Room+13B

WELCOME TO ANNIE AND DANI'S GRAND CANYON FIELD TRIP JOURNAL!!!! Hello, our names are Dani and Annie, and we recently took the Grand Canyon field trip, with stops along the way including the Wupatki National Monument, Sunset Crater, and Glenn Canyon Dam river raft. This field trip was a great educational trip and we had lots of fun learning about the Grand Canyon and surrounding areas. On the first day, we left for the trip at six in the morning because it takes seven hours to get there. We stopped at Sizzlers along the way, which is a great buffet. Next on our agenda was to reach the spot for our Grand Canyon South Rim Hike. The hike itself was three hours, but we only hiked uphill maybe an hour of that. We happened to see wild elk behind a wire fence along our way up. The further we got up, the foggier it would get. When we eventually made it to the top, snow was all along in the branches of trees, and none of us students could resist a snowball fight. It all started when another student pegged us with snowballs. We would keep moving along the trail, picking up snow along the way. Our hair was soaked when we got to the hotel. We finally came to a point in our hike where we came to a memorial statue for John Wesley Powell, the first man to explore the inside of the Grand Canyon, and to make it all the way through. Our tour guide promised that we would catch one of their buses to get back to ours, and so we did. Most of the students ran across the road into a circle of snow and had a mega snowball fight. Both of us got some serious hits on people that time. After we got back to where the buses were, we headed over to a lodge building for our dinner. We both had some delicious chicken with rice. After dinner, it was time to take the three hour drive back to the hotel in Page, Holiday Inn Express. The next morning, we woke up at five forty five and ate breakfast. After, we loaded up the bus and drove fifteen minutes to get to the Home Security Site where we drove two miles in a tunnel to get to the bottom. Once there, we got to wear hard hats for three minutes because of falling rock danger. Out of the two of us, Dani had to wear a life vest because she is twelve. We began the river raft near the dam and slowly made our way through the canyon. It was gorgeous with it steadily increasing in size as we rafted further and further along. We learned about the dark patches that lined the side of the canyon being called desert varnish. Our tour guide pointed out different shapes along the canyon, including the Swinging Lady, Two Wolves Howling at the Moon, a Monk standing at the top of a cliff, and Poison Peak, the highest point in the canyon. “One drop and it will kill you.” We eventually came to a stop near some ancient petro glyphs. There appeared to be antelope running along the sides of the canyon, and steps that were drawn out on the wall. After we got back aboard, we encountered different boats that would race past us and we would be caught in their wakes. This happened on several occasions, and eventually we raced around other boats causing wakes. Finally, it was time to get off the ride. The students on our raft get up soaking wet at Lees Ferry! After drying off for a little while, we got back on the bus to head to lunch at Cameron Trading Post. It was a two hour forty five minute ride L. Dani got a necklace with a dream catcher on it. Annie found a ladybug in the picnic area. When lunch break was over, we headed to Wupatki Nation Monument, an hour away. The ruins there were amazing! These Indians left behind amazing structures like their homes and ball fields. The ball field was a dirt circle similar to their amphitheater, but was decorated with black rocks instead of being all a reddish brownish color. It was extremely windy there, one student lost his notes! Next, we boarded the bus to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. That was only a half hour away. Our tour bus guide led us on a trail hike only a mile or so long. We toured around all of the hardened lava. We both kept tripping over the lava on the ground. We finally reached a giant circle of hardened lava, and it was a lava bubble that had popped and hardened. We then made our way over to an ice cave, and we both almost fell down. We got our picture taken, and then somehow climbed out. After the ice cave, we had to return our bus to drive to the Flagstaff Anthem Mall for dinner. It was a two hour and fifteen minute ride to dinner, and we both had Subway! And when our trip was officially over, we got back to the school at ten thirty. Overall, we both had an amazing time, and if you are ever lucky enough to come visit Arizona, the Grand Canyon is the place to be!