January Catch-Up

 I used to worry about January being a boring month. Hah! It flew right by. I managed a few blog posts, about the Birkebeiner ski race, Sheepherder's gathering, reseeding efforts, sledding and skiing, girls' basketball, the supermoon eclipse, a short cave trip, and a hike in the Burbank Hills. (That list actually makes me feel like I did okay with blogging!)

Here's all the rest. Above, Desert Girl was delighted to find a Snake Valley Rock. She rehid it for someone else to enjoy. Note the lack of snow! The Fire and Ice Celebration in Ely was cancelled.

The White Pine Public Museum held a very interesting presentation by Sam Baker about the discovery of the short-faced bear in a nearby cave. He gave an enthralling talk.

We held a trails work party one day, and the kids were big helpers. We basically move a lot of rocks on these days and get to enjoy some fresh air and socializing.

I got to go to a part of Lehman Cave I had never seen before, where I saw these really cool helictites.

Desert Girl lost a tooth!

One one early morning run I saw a Western Screech Owl. That was quite exciting.

I practiced with a drone that took photos. Here I am letting Desert Girl take the controls for a bit. I later crashed it. Oops.

We have monthly 4-H meetings with guest speakers/activity leaders. Here's Desert Boy concentrating on his cake decorating. I love how 4-H lets kids experience so many different disciplines. We've had a great volunteer turnout to help the kids.

Our monthly fire training included donning all our protective gear, including SCBA tanks, then blacking out our masks and following the hose out of the simulated house. That meant belly crawling under the fire truck. It was hard, but gave you a good sense of accomplishment.

Government shutdown. Blah! What a waste. Fortunately it was short.

Lint camp! Here are some of the tools we use to clean lint and dust off cave walls and speleothems.

And more beautiful mornings. I really enjoy my daily jog. On this particular day I stopped to get a photo of this delectable road art.

Now that it's almost March, I'll start working on blogging about February! 

Hickison Petroglyph Recreation Area, Nevada

 Speeding along Highway 6 and 50 across the middle of Nevada at 70 mph, you see a sign for Hickison Petroglyphs Recreation Area and Interpretive Site. You've already been driving a long way from either Eureka or Austin, the two nearest towns, and it might be easy to continue on your way. But if you have a half hour (or more) to spare, it's well worth pulling over and checking this spot out. It takes you back to a much slower time.

About a quarter mile down a good gravel road is a parking area for the trailhead. You can pick up a very helpful trail guide and in just a couple minutes you're in front of petroglyphs.

The brochure says that the petroglyphs are typical of the Great Basin curvilinear style. The date they were carved and by whom is unknown. Unfortunately some dummies have vandalized the area, detracting from this old rock art. The horseshoe shapes are believed to be a female symbol.

 There are several panels of rock art along the cliff.

This panel has a lot of petroglyphs. The brochure says to note "the complex intersecting curved and straight lines." It does make you wonder what they were depicting!

 We took the spur out to the scenic overlook. It was so nice to stretch our legs. We often stop at the wonderful playground in Austin to do that, but this time we wanted to see something different.

 We were treated to some great views of the marvelous Great Basin. Nevada is the most mountainous state in the country, with over 300 mountain ranges. Traveling across the state means going over many mountain passes.

The kids had energy, so started running. It's getting harder to keep up with them!

We came to another wall with petroglyphs.

This rock art is very different from that found at Toquima Cave, which isn't that far away (at least by how the crow flies!).

We ended at a big boulder with more petroglyphs.

And, surprise! There's a little arch at the top of it.

This is a great place for a picnic, short walk, and there's even camping. But bring all the water you need, there is none available here. The kids enjoyed the stop and it was cool learning a little more about the history of the area.

Great Basin National Park 2013 Astronomy Festival

Last weekend was Great Basin National Park's Astronomy Festival. I was really looking forward to it (and it was a self-imposed deadline to get up some astronomy-related road art). 

On Thursday night we attended the ranger talent show. The ranger acts all had an astronomy theme.

Some kids I know opened the show with their rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. 

 
It was just a little bit cute. Okay, maybe a lot. Desert Girl made sure she was holding her star!

 Other talents showcased included beautiful singing, violin, guitars, trumpet, a reading, and a Star Wars skit with awesome costumes. It was a really enjoyable evening. (I had the wrong lens and no tripod so stopped trying to take photos as the sky got darker and darker.)

Then we headed over to the picnic area and looked through a variety of telescopes at the amazing night sky. It was a cloudless night and quite warm, ideal conditions. It was nice having the Astronomy Festival in the fall so we didn't have to stay up so late to see the night sky.

Desert Boy really wanted to get his Dark Sky Certificate because the prize was a Milky Way candy bar. In order to earn it, he had to look through telescopes and spot a binary star,  a galaxy, a star cluster, and a planetary nebula.

For the binary star, we looked to the oldest known one, in the handle of the Big Dipper. This has been a test for good eyesight for ages--can you see that the second star in the handle is not one star, but two? These are Mizar and Alcor (and recently discovered several more stars).

The galaxy we looked at was our nearest spiral galaxy neighbor: the Andromeda Galaxy. When you think about how big the Milky Way galaxy is and that we just see a portion of it, it's pretty amazing that we can see a whole other galaxy out there with its billions of stars. When I think of geologic time as being overwhelming, I just remind myself that it has nothing on astronomy, where a distance of 2.5 million light years to the Andromeda Galaxy is considered close. It certainly helps me put life in perspective--we really are little specks, and we might as well get along!

A star cluster is a bunch of stars close together, but much, much smaller in number than a galaxy. To put this in perspective, a star cluster may "only" have hundreds of thousands of stars in it. Or perhaps several million. But it's still not anywhere close to a galaxy. Oh, my. We looked at the best known star cluster in the northern hemisphere, M13, in the constellation Hercules.

Finally we looked at a planetary nebula. I thought it was rather difficult to be able to spot planets outside our solar system, so I asked what a planetary nebula was. The astronomer explained that the old-time astronomers, who didn't have such good telescopes, thought they were seeing planets forming. In fact, they were seeing dying stars. One day our sun will become a planetary nebula. These are relatively rare, with only 1500 known. And the one we saw, the Dumbbell Nebula, was gorgeous, my favorite sight of the night. In fact, it inspired me so much that I went home and looked up more information about planetary nebulas, started watching a BBC shown on astronomy called The Planets, and made me go back to the Astronomy Festival to learn even more.

 Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate. It was cloudy and stormy Friday night. And much of Saturday. But we decided to head to the ranger programs in the afternoon and learned about telescopes and how to use a planisphere. The kids' favorite activity was making a solar bracelet.

Ranger Aileen explained how the sun emits lots of different colors, and the kids identified the colors. She then told them how below the violet light is another kind of light, one we can't see, called ultra violet. It's the one that can make our skin tan (or sunburned).

She had some special beads that would turn color only in ultraviolet light. So inside a building the beads would be clear, but outside they would magically transform in color.

The kids loved the hands on activity. Even Desert Girl was able to make her own bracelet.

We had to wait a bit to get some good sunlight to make the beads their brightest. We sure were impressed with how much they changed color!

The astronomy festival was lots of fun despite some not-so-ideal weather conditions. One other thing I should mention is that Wally Pacholka was the keynote speaker. He gave up his day job as an accountant to take photos of the night skies. He had some photographs for sale, and I couldn't resist--they are stunning. Check out his website to see his remarkable work.

Great Basin National Park also released its Astronomy Ranger Minute, which has some amazing videography.

We're already looking forward to next year's Astronomy Festival! The date has been set for September 19-21, 2014.

Snake Valley Festival

We're gearing up to attend the Snake Valley Festival this weekend. If you're in the area, you really should come, this festival exemplifies small town life. Plus, the proceeds go to a good cause, to help prevent the scarce groundwater from being sucked down to southern Nevada to water golf courses.

I dug out some photos from years past--they really show how much the kids have changed! The ice cream social kicks off the festival. What a great way to start the weekend on Friday evening! This year there will be some special musical talent, which I'm really looking forward to.

Then we'll change our venue, visit the wine tasting and get ready for the first ever Mr./Ms. Snake Valley Pageant. This pageant has several age categories and judges contestants on attire (formal and/or outdoor) and a one-minute talent that is not singing, dancing, or playing a musical instrument. I can't wait to see what everyone will do. The kids and I are going to participate and have been practicing our talents. We'll also be ready to dance to music by a live band.

On Saturday morning our plan is to check out the yard sale and then head to the community breakfast. It is delicious! Then we should have time to look at some of the booths. We might not have time to see them all, because the kids want to be in the parade, so we'll go line up.

 These same bikes will be in the parade, but with different riders! We've fastened a container on the front so Desert Girl can throw--or catch--candy.


The parade is always awesome, with some unexpected entries.

 Then it's time to check out the rest of the booths and the silent auction and for the kids to play games. Or just look super cute, like Desert Girl above. This year there will also be a solar telescope to check out.

After yummy lunch, it's time for entertainment. This year I've pulled out my trumpet and will play a couple songs.

 I don't think I will look as dreamy as Dan!

After the silent auction closes, it's time for the huge water fight in the playground.

Then we have a brief respite before heading out for the delicious BBQ dinner, auction, and announcement of the road art contest winners.

 Jace--wish you could be with us this year!

 Yum!

We usually go to bed exhausted Saturday after the auction, but for those with energy, there's the Great Basin National Park astronomy program.

Sunday morning we wake up early for the 5k/10k Snake Valley Slither trail run/walk. Last year I managed the 10k, but this year it will just be the 5k for me. Afterwards is a bake sale so you can take home some memories of the great weekend.

The Snake Valley Festival is held the third weekend of June in Baker, Nevada, so if you can't make it this year, mark your calendars for next year.

Mount Moriah

 After breakfast at Cleve Creek, we packed up our gear, headed across Spring Valley and headed up Fourmile Road to go join friends and family. Desert Boy really wanted to go play with his cousins. I wanted to see some of the beautiful northern Snake Range. We led the way for some friends who hadn't been up the rocky road.

 I had to stop a couple times for photos. Yelland Dry Lake bed wasn't dry--it had some water in it, reflecting the clouds.

 

The rabbitbrush was blooming, along with a few other flowers, but the peak flower season was over by a long ways.  The air was cool, but the aspens still all green.

 

When we got to the camp, we found that most of the adults had left to go hiking, but nearly all the kids (with a few adult supervisors) had decided not to go hiking, but rather hang around camp.

 Sam looks like he's mastered the art of hanging out!

 Desert Boy loved his hot chocolate--one of several that day. Then he disappeared into the woods with his cousins and friends to play shoot the animals and who knows what else.

 

Some of the teenagers emerged from the teenager tent for a short while.

 Desert Girl managed to accumulate an impressive amount of dirt. Finally she conked out and Chandra and I left Brian in charge of all the kids and headed out for a walk.

 Mount Moriah is in the background, and I had never noticed the neat looking ridge leading to a minor peak. I will have to get up there some time to do that hike!

 Chandra and I wandered on all roads, across a meadow, and came across this road. It was so tempting to keep following it. I think it goes down into Negro Canyon and out into Spring Valley. Hmmm, another hike for another day.

 

We took off uphill and found this aspen grove. The medium-sized aspens all looked fine, but the young ones were all dead. We went a little farther and then took a short-cut back to camp, which really was a short-cut. (Some times my short-cuts don't quite work out right, but this one did!)

 The kids were still all being good and Brian didn't even have to get out of his tent. :)

The kids were having a grand old time. They were making up all sorts of games, and Desert Boy came home with some new sayings.

After the hikers got back, we all gathered around the fire and then started cooking dinner. It was a nice, relaxed time, just what I needed!