Stardate 2016.362

A portal view of a portion of Lake Powell below 10,388-foot Navajo Mountain.

California Part III

And, the travelogue continues...
The day before our flight home, we traveled from Bakersfield, California, south to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). After returning our car, we enjoyed a very nice room at LAX, and I was able to watch jets, many quite large and from around the globe, land and take-off. Several "oldish" McDonnell Douglas DC-10s were hanging out at Fed Ex.



On the morning of our departure, we made it through security fairly quick. Now all we had to do was kill several hours, which for me, when surrounded by airplanes, is easy. Watching the ground crews is fun too. Below a honey dipper is at work.




I'm not sure if this Canadian Jet is an Airbus or Boeing airliner. If you're me, that's important info.



Here is our ride. Our Frontier Airline's tail mascot was Yukon the Caribou. If anyone's interested, our jet was an Airbus A320 — important stuff! Grin!






Marina Del Rey appeared seconds after takeoff. We flew out over the Pacific a bit before heading northeast.






Now heading northeast, the Long Beach area may be seen while looking overland toward the southeast.




Hi ho, hi ho, across the Mojave Desert we go!



Lake Mojave (actually a reservoir) looks rather inviting. Lake Mojave is formed by the Colorado River and the Davis Dam. It rests between Lake Mead to the north (another reservoir) and Lake Havasu to the south (yet another reservoir). Lake Mojave makes-up a portion of the state line between Arizona and Nevada. The reservoir encompasses an area of 41 square miles.



A portion of Lake Mead also was seen below us. Passengers on the left side would have seen Lake Mead (a reservoir) and the Las Vegas area; possibly the Hoover Dam as well. Lake Mead covers 247 square miles. Yes, I'm picky about the nomenclature labeling lakes (natural) and reservoirs (man-made).




Not the best photo, but therein lies the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River.



Welcome to the land of sandstone, slot canyons and dry desert heat. Below is an aerial view of Page Arizona and the Glen Canyon Dam. Lake Powell (a reservoir) is formed by this dam. Marble Canyon begins at the dam and runs south with the Colorado River, eventually becoming the Grand Canyon. Several miles below the dam is where Grand Canyon river rafters put-in. Moreover, the slot canyons of the wild and woolly Paria River intercept the Colorado River here at Lee's Ferry. I've waded out into the river at Lee's Ferry, and the water is quite chilled because it normally exits at the dam's base. In short, your wet extremities shrivel, while your upper extremities bake in 100-degree heat. The canyonlands of the Four Corners region is an interesting area that's very isolated and sports a very unique history.





No matter what your views are on Lake Powell, it's an incredible place to visit and play. On the other hand, I believe that John Wesley Powell would turn over in his grave if he knew a reservoir, in the middle of the desert he explored, held his name. In short, he didn't agree with irrigating the arid (desert) southwest.

Lake Powell encompasses 524 square miles. It is the second largest reservoir by water volume when full. Lake Mead has the largest volume capacity, but is seldom full due to demands. Just above the dam is Wahweap Bay. The two bays shown below become one during higher flows. The approximate center of the photo is Wahweap Marina.


Did you know we about lost Glen Canyon Dam in 1983? We did! It would make for an interesting blog post. I have some photos somewhere. But for now, the following link summarizes that potential disaster. Part of the selling point on these large dams is flood control. However, if you have a full reservoir, more water on the way and can't open the spillways because they're eroding away the integrity of the dam — you have an exciting predicament!

The confluence of the Colorado and San Juan Rivers was easy to spot.




Sediment-laden spring runoff of the San Juan River reaches the slack water of Lake Powell.



The Lake Powell area is nothing short of an oasis in the desert. Prior to 1963, before the floodgates were shut and it began its transformation into a reservoir, it was a mystical land of hidden sandstone passages; home to numerous slot canyons fingering out into the sandstone for miles. It was a riparian oasis of shade, springs and fern-covered grottos. I would love to have seen the area pre-reservoir. I didn't start going to Powell until the late-1960s, at which point I was just a boy.

If interested in this region pre-reservoir, you may like the following books:

Chavez, Fray Angelico (Translator), Ted J. Warner (Editor). 1995. The Domínguez - Escalante Journal: Their Expedition Through Colorado, Utah, Arizona And New Mexico In 1776. University of Utah Press. 153 pp.

Inskip, Eleanor. 1995. The Colorado River Through Glen Canyon Before Lake Powell. Inskip Ink. Moab. 95 pp.

Kelsey, Michael. 2004 (4th Edition). Hiking And Exploring The Paria River. Kelsey Publishing. Provo. 288 pp.

Porter, Eliot. 1963 (1st Edition). The Place That No One Knew: Glen Canyon On The Colorado. Sierra Club. 170 pp.

Powell, John Wesley. 1961. Exploration Of The Colorado River And Its Canyons. Dover Publications.

Reisner, Marc. 1993 (Revised Edition). Cadillac Desert: The American West And Its Disappearing Water. Penguin Books. 608 pp.

That's it for now. I'll have one more post of this trip shortly.

Adios

Stardate 2014.712

The Wave of Arizona in January

Snowcatcher put in for The Wave lottery last year, and we were drawn. This would be our second visit to this unique formation. We spent the night in Kanab, Utah, and traveled to White Pocket the next morning. Our permit for the Wave was for the following day.



After four-wheeling into and out of White Pocket, Snowcatcher and I found a nice little spot to camp right on the Utah/Arizona border and within a mile of the Wave's Wire Pass trailhead. Better yet, our camp was within several miles of where the 1776 Dominguez-Escalante Expedition was known to have camped days before venturing into, and being stymied by, the deep, intricate canyons of what is now known as the Lake Powell region. The idea was to start hiking predawn to capture morning sun hit. But, you know what? It's awful hard to crawl out of a warm bag on a cold January morning, even in the desert. Hence, we were late. But, that's okay; there also was a thin cloud cover to severely mute first light.



The Wave is another geologic gem of Jurassic Period Navajo Sandstone. It also calls home the stunning high desert area of the Paria Plateau between Kanab, Utah, and Page, Arizona. The hike begins in the Coyote Buttes area of southern Utah.



By education, I'm a hydrologist; yet, my head is still linking synapses after reading about iron oxide mineralogies. Nonetheless, here is a simple summary of what I've gleaned after a little research.



One could view The Wave as dissected ancient sand dunes.



The stunning crossbedding we see today is the result of seasonal changes in ancient dune migration.



Beautiful red, orange, buff, yellow, purple, white and pink coloration is controlled by iron oxide mineralogies.



The smooth bowl of waves is predominantly a wind-scoured channel whose dimensions behave like a venturi. The increased speed of wind helps to further sculpt out the visually smooth waves.







Fantastic, swirling, mystical sand phantoms float amongst granules of stone.



A handful of anomalies hide here and there.



The Wave II can be found almost adjacent to the Wave.



The whole area is fun to explore, and should be if you visit. I'm sure we'll be back soon. Thanks for reading.

Adios

Stardate 2014.704

White Pocket's a Hot Pocket

Snowcatcher and I visited White Pocket northern Arizona in mid-January 2014. It had been on the bucket list, and having been drawn for The Wave, we gave it a go. White Pocket is a remote, seldom-visited, geologic gem found on the Paria Plateau of Northern Arizona. It calls home the beautiful high desert between Kanab, Utah, and Page, Arizona.



It appears the verdict on the Pocket's geology is still out. One school of thought is soft sediment deformation during the Jurassic Period. The twisting and turning and stretching of layers occurred while the sand was saturated but not yet completely turned into rock.



Geologist Marc Deshowitz, whom has studied White Pocket extensively, provides this scenario. An earthquake triggers a large sand-slide down the slope of a large dune. While sliding, the cascade rips chunks of underlying strata that intermix with basal sand. The mass fills a pond or oasis, instantly loading underlying layers of saturated sand. Pressure from the overburden then deforms the saturated layers of sand.



White Pocket is infamous for being hard to reach because of loose sand – about 15-miles of it. A relatively high clearance 4x4-vehicle is required, along with provisions and accoutrements should one get stuck or "sidetracked."



Another potential matter is that some BLM route marker numbers don't match other/older route numbers on existing non-BLM maps. We scratched our heads once or twice before sliding into the "groove" once we found the correct jeep path. In a nutshell, we were correctly correlated with the access road on the map, but the map route numbers didn't jive with route numbers at intersections.



A chariot path sporting more than 12-inches of loose, dry, white sand was our 10-mph path into an isolated area of magically swirled peppermint sandstone. As we got a feel for our needed momentum for varying depths of sand, driving became more and more fun than apprehensive. Nonetheless, I was concerned about pulling some of the hills on the way out. Thankfully, they presented no problems.



Up next, the Wave!

Adios