My weekend in the snowy desert

Hey fam! I just got back from my "science excursion" to Capitol Reef. Basically 20 of us students and professors went down to Capitol Reef National Park from Thursday morning until Sunday night. The school built a very nice field station that was just barely opened a few months ago. It sure beat camping since it was FREEZING cold! The high for both Friday and Saturday was around 35 degrees, and it snowed on us both days. We did manage to go on some amazing hikes anyways, and only got our van stuck in the mud once. It was so cool having 2 geology professors, a chemistry professor and a botany professor hiking through some of the most spectacular geological formations on the planet.

I posted some photos on picasa CLICK HERE TO SEE. I should have a bunch more in a week or so when everyone combines their pictures from the trip.

If you are curious about Capitol Reef, look it up online, there is some amazing scenery. When the first explorers were trying to get through this region, they stumbled into what is essentially a 1000 foot cliff that extends north and south for roughly 100 miles. Some of these explorers had backgrounds in sailing, and remarked how this area was like a reef. It was pretty much impassible and they had to go around it, just like a ship would have to go around a reef. Some of the formations also looked a lot to them like a lot of the state and our nation's capitol buildings, hence the name capitol reef. Capitol Reef and the adjacent Henry Mountains were some of the last few places to be explored in the 48 continental states.