, covered in black gravel, was necessary to climb. This park also had a lot of lava tubes and caves - home to bats and other critters.

Cheryl waving from halfway up the cinder cone

Yellowstone NP, WY,(covered more extensively elsewhere) also featured bubbling sulfur baths, sulphur pools, steam vents and geysers, the famous “Old Faithful,” and other features that remind us that the crust of earth we live on gets very thin in spots, and there is in inferno of magma beneath us.

The polychromatic ponds at Yellowstone

60-60-60: On the Trails. . .

​One of the themes we explored on our cross country trip was the many trails of westward expansion through out the 1800s.  Starting with Lewis and Clark, followed by the Pony Express, and the settler trails (the California Trail, Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, the Mormon Trail), all demonstrated the hope and determination of hundreds of thousands of people looking for something better.

Our first encounter with the Lewis and Clark trail was in Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky, where Lewis and Clark met to begin their exploration of the west, commissioned by Thomas Jefferson. We were able to follow these early explorers of undaunted courage through the Fort Union Trading Post, the Lost Pass of the Bitterroot Mountains where they almost had a premature end to the expedition, and down the Columbia River, stopping in Dismal Nitch where once again the local tribes saved them, Cape Disappointment and Fort Clatsop on the Pacific Coast where they wintered before returning East.  We felt their struggles as this small but mighty team opened up the Northwest to American interests.

Ruth and the Giant Sloth

The river passing thru Idaho

Although Big Bone Lick was a State Park, so it didn’t count in our NPS sites, it was a not to miss stop. It is the site of the first paleontological excavation in North America, commissioned by Thomas Jefferson and carried out by Willaim Clark in 1807. There was a large salt lick there that attracted mammoths and mastodons as well as many other animals who had become trapped in the marshy earth. We loved the museum with all the fossils and enjoyed walking out to the fields where there were buffalo grazing, well, mostly chewing their cuds or sleeping. 

The next thread was the Pony Express, which looms large in our minds, but was actually just a fleeting incident in time. The Pony express operated for less than two years (April 1960 to October 1861), occupying the gap between identifying a need for communication with California following the Gold Rush, and the establishment of telegraph lines two years later. There were about 200 relay riders, about 80 of them riding at any one time, using about 4-500 horses and 184-190 stops.  They covered the journey from St Joseph, Missouri to San Francisco in just over a week. During the entire period of its operation, there were no incidents of interference or aggression with the Native tribes.  We visited a tiny Pony Express Station House in a small town in Colorado. It had equipment used by the riders and information about the lives of the riders and how the transfer stations operated.

The World's Smallest Museum?

We spent quite a lot of time at sites related to the various trails that settlers took on their journeys west. Fort Scott in Kansas was the first of the western forts that served as a launchpad for settler trails heading to Oregon and Utah, as well as Santa Fe and California. The Fort supplied escorts to a certain extent but was more a place for final preparations. 

At Scott’s Bluff in Western Nebraska, we saw examples of the different conveyances that were popular on the trails and learned more about how difficult and painful the journey was. It is estimated that on average 10 people died for every mile of the trail - or about 20,000 people over the 2000-mile journey. Scotts Bluff was a major milestone to settlers going west, because the 200-foot bluff above the North Platte River could be seen on the horizon for days. It was located about a third of the way to California and was the gateway to the Mitchell Pass through the mountains. It was a beautiful place. A winding road went up to the top of the bluff, where there were trails with lovely vistas of the surrounding prairies.

After Scott’s Bluff, the four major trails diverged, Santa Fe and California headed south while Oregon and Mormon kept due West. We followed the Oregon Trail to Fort Laramie, WY (where many of the exploitative treaties with the Native peoples were signed), and we saw our first trail ruts and Register Rock at a WY state park!  We saw additional ruts at Hagerman Fossil Beds and the City of Rocks, and also learned about other side trails that led to ruin in Craters of the Moon - all three parks are in Southern Idaho.

Popular westerns depict these journeys as incredibly difficult and dangerous - which they were.  Those dangers came almost entirely from the environment, not from Indian attacks.  Movies also portray the typical family traveling in Conestoga wagons - which is a myth.  Those large wagons were used mainly by the Army or large companies - it took a team of at least four oxen to pull them, much more expense than the average settler could muster. Individual families were more likely to use much smaller wagons called Prairie Schooners or carts that were pulled either by a one or two oxen or mules, or the settlers themselves. Almost everyone walked because riding was very uncomfortable and they needed to conserve energy of the animals or themselves.

Our favorite trail interpretive center was run by the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada. In addition to many dioramas depicting scenes of life on the trail, this excellent California Trail Visitors Center had a simulation of a store for buying trail supplies, which we enjoyed. (Shopping list below).

In southern Colorado and northern New Mexico we visited a number of sites commemorating the Santa Fe Trail.  Bents Old Fort and Fort Smith along this trail worked to keep commerce flowing along the disputed US/ Mexican border.  As this trail was more about trade, keeping the peace among the Indian populations was a high priority. Old Bents Fort, in particular, was a privately owned fort that was essentially a trading post, and an important, and relatively luxurious stopping place for traders and travelers to the southwest, because it had beds, water for bathing and well-cooked meals, as well as necessary

One of the most interesting stops on the Oregon Trail was Fort Vancouver at the very end of the trail, in Vancouver, Washington, across the river from Portland OR.  When the first exhausted and starving settlers arrived at this well-established Hudson Bay Company fur trading post, which was at that time still a British territory, the Company’s rules required that they be barred from entry. The fort superintendent realized that these few were the beginning of a flood that was not going to stop and needed to be welcomed.  He lost his job as a result, but the flood of settlers permanently changed the whole northwest, eventually making it an American stronghold.

Golden Spike is the Park in northern Utah commemorates the event that put an end to the need to walk if you wanted to go west. It marks the spot where the eastern and western branches of the railroad lines that united the country were joined. The completed track resulted in much faster transit across the country and the end of the arduous journey on the wagon trails. Here we saw replicas of the two trains that first met at this place. They are driven daily to the juncture where the original golden spike was hammered in to join the tracks. We watched them, puffing steam, go back to their barns along sections of the original track at the end of the day. The Visitors Center provided a lot of information about the difficulties that each railroad company encountered in building the track, especially the one coming from the west, which had to go over the mountains.

One last “trail” that we followed in IL, MO, AZ and Oklahoma, was Route 66.  Almost 80 years after the end of the wagon trails, Americans still looked for adventure by heading West, and many of them did it on Route 66.  We drove along many sections of the original route, identified by roadside markers, and we even saw a stretch of the original red-brick road in Auburn, IL, as well as a variety of roadside attractions that featured gas station and roadside memorabilia from  the 50’s and 60’s, the peak of the Route 66 era. The road was actually known as the “Road of Hope” in the 1930’s as people took it west to escape the Dust Bowl in the center of the country. The road still captures the imagination with easily recognized icons of our addiction to our cars and chrome.  A fitting trail for our epic journey.