Day 13 and 14: Channel Islands and Geography

We woke up early in the morning and got going right away. Our ferry was scheduled to leave at 9:30 so we wanted to make sure we would get there with plenty of time to spare. Luckily, everything went smoothly and we enjoyed a relaxing 1-hour boat ride from the mainland to Santa Cruz. We got to see some seals hanging around outside the harbor, and the oil refineries which were station just off the coast. We got to the island and helped the crew unload the boat before we made the mile hike to our campsite. That hike was a bit more tiring than I thought but that was probably because we were all carrying about 30 pounds worth of gear for the two days we would be on the island. We got our camp set up and then went back to the beach to do our kayaking tour of the island. It took a little while for everyone to get passed the learning curve but after that everyone was paddling like a champ. It was a great afternoon paddling around the cliffs and through the sea caves, minus the monstrous sunburn that I got. An unforgettable experience.

A look at one of the coves that are found along the island

Seals off the harbor

We got back to our campsite and got dinner ready before Linda's exercise. Dinner for Matt, Dan, and I consisted of cold chicken noodle soup from the can, and some canned chipotle chicken on a couple crackers. That was definitely an interesting dinner and one that was surprisingly tasteful.

Linda gave us an interesting exercise to participate in, pairing us into groups and instructing us to write down directions explaining the geological forces influencing the tectonic plates without using any geologic terms. She was essentially asking us to explain this stuff to someone who had never ever heard of the idea of plate tectonics, which was surprisingly difficult. It was a very interesting exercise and it gave me a profound appreciation for what teachers have to do in order to teach new things to their students. Around this time we noticed a dramatic drop in temperature, it was no longer tee-shirt and tank-top weather. The humidity had cranked up and there was a cool breeze blowing that had everyone shivering by dark. With a deficit in warm clothes since we packed light, we were all struggling for warmth and trying to decide how we were gonna sleep through this. The decision was made that the best way to beat the cold was to sleep together in one giant pile, feeding off of each others body heat.

The next morning we got all of our belongings together and moved them down to the beach, ready for our 4:00pm pick-up. Our group split up after this, some of us staying on the island and the rest of us going out on the kayak's again. This time we got to see the other side of the island, the conditions were perfect for kayaking as there wasn't a breeze in the air which made the surf as flat as glass.

Before our departure we were able to meet with some of the resident biologists and rangers who work on the island and gave us a brief history lesson of it. The island formed thousands of years ago, completely separate from mainland California, meaning that this site was home to several indigenous species not found anywhere else, such as the fox's that were seen running all over the island. This isolation also caused certain changes in the native species, specifically dwarfism in the predators and gigantism in the prey. Fox populations were disrupted after settlers came and turned the island into a ranch. The destruction of vegetation and natural cover meant small prey animals disappeared. The bald eagles of the area died off because of DDT that had bioaccumulated in fish around the island. Without the bald eagles to keep them in check, the golden eagles went undisturbed, catching young pigs and foxes for food. When the parks service realized just how desolated the fox's population had been, they immediately began to enact restoration efforts. The Fox was listed as endangered, pigs were removed from the island, the remaining foxes were captured and put into breeding programs, the golden eagles were captured and released in norther California. Lastly, the foxes were reintroduced and their numbers climbed steadily, becoming the fastest restoration of a species in the endangered species act's history.

One of the Native fox's, they're about the size of a house cat

Starfish, anemones, and kelp

Group picture from our kayak trip

Our ferry arrived to pick us up and we got back to the mainland in no-time. We drove Dr. Linda back to her home and thanked her for coming with us to the islands. After dropping Dr. Linda off, we stopped nearby for dinner and many of our group were excited to finally get to try the western delicacy that is In-and-Out Burger. Maybe its because we had not eaten in the past couple of days, or maybe it was just that good, but this food was heavenly at the time.

 After this we headed out to our campsite in Sequoia National Park which ended up taking a lot longer than expected as we didn't arrive until after midnight. This was an area with a high population of black bears so after setting up our tents everyone scrambled to remove everything with a scent from our bags and vans and get them put away in the bear boxes. It's a shame we got at the site so late because it had the perfect set up for campfire discussions. Nobody even bothered with a fire or anything, we all had quite a long day and everyone just went and passed out.

Day 12: Ivanpah Solar Project, Tehachapi Wind Farm, and California Water Issues - Los Angeles, California

We left Las Vegas early in the morning en route to pick up Dr. Linda Davis, an old Stockton Professor who would be joining us on our trip to the Channel Islands. On our drive to Los Angeles, we stopped at two important sites along the way. The first was the Ivanpah Solar Project which incorporates thousands of mirrors focusing the solar radiation onto a specific point atop a massive tower at the center of the site. Water is circulated through this focus point where it is rapidly heated and turns into steam which then turns a turbine and generates electricity. This form of concentrated solar technology is proven to be more efficient than the Nevada Solar One technology and standard photo-voltaic arrays. It is projected that solar technologies will continue to transition in this direction. 

Picture of the Ivanpah Solar Project

 the second site we visited was the Tehachapi Pass Wind farm along highway 85. It is the second largest wind farm in the country with 5000 win turbines the rise up from the hills. This site is quite a national asset, as we saw first hand when a government official pulled up in a car and instructed us that we could not take any pictures and video, and continued to watch us nearby after driving off. Each turbine at the sight has its own program that allows it to follow the wind so as to optimize blade velocity and reducing the wear on the gears. The site produces about 745MW of electricity each year, enough to supply the needs of 350,000 residents. This particular site is well managed and poses no significant threat to wildlife in the area, the birds that migrate through the area are more at risk from being attacked by a local house cat than running into one of the turbines.

Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm

We finally made it to the University of CAlifornia-Los Angeles to meet up with Dr. Davis who followed our meeting with a quick introduction of what she teaches and her time at Stockton. After introductions she has us a lesson on one of her favorite topics, water issues in California, much of which was covered in our book "Introduction to Water in California". Davis highlighted the effect local climate has on water usage and that people have artificially made southern California green when it would naturally be desert. The rain-shadow effect plays a major roll in preventing precipitation from reaching the central valley and southern California regions. Many California citizens receive their drinking water from groundwater sources while the majority of imported water sources are what get distributed for irrigation on agricultural fields.  Unfortunately, issues with salts and selenium washing frown from the mountain and percolating into the soil has caused major contamination or some local groundwater supplies leading to heavier reliance on imports.Drip irrigation would help resist run-off caused by flood irrigation and would save the state millions of dollars in water reductions. These systems are costly and time consuming to install and environmental concern just isn't enough incentive to motivate farmers to make this transition in efficiency. 

We spent our night at the Malibu Tree State Park where we were treated with clear sky and beautiful stars, an excellent atmosphere to go to bed in.  

Day 11: Colorado River Compact, Desert Tortoise, and Nevada Solar One Project - Las Vegas, Nevada

Vegas Baby! That was the general mood everyone was in today, we were all excited to see the city and have some free time, but were a bit sad because it was our last day with Hossay. We stopped at lake Mead where we discussed water issues and the Colorado River, many of which we read about in our book "Restoring Colorado River Ecosystems: A troubled sense of immensity". We talked about the law of the river and the Colorado River Compact which was responsible for designating 7.5maf of annual water allotment to both the upper and lower basin states. We mentioned the political issues between the U.S. and Mexico caused by Americas excessive water use resulting in Mexico receiving less than its allotted share of water and at very low quality conditions.

Lake Mead, the white lines represent past water levels

Lake Mead and the Hoover dam were the first projects initiated in the U.S. with the objective of taming the Colorado River, and to this day Lake Mead remains the nations largest artificial reservoir. The ecological impacts of dams this size are referenced in our book, such as decline in native fish populations, loss of shoreline and loss of riparian habitat, decreased water flows, and trapped river sediment. We drove over the Hoover Dam and got a few pictures and then drove to our next destination at the Nevada Solar One Project.

Hoover Dam

Nevada Solar One Project

Unfortunately, our speaker bailed on us and we were unable to get a tour, so we had to settle with looking at the site from miles away behind the barbed wire fence and listened to a lecture while a dust storm bombarded us. This site uses 182,000 mirror which focus the suns energy onto a series of pipes containing a synthetic fluid. This fluid is heated to about 700 degrees Fahrenheit and then the fluid pumped through the nearby station where it heats up water and turns it into steam which then turns a generator and produces electricity. The mirrors of this site are programmed to follow the sun so as to take the most advantage of the available daily sunlight. The average energy production of this station is roughly 64MW, up to a maximum production of 75MW.

Next we met up with Mike Burrows of the Nevada Fish and Wildlife Management center. Mike discussed in detail the habitat, characteristics, range, issues, and various other things of the native and endangered Desert Tortoise. Mike discussed the states efforts to set up blockages to keep the tortoises from walking onto the road, where car accidents make up the majority of tortoise fatalities each yeah, explaining how different methods have succeeded and failed. Finally, we discussed how issues have developed with the nearby solar projects which require large blocks of stable, flat land with plenty of sun, which just so happens to be the preferred habitat of the Desert Tortoise. This conflict over land has brought cause for concern over the future of the tortoise.

After thanking and saying goodbye to Mike, we left the Wildlife center and headed to our hotel at Circus Circus in Las Vegas. I wish we had more time to see the city as we were only able to walk around a couple of blocks before we had to be back in time for our curfew but we were all still able to have a fun time. We got to eat dinner at a nice place in town and than walked along the strip, admiring the different casinos and fountains set up within the area.

The fun van outside Circus Circus

The Vegas Strip

Day 10: Zion Canyon and Prairie Dogs - Utah

Utah Prairie dog Town

We left our campsite at Bryce Canyon early in the morning to get a head start on the day. We stopped at a Utah Prairie dog town that was located cautiously close to the road. We all got out to take pictures while Hossay gave us a quick lesson on the Endangered Species Act, and how its helping Utah Prairie dog populations recover. We learned that the reason for their endangered listing is due to them being seen as varmin by local farmers and ranchers who would shoot them without a care to keep them from digging holes. These holes were dangerous as a cow could easily break a leg and would have to be put down.

Utah Prairie dog checking out some people

These ranchers were not aware of the ecological importance of the prairie dogs and that they stimulate new growth in the soil. Government agencies eventually picked up on the state of the species for the Utah Prairie dogs and responded by placing them under the ESA so that farmers could not harm the prairie dogs anymore. Unfortunately this did not protect the prairie dogs as much as expected, as many ranchers adopted the shoot-shovel-shut-up ideology in that they would keep killing the prairie dogs and just not say a word about it. The government worked with a couple of large scale ranchers to establish old style prairie dog towns, being on private land this kept the prairie dogs from coming into contact with any other ranchers, supporting preservation.




We left the prairie dogs and drove into Zion National Park which was a completely different and unique experience compared to Bryce. We hiked up the treacherous Angels Landing trail where we were awarded with an incredible view! The last mile of the trail involved climbing along tiny ledges and using chains to pull yourself along, most of the time with very little to grab on to all while being a couple thousand feet up. It was an exciting hike up the last bit and well worth the climb, I only wish more of our group had made the full trek, I don't think they would have been as scared as they would have thought.

View from the top of Angels Landing

More views from the top

Add caption

Next we hiked down in the Virgin Narrows, through the water and up the river taking in all the amazing sights and sounds. It was a refreshing break from all the heat we had dealt with up top. My only complaint was that there were too many people, it took away from some of the solitude and majesty of these places, but its whats expected at national land marks. Falling asleep proved more difficult than previous nights as my thin sleeping pad did not provide much cushion as I found myself constantly lying on a rock and putting me in an uncomfortable position.  

Looking through the cliffs, only half-way up

Getting ready to go up the chains

Inside the Virgin Narrows

Day 9: Bryce Canyon - Utah

We woke up this morning to Tait getting drilled by a pissed park ranger who was less than happy about our vehicles being parked up on the grass, guess he wasn't aware of the typhoon we had last night. Tait and some of the girls went into town to get the van fixed while the rest of us stayed on the island and cooked breakfast.

Hoodoo's 

Soon after we heard back from Tait and we drove out to meet up with the rest of the group. After getting everyone together again we set out to our campsite in Bryce Canyon. We found our site and set up our things before we got on a bus and headed to our hike.

A picture from inside the canyon

Everyone grabbing photos of the amazing landscape

 We hiked along the rim of the canyon, marveling at the deep gorges formed from an ancient ocean and weathering by rain and snow.

The Queen, from The Queens Gardens

We took some fun pictures with the hoodoos, the large towers of rock coming up from the ground, and even hiked to The Queens Garden. The hike took us through stone arches and and up switchbacks, the distinct redness of the rock was definitely something to wonder at. We got back to our campsite fairly early so we were able to make a pretty good dinner and take our time tonight. We even had some milky way's for dessert thanks to the lovely donation from a nearby group. We spent the night stargazing and sitting around the fire until we had nothing left to burn and everyone went to bed, it was one of my favorite nights on the trip. 

Day 8: Antelope Island - Salt Lake, Utah

We woke up at our Wyoming campsite to be molested by mosquitoes as bad as the night before. They had gotten in the tents, vans, and event some sleeping bags. Everyone made a mad dash for the showers to prep ourselves for the long day of driving ahead and hoping the mosquitoes would be gone by the time we were out. Today was scheduled as the longest drive of the trip, from Wyoming all the way into Salt Lake, Utah. In the morning we drove along the Tieton mountain range its peaks jutting into the sky like daggers. We made a short stop in Jackson Hole, WY so that everyone could grab some breakfast and get caffeinated for the long day ahead. My group and I wondered around looking for any place that was open and we stumbled upon a small shack called D.O.G's which resembled a place you would find along the boardwalk or in a beach town. The servers were very cool and definitely brightened up everyone's morning. 

D.O.G's

Mostly everyone got a breakfast burrito, and I must say that this burrito was hands down one of the best things I have every had in my whole life. We got out food and decided to spend the bit of extra time we had checking out some of the places in town, unfortunately many of them didn't open until later. 

D.O.G's Breakfast Burrito

Jackson Hole Shenanigans

After messing around in Jackson Hole for a bit it was time to head out again. We drove the rest of the way to Antelope Island, traveling down a long stretch of the dried up lake that was permeated with a horrible stench that definitely had some people gagging in the back of the van. Turns out this was the smell of thousands of dead birds on the beach that had died from the vegetation in the area. We had been told this night camping was going to be miserable because of the brine flies the area is known for having so our group wasnt exactly excited to set up camp. Well, to a serious of strange events we arrived at a time when the winds were blowing like crazy, so hard it was collapsing the tents and required us to tie the tents to the structure they had on the site and use the vans as a wind block to keep the tents from blowing over or blowing away. The wind seemed like a major inconvenience at first, but after a while it died down but it had been strong enough ti blow all of the flies away from us so we got to spend the night fly free.

Salt Lake

Tying everything down during the crazy winds that night

After getting everything set up, we had a discussion on the areas history. Thousands of years ago the area was home to an enormous lake called Bonnevio lake which over time dried up into a fraction of its former glory. As it dried it left areas of flat lake bed which became encrusted with salt sediments and the remaining portion of the lake continually became more saline. Salt Lake is the second most saline body of water in the world second to the Dead Sea which is at the maximum concentration of salt possible. Each year, salts area deposited into the lake from rivers and streams containing fertilizers, deicing salts, and dissolution from rocks. Each year the waters bring new salt in and even though the water evaporates the salt deposits are still left behind with nowhere to go. The water is so saline that the only inhabitants are microscopic organisms, primarily brine shrimp. These brine shrimp formed a stable industry in the Salt Lake area, sending boats out every few days to sift through the water and capturing thousands of these shrimp in nets, to be used in fish feed. The huge abundance in these brine shrimp also makes Antelope Island a popular rest destination for migrating birds. Over 200+ different species of birds pass through the area each year during their annual migrations and the island has become an integral part of their migration process.

The final thing we discussed is the internal weather system that occurs within the Salt Lake area. This weather cycle exists between the Rocky mountains and the Salt Lake, generating strong winds and dry air masses.

Breaking Camp on Antelope Island

After our discussion we were left to our own devices so me and the guys went down to go see the water, which ended up being a much farther walk than it looked. When we got to the Lake's edge, Matt figured he would go in and see how far out he got until it started getting deep. He bolted into the water, running out the length of a football field and in that distance he had gone no farther than up to his shins, it was hilarious to watch. Everyone settled in for an early night, drained from the days long drive. We were unsure what was going to happen for the next day as Tait was going to be taking some of the girls into town and get the van looked at, while the rest of us stayed on the island under Hossay's supervision. We figured we would just figure it out in the morning and we all passed out for the night.

Day 6 and 7: Yellowstone speakers and Tour - Montana / Wyoming

Day 6 of our trip we spent traveling around Montana until we were scheduled to meet up with our speakers to discuss ranching, wolves, and livestock management in the area. We spent the first half of the day driving towards Yellowstone, stopping in the small town of Paradise for lunch and bathroom breaks. While we were stopped here Hossay gave us a lecture on the reintroduction of wolves to the area and how it affected ranchers. Our discussion attracted a few interested individuals including a resident rancher who more than obliged to give his side of the story from a ranchers perspective. He explained that the wolves have not caused much of an issue for him at all and says that the ranchers simply learned to live with them and some have made a business with outfitters welcoming wolf hunting on the ranch property. We thanked the local rancher for his time and input and then we headed out to meet our scheduled presenters. The first presenter was Matt Skogland, director of the Northern Rockies department of the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC). Matt discussed with us non-lethal methods for dealing with predators that are interacting with livestock. He supported electric fencing, guard dogs, human presence, carcass removal, and the most interesting which was teaching cows defensive instincts similar to buffalo which group up in the presence of a predator. He expressed how his group works on environmental policy and regulations and that they are not directly involved in habitat restoration, but they help play an integral part in paving the way for those processes. His advice for those of us going into future careers was to have good writing skills and quantitative reasoning skills.

Our second speaker was Matt Barnes who spoke to use about developing a coexistence with large carnivores, healthy land, and productive ranches. In this case, the speakers group does indeed work directly with the locals and does a lot of on the ground work, leave advocacy to other agencies. He discusses ways to maximize herding while keeping minimal impact on the environment and supported the teaching of anti-predator behavior in livestock animals to help assist with carnivore mortality due to risk to livestock. Barnes stressed efficient grazing management systems were key to maintaining a productive pasture and thus productive livestock, that many of these ranchers need to be educated in these systems before any significant results can be seen. 

We had some spare time after our presentation that we were able to spend a couple hours in Bozeman, a nice town that seems to sprout up form nowhere that was very quaint. Everybody split up into different group in search of food or souvenirs. My group and I stopped at a small restaurant in town called the Garage that used old license plates to make their menu, since we were in the state just about everyone got a bison burger and they definitely hit the spot. After dinner we left Bozeman and headed just outside of Yellowstone to meet at our campsite for the night. It was another very nice site, a lot of flat ground with no rocks and having the river be so close to us was very relaxing. With everyone having already eaten, some of the group opted to go to bed right away, while a few of us stayed up with the fire and cooked s'mores until the firewood burned out and we went to be ourselves. It was tough for me to fall asleep as I found myself too excited about actually getting to go into Yellowstone the next day, it felt like I was waiting for Christmas morning.

Our campsite just outside Yellowstone

Day 7 came with us getting a tour of Yellowstone, visiting some of the popular site, seeing some animals, and getting a few discussions in as well. During our drive, we saw various animals from the park, the most popular being the black bear, the moose, and the coyote we saw. It was very cool to see these animals up close, many of us had only ever seen them in magazines, its a very spiritual experience to be so close to them. We drove into a small town area inside the park where we got to grab lunch and shop for souvenirs, I think everyone bought something to remember the occasion by. After our little bit of free time we met up with Tait and Hossay for a discussion about the Mammoth Hot Springs. We learned that Yellowstone was the nations first National Park and before the National Park service was created the area was guarded by the army. At the Mammoth Hot Spring site, fumerols release gas through vents which we saw coming from the pools and in different parts of the park. The reason for all the geothermal activity in the park is due to the proximity of a magma chamber to the surface, where groundwater in the soil gets super heated and causes the fumerols or creates geysers. The white mineral seen covering the spring is in fact deposits of Calcium Carbonate that gets brought up from underground and deposited as the water flows down the surface.

Tait discussed bioprospecting at the site where scientists discovered the organism thermus aquaticus  which lead to the subsequent development of the PCR test. After this discovery, the park began to be targetted by other groups seeking to find the same fortune that resulted from the PCR development. To prevent companies from taking advantage of the park, policies were enacted that lead to the CRADA agreement which allows natinal parks to be financially compensated for discoveries made within the park.

Nearby trees slowly being overtaken by calcium carbonate

Mammoth Hot Springs

Sticks and leaves being calcified in the pools

With our last few hours in the park, we stopped at the Yellowstone river where Hossay discussed cutthroat trout to us. He talked to us about the issues with the trout in the area and that invasive lake trout are competing for against the cut-throat trout and causing the population to decline.

Black bear who had cubs in nearby tree

Buffalo!

We left the park after that and drove along the massive Yellowstone Lake as we made our way to the campsite at Flogg Ranch. When we got there though boy did things go crazy, we were viciously assaulted by mosquitos, they were so thick you would smack your leg and kill 30 of them. We got a fire going as quick as we could to smoke them out and luckily as the sun went down they disappeared. Still when we all went to bed we constantly heard the incessant buzzing of mosqitos flying around the tents.