Dare Mighty Things!

If you haven't checked it out yet, you may wish to cast your eyes to the solar system.  Specifically, Mars Science Lander, aka Curiosity, is about to reach mars (5 hours and counting!!!!).   It will reach the atmosphere at 11:31pm Mountain Time, so pretty late to stay up, but I can't miss it.  Once it's down, nothing too exciting will happen the first few days, except transmitting a few pictures.  Looks like we'll have to wait nearly a month before it begins vaporizing rocks with a nuclear powered laser beam. (how cool is *that*?)

Work has blazed by, with us completing the Long Term Post-Fire monitoring.  90 plots down!  The monsoons have kicked off a few fires in the Park and on Ute tribal land to our south.  We even discovered one on Park Mesa en route to our research plots.  The fire crew has jumped right on them, so they haven't been over a few acres.

I've been meaning to post a farewell epitaph to Lonesome George, the famous Giant Tortoise that died a month ago.  With his death, we witnessed an entire species go extinct.  It's a great reminder to the work I do to preserve the habitats we have left.

We haven't done much the past few weekends because the thunderstorms have been chasing us around.  There were a few benchmarks we recovered (one required a bit of digging), saw a big wildfire blow-up near Durango's airport, and finally made a hike along the Cross-Mountain trail.  We had tried that hike last year, but was totally snowed out.  It was great to get to the base of Lizard Head and hike along the expanse of Black Face ridge.  The views were amazing and lots of wildflowers near Wilson's Meadow boosted my spirits.

Good luck to everyone planning some big life changes right now! 

Raining Apricots

Lower Alta Lake

The moonsoons have started a little early, and it's very welcome news.  The montane and alpine zones were drying up, so hopefully the rains have come in time to let a few wildflowers bloom.  It has also helped quash a few of the wildfires burning around the state.  Also, every time the wind blows, the two little apricot trees in our backyard shake loose a volley of fruit.  Anyone want some fresh apricots?  I wish I had known they would make so much fruit, because I would've watered them more.  These are pretty small, about the size of a ping-pong ball... but really tasty.

Mama Mallard

Despite Menefee mountain burning up, we were still able to get our workload done.  This included a survey of the Mancos River valley, mostly to size up the Russian Knapweed infestation and formulate a plan to tackle it.  We also had some fun; visiting the ghost-town of Alta Lakes, the place Tesla was hired to install the world's first AC power plant.  We saw beavers foraging, mama ducks teaching her chicks to swim in straight lines, and gobs of turquoise damselflies.  Sadly, this area is soon to be "developed"  -- I put that in quotes because, in the words of Indigo Montoya, "I don't think that word means what you think it means".

Emerald Lake

We stuffed our face and watched the only fireworks show on the 4th allowed in the entire county.  Then we went hiking out to Emerald Lake (not to be confused with the 50,000 other Emerald Lakes -- insert rant about poor names for magnificent wonders).

Emerald Lake of the Weminuche Wilderness is the 3rd largest natural lake in Colorado.  It is over 250 feet deep, and is split into two lakes by a narrow isthmus.  It is really scenic, and when the sun shone, the shores were green like its namesake.  Far in the mist to the north skulked mount Oso, and despite Lisa being tired from the hike up and the storms booming around us, it beckoned us to go onwards.  Instead, the weather demanded our attention, with nearly constant light rain and distant thunderstorms threatening worse.  We dreaded spending dinner in the rain, so decided to backpack out after 1 night on the trail.  It was a long, muddy slog, but we made it back home by midnight.

Mount Oso in the Mists

We've been recovering all day.  Mostly watching the nearly grown puffins scamper about the Loafing Ledge.

Rockies Under Siege

Credit: Sam Green/Cortez Journal

 One year ago, Audubon Magazine posted an interesting article regarding a new concept:  Megafires -- forest fires in the western states that over the past 20 years have shattered records.  Nothing brings the point home like watching the sky turn orange on your weekend.

Temperatures for the western states have been rising 70% faster than the global average for the past decade.  According to Science magazine, fire season for the Rockies is 205 days, almost 3 months longer than the average 25 years ago, resulting in 6 times the acreage burned per year.

Fire season this year went off with a bang in mid May:  The Whitewater fire in the Gila Wilderness (still burning at 300,000 acres), and closer to home, the Little Sand fire in the San Juans (still burning at 24,000 acres).  The Gila Wilderness fire will be of special interest for research, since it is in an area with lots of ponderosa pines that have been managed with prescribed burns.  Fires can burn at different intensities, and certain habitats are much better adapted to fires than others.  This month the Front Range has been having mega fires near cities that captured national attention.

Rock glacier moraine, Kismet, and Sneffels

This past weekend, we escaped the unseasonably hot temperatures by going for a hike in the mountains.  We went to Blaine Basin on the north face of Mount Sneffels.    It's a nice hike with a few waterfalls and cascades, with the basin having great views of the north face of Sneffels, Whitehouse, and Circque Mountain. There were lots of columbine, but most of the alpine wildflowers seemed to be dormant, waiting for rain to make up for the very low amount of snowpack this year.  Seeing the mountain streams burst out from the rock glaciers is profound: the start of a stream that joins a river and heads to the sea.

Primula parryi (Parry's Primrose)

Around lunchtime, we could smell smoke on the gusting south winds.  Since I had been smelling smoke from the Little Sand fire at Mesa Verde for the past 2 weeks, I assumed it was from that fire picking up in activity.  In another 2 hours, the sky turned a strange umber with the sun looking rusty orange.  Mountains in the far distance faded out from view, and a marmot looked at me with a concerned expression.  A huge flat rock in the stream reflected back the orange glow from the sun as if the water was catching fire.  Hiking up the saddle between the jagged peaks into the sickly setting sun, breathing smoke and feeling the altitude, made me imagine this to be the lair of dragons!

Here be Smaug the Dragon?

The following day, after a soak in the hot springs at getting my caffine fix at Mouse's Chocolate, we did a few caches near the miner's shrine in Silverton and finally headed home.  Driving west from Durango, I noticed a towering smoke plume in the distance.  I was really concerned that it was Mesa Verde going up in flames.  When we drove further west towards the La Platas, we realized that Menefee Mountain was all on fire.  Billowing smoke plumes, huge flames, and lots of cars going everywhere like an ants nest had been stirred.  Fortunately this past week we had our first glimpse of monsoon rains.  It didn't rain much, but the higher humidity and slightly cooler temperatures really helped dampen the energy of the fire.  A smaller fire started on the ridge due south from our house in Cortez, so a helicopter was diverted to put it out the following morning.

Springing from the weight of the mountains
Like the heart of the earth would burst

Maybe next season I'll look for a job in Alaska?

I found a fun new way to spend Sunday evenings: virtual Star Parties at CosmoQuest!  I always wanted a huge telescope with a smooth clock drive and a clue as to what to point it at.  Star Parties were always great because I could rely on others to have quality gear, point it at something cool, and most importantly, be able to explain what the heck I was staring at.  The virtual star party is the next best thing, since from the comfort of my chair we can watch many telescopes and learn about the stars from professional astronomers.  Very cool!  Now they just need to provide a remote app that lets me take control of a telescope.  :-)

Surveys

Calico Peak

A fun way to spend some free time is hunting down US Geological Survey benchmarks.  These are markers that were used to create maps, and many of them are historic.  Many mountain tops are perfect locations for surveying because they have line of sight to many landmarks, so these summits frequently have bronze disks where the survey station was positioned to triangulate new positions and determine elevations.  Because they can be remote, often the benchmarks have not been visited in a long time.  The National Geodetic Survey maintains a database of these marks and knowing if the mark is still usable could be valuable information.

Over the weekend, I visited two survey markers: one on Eagle Mountain and another on Expectation Mountain.  I followed Horse Creek trail up from Rico; it's a nice trail that begins with a pretty waterfall and passes by many old mines, such as The Puzzler, Nutmeg, and of course, Expectation.  Some of the rocks along the peak have sparkly crystals in them; the bright green tiny crystals that I think are olivine and a dark silvery crystal in the shape of small daggers that are probably galena.  Since it was kinda on/in the way, I also scampered up Anchor Mountain.  Climbing three peaks in one day was a little exhausting, but an excellent adventure.

The weather continues to be hot and dry, so burn bans are being implemented.  Let's hope the monsoons start soon!

Aptly named Eris and her moon Dysmonia

To help keep my cool, I've begin hunting minor planets made of ice again.  That's right, icehunters is back, this time reincarnated as IceInvestigators.  Log in, take the tutorial, and hopefully score New Horizons some additional  new worlds to explore. On the previous set of images from icehunters, volunteers had identified 24 Kuiper Belt Objects in the 2004/2005 data and so far about 18 unique KBOs in the 2011 data. No KBO yet found is reachable by New Horizons, but the closest one requires less than twice the available onboard fuel to be targeted -- so close.  As a bonus, a few asteroids and variable stars were discovered too.  Awesome!

Waterfalls and the Upcoming Transit of Venus

Red Mountain #1

It may not be the dog days of summer yet, but it sure seems like it.   The threat of forest fires is occurring sooner this year because of the warm spring, so the fire crew is rushed to complete some of the fuel-reduction treatments around buildings at Mesa Verde.  The buildings around Chapin Mesa are in the middle of Astragalus schmolliae (Schmoll's Milkvetch) habitat, so we needed to flag plants at risk so they wouldn't be mowed down.  Then we did some reveg work at Yucca House National Monument, where we found a state-listed rarity, Penstemon breviculus.  Finally, that led to us chasing Houndstounge, Cynoglossum officinale at the Morefield campground.  We've been fighting houndtoungue there for at least 3 years now, and so far it has not been seen outside the environs of the campground so we hope we can exterminate it before it infects another area of the Park.  The good news is that it seems like we're suppressing it well; the bad news is that the seed base lasts from 5-10 years, so it will take a few more sweeps before we can claim victory.

Gray Copper Falls

It was a hot weekend for Montezuma county, with temps in the upper 80's, so we escaped to the mountains.  There is a really nice hike near the ghost town of Ironton called Gray Copper Falls.  We spent the afternoon leisurely hiking up to the falls.  We found a tiny population of the uncommon orchid Calypso bulbosa (fairy-slipper orchid), and something I have dubbed the Snow Ghost mushroom.  We did encounter a little bit of snow, but it is nothing compared to last year when even on the 4th of July we were still humping over snow drifts.


By late afternoon, we had reached the falls in the shadow of Red Mountain Number 1 (really, couldn't think of a better name for a mountain?).  The

"Snow Ghost" Mushroom

hosetail-falls had the remnants of a giant snow/ice cone similar to Coronet Falls, but only the base was left.  We couldn't approach the base of the falls, but I continued hiking up to the top and found the collapsed tunnel of an old mine and crumbled down cabin on the north side of the stream.  Timberline was just a little bit further, but it seemed best to turn around and save peak-bagging for another day.  Before turning back to the trailhead, we saw a Golden Eagle circle the high mountain ridges.  Then we were visited by a family of mule deer.  It was really nice having the trail all to ourselves for the entire day!

We camped near the leach fields of Ironton (don't drink the water!) and had a nice, little fire by moonlight.  In the morning, we re-visited Cascade Falls in Ouray and payed traditional homage to Mouse's Chocolate. YUM!  We stopped at Little Molas Lake to soak in the vistas when lightning strikes chased us out from the mountains.  It was great to see it rain, since the wildflowers aren't going to make it on the snow melt alone.

I hope to see the Transit of Venus this coming week and then think of some way to celebrate World Oceans Day when I'm over 1,000 miles from the closest ocean.

The Road to Chaco

Fossil wood fragments

This past week, I had the chance to be a paleontologist for a day.  A road-cut along the main road in Mesa Verde exposes a nice outcrop of the middle Menefee formation units.  Recently, erosion happened and a few sandstone blocks tumbled down the man-made cliff onto the shoulder of the road.  Since this was an important outcrop (Menefee is part of the Mesa Verde Group, so this road cut serves as a Type description), we rushed down to describe fossils contained within the rocks.

For the most part, it contained wood fragments in various states of coal.  This area was once a swamp 78,000,000 years ago and this particular outcrop resembles a flood plain near the shoreline.  A few animal burrows were found; bark-beetle tunnels in the wood and what might be ghost shrimp burrows in the sand.  We found a good laurel leaf imprint, and a fossil that resembles an avocado (pending identification).   If you want to give it a try, you can see a few photos posted to my G+ account.

At work, we focused on rare plant surveys this week.  Three botanists from the Colorado Natural Heritage Program were here for their projects, and we tagged along.  We found new populations of Aletes macdougalii (Indian Parsley), and mapped a few areas of Hackelia graclienta (Mesa Verde Stickseed).  Intensive surveys of Astragalus schmolliae (Schmoll's Milkvetch) were also done.  I also found time to assist the wildlife biologists with some fence repairs.

Which room held the Macaws?

For Memorial Day weekend, we went camping at Chaco Canyon.  I have been wanting to visit that unique area since I first knew it was out there... but it is way out there. It's surrounded by badlands, and to emphasize that point, we battled strong winds during the day.  It was so windy, tents from the campground were being ripped from the ground and gusts would sweep sand into your face.  It was so windy, the mystery on why the ancient Chaco people left the area didn't seem so mysterious to us.

Fortunately, Chaco is rich in mystery.  The Great Houses were the largest buildings in North America for the past thousand years and were not surpassed in size until the early 1900's.  They required 210,000 trees, most of which were cut, seasoned, and transferred over 50 miles.  Why was this amazing place built in the middle of Nowhere, when they could've built it along the banks of the San Juan or Animas river?  Just reaching Chaco on foot back then must've required a carefully prepared journey, so maybe the remoteness was to enforce purpose on those who wished to visit?  They certainly didn't try to hide it, since huge effort went into creating 400 miles of ritual avenues that led to Chaco from many different directions.  And this is just the beginning of questions about Chaco that continues to vex archeologists.

Pueblo Bonito

When the sun set, the winds settled down and allowed the campfire program about archeo-astronomy to be held.  It was an interesting talk, and presented some intriguing sites all along the canyon; such as the solstice Sun Dagger Petroglyph and the Supernova Pictograph.  After the talk, volunteers setup huge telescopes at the observatory so we could see M-51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy), M-13, and Saturn with its entourage of moons.

We spent out last day on hikes up to Pueblo Alto and down canyon to see more petroglyphs and a few more Great Houses.  The wind really tore into us and we felt baked at the end of the day.  I'm glad I didn't have to walk the Great North Road back to Mesa Verde!  Now it's time to enjoy some Chacoan food:  chocolate imported from central America!

Farewell, Chaco Canyon!

The Flying Monkeys of Zion

So there I was... surrounded by a scrum of scruffy fire fighters in a dimly lit garage in the shadow of The Sentinel, listening to a briefing of the surrounding hazards.  "So there's a huge propane tank behind the museum, and over here is the magazine for storing blasting caps that has a quarter-mile detonation radius, and this area over by Hurricane is called Monkey Fling Mesa and may have jet fuel and rockets..."  Yes, boys and girls, life is strange.

A crew from Mesa Verde had arrived at Zion National Park to assist with a 670 acre prescribed burn in the northwest area of the park to restore a ponderosa forest.  By the time we arrived, the weather forecast had changed; red flag warnings would be in place over the next several days along with above normal temperatures and relative humidity in the single digits.  Since the Rx-burn was cancelled, we were asked to remain in the park for the next few days to assist if a wildfire would occur.

Why is that area with the rockets called Monkey Fling Mesa, you ask?  It turns out that this area is where fighter jet ejection seats were designed and tested.  To ensure the rocket-seats were safe, chimpanzees were strapped into the rocket-propelled upholstery.   Therefore, at least one of my friends buttocks has benefited from a mach-1 monkey arcing 2000 feet above the desert floor.  Discuss.

The final bit of surrealism was having our campsite below the Altar of Sacrifice.  Being able to visit Zion National Park for the first time was a real treat.  The scenery is as stunningly majestic as Kings Canyon and Yosemite, except it is out of sandstone instead of granite.  It should be on your bucket-list of places to see, and maybe it already is because the park gets in excess of 3 million visitors per year.  The campground was constantly full, so plan accordingly. 

I really wanted to hike a little into the back-country, but since we needed to be close to the engines, our hikes could never get more than 2 miles away.  We were still able to see much of the valley, and did short hikes up the Watchman Overlook, Emerald Pools, and the end of the famous Narrows.  Near our campsite, little frogs would sing us to sleep while bats would wheel through the sky overhead.  We explored different parts of the park to familiarize ourselves with access roads and were able to visit Lava Point overlook and the Kolob Canyon Overlook.  Kolob Canyon looked amazing and still had pockets of snow hidden in the crevices.  There's lots to explore, so I hope to return soon and hike around a bit -- maybe starting with Angel's Landing?


Meanwhile, back at Mesa Verde, we have begun surveying some of our plants of special concern.  This included a nice hike down the Square Tower House trail to look for Aletes macdougalii (Indian Parsley), and another fun hike to Soda Canyon near Battleship Rock to look for the endemic Hackelia gracilenta (Mesa Verde Stickseed).

This Sunday would be a great time to visit some of these parks, since there will be an annular solar eclipse visible.  Many national parks are planning events around this astronomical event.