Day 147: Incredible!

Hello!

This week has been interesting. Over the past week in Page, we've received over four inches of rain! This rain came in the form of some incredible flash floods that dramatically changed the area. A flash flood covered part of highway 89 as water raced through Page, breaking up the highway. In two of the famous slot canyons nearby, one is now about 10' deeper than it was before the flooding, while many areas within the other has been filled with sand that the guides are still trying to dig out! This has impacted a lot of the tourism in the area. The storms themselves have affected our Internet here, knocking out our signal repeatedly. But at the same time, it's been incredible to watch this dramatic power unleashed while at the same time seeing the incredible beauty it holds at the same time. It quite a humbling experience!

This last weekend, my roommate from Oregon got to visit me. When John and I were traveling through this area, we didn't get to explore much of the region, so this was my chance to show this area off to him. However, both he and I caught colds days before our time together, so in the midst of trying to explore the area, we both spent a lot of time simply resting and nursing our colds. Since his departure, I've been back at work, but my throat is still raspy as I'm trying to recover.

On a brighter note, during his stay, the two of us took two guided trips. One of them was to an exclusive slot canyon. I was expecting it to be similar to the famous slot canyons near Page, but was a bit disappointed when the dramatic "slot" part of the canyon was less than 45' in length. Still, the rest of the slot canyon was beautiful, especially since we were the only ones there--just our guide, and two Romanians. Our guide has been frequenting this canyon for over two years, and was showing us how much deeper the canyon was before last week's flooding. In one area, there was over 8' feet of new sand within the canyon!

Though the one tour was a bit underwhelming, our other guided trip astounded us beyond what we could've imagined! We were originally suppose to visit an area called White Pocket, but due to the recent rain and another threatening thunderstorm, the road was too hazardous to go. Instead, our tour guide took us to an area called The Water Pocket. The Water Pocket is a ridge that overlooks an area I only dream about visiting called "The Wave". From this ridge, I could look down at The Wave area, but the rock in the area was far more fascinating. There, among other things, we saw an area of white rocks called "Brain Rock"...it looked much like it too! The other were multiple areas of rock fins that intersected, criss-crossed, and rose above the rest of the Navajo sandstone to resemble tubes, boxes, spider-webs, and draperies. What was most astonishing was how thin this rock was--some of this rock was less than 1/4" thick: it was completely delicate, standing there above the regular rock against the wind and storms that strike against it. The more we spent time amidst this "boxwork", the more astonished and in awe we became at the delicacy of these rocks and the beauty of them. I once heard that the Southwest is "God's Sandbox", where He got to play around making things with sand like a child does. Out here, it is manifest. Such creativity and stunning beauty at the same time!

I first came across "boxwork" last year when I was exploring Wind Cave National Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota. As the limestone layers of rock fragmented, their cracks were filled with an even harder rock compound that sort-of adhered these layers together. As water eroded the caverns away, the limestone would erode faster than this compound, exposing this compound as paper-thin rock layers that came in the shape of small boxes, revealing the cavity where a limestone rock once held to the cavern ceiling. Here at The Water Pocket, it was like the same thing, except the "boxwork" was being exposed along the ground instead of along a cave ceiling. It was quite incredible to see this and note its similarities. The ranger at Wind Cave said that "Boxwork" is rare to find inside a cave, and our Water Pocket Guide said that he only knows of two places where he's ever seen this occur. I think it's incredible to have seen it in two very different places and rock formations.

As I'm recovering from my cold, I'm taking extra time reviewing the photos I took of this past weekend.  I am left in silent awe and fascination.

I hope you enjoy your week. Photos of the Week are posted for you.