APOD: 2004 November 3 – A Time Lapse Lunar Eclipse

Very cool timelapsed photo of the lunar eclipse — looks like a smile. mjh

Backpacking Destinations – Along Ancient Trails
Cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, ancient pottery-Utah’s Grand Gulch is thick with history
By Janet Marugg, December 1, 2000

Ever dream of exploring wild, remote lands in search of relics from ancient times? I have, and that’s why I headed to southern Utah’s Grand Gulch Primitive Area, where amateur archaeologists and history-minded hikers can get a taste of the real thing.

Hidden in the canyons below a piñon pine- and juniper-covered plateau, Grand Gulch contains some of the most fascinating Anasazi tribal real estate in the Southwest. The Ancient Ones inhabited the canyons from about 200 to 1300 a.d., when they abandoned the region for unknown reasons. Seven hundred years later, it looks like they just left. Stunning slickrock alcoves and amphitheaters hold the well-preserved remains of cliff dwellings, granaries, ceremonial kivas, and mysterious rock art. Pieces of shattered pottery litter the ground.

There’s only one way to experience Grand Gulch: Hike into it on the same trails the Anasazi did centuries ago.

Drought Unearths a Buried Treasure By SANDRA BLAKESLEE

What Mr. Abbey and the Sierra Club couldn’t or didn’t do nature has now accomplished. A severe Western drought – some say the worst in 500 years – is shrinking Lake Powell at the rate of up to a foot every four days. Since 1999, the vast reservoir has lost more than 60 percent of its water.

Glen Canyon is returning. It is open and viewable in much of its former glory. At the confluence of Coyote Creek and Escalante River, where boaters once motored by to see famous rock formations, backpackers now pick their way up a shallow river channel. Fifteen-foot high cottonwoods grow amid thickets of willow, gamble oak and tamarisk. Where fish thrived, mountain lions prowl.

The change may be permanent.

“Short of several back-to-back years with 100-year runoff, Lake Powell will never be full again,” said Dr. Tom Myers, a hydrologic consultant in Reno, Nev. Downstream users now consume 16.5 million acre-feet of water, but on average only 15 million acre-feet flow into the system each year, he said. Add more than a million acre-feet of water lost to evaporation and it is obvious that only during relatively wet years is it possible to add water. …

The changes are stunning. When it was full five years ago, the lake had 250 square miles of flat water and thousands of miles of fractal shoreline. Each year, two and a half million people came to enjoy vacations with boating, swimming, fishing. The lake was rimmed by a starkly beautiful landscape; filmmakers shot movies like “Planet of the Apes” and “The Greatest Story Ever Told.”

Today the lake is down 129 feet, back to the size it was in 1970, covering 131 square miles. Canyon walls are plastered with a chalky white bathtub ring of calcium carbonate 10 stories high, where the water once reached. Towering benches of silt line the former lake bed. This year 1.8 million visitors are expected. …

In two years, depending on the weather, Lake Powell could reach what hydrologists call inactive pool, meaning the water stored in the lake will not produce enough flow to generate hydroelectric power. A year or two after that, water could drop another 120 feet.

At that point, because of the steepness of canyon walls at the dam, Lake Powell would still have two million acre feet of water spanning 32 square miles, offering continued recreation opportunities.

At that same point, hundreds of miles of side canyons would emerge into sunlight offering backpackers a chance to see what was lost. … Canyons that would be exposed include Dungeon, Labyrinth, Anasazi, Iceberg, Moki, Last Chance, Mystery Rock, Hidden Passage, Twilight and Lost Eden.

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: New power plants may affect parks’ air By Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post

In the past four years, power companies have deluged regulators with applications to build power plants in locations that could affect air quality and visibility in national parks or wilderness areas, according to federal statistics compiled by the nonpartisan Natural Resources News Service.

Since 2000, the number of permits sought for plants within 62 miles of park boundaries has quadrupled compared with the previous five years, and 33 of the 280 proposed plants would be coal-fired. Both trends have sparked concern among federal and state officials.

Utilities between 1995 and 1999 built only 10 coal plants nationwide, none within that distance of a national park or wilderness.

The trend is particularly pronounced near some popular tourist meccas in the West, where Park Service and state officials say visibility-obscuring haze is on the rise.

Several recent studies indicate that while visibility is improving in many parks on the east and west coasts, the overall number of low-visibility days is increasing. A federal report found that, as of 1999, on the 20 percent of days when skies are haziest, “most parks show at least some degradation or worsening of conditions, especially in the Southwestern U.S.,” compared with 1900. A Park Service report last year concluded that, “poor air quality currently impairs visibility in every national park and most, if not all, wilderness areas.” …

Outside Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park, home to ancient Anasazi cliff dwellings, three power-plant applications are pending, as well as a plan to drill 10,000 gas wells over 20 years, said George San Miguel, the park’s natural-resource manager.

“If all these things happen, Mesa Verde could be negatively impacted,” San Miguel said.

Welcome to NMHPA, New Mexico Heritage Preservation Alliance

2004 Most Endangered Places in New Mexico

* Aztec Ruins National Monument
San Juan County
* Mesa Prieta
Rio Arriba County
* Hoyle House
Lincoln County
* Lake Valley Ghost Town
Sierra County
* St. John’s Methodist Episcopal Church
Colfax County
* Motel Blvd, Lordsburg
Hidalgo County
* Marked and Unmarked Cemeteries
Statewide
* Traditional Village of Agua Fria
Santa Fe County
* Valle Vidal Unit
Colfax County
* Folsom Hotel
Union County

October Lunar Eclipse

On Wednesday night, Oct. 27th, North Americans can see a total eclipse of the moon.

According to folklore, October’s full moon is called the “Hunter’s Moon” or sometimes the “Blood Moon.” It gets its name from hunters who tracked and killed their prey by autumn moonlight, stockpiling food for the winter ahead. You can picture them: silent figures padding through the forest, the moon overhead, pale as a corpse, its cold light betraying the creatures of the wood.

see captionThe Blood Moon rises this year on Wednesday, Oct. 27th. At first it will seem pale and cold, as usual. And then … blood red.

It’s a lunar eclipse. Beginning at 9:14 p.m. EDT (6:14 p.m. PDT), the moon will glide through Earth’s shadow for more than three hours. Observers on every continent except Australia can see the event: The pale-white moon will turn pumpkin orange as it plunges into shadow, becoming eerie red during totality.

Remarks by Ed Zahniser at the Wilderness Week Rally 2004

What a wild bunch you are. What a crucial role you play for our day, our time, in this our wild and deep tradition.

Let’s have a show of hands: how many of you are here today because you went to the jobs fair at your high school, college, or university, and a nattily dressed recruiter promised you big bucks and great benefits as an entry level wilderness advocate? . . . What, no hands raised? . . . This is a self-selecting calling. …

You and I here today enjoy living contacts clear back to our Transcendentalist roots.

Be consistent. Be persistent. Be actively patient. … This day is as ripe for realization as any day the world has ever known. I adjure you, sons and daughters of our lineage. This is your day. Go forth. Do good. Tell the stories. And keep it wild.

Moose wander from Colorado to Heron Lake

Moose had wandered down into Colorado from Wyoming herds for years, according to the agency’s Web site. In 1978, Colorado’s Division of Wildlife decided to introduce the moose formally, transplanting 12 Utah moose to an area near Walden, Colo. The next year, a dozen more moose from Wyoming were put in the Laramie River Valley.

The moose did so well the state began offering limited hunts and Walden was dubbed the moose-watching capital of Colorado.

In the early 1990s, about 100 moose were released in the upper Rio Grande region of southern Colorado near Creede, according to a history of the moose program on the wildlife division Web site.

Colorado’s moose are called the Shiras moose or Alces alces shirasi, and are the state’s largest big-game animal. It is one of three sub-species of North American moose. Adults weigh as much as a medium-size horse, between 800 to 1,200 pounds. A mature bull measures up to 6 feet at the shoulder. The moose rut or breeding season runs mid-September through October.

The last wayward moose to appear in New Mexico was in the mid-1990s near Taos, according to Mower. It was captured and taken north.

BLM – Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument – Visitor Information

American Southwest — A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary

List of Sites–American Southwest–A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary