westbound & down
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Westbound & Down
Beauty is a relative term. This is my experience of beauty; beauty of a new caliber.
I present my trek westbound & down.
Arkansas
o Lake Ouachita State Park
Texas
o Palo Duro Canyon State Park
New Mexico
o El Morro National Monument
Arizona
o Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument
Link to Travel Map
Lake Ouachita
State Park Mountain Pine, Arkansas
Surrounded by the Ouachita National Forest, Lake Ouachita is known for
its scenic natural beauty and the clarity of its waters. These pristine waters
form the largest manmade lake within Arkansas's borders. Named one of
the cleanest lakes in America, 40,000-acre Lake Ouachita is a water sports
mecca for swimming, skiing, scuba diving, boating, and fishing. Angling
for bream, crappie, catfish, stripers, and largemouth bass can be enjoyed in
open waters or quiet coves along the lake's 975 miles of shoreline.
Palo Duro Canyon
State Park Canyon, Texas
The second largest canyon in the country lies in the heart of the Texas Panhandle.
Visit Palo Duro Canyon State Park; experience the canyon's rugged beauty and enjoy
its colorful history.
Palo Duro Canyon State Park opened on July 4, 1934 and contains 29,182 acres of
the scenic, northern most portion of the Palo Duro Canyon. The Civilian Conservation
Corps of the 1930's constructed most of the buildings and roads still in use by park
staff and visitors.
The Canyon is 120 miles long, as much as 20 miles wide, and has a maximum depth
of more than 800 feet. Its elevation at the rim is 3,500 feet above sea level. It is often
claimed that Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the United States.
The largest, the Grand Canyon, is 277 miles long, 18 miles wide, and 6,000 ft. deep.
Palo Duro Canyon was formed by water erosion from the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the
Red River. The water deepens the canyon by moving sediment downstream. Wind
and water erosion gradually widen the canyon.
Early Spanish Explorers are believed to have discovered the area and dubbed the canyon
"Palo Duro" which is Spanish for "hard wood" in reference to the abundant mesquite and
juniper trees.
El Morro National
Monument Ramah, New Mexico
El Morro National Monument is located on an ancient east-west trail in
western New Mexico. The main feature of this National Monument is a great
sandstone promontory with a pool of water at its base.
As a shaded oasis in the western U.S. desert, this site has seen many
centuries of travelers. The remains of a mesa top pueblo are atop the
promontory where between about 1275 to 1350 AD, up to 1500 people lived in
this 875 room pueblo. The Spaniard explorers called it El Morro (The Headland). The Zuni Indians call it "A'ts'ina" (Place of writings on the rock). Anglo-Americans called it Inscription Rock. Travelers left signatures,
names, dates, and stories of their treks. While some of the inscriptions are
fading, there are still many that can be seen today, some dating to the 17th
century. Among the Anglo-American emigrants who left their names there
in 1858 were several members of the Rose-Baley Party, including Leonard
Rose and John Udell. Some petroglyphs and carvings were made by
the Ancestral Puebloan centuries before Europeans started making their
mark. In 1906, U.S. federal law prohibited further carving.
Sunset Crater Volcano
National Monument Flagstaff, Arizona
Sunset Crater is a cinder cone located north of Flagstaff in U.S. State of Arizona. The crater
is within the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. Sunset Crater is the youngest in a
string of volcanoes (the San Francisco volcanic field) that is related to the nearby San
Francisco Peaks.
The date of the eruptions that formed the 340-meter-high cone (1,120 ft) was initially derived
from tree-ring dates, suggesting the eruption began between the growing seasons of A.D.
1064–1065. However, more recent geologic and archaeological evidence places the eruption
around A.D. 1085.[7] The largest vent of the eruption, Sunset Crater itself, was the source of
the Bonito and Kana-a lava flows that extended about 2.5 kilometers (1.6 mi) NW and 9.6
kilometers (6 mi) NE, respectively. Additional vents along a 10-kilometer-long fissure
(6.2 mi) extending SE produced small spatter ramparts and a 6.4-kilometer-long lava flow
(4 mi) to the east. The Sunset Crater eruption produced a blanket of ash and lapilli covering
an area of more than 2,100 square kilometers (810 sq mi) and forced the temporary
abandonment of settlements of the local Sinagua people. The volcano has partially
revegetated, with pines and wildflowers. The crater is the namesake for the Sunset Crater
Beardtongue (Penstemon clutei). Since the last eruption of the volcano is a recent occurrence,
it is considered dormant by volcanologists.
E. M. Timme
June ‘15
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