Observing in AZ

Most of my trips are to telescopes.  Although this trip saw my return to one of Michigan's, I also got to observe at the biggest telescope on Kitt Peak (the one in the middle of the picture to the right, the telescope has a diameter of four meters!), which was great since I was the sole observer (luckily they had someone there to operate the telescope for me).

I had a very successful night of observing after an afternoon of successfully taking a lot of pictures of the telescope.  I tried to get pictures of me with the telescope, but that didn't work out so well.

The next day, I left the mountain because I had three nights off before returning to the lesser adjacent ridge to use one of Michigan's telescopes.

I tried to do work, and I tried to see Tucson, but it was really just too hot (over 100F every day!).  I'm not meant for the heat.  What I managed to do was eat some tamales and go to Saguaro National Park, which was a bad idea, but I had to see the cacti.  So here are some cacti pictures.  A saguaro with the moon to the left.

I got there ridiculously early, and it was still exceptionally hot.  That made me cancel my plans of doing much more than driving around the 8 mile paved loop.  There is a hiking path connecting the north and south parts of the loop that I wanted to do, but I gave up on that idea pretty quickly.  I took a short hike that was supposed to be a mile loop, but what should have been halfway through the path got lost and mingled with other paths.  Realizing that I didn't really care to be lost in a shadeless desert, I just doubled back.  On a cooler day, another path might have been welcoming, but not that day.


While being one of a tiny amount of people brave (or stupid) enough to try to see the park in such oppressive heat, I discovered what could very well be my new favorite plant:  the staghorn cholla cactus.  It's a pretty and bizarre plant (right).

Tucson was to become even more scorchingly hot, not that I thought it was possible, so I fled for the mountain again, really it was just time to observe again.

Because I really did find these things remarkably pretty, here is a close up of the staghorn cholla fruit.

Southern CA

In the last few months, I really haven't done much traveling.  After visiting northern Arizona in March, the only travels I did were to Chicago for a day, skipped work for a day to go to Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford Museum, and then drove to Pennsylvania before flying to California for the summer.  That lack of travel is the unfortunate result of having to have to jump through academic hoops to become a PhD candidate.  So, I'll just start with California.

For the first few weeks, I just stayed in Pasadena and took pictures of CalTech's campus, which is beautiful as I've said before (and is evidenced by the rose to the left).  Obviously that isn't all that I've done, since I'm here for work, but I didn't really have any adventures.  The only time I left was to go to Altadena to get my NASA badge at JPL, which I don't need because I'm working on CalTech's campus, but had to do anyway.  That was an adventure because without a car or a real employee badge, it is exceptionally difficult to get back to Pasadena.  Google Maps didn't help my predicament by claiming a hiking path is a route I could take.  No.  That little adventure made me never want to return, but I know I will have to at the end of the summer.

Back to the issue of my disliking the area.  The visual appeal of CalTech does not outweigh how much I don't like everything else, even though I really like all of the flowers and the turtle pond.  Really, this is the desert, these things shouldn't be here.  There is also too much sunshine for me, and I have to a lot of sunblock.

Even though there are palm trees everywhere, I still wish there weren't so many people.  There are too many people here.  Too many people that have the most vapid conversations I've ever heard.  A nice example:  I was at a Mexican restaurant and ended up listening to a group of women discuss hair extensions.

Before I continue with my bad attitude, I should state that I really like the work that I've been doing and the people I've been working with.  Thankfully, not everything is bad.  Recently, it's been improving, but that might be because I knew I was leaving to go observing.

After three weeks, I finally left Pasadena for real.  I went on a hike in a park in Malibu.  It was high in the cliffs and there was little shade, but there were the remains of a failed reservoir and a failed homestead.  I really don't understand why this region is populated, but at the same time this was a nice place for a short hike and hardly anyone was there.  The breeze from the ocean was glorious and the view was amazing (except for the houses and road in between the cliff and the ocean).  On the way back to the car, there were a lot of fire engine sirens and we spotted smoke coming from just behind one of the nearby ridges (picture on the right).  We watched the smoke for a while.  Four helicopters came to monitor or drop water.  A forest fire was something I hadn't seen in person before.

The smoke started going down as the fire was contained, so we moved to the beach.  The waves did a fabulous job of drowning out the traffic noises.  Unfortunately, I was the only one that wanted to go swimming, and I wasn't given enough time to, so I didn't.  It is really exhausting being in the sun all day, which wasn't the last time I'd have that revelation in the course of a week.

After these outdoor "adventures", I had dinner in a very crowded Santa Monica and got really sick afterward.  That was something.

The next day I went to the Huntington Library to sit around and read all day.  The thing about the Huntington Library is that it's actually a bunch of themed gardens, museums, and a library.  I had been there last summer, too, but I seem to have neglected to write about them, as well as my visit the Getty Museum which has some fantastic art and also beautiful gardens.  I think both of those happened when I returned to LA at the end of June after observing.  There's a wonderful desert garden full of succulents (right) and cacti, which is my favorite.  Last summer, the early closing time wasn't anticipated, so much of the gardens were left unseen because a lot of time was spent in the museums, so I saw more of the gardens this time.  Although they're beautiful, I can't help but lament yet again that Pasadena should be desert.

Another Hole in the Ground

On my way to the Petrified Forest, I'd driven by signs for a meteor crater.  I was intrigued, and saved it for after my National Park tours.  It also promised to be a shorter day, and I was flying back to Michigan on a redeye.  I make brilliant decisions because I had class the next morning.  I wasn't really functional, but that's beside the point.

Meteor Crater was disappointing being seen after the Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.  Yes, it was cool, but it was privately owned.  They charge too much money and don't let you do anything but go on a tour around only part of the rim.  They don't let you descend into it.  I had just done bigger changes in elevation than that the previous two days.  I was displeased, but the tour was pretty good.  The tour guide told the stories of how the history of people trying to figure out what it was.  My favorite part was the fossil discussion that emphasized that at one point, this harsh, barren desert was a lush, watery paradise (which was also clear in the Petrified Forest because water needed to be around to petrify the wood).

The Grand Canyon

I can't believe I haven't written about the Grand Canyon yet.

I knew I'd be hiking on this trip (which occurred on the same trip as the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert), so I finally bought hiking boots.  This was a great decision that I should have made at least a year ago.

I was given the sage wisdom to walk up to the South Rim from the parking lot with my head down.  I was told not to look up until I was at the edge.  My eyes watered when I looked up.  It was just beautiful.

I asked in the Visitors' Center for two trails that went down into the canyon (or as the same person that told me how to approach it calls it, The Canyon).  I wanted the trails to be somewhat populated.  I was going to return the next day, so I didn't want to wear myself out.  Because this was March, I was warned that there may still be ice on some of the trails.  In any case, I was instructed to do the South Kaibab and Hermit trails.  South Kaibab was closer, and crawling with ill-equipped tourists.  I had enough stuff in my backpack that I could have been lost for a few days and easily survived.  I may find myself in some strange situations, but I'm not going to knowingly go hiking up and down a very steep gradient in the direct Sun.

Anyway, I went on this trail with a bunch of other tourists.  There was a lot of mule poop and very little shade.  The trail did a ton of switchbacks and could have been a 6-mile hike.  Because I know my knees and didn't want to burn out on the first day, I only went for the 3-mile hike (a change in elevation of 1140 feet from the trailhead to the lowest point).

Once I made it back to the top, which really didn't take as long as I thought it would, I went back to where I had my first view.  I walked along the Rim Trail for a little while.  I left before the sun set that day because I knew I'd be back the next.

The next day I again drove from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon.  I got on a bus and headed to Hermit Trail.  This trail was horribly marked, which means that I'm pretty sure it wasn't marked.  I hiked downward for at least 45 minutes without stopping, which should have gotten me to about two miles.  I didn't see a single sign and there were supposed to be several by that point.  Maybe a few hundred feet below me, I realized there was the camp I had no intention of reaching since it was nearly 2000 feet below the trailhead.  I turned around promptly.  By the time I got to the top, I had been climbing with primarily with my left leg because my right knee was killing me.  I was drenched in sweat from the Sun and the pain.  I should say that at no point was I in any danger of not making it out.  One thing that really irked me about this trail was that in the time I was on it, I only saw about a dozen people.

I dragged myself back to the bus and took a walk through the village area.  I got some dinner and headed back on the bus to stop at every lookout.  I was exhausted.  I got back to the lookout I liked, found a secluded rock and watched the sunset.  I didn't watch the sun set, but I watched the canyon turn amazing colors.  All the tourists were watching the sun set.  Fools.