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By
Carly Aulicky
Ten of us left Raritan Valley Community College or Arizona with
anthropology professor Dr. Stephen Kaufman and his wife Phyllis on Tuesday,
April 10. The four day pleasure trip across the state took in geological
formations and Southwestern Native American sites. My fellow travelers were
Dr. Kaufman’s current or past students and their family members.
The Grand Canyon caught me by surprise. It unexpectedly filled the van
windows with looming walls of red stone and rocky crevices. To see the Grand
Canyon after hours of driving made the sight seem unreal, as if it would
disappear if I took my eyes away. From the expressions of my companions, I
knew that I was not alone.
Following the canyon rim trail, we arrived at an overlook in time to hear a
park ranger talk about the California Condor, an endangered species of
vulture with white patches beneath its wings and a nine-foot wingspan.
That’s the rough equivalent of turning basketball player Yao Ming sideways
with his arms stretched above his head.
The Condor population dwindled to nine birds until 1987 breeding programs.
As the ranger spoke about the 60 wild Condors in the Grand Canyon today,
five of the giant birds soared up from beneath the canyon rim to wheel
lazily overhead.
After a day of exploring the Grand Canyon, we hit the road and headed to
Second Mesa.
Second Mesa has been a home to Hopi Indians for thousands of years. The
village is still occupied, creating a mixture of modern and ancient
buildings. Despite the modern residents, the ancient way of life can still
be seen. In an effort to preserve their heritage, Hopi tribal elders
prohibit modern conveniences such as running water, electricity, and
telephones. That has ensured that a few villages like Second Mesa are
preserved while the rest of the reservation quickly modernizes.
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Click here
to see a photo gallery of the Arizona trip.
Click here to see a video of
a California Condor in the Grand Canyon.
We
left the Hopi Indian reservation for Canyon de Chelly and the nearby town of
Chinle. Canyon de Chelly is world-famous for its Pueblo sites of ancient
Anasazi, Hopi, and Navajo peoples. To protect the ancient sites inside the
canyon, access is restricted to Indian-guided Jeep tours.
Pueblo houses were squeezed into alcoves in the canyon walls, where their
ruins can still be seen. The ancient peoples who occupied these houses did
not have an easy route to their homes.
To
reach the alcove several feet above our heads, they either climbed the rock
face or chipped stone ladders into the cliff. Similar routes would have been
taken to other alcoves or rock ledges where the ancient peoples left
ritualistic pictoglyphs such as hand prints, stick figure people and hunting
scenes carved into or painted onto the stone.
We left Chinle and Canyon de Chelly for Petrified Forest National Park. When
we reached the national park, I soon discovered that it also included The
Painted Desert. Rose-tinted sand dunes extended as far as the eye could see,
with unobstructed visibility reaching more than 120 miles. The dunes were
dotted with what appeared to be large chunks of rock, but were petrified
trees.
The trees had been washed down river during the Triassic Era, where they
became caught on the ancient river bottom. The wood was exposed to oxygen
and sediment deposits, such as silica, for millions of years. Overtime, the
molecular structure of the logs was replaced with semi precious stones and
crystals. Later geological shifting uncovered the buried forest, exposing
the largest amount of petrified wood in the world.
The final morning of the trip was spent beneath the beautiful red rocks of
Sedona. Chiefly a tourist town, Sedona’s streets are lined with a mix of
cheap T-shirt shops and sophisticated art galleries.
The last hours in Arizona were spent walking the streets of Sedona and
blowing the last of our spending money. Soon, home would only be a flight
away.
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