Policing in the Parks

North America » United States » Arizona » Chambers
October 26th 2006

Published: November 6th 2006

Vacation: No we have not dropped off the face of the earth - the Blog has temporarily been on vacation, unfortunately Carl and Maria have not… stay tuned for all the details!!

After the heat of Death Valley we were quite unprepared for the change in the weather… we woke to another blue sky day, but this time it was more than a little chilly! Not that we would be doing much walking as we had quite a few miles of road to cover today…

Statistics

Starting Destination: Boulder Dam, Nevada
Ending Destination: Chambers, Arizona
Ending Destination GPS: N: 35° 11.867’ W: 109° 25.432’ Elev: 6,000’
Miles Driven: 392.9
Most Interesting Road Clean-up Sponsor: Mom, why do people Litter?

Hoover Dam

After our experience at the Grand Coulee Dam we were not quite sure what to expect as we approached the Hoover Dam… Maria had visited the Dam prior to 9-11, but was confident that things would have changed significantly since then!! The first evidence of change were the signs indicating that Trucks, Busses and Rental Trucks could not go over the dam - highway 93, the main road from Las Vegas to Kingman, AZ actually uses the crest of the dam as part of the highway. The second sign was all the new construction, new road beds and bridges, obviously traffic would be re-routed from the dam crest, but it wasn’t clear to where exactly it would be re-routed… The third sign was the security check point and vehicle searches; yes, we got searched as what was packed in the back of the truck was not easily visible from the security station.

Eventually we made it to the dam… while we were crossing the dam at 25 mph maximum speed - to bypass all the pedestrians - we looked right and found that the new road would be crossing the canyon downstream and at an elevation above the current height of the dam… Wow!!! Carl had thought that it would be enough just to see the dam, but once we got there… we needed to get out and walk across the crest with all the other pedestrians! We had decided that we wouldn’t do the tour as it probably no longer included all the “cool” locations - like the view from inside the dam looking down the Colorado River!! Nevertheless it was still impressive - there is nothing like walking to the middle of the dam crest, looking up stream and seeing all the water, then turning around, looking downstream and seeing the river way down there and then looking at the width of the dam… Oh, the marvels of Engineering. Yes, we know you know we are biased!!

To Kingman and Beyond

For most of the balance of the day we drove - first highway 93 to Kingman and then Interstate 40 through Flagstaff… We had thought there would be not much of interest to see along the way, but we managed to keep ourselves occupied wondering about… what was being mined in the mine north of highway 93, why people would want to live on small plots of land that were only marginally arable, was that a town or just a collection of trailers in the distance, and that looks like a right-of-way - do you think there is a pipeline running through there? Of course, we couldn’t miss the scenery; leaving us wondering… just how many pictures can you take of rocks!!

Petrified in more way than one…

Our objective was the Petrified Forrest National Park; we dithered about whether we would enter from the North and go South or take the slightly longer route to the South - in the end we decided on the Southern Route, only to find that the park closes… at sunset… We entered the park, receiving the usual park brochure, newspaper and a yellow piece of paper, basically stating that we should either use the Yellow phones at three locations or use this piece of paper to enter the details of anyone we see removing “stuff” from the National Park - Wow, this was big time. No longer the direct and indirect admonitions that you shouldn’t collect souvenirs, this was SERIOUS. We stopped first at the Visitors’ Center, looked at the petrified wood and some of the dinosaur bones, and then talked with the Park Ranger… It was an interesting insight into human nature - just how many people feel that it is ok to take “souvenirs” from the park… and not just something small.

The National Park service caught locals who were backing trailers up to the edge of the park and filling them totally with petrified wood from the park. It is no wonder that the park is fenced, that there are security cameras along some of the boundaries, that all visitors have to be in their cars at sunset, and that there is controlled entry… We tried to ignore all this as we progressed into the park as we didn’t have much time! We bypassed the Long Logs in favor of our first stop - the Crystal Forest. It was nearly sunset so we got out and walked some of the paths to try and find the perfect location for a photograph, unfortunately we were competing with a bus load of “serious” photographers… so we bagged the perfect photo concept and took “snaps” of those things that appealed to us based on coloring, pattern, shape and general “appeal.” It was truly amazing to think that these “rocks” were once trees; but after visiting Mount St. Helens we could understand how a forest of trees would have ended up on the ground… the mystifying part was how they remained there undisturbed long enough to be transformed into stone. Our next stop was the Agate Bridge where we were competing with the sun… we parked the truck, ran down the path, snapped a couple of pictures, and ran back to the truck all before the sun “set!”

After this point all of our viewing was done from the cab of the truck (including the sunset pictures), we stopped when we saw something interesting and took photos while there was still light! Ultimately the light disappeared and we were driving in the dark with the only sign of life a Park Ranger speeding in the opposite direction… It was not long after dark when we got to the Park entrance, only to find that the gate was closed… we were not exactly sure how we were going to get out and definitely didn’t want to sleep amongst the rocks! Thankfully the gate was set on a motion sensor and we could escape… So we continued our journey, finding a place to stay in exactly the right location!

Carl’s Travel Trivia

Yesterday’s Answer: The Dead Sea
Today’s Question: What causes the different colors in petrified wood?

Policing in the Parks