Hiking the Colorado National Monument

Moving to Grand Junction in the middle of winter had made hiking a bit of a challenge so far, but as the weather warms up, I hope to provide a more detailed geologic look at the array of formations surrounding the Grand Valley area.  But for now, I will provide a few pretty pictures from the short hikes that weather and school have permitted.

This first picture is from the base of the Book Cliffs after a snowstorm had passed through the area.  It is looking south towards the Colorado National Monument. 

Oooooh, Aaaaah!

PBF and I ventured out to the No Thoroughfare Canyon trail, just inside the Colorado National Monument. This will definitely be a topic for several hikes to come.  The variety of Precambrian metamorphic rocks and the layered sandstones above create many topics for the geologist in me.  Here are a few pictures from the initial hike.

Looking up the canyon.

First Waterfall

Some sort of intrusion with contact metamorphism around the edges. Definitely returning to this one

For the next nice patch of weather, we headed to the opposite side of the C.N.M. and trekked up the Lower Monument Trail to Independence Monument.

Side of Independence Monument

Thin view of Independence Monument.

Rock Monster ready to chomp on unsuspecting hikers.

The last attempted hike was to Ute Canyon.  The weather had climbed to 45 degrees and was amazingly clear, thus providing for great hiking weather!

Overlook from the start of the trail looking across Ute Canyon.

The attempted part comes in because of a massive snowstorm that had hit the monument earlier in the week, leaving at least a foot of snow on the steep canyon trail.

PBF attempting to blaze a trail through the snow.

So after about ten minutes of trudging a bit, we decided to turn back.  Instead, we headed back down the road to Devil's Canyon, which shares the trailhead with No Thoroughfare.  On a short hike (as we had time constraints in meeting folks for dinner) we took the trail to where it forks with Echo Canyon Trail.  Along the way we got to see some petroglyphs, and a short half hour or so later, we got this view looking back across the Grand Valley towards the Book Cliffs.

The tiny hills in the far distance are the Book Cliffs.

One of the few intact petroglyphs.

While I haven't been able to hike as much as I would like, being cooped up inside has provided PBF and me with plenty of good food however!  Here is our inaugural batch of tamales!

Yum!

Hopefully with the weather warming up and spring break approaching, I will reload my blog material with more hiking!

Making Rocks Bleed

For my core curricula I have to take a basic speech class of which I am enrolled this semester. Years of working customer service, teaching art at a recreation center and running a small cafe have rendered this class a bit on the boring side, plus I have been speaking or performing in front of groups for more than twenty years, so I decided to pursue topics for my speeches which are interesting to me. My first two minute introductory speech I prepared on the ten minute walk from my house to campus. It was about how much of a geek I am, from the interest in science and math, right down to the glasses and asthma. For the second speech, "how to" do something, I built a lego mosaic of the school mascot:

Go Mavs!

I spent much more time on building the bull than on the speech itself, so that was fun.

So for my next speech, I went with a book I had been reading in my spare time entitled Color; A Natural History of the Palette. It is a great mix of fiction and fact surrounding the origins of paints and dyes used by humans. The author includes the imagined journeys of fictitious characters of the past on the search for various pigment to supplement her own journeys to far away lands in search of various bugs, plants and rocks which have been processed for color throughout history. A few interesting tidbits from the book:

1. The Aborigines still go on pilgrimages to secret ochre bearing locations as rituals.
2. The Cochneal bug is still used (in the crushed, dried, processed form) to color several foods and makeups, so if you see E120, you are using bugs.
4. For all the green that occurs in nature, it is surprisingly hard to find a good pigment.
3. Ultramarine (from the Italian oltromarino or "beyond sea") is made from the Lapis Lazuli stone that was only mined in a single place in Afghanistan.  It was so expensive in the past, that Michelangelo couldn't afford it to finish his painting, "The Entombment".

If you are looking for a fairly quick read, I completely recommend Victoria Finlay's book.  It is a great look into the past and continuing processes in the quest to color our lives.

The Beginning

I have been telling myself for years that I should start a blog, if for no other reason than to get in some writing practice and refine my tone.  So here it is. The title, Clastic Fill, is a play on a phrase from a movie, The Hangover, that came to me while listening to a lecture on sedimentary rocks.

I study Geology.  It happens to finally be in an official capacity as I am enrolled in a geology program but I have always loved rocks, the earth and the science surrounding them. Most kids seem to have a rock collection at some point, but mine got to the point of the parents limiting the amount of rocks per hike or camping trip.  I was allowed one.  I still limit myself to this same amount. Most are little fragments of granite or gneiss.  I'm a huge fan of metamorphic rocks.  The little ones are now the matrix in which my bamboo plants sit, but I still have a few large ones.

I am also a huge Lego maniac. I have a tattoo of a Lego on my hip. That is how much I love them. Legos are my art form. I make portraits and mosaics, and the occasional statue. I am currently working on some models with which to teach science.

My long term boyfriend, who will be referred to in this blog as PBF (Pseudonym Boyfriend), and I love to cook.  A lot of our time spent together is cooking various and delicious meals.  In the past month, we have learned to make our own salami, make tamales and make both refried and baked beans from scratch.

So now I have begun what I hope to be at least an entertaining endeavor for myself, but hopefully for some others as well.