04-02 - Monument Valley National Tribal Area, Utah

Great day except for the fifty and sixty-mile per hour winds that closed down many of the roads in the area. The temperature is much warmer, outside is almost fifty and it is close to midnight. There was so much dust in the air last night that visibility was less than one hundred feet at ground level and you could see the sand moving in sheets across the road. The road north of Monument Valley was closed due to accidents caused by high winds. I know that a tractor trailer overturned in addition to two large motor homes.

There was a young couple who came into camp while still daylight and before the wind died down. They were having a extremely difficult time setting up their tent; I finally went over to help them before the tent flew off to Colorado. This was the first night of their camping vacation and were not at all experienced in tents so it was somewhat comical. I will have to admit they were good natured about it. I wonder if I would be in a similar circumstance. They were finally set up and had some form of dinner cooking;t he wind was sufficiently strong to make cooking problematic. I doubt they got much sleep for any number of reasons.

I drove out to the monuments but it was not great photography. One, I couldn't stand still and two, the dust obscured everything. I know that I will have to clean inside of Tiny very thoroughly to get all that fine dust out. There is a red hue to all flat surfaces to include the sheets and wiping them off does little good. I will have to wash the sheets and scrub the flat surfaces. Fortunately there was no food out or I would be chewing the dust.

This morning after catching up with the computer and slides I drove down to Glen Canyon Dam and took the tour. Interesting but the guide knew little but what she had been told and that wasn't much. It also was difficult to understand her over the gum she was chewing. She was impressed with 125,000 volts but hadn't a clue to the significance to watts I know, watts the difference. I hope I am required to work with people who have so little knowledge. That would be horrible.

I was interested in the environmental issues such a fish weirs and the like but all I was told was about the endangered species of a snail of the area. I know that all dams are being looked at from the viewpoint of the environment as they should be. According to the guide there aren't any migratory fish that would enter the lake if the dam was not there; I do not know enough to challenge that statement but given the other statements she made I doubt it. I know that many of the western dams built to satisfy the insatiable cities of southern California - sound almost current - and of course water for the agriculture of the California desert. At one time so much water was siphoned off that Mexico was receiving a muddy trickle that didn't make it to the Bay of California and allowing the salinity to increase.

I was also interested in that the dam has required repairs for a threatened wash out from where the water was eroding under the dam and that the retaining walls on the side of the canyon have required massive installation of restraining bolts. Imagine what damage would be done if the dam suddenly released its contents. How many lives would be lost down stream? I am the first to admit that hydroelectric power is the cleanest and one of the cheapest forms of power but there are problems related to it. I think the biggest problem is to migratory fish as when the construction was planned this was not taken into consideration. There isn't a fish that can swim the Hoover Dam.

From there it was over to Navajo National Monument which was a climb from 4000 feet to 7000 feet and over mostly secondary roads. Gasoline was the highest I have seen on this trip, $1.95 a gallon. It was well worth it, the little valley that had been populated with Ancient Puebloans⁽¹⁾or Mongollon Rim followed by Athabascan Navajo/Apache who emigrated from Canada about 1500. Over farming caused erosion and the lowering of the water table causing the abandonment of the area about 1300.

There is a feeling, not shared by all, that the Navajo and the Apache have the same origin. Both were warrior tribes but some people I have talked to state they split because the Apache took slaves from Mexico and brought them north and the Navajo did not believe in this so split their ways. The language certainly has common origins and it is sure they were in Canada together.

There were several castings of dinosaur footprints found in the park. They were not that large and appear to be bipeds, not that I am a paleontologist.

From there to Monument Valley Tribal Area is only fifty miles but it took two hours because of the high winds. There is dry camping within the park but it was quite exposed and wind was just whipping across the flats. I opted to go to a campground nestled in the canyon to the west and at least partially blocked by the canyon walls. I can feel the wind and hear it but it isn't threatening to overturn the RVs here. Utah has daylight Saving time. Arizona does not recognize daylight savings except in the Navajo Nation making telling time interesting. I am not going to worry about it, but I will leave early in the morning to get back to the park. I know this must confuse visitors who can conceivably change their watches three times in one day. For those who have digital watches and weak eyes this can be quite a task. I have attempted to determine why the Navajo Nation has followed the rest of the United States but the state didn't. I have perversely decided that had the Navajo Nation had not recognized daylight savings, the state would have. I guess it as much politics as anything.

In the camp ground there was a RV that had a dispute with a range steer. Not on the road, but rather stopped on the side of the road and the steer took a dislike to his invasion of territory. There were three very large dents and five holes where the horns went through the siding. That should be an interesting accident report.

04-03 - Petrified Forest

I am beat, that darn wind picked up shortly after dawn, changed direction to directly south and blasted dust all over the place again. I drove into the wind for four hours with gas mileage dropping down to 4 mph. In places sand had covered the road to a depth of a foot with drifts at least eight inches higher. I saw a pickup truck well off the road from catapulting off one of these drifts. I do not think anybody was hurt but the front end of the truck had significant damage. I suspect the driver was most surprised to be airborne, of course he must have been traveling at a very high speed to have traveled that far. I do not feel that sorry for him. These winds are something else, I suspect they are the standard for Spring but I am sure I can do without them. There are other countries that suffer the same winds and they all have names for them that signify the disasters associated with them.` Some have even placed religious significance to them.

I was delighted to return to the park, take a long hot shower and start taking the sand out of my ears. I will be tasting this for a few days I am sure. My wrists ache from fighting the steering wheel. There is a barbecue here in the park this evening and I guess I will at least make an appearance.

04-05 - Change of weather. Fifty to sixty mph winds all day creating dust clouds and drifting sand that seems to get into everything. It has not been a fun day. I spent most of the day out in the park just looking around and checking things in addition to talking to people which I enjoy the most. It is difficult to talk however if the wind is threatening to knock you over. I had my hat blow off and I had to climb down into the basin a good distance before I captured the darn thing. It sailed very nicely. I had to laugh about it later but at the time I was darn right perturbed. There were a number of dust devils "miniature tornados" that are interesting to drive through. It isn't relaxing driving when these little stinkers are in the area. I have seen tractor trailers get turned 180 degrees and turned over. They are not something to be disregarded but something to watch very carefully.

I can stand at some of the observation points within the park and watch these little wind disturbances start over a hot spot in the desert and watch it build to quite the height. It is fearsome.

04-06 -Spent almost the entire day roaming the park and seeing places I haven't seen before. While I realize that paper is the mechanism that makes things "work" it doesn't mean that I have to enjoy it. Writing lesson plans that are so stylized to one individual's preferences that it takes hours just to determine the format and utilizing words that are found to be appropriate is to me busy work and more to impress the hierarchy than to accomplish the mission. We are not teaching post graduate courses but rather in the short span of twenty to thirty minutes acquaint visitors with the how, when, why and where of a small segment of the park and keep their attention during this. We are addressing some extremely diverse audiences from all ages, backgrounds, and languages. To expect that we can accomplish Goal, Theme and Objectives, without a final examination, in twenty or thirty minutes is unrealistic.

I have accomplished adequate teaching situations and briefings to realize the most one can hope for is to hit the salient points and expand slightly on each, attempting to determine the pulse of the audience and allowing that to determine the direction.

Enough preaching, back to the story. This time I concentrated on areas I have not visited before and where there is the largest population of the larger and longer petrified trees in the park as we know it now.

The area referred to as "Long Logs" is an area in the southern part of the park where erosion has uncovered a vast store house of logs and in many instances has not disturbed the logs so they are still in line despite the fracturing that divided them into shorter segments.

Today was "Italian Day," I met at least four Italian couples, one of which spoke almost no English. It was very enjoyable speaking to them and relating some of my experiences and journeys in Italy and listening to their experiences here in the United States.

One young lady from Torino in particular was most helpful in translating and helped make my day. I enjoyed talking with her and discussing the cathedral and the parking of the city.

The petrified wood at Long Logs appears as if at some point in time many of these logs were jumbled together in a stream and created a log jam some 255 million years ago. The distribution is still much the same and represents some very large trees. The diameter of one tree is larger than I am tall.

I like to tell people that the volunteers are collected nightly, taken to the lower end of the park and given cross cut saws and saw up long logs thus making smaller ones. I sometimes get a chuckle from it. I have also told people that after a very long night of high winds I saw a pair of pelicans walking south on the park road attempting to return to Mexico. Sometimes a little laughter goes a long way. I think people are more apt to remember a somewhat accurate but humorous explanation than they are the cut and dried school solution.

Also at Long Logs is a Puebloan structure made from petrified wood which is largely quartz. The quartz is extremely dense and a durable material that is virtually impervious to weather and most other things and was easy to obtain. Not much else is known about it other than it was of the Anasazi or Mongollon era of more than a thousand years ago. It was partially restored some years ago.

04-06 - Weather has been extremely severe with high winds almost continually that get quite high in the late afternoon and Tiny just rocks and rolls until after dark when the wind dies down. There has been a series of nasty accidents on the interstate both to the east and west of the park. I am glad that I decided not to go anyplace this weekend and just take it easy. One side of Tiny is quite clean. The high speed wind and rain has blasted all the dirt from it. Maybe the next time it rains I should turn Tiny around.

Trees are budding and some of the shrubs are flowering, Spring is supposed to be quite close although it is staying hidden. Grand Canyon National Park was closed a couple of days because of the heavy snow and many of the passes to the south are questionable. The North Rim has eight feet on the main roads and may not open on time. It has been a strange year.

I did finish the German collection of slides and copied that onto CDs. This will give me more room on the hard drive so I can finish the Russia Slide Collection. I still find time to work on these projects while I am out here.

Got to go, time to start all over again.

1. Current Politically Correct Term