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Category: Kaibab National Forest

Shit Happens!

My plan to camp at Locust Point at the edge of the canyon didn’t quite work out as planned.

Penstemon
I enjoyed a pleasant drive, 14 miles on Highway 67. The wild flowers brighten the roadside.

Turned west onto Forest Road 22 and stopped to photograph Deer Lake, fenced to keep the range animals out—cattle and beefalo.

Two slightly bumpy gravel miles later I turned onto Forest Road 270 south for a mile then west onto Forest Road 222.

Weidemeyer’s Admiral
Had to stop a few times for pictures.

I love the way the young Aspen trunks seem to dance. Tried a video of this Aspen grove but it’s very blurry. I’m still practicing video.

Suddenly I heard this scraping noise, like I picked up a rock in a wheel. Gee, there were plenty of rocks to choose from. I stopped hard, backed up and braked, forward and braked. Hey it worked last time to dislodge a rock. But the noise got worse. So I did a 12-point turn to head back, very disappointed. The noise would come and go and I tried the back and forth thing a few more times with no relief to the scraping sound. Then it got louder to the point of a deafening screech echoing off of the forest. That’s when I stopped as I feared further damage.

This wild Turkey feather pointed the way to an old campsite where I parked. I figured if I could get to the park’s entrance station I could call a friend for help. What help I wasn’t sure. But I didn’t know what else to do. Maybe take the wheel off which I didn’t try as there’s always at least one lug nut I can’t seem to break loose.

Wasn’t there long when I heard a rig coming and flagged them down. Two young folks from the Forest Service on a goshawk survey gave me a ride to Forest Road 22.

Then I walked two miles down to the main highway and got a ride four miles to the entrance station. FabGrandma Karen was just leaving so I rode home with her. Her sweet hubby drove me back to take a look. And of course, it only made a tiny squeak and then quiet. So he followed me home with no more incident. I have an appointment with my mechanic for next Wednesday and can only hope it gets me around until then.

friends help, Kaibab National Forest, truck trouble 11 Comments

Rocks in my head, rocks in my pockets Fossil hunting in the Kaibab National Forest


You probably think this is just a bunch of rocks. Maybe even leverites, as in leave it right there. But you’d be wrong.

OK, I’ve been promising fossils for a while. It’s only been a week and a half since I went camping and fossil hunting at Marble View in the Kaibab National Forest.

Worm castings on veranda wall
After I give a geology talk I encourage Grand Canyon visitors to look for fossils on the walls of the lodge and veranda while I put props away. Then I lead a fossil walk part way out Bright Angel trail.
Bright Angel Trail
Kaibab limestone makes up the top layer of rock walked on here at Grand Canyon National Park. It was deposited about 270 million years ago when an ocean covered southern New Mexico and most of Arizona, Utah and Nevada. Many marine fossils can be seen.

Brachiopods are ocean bottom dwelling bi-valves yet are not related to clams or oysters. They were the most plentiful fossil on earth from the Paleozoic Era yet are rare in today’s oceans having never fully recovered from the devastation that occurred during the end of the Permian.

Sponge fossil in limestone and small fan coral on lower left corner
Sponges are also bottom dwellers and the simplest form of multi-cellular animals. Sponges feed, breath, reproduce and excrete by pumping water through the pores in their bodies. They vary in color, shape and size.

Crinoids, also known as sea lilies or feather-stars, have a stem formed of many stacked discs and grow in colonies on the ocean floor. The stem is topped with multiple feather-like feeding arms that filter small particles of food from the water.

The button-like crinoids have long been gathered and used for beads. Archeologists excavating at the Grand Canyon discovered crinoids strung by the Ancestral Puebloan Native Americans that lived here about 1000 years ago.

A work in progress
So I’m going to string some of my fossil finds along with some turquoise. That is if I ever get off the computer long enough.

For more glimpses into life around the world go to My World Tuesday by clicking here.

 

Arizona, Kaibab National Forest, My World Tuesday , , 39 Comments

Lijit

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