A Fall Hike with Nine Kids

What's more fun than a regular hike? Why, take nine kids with! Fortunately we had five adults too.

Last weekend we decided to go high up on the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive to see the fall colors. Our first stop was Mather Overlook, where the kids delighted in running all over.

A sprinkling of snow on the mountain made it look quite different than the previous week. After the kids had run out some of their energy and sufficient photos were taken, it was time to head higher up the road.

The road up the mountain starts in Baker, NV at 5,300 feet elevation. About 5.5 miles later, the Scenic Drive starts at about 6,500 feet elevation and then ascends to over 10,000 feet elevation in 12 miles.

That means you gain about a mile in elevation in about a half hour. It is an amazing drive!

Almost near the top of the road we had a good view of the Wheeler Peak cirque, which holds Nevada's only glacier. Wheeler Peak is on the right, Jeff Davis Peak on the left.

We then passed the Wheeler Peak Summit Trail parking lot, which was nearly full (go summit hikers!), and went to the parking lot for the shorter trails, which also had a lot of cars in it. Then it was time to decide what to do. We decided that given we had nine kids, all six and under and one not yet walking, a trip to Stella Lake (0.9 miles away) and back would be doable with great views.

Quickly the older kids banded together and led the way. They were delighted with the snow and started making snow angels.

Of course the younger kids thought that was pretty cool and copied!

The other popular activity was an ongoing snowball fight--Ava even has some on her nose!

We trekked along at a slow but steady pace. (We averaged a mile an hour, if you were wondering.)

Snow eating was also a common sight!

I was so impressed with little Isaac, who walked almost the whole way. He did a great job!

We saw some non-native wild turkeys along the way. They look like they've been eating a lot.

And then we arrived! The kids rushed to the water and I wondered who was going to fall in. We didn't have any extra clothes, so we told the kids to be careful.

But you know how well kids listen!

After eating, we posed for some photos.

What a beautiful day!

Only a few kids got their feet wet, so that was good.

Desert Boy took off running from the lake, his cowboy hat over his hoodie.

Later he slowed down to have a snowball contest with his friends.

Even moms got into the snowball fight! (Look at how Isaac is trying to steal his mom's snowball!)

Good aim!

The kids were definitely more tired on the way back, but it was downhill. We had plenty of time for conversation.

And Desert Girl posed for a few photos on a tree bench.

At the end, some of the kids still had a little extra energy!

And then it was time to wind our way back down the mountain. (And naps for quite a few of the hikers.)

At this moment, Great Basin National Park is closed. Here are ten things (actually twenty!) to do while you're in the area, and some are outside the park.

A Quick Desert Hike

 It's been a crazy busy week, hence the infrequent postings. The good part is that I have plenty of material now to share! It seems that every September gets so busy as we try to squeeze in all the things we wanted to do during the summer but didn't have time, plus enjoy the fall colors, get into the swing of school activities, and meet all the end of year deadlines (if you have a calendar year like me of October-September).

We make it a priority to get outside as much as possible (especially since Desert Boy is showing a tendency to become quite attached to computer and iPod games!). I cajoled the kids to go on a bike ride. That was okay, but I heard a bit of complaining. But then we came to a fun-looking arroyo and decided to take an impromptu hike.

 Desert Girl was fascinated with the sparkly golden rocks. She wanted to take them all home, but was agreeable when I told her she could pick just one and it had to fit in just one hand.

 We have had so many mushrooms coming up with the recent rains. They are quite fascinating, but I don't know hardly anything about them.

 We continued until we found a little pool of water. The kids were really happy.

 Desert Girl found some stones to throw in. I started getting a bit concerned that this could end up really messy and we would have an uncomfortable ride home.

 The kids did fine, but I ended up in a bit of mud. (As you can see by my footwear, I really wasn't planning on a desert hike! Fortunately these sandals are up to almost anything.)

 I found the new erosion from the recent rains interesting. The downcutting exposes roots, which are usually deeper than I think they will be.

 Some of the downcutting was a bit deeper, but nothing like what they recently experienced in Colorado.

 Desert Boy thought it was a lot of fun to find steep banks to conquer.

 We saw a little bit of flood debris in the arroyo bottom, but not much. Nevertheless, we made sure to have a conversation about flood safety and where you should go if water starts coming down a canyon. (up!)

The impromptu hike put us all in a really good mood. It's amazing how a little time in the outdoors and a feeling of exploring can make you feel so good!

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.

Stormy End of Summer

 This has been such a stormy few weeks. We're used to having monsoons in July and August, but usually most of them provide dry lightning and a little cloud cover and not much else. This year, it started raining in mid-August and has rained nearly every day.

 One afternoon after a particularly hard downpour, we were treated to a double rainbow. The kids, their friends, and I ran outside to enjoy it.

 Then came the best part for them: jumping in puddles!

 They ran and jumped, splashed, and repeated. It was warm enough that they didn't care if they got a little (or a lot) wet.

 Desert Girl really wanted to go touch the rainbow. I tried to get creative about where the rainbow ended, but it didn't end up quite like I wanted. Nevertheless, it was sure beautiful!

 We decided to go for a walk, and the kids were on a mission to find every puddle they could.

 Some of the puddles were nice and deep, allowing for big splashes.

 We don't get to enjoy puddles out here in the desert too often, so this was a wonderful treat. It didn't hurt that mud was involved!

 I was wondering if we would see any flash flooding, but the ground did a pretty good job of absorbing most of the rain. After two drier than normal years, the ground is thirsty!

 I couldn't resist a photo of the old time wagon and barn. It always looks so neat, but if I had to use it all the time, I might not think quite the same.

 The rainbow stuck around for a long time, gracing us with its beauty.

Life is good with a friend and a puddle and the freedom to run wherever you want!