Checking out Glen Canyon Dam--Inside and Out

We started our last day of Fall Break with sunrise at Horseshoe Bend. After a few errands in Page, we headed across the Grand Canyon and stopped at the Carl Hayden Visitor Center at Glen Canyon Dam National Recreation Area and Lake Powell.

They have some cool dinosaur tracks outside the visitor center.

The views were spectacular, and when we found they had room on the 9 am dam tour with no age restrictions, I jumped at the chance. I had been on the tour about fifteen years ago and still remembered the eerie feeling of being inside a dam that is holding back so much water (26.2 million acre-feet at full capacity).

We went through security and then took an elevator down into the cliff below the cool looking visitor center.

We walked through a tunnel out onto the dam.

The concrete for the dam was poured nonstop, every five minutes around the clock, from June 1960 to September 1963. The source of rock and sand was nearby Wahweap Creek. The cross section of polished concrete that Desert Girl is admiring shows how big some of the aggregate was.

We could look over the edge of the dam to see how curved it is. It's considered a concrete-arch dam, the second tallest in the United States.

Eight turbines can generate electricity. A retired one is on display and looks enormous.

Our guide did a nice job explaining the history of the dam. Lake Powell started filling in March 1963 and took 17 years to reach full water, in 1980. The lowest the water has been since then is about 146 feet below maximum elevation. Right now, the lake is about 93 feet below maximum elevation. The penstocks (openings for water to go to the turbines) are about 200 feet below maximum elevation.

We walked part way across the dam and took a photo of the Glen Canyon Bridge in the background.

We could also see the hydroelectric plant far below us. And some green stuff. What is it? We would soon have a closer look.

It was time to go into the dam. Our guide had us look up the elevator shaft as we got off. It was cool. And a long way up, over 500 feet if I remember right.

We walked through more tunnels and then onto a bridge connecting the dam to the hydroelectric plant. We saw that the green was Bermuda grass, which is primarily used to keep dust down. The hatches lead to the eight tunnels that allow water to reach the turbines.

Inside the hydroelectric plant, we had a glimpse of the generators. Four were on-line, which is normal for this amount of water.

Then it was time to retrace our steps. The tour used to be longer (I remember some dank and dark corridors), but due to security reasons, it's been shortened.

Below you can see the turbine on the left side of the dam, and the elevator structure in the middle. I like the shadow of the bridge on the dam!

We really enjoyed the tour. We still had a six-hour drive, but I wanted to take the time to walk out on the bridge. We had some more great views from there.

On the downstream side of the dam we could see the cold Colorado River from deep in the lake being released. We also saw little boats that a tour company uses. They drive through a two-mile long access tunnel to get to the river's level.

The bridge is well-fenced, so safe for kids.

Finally it was time to load up. We made two quick interesting stops on the way home, including the Grand-Staircase Escalante Big Water Visitor Center, which focuses on paleontology. Since Desert Girl wants to be a palentologist when she grows up (at least for now), she was fascinated.

We also did a short hike to the toadstools, which I enjoyed a lot more than the kids.

They just wanted to dig for dinosaur bones!

Overall it was a great fall break, and we enjoyed exploring some new areas.

Sunrise at Horseshoe Bend

 On Day 4 of Fall Break, my brother had to leave for a conference. We explored Flagstaff in the morning, including a trip to the Humane Society for some Halloween activities. That included riding a mule-pulled wagon. Desert Boy even got a chance to drive the mules.

 Then it was Desert Girl's turn. They both thought that was a lot of fun.

We made a quick stop by C-A-L*Ranch store, where our hay is being sold. It's beautiful isn't it? (By the way, the kids wore their Halloween costumes all day, Desert Girl was a witch and Desert Boy was a ninja).

Then we started heading home. We stopped in Page for the night (the hotel prices had dropped over one-third from the summer prices). The kids did a little trick-or-treating and were delighted. I was happy because they got less candy than usual, which was good because they ate most of it in two days.

I was amazed at how much Page has grown. It has over a dozen nice hotels, lots of restaurants (including Thai), a Wal-mart, and lots more. It has turned into a huge tourist destination, with three main activities: Lake Powell, Antelope Canyon, and Horseshoe Bend. I really wanted to see the Bend. We had passed the parking lot the night before and it had over a hundred cars in it from people who wanted to see the sunset. I was hoping it wouldn't be nearly so busy for the sunrise.

We made the drive in less than ten minutes and found about ten other cars in the parking lot. We made the short, sandy hike with not too much complaining, and then we were there, at the marvelous vista. I had been warned that there are are no guardrails and it's a thousand-foot drop, so I warned the kids to stay away from the edge. 

Although I did have them go to one place I deemed safe so they could be in the photo.

Then I pointed out to them others I didn't think were being safe. In fact, it made me rather uncomfortable, so we moved away.

The kids wanted to play, they didn't want to look at the view. So I let them play in the sand.

Then I found a fun place to climb, and we headed in that direction. The sun was starting to come up and I enjoyed the different perspectives on Horseshoe Bend.

I challenged the kids to find their own way up, and they did.

We goofed around with some timer shots.

One of the things I was fascinated about was the campers down below. Quite a few kayaks were on the beach at the bend, and we could see the tiny people gather around a campfire. We also could see a school of fish in the water and a distant raven fly across the river.

Horseshoe Bend is such an amazing view, just realize you'll be sharing it with a lot of people. Fortunately there's a lot of space, and you can even make room for your own fun, like our selfie shadows doing yoga poses.

The Haunted Observatory Tour--at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff

 After visiting Lava River Cave on Day 3 of our fall break, we went to the Pioneer Museum (they have a great room full of old toys that keep the kids occupied so the adults can actually read the exhibits), the Coconino Center for the Arts (neat fire and night sky exhibits), a delectable sweet shop in downtown Flagstaff (did you know there is such a thing as chocolate covered bacon??), a bike ride on the cool urban trails, and then it was time for the evening's big event: The Haunted Observatory Tour at Lowell Observatory.

The kids really wanted to go to a haunted house. But they're easily scared and when they get scared they don't sleep well and I didn't want that. So I was hoping the Lowell Observatory would be a good fit. Plus, if we dressed like scientists, we got in free, which was a big incentive.

We got there at 5 and joined the Haunted Observatory Tour as our first event, passing the UFO and going to the observatory that houses the telescope used to find Pluto. (That is so cool!)

Our guide told us a story about a mountain lion that kept an astronomer trapped in there all night long. Then the kids got to move the big telescope.

We heard some other stories about people feeling weird things that I have to admit already have departed my limited brain cells, but which impressed the kids. They were thinking the tour was pretty scary. Desert Boy thought something was pushing him and got a little freaked out.

My brother and I helped perpetuate that scary feeling by checking out Mr. Lowell's mausoleum. It was a little strange.

We went to part of an indoor talk and they had some cheesy skeleton images appear on the ceiling from time-to-time. The kids were fascinated. My brother and I pretended that we didn't see them, and it drove the kids crazy. We told them they must be seeing things that adults couldn't. I think they totally bought it.

Then came a talk about Scary Astronomy: galactic cannabalism (Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies colliding), black holes, and dark matter. It kept our attention. Then we went outside and saw Highway 66 running through Flagstaff. Flagstaff isn't all that bright, as it's been designated as the first International Dark Sky City.


They opened the large observatory and we went over to take a look. (Well, I had to play around with a night sky photo too!) The Milky Way is not super bright because of the city, but it was definitely observable.  Lowell Observatory uses most of the Mars campus (where we were) as an educational and money-making tool to support research in more distant observatories located in darker areas.


Inside the observatory we got to look through this huge telescope at a globular star cluster in the constellation Pegasus. Everything was red so that our night vision wasn't affected.

We finished the evening with Freaky Physics, which was a fun display of various physics tricks. The best was the last, putting boiling water into liquid nitrogen, which made a huge cloud.

And what were our costumes? I totally forgot to take photos of them. My brother and I are already scientists in real life, so our costumes were pretty lame. Desert Girl wore her caving helmet and kneepads from earlier in the day and was a speleologist. Desert Boy wore a USGS shirt that looked like a lab coat and developed his persona: a USGS lab scientist who studies bats and white-nose syndrome. It made me proud.

When we got back to my brother's house, the kids decided they didn't want to sleep in a room by themselves. They had been sufficiently scared that they wanted to sleep in the same room as mom. It's a good thing we skipped the haunted house!

Lava River Cave near Flagstaff

For day 3 of our Fall Break (Day 1, Day 2), we headed to the Lava River Cave near Flagstaff (directions in the link). My brother warned me that this was a very popular destination, but I figured since it was a weekday and raining, there wouldn't be many people there. Wrong! We saw about 30 other people in the lava tube. And apparently that's a tiny amount, the parking lot is enormous.

The trail is signed and near the cave is a sign telling folks to bring headlamps and not to leave graffiti. Since I'm a caver, I thought the cave conservation and caver safety messages could be beefed up quite a bit.

We navigated the puddles to take a look at the map of the .75 mile long cave and the entrance. The map was pretty simple, it's one tube that goes in nearly a straight line. There's one place with an obstruction in the middle.

We put on our gear, which included not only headlamps, but also helmets and kneepads, and descended into the dark.

Actually there was quite a bit of algae growing on the lava near the entrance. It looked kind of cool and eerie at the same time.

What we found down below was a lot of walking passage, but the floor was often jagged and uneven.

Sometimes the ceiling was really high.

And sometimes it was kind of low (this is the right fork of the obstruction).

I had my good camera with me and enjoyed trying to take some cave photos that showed how large the passage was. I was a bit surprised at all the coloration, I was definitely expecting more dark lava color.

I also thought there might be some lavacicles, but I didn't see any lava tube formations except a bit of moonmilk.

We stopped to try and take a group photo, but it came out a little blurry.

Then we heard voices, lots of voices. It turned out a school group of 20 kids was in the cave with us. We stopped so they could pass and we could enjoy a quieter visit. They all had lights, but none had helmets. Some had some really inappropriate footwear that made me wince.

We continued on, but the back of the lava tube was nasty with a weird odor, plus a dirty diaper. We didn't want to stay there. So we headed back out.

I took a few more photos on the way out, enjoying the colors again.

The kids did great, this was an easy cave for them. I think they wanted a little more challenge. So we went into a little hole on the other side of the entrance and squirmed around in crawling passages for ten minutes in the collapsed part of the lava tube. If there's a way to the big one, we didn't find it, but we still appreciated a little crawling time. Maybe it makes me feel like a kid again.

One of the best things about leaving the lava tube is that the sun had come out. It was so beautiful in the ponderosa pine forest!

Did I mention it was beautiful?

We had a picnic lunch and goofed around. Then we got cold and decided it was time to head to our next adventures.

If you decide to visit Lava River Cave, I recommend good headlamps, backup lights, and a helmet. Kneepads really aren't necessary. Also be prepared for a lot of people. The cave was pretty clean, but it wouldn't hurt to take in a small trash bag and leave the cave a little cleaner than you find it.