Bryce Canyon

I can now say that I have been to the steps of the Colorado Plateau. The first step is Bryce Canyon. It's base, some 600 plus feet, is the same formation layer and height as Zion's rim. The floor of Zion is the same to the rim of Grand Canyon. Each has it's own special sites.

The Colorado Plateau covers most of Utah, about one fifth of Colorado, about half of Arizona, and one fourth of New Mexico. The first step includes what they call pink and gray cliffs. The second step has white, vermilion, and chocolate cliffs, and then the third step with all it's colors. The geology of this whole area is interesting and can be looked at on the internet.

We first drove the rim of Zion and stopped at some of the lookouts. These are some of the things we saw.

The first stop was at the southern end of the rim, from which one has a good view of the amphitheater. They call these pink but I call them red and orange with white or gray layers.
Our second stop was at Rainbow Point. We were greeted by the welcome committee leader. Note the elevation. The previous stop was even higher.
This is the view looking east. Highway 12 goes through a valley out there before the distant ridge.
This shows some of the Hoodoos. I'll let you look that up.
Looking down into the bottom.
More formations from other view points.
From here one looks back to the area where we were on the second stop. Note the small hole in this picture.
At Bryce, approximately 200 days a year, ice and snow melt during the day and refreeze at night. This works on the cracks that were formed from uplifting and faulting. Monsoon rains remove the debris, helping reveal the fins. When frost wedging cracks the fins, holes or windows open. These in turn are broken by water freezing and collapse, forming hoodoos. There are some interesting shapes.
I think this is the one they call Thor's hammer.
Do you see the lady in white holding a baby.
In some areas one can look down towards the bottom.
When we reached Sunset Point we decided to stop and not drive the rest of the rim as it was getting around noon. This is were we wanted to enter the canyon to do the Navajo and Peekaboo loops. It was 12:45 when we entered. As we entered on the Wall Street side, there were switch backs and it dropped into a crack. See the people in the bottom.
The walls showed not only the red color but also some yellow. You have to look close to see it.
Looking back up at the switch backs.
Looking back from inside a crack.
The crack narrowed but wasn't as steep. I wouldn't want to be here during a flash flood.
There are trees growing down in these cracks. One wouldn't think that there was enough water for them.
Looking back up was a different view. It was hard to keep track of just where we were.
There are lots of shapes that make you think of different objects. This one made us think of a lady with a lion on it's hunches towards her back.
This is an area that has two 'bridges' left from erosion. They are made of a harder rock that got left behind. We saw this on the trail we took when we hiked out.
Some of the rock 'melts' and flows with the water. It looks like formations that you find in caves. They refer to this as slip. That is also what you call the very watery clay when you throw pots on a wheel.
This shows the rim from down on the trail. It shows some of the color. We hiked around in those points sticking up.
See the two and a half large urns in the top left corner? There are even some plants growing in them. After spending four hours hiking the almost five miles of trails we returned to the top. We went back to one of the southern view points to try and figure out just where we were hiking. If you look at the center right side (above) you can see some of the trail that we hiked. We came to a junction with a one mile trail that went to this lookout. Instead we took the two mile trail back to where we entered. It would have been an eight mile hike back to the truck from this stop. What a pretty hole.

Missoula Children's Theater

While we were still in Montana, one afternoon Bob and I went into Missoula to see his cousin Don. He met us at the Missoula Children’s Theater and gave us a tour.

The building had been a school, now converted to a theater with basement storage for props, costumes, furniture, risers, scenery, and everything else that is needed for a theater. A lobby for the theater was the only addition to the building. The upstairs houses all the business offices, sewing room, etc. that is used to run the Missoula Children’s Theater.

The first time that I met Don, I believe it was just before Bob and I were married, he and his first wife were involved in getting the Missoula Children’s Theater going. As we toured the building, he told us about the program and how it has evolved.

In 1970 an out of work actor from Chicago, Jim Caron, was on his way to a friend’s wedding in Oregon. Just outside of Missoula his VW bus broke down. While he was waiting for it to get fixed, he saw a poster for the casting of “Man of La Mancha.” He tried out for the part of Cervantes and got it. Don was playing Don Quixote. When the play was over, Don talked him into staying and working with him to put a group together to take plays to schools that had no drama program, to “bring the theater experience to children.”

They did this for a few years. As Don said, it wasn’t making enough money to support two families. So he ended up in Seattle singing with the Seattle Opera. That is another story in itself. Don maintained contact with Jim and was a sounding board for him. Don again works full time with the MCT and spends part of his time in Seattle and part in Missoula.

The touring group consisted of ten adults. One February, Miles City called to see if the group could come to their school and do “Snow White.” Miles City is 480 miles away and it was winter roads. However, since they were so strapped for money, the answer was yes. Don was in Seattle at this time. Not everyone in tour group was able to go, so it was decided to try and cast the dwarfs with kids from the school, if they could get enough kids whose father, from this cowboy town, would let them try out. They notified the school to try and get some kids together.

When they got there they asked the principal for a room to do the try outs in. He told them they could use the gym. When they opened the doors, there were 450 kids, from a town of 4,000, waiting to try out. Besides the dwarfs, they tried to create as many other roles as they could to use kids in.
That was a turning point in why and how they would use the Missoula Children’s Theater. On Friday night, at the end of a week of practices, kids who had been made fun of on the playground, received cheers from those who had teased them. Others, who didn’t feel they were good at anything, found out they had accomplished something. From then on the goal became “Teaching Life Skills Through Theater.”

The several tour groups now consists of two people traveling in a red truck that holds scenery, costumes, and everything else that is needed. The costumes are designed to fit many sizes. They are on the road from about October through May with two weeks off at Christmas. There are five different plays on the road. Each year a new play is introduced and one is retired. Sometimes it is brought back and used again. The plays are familiar children stories with music, but with a twist. They take turns directing. When not directing, the other tour member will be one of the actors if needed.

One of the things that the company tries to do is to make the playing field level for everyone. They will not let a principal tell them anything about any of the children. They also try to cast children with handicaps. They use children from Kindergarten and on up.

Don told us about an interesting thing that happened with one of the tour couples that were in Ireland. They had gone to an area that is industrial and poor. There are two gangs, that they call mobs, in the area. After checking in with the principal upon their arrival, and just prior to casting, he said, “I have something to tell you about.” Since they want all to have a fair chance, they cut him off. Twice more he tried, each time cutting him off. So he stopped trying. After the play on Friday and while taking things down, the principal approached them and said that he would like to take them out for a beer when they were done as he had something he wanted to tell them. They accepted his offer.

“A week prior to your arrival, there had been a mob war. Two people, from opposing mobs were killed. We thought about canceling the play because we have kids from families on both sides here. We realized it was probably too late so we decided to leave it up to you when you arrived. This is what I was trying to tell you. The leader of one of the mobs was killed. You cast his son as Romeo. There was also a man killed from the rival gang. You cast his daughter in another lesser role. We knew the parents would be passing each other in the hall as they brought kids to and from practice. We didn’t know what would happen. We had guards posted tonight in case a fight started. Instead, tonight parents were cheering for all the kids. It didn’t matter whose child it was. This was for the children. Afterwards, some of the parents were even talking to ones from the other mob.”

Don also told us of a similar incident in a town in the south that isn’t yet “integrated.” By the end of the week, new friendships were made across the lines of color. His comment was, wouldn’t it be great if we could put on a play in Jerusalem with Israeli and Palestinian children in it.

We have a grandson who is looking forward to his fourth time to be in one of the Missoula Children’s Theater plays. His younger sister is also looking forward to it as last year she got to be a mouse.

Besides the plays during the school year, there are camps in the summer. They are trying to expand their area with these. The company is also becoming involved with a program that the tour couple would present to youth through assemblies in becoming aware of one’s surroundings and getting outside. There are some studies that show that kids who get outside have less trouble with obesity.
Some people may not make a lot of money, but they make a big difference in the lives of others. All kids need a chance to realize that they are special and can succeed at what they try. This is another way for some to learn that.

On The Move

As the weather started getting cold up north, we knew it was time to move and avoid snow. We almost did that.

We went down through the Bitterroot Valley. As we went over Lost Trail Pass, this is what we saw.

We went to the Big Hole Battlefield. Bob had been there when he was real young and I had been there around the time I was in Junior High. Besides being cold, things have changed some.

There is now a visitors center and trails to hike to the area where the Indians were camped and to where the army retreated. There are also tepee poles set up for lodges.

The area where the army had retreated to has very few 'old' trees. When I had been there previously, you could see marks on the trees from bullets. Those trees are gone and there are not as many trees as before. They do have the trenches marked and cleared.

This is the stream that the army crossed when they entered the Indian village. It is about twenty feet across.

We also saw these in the area to which the army retreated.
We went to Rexburg and spent a couple nights there. We met up with two of the guys from home who are in college there. It was great to see them. The morning we left there, Bob had to clear about one and a half inches of wet snow off the top of the truck. The roads were wet but not slick.

We went on to Salt Lake and went to some places there. It was warmer here but there was snow on the mountains.

We spent the evening, after we arrived, at the conference center taking the tour of it. Pictures just don't show how large it is. The statistics on it are something.

We also took in Temple Square, the Lion House, Brigham Young's home, and went to the temple. The temple is beautiful inside. It is understandable why it took them so long to build.

Finally we got to warmer weather. But that will go in the next blog.

A Few Summer Things

A year ago, on Sept. 2, we took off on our extended trip. For those of you who have follow this blog, you know that we have seen many sites and visited with special people. It has been a great year.

B may have sold his boat, but he kept the anchor and occasionally digs it in for a long anchorage. This happened again last June while in Montana. Since the weather is cooling and there was a good frost, he is thinking it is time to pull anchor and set the sails for the south seas/land.

I did want to hit on a few things that went on this summer/fall that I did not mention in previous posts.

Our neighbors were sometimes a little different.

We had sleep overs.

Many mornings I got to see the sun light enhancing nature.

Grandpa got to help with a math problem, and then talk about what will be taught in future lessons.
We have seen lots of beautiful sunsets and clouds

We got to see a full double rainbow. I couldn't get back far enough to get all of it.

Leah got to see her uncle and aunt from Tennessee. It had been a few years since she last saw them.

I got to spend some time sketching. No pictures, they are on paper.

Although, after telling a grandson two years ago that I was never going to attend any of his football games again since we were in a car accident on the way back home, I did go see him play. That is him, down with his arm towards his back.
And charging the receiver.

I'm not partial and I know that you would agree that he is a good looking guy.

I hope that each of you have had a relaxing summer, a soft place to sit, and your favorite fresh, still green, fruit to eat.

Labor Day Weekend

I know that some of you used this time to do some labor. We, however, decided to do the opposite.

We, meaning all residing here this summer, packed up and went to Georgetown Lake, out of Philipsburg. We got there first with the trailer and got most of the tent set up as the others had to wait for football practice to be over.

When we first got there, Bob and I started walking and looking at some campsites that might meet our needs. We hadn't gone far when we saw a cow moose and her calf. They were working their way up from the lake into the camp ground. We waited, not wanting to cross her path. There were some other people closer to her and she didn't seem to mind. I guess she is use to people. My camera was back in the truck so I didn't get any pictures. We were hoping she would come back again during the weekend, but didn't.

On Saturday morning we went to Gem Mountain, so named for sapphires. For fourteen dollars, you can buy a bucket of gravel and hunt for sapphires.

First you pour some of the gravel in a washing tray.

Next you take it to the washing trough. You have to have the right motion to wash it getting the smaller stuff to the bottom. The sapphires also go to the bottom. Trinceton seemed to have the right motion. The tray is screened on the bottom.

Then you quickly flip it over. Trinceton seemed to always get the sapphire containing gravel closest to him on his flip.

After the flip, you look on the surface for sapphires. After picking up any, with a tweezers, that you see on the surface, you start working through the rest of it.

Then you can find these. There are also quartz crystals that look like sapphires until they dry. Then they are white.

When you are done, you take them in and they will check them for any cracks and if they are large enough to cut. Between Bob and I we had four for a total of 4.08 uncut carrots. That is about what Trinceton, alone, had along with Leah and Bryan combined. (Remember what I said about Trinceton's tray flipping?) They are clear and vary in color from a light yellow, green shades, blue shades and pink. Although we didn't get much, we had fun. The kids had fun playing in the left over gravel pile,

and it didn't start raining until we were leaving. We had sun to see the sapphires while we were looking for them.

Before we got to Gem Mountain, we say a group of bighorn sheep up on the hill side above the road.
This one was looking for a way down. He ended up going straight down the surface where he is looking.


After gem hunting, we went back to camp and relaxed.

During the weekend the kids had fun jumping off what ever they could find,
playing,

eating,

roasting hot dogs and marshmallows,

and the guys got to be bored,

since they were not doing their usual activity.

We did get some work out of Grandpa.

On Monday morning we headed for the ghost town of Granite which is about five miles, up in the mountain, out of Philipsburg and at an elevation of seven thousand feet.

The town of Granite was home to three thousand people who worked in the silver mines and stamp mill. It also yielded some gold. There are only a few buildings left standing, parts of some, and foundations of many. It is hard to visualize that many people living here as the ground is steep, rough, and now covered with trees.

In 1880 a Mr. McIntyre was contracted to sink a "fifty foot shaft upon the ledge" for one-quarter interest in the mine. The shaft was one foot short when he decided not to finish and surrendered his share. This one-quarter share was eventually worth $3,000,000 in dividends. In 1885 the Ruby shaft was sunk to a depth of 1550 feet. Crews worked around the clock.

This was once the three story union hall.

The bank vault.

One of the remaining homes.

Foundation and building.
Some tailings from the mine.
Located up on the mountain, close to the mine shafts, was a three level stamp mill to crush the ore. There is not much left of the lower level, but there is some of the other two levels.

The walls were made of quarried granite from the area. You can see the drill marks on some of the stones. What got me is how they were stacked without the use of mortar and the small stones that they used to filled the cracks. There was also fire brick, stamped St. Louis, in the area.
This is of an ore bunker and a log crib. I thought the cribs construction was interesting. You can see ore chutes in the bunker.

In one place, you could see where they cut the trees, leaving stumps that were used to make a level floor for a building. The ground was quit sloped. The timbers were also made from the existing trees. There are not any nearly this large now.
Maybe the best thing was the view.
It was a fun weekend.