Weekly Meeting - Tom Low (Water and Hot Air - The Canyons of Utah and Arizona)

Tom Low - (Water and Hot Air - The Canyons of Utah and Arizona)

Tom gave us as promised a lot of Water and Hot Air. These ingredients along with wind, tornadoes and sandstone are essential to produce the dramatic results which keep so many people, especially geologists like Tom, happy.

This was another holiday trip, basically trekking, covering some ten canyons in two weeks or so. He is a keen trekker, so leaves the wife at home. Starting off at the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, driving an open top Mustang to whet the appetite, passing seals on the coastal highway, plus Californian redwood forests of the oldest trees in the world - 4500 years old. Including the oldest and tallest named Methusala. Thence onwards to Las Vegas. Alas no time for gambling!

Down highway 1 to Yosemite, a huge natural park of canyons, to camp American style= locking rigid cabins to keep the black bears at bay; anything edible kept in lockers outside to discourage them from coming in for a cheeky bite.

Then a nineteen mile hike down a deep gorge, and walking along the river bed  was clearly a unique experience. With Tom’s interest in geology he explained that the mountains are on the move, resulting in splits in the surface between them causing the formation of these massive gorges and canyons. Added severe wind erosion over the years has also formed/is still forming hundreds of very smooth and impressive rock bridges, Monument arch being the largest, the pics being most impressive. Further on were incredible rock towers, the largest being the so called Cathedral rock. The Navajo Indian reservation is/was at the base originally in rock caves. A modern replica of their old Indian/Mayan pottery, which records their age old tribal lifestyle, was passed around.

On to the Little Colorado river, at Supi, trekking steeply down 3000 feet to reach it and then of course back up the same morning! Alternatively there are helicopters so you can peer down the mighty Grand Canyon - 5000 feet down and see condors flying. This was 21 miles across and a mere three days walk with all the undulations. At one time there was one hundred times the melt water from the Rocky Mountains, hence the massive erosion.

Following his previous memorable Iceland talk, this visit to more of earth’s natural wonders was on a par.

Many thanks for an excellent presentation.

Peter Burton