How to use this Page

As my family gazed down on the stratified color bands of geological history in the Grand Canyon, snow and ice lined each ridge, and made each step on the path going down a dangerous adventure, highlighting the glorious drama of the miles-deep gorge. It was dizzying and frightening and awe-inspiring.

The post Aldo Leopold’s legacy on our national parks appeared first on OUPblog.

It's been a crazy-fun couple of weeks, starting with a trip with just my husband and I to Las Vegas. The first two days, we stayed at the Luxor (the big black pyramid casino on the strip) and I shopped while he was in meetings. Each night, we got to join his colleagues for fancy dinners like steak and seafood. Then we headed over to one of my favorite areas, Lake Las Vegas, where we stayed at a peaceful, luxurious hotel and went on long strolls in the sunny, 65 degree afternoons. Since I've never been to Hoover Dam or the Grand Canyon, we took the short roadtrip and experienced both. Then we came home and played catch-up for a couple of days, until Sundance Film Festival came to town.

As you might have guessed, the Sundance Film Festival is one of my favorite events of the year. Last night, I got to go to a reception with some delicious munchies and then a big group of us "Valley Locals" rode down to Ogden (Utah) in a trolley. (Well, this year it was a Powder Mountain bus, but in the past it's been an actual trolley.) So, after having grabbing some chocolate to go, we rode the bus (it felt a lot like elementary school, with singing and carrying on-- good times) and went to the screening of "Like Crazy." It was about a cute, barely out of college couple, a girl from England and boy from the U.S., who struggle to stay faithful and question whether they're in love when an entire ocean separates them. A looooooong distance relationship story with lots of good conversation-sparkers. Did I love it? No. But I liked it. It was well done and not too cheesy.

Then my husband and I drove about an hour to Park City, where the awesome house deejay Kaskade was getting the entire club of Harry-O's dancing. Seriously, if Kaskade is ever in your neck of the woods, check him out. Fab-u-lous! (Marley would agree. We got to see him in New York.)

On Saturday night, we went to the late night showing of "Life in a Day," which was my number one choice of all the films to see this year. It's the result of an earthwide invitation for people to submit footage (via YouTube) of what was going on on a certain date, July 24, 2010. (Get it? 24-7) And then some really talented film people made a montage of these slices of life. I cried, laughed (loudly), got queasy, got a tickly feeling, felt warm--my emotions ran the whole gamut. I talked about it the whole drive home, and then thought about it all night and talked about it some more (to my husband's delight) this morning. Did I love this one? Heck yeah!

And to keep this perfect weekend going strong, I'm about to go snowboarding with my family!
So ... what ha

The Grand Adventure is the true story of John Wesley Powell's first expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers and through the Grand Canyon in 1869. This daring 1,000-mile journey is one of the great exploration adventures of the American West.

I have been fascinated by John Wesley Powell's into the Canyon since I was quite young and The Grand Adventure is my attempt to try and share with kids what it was like to go into a wild, unexplored area and be unsure if you would even come out alive. No maps, no GPS, no cell phones to call for help! The Colorado was a mighty river back then and the boats they went down in were so small. Image the courage and determination it took to do this — and John Wesley Powell only had one arm!

It’s true. I took some time off from the blogging and I hid in the Grand Canyon for a spell. Seven days rafting on the Colorado with the fine folks at Wilderness River Adventures. If you don’t believe me, check out this video of what it looks like to hit a rapid from the perspective of a life-jacket. Absolutely stirring stuff:

It was a fantastic time, and I consider myself blessed to have seen 100 miles of stunning wilderness that the majority of the world will never lay eyes upon. The National Park service only allows 150 people on the river each day, and for good reason. We don’t want turn the place into Pigeon Forge after all. I have but one misgiving about the trip. I only wish it didn’t make me feel like less of a man.

Yes, yes, yes, I know. I’m a hairy-backed burly fellow who can throw a football and pound a beer and sing along with the chorus to not only one, but two, RATT songs. How on Earth could my masculinity be in question? Well, it’s all a matter of survival.

I’m no Les Stroud, but my fire building skills are more than adequate, I can purify water, and I know not to rub poison ivy on my special bits and roll around in a pile of fire ants. I could make do in the wilderness for a couple days if things got all Cormac McCarthy out there. What I can’t do is pilot a boat through Class V rapids. This never bothered me when I went on rafting day trips in West Virginia. Yet, in the Grand Canyon, as I faded off to sleep with the woosh of the mighty Colorado as my lullaby, I couldn’t help but amend my nightly prayers.

“God Bless Mama, and Dadda, and all the people who have never eaten a banh mi sandwich, because damn those are some really good sandwiches and everyone should try one, and God, especially bless these river guides, without whom I’d probably end up looking like Ronny Cox in Deliverance, which is to say nothing bad of Deliverance, because for all the hillbilly jokes it’s spawned, it’s still a great American movie, adapted from perhaps one of the greatest books of the last fifty years, but in it Ronny Cox gets his bicep all wrapped around his neck and his body gets crushed up against some rocks and that sure would be a crappy way to go, so God bless these river guides who haven’t let that happen to me, and God, make sure they don’t let that happen tomorrow either.”

That’s what it all comes down to. For seven days and six nights some fit young men and women took turns rowing me and my floral swimming trunks down 100 miles of river while I bounced on my rubber seat and got splashed with freezing water and giggled like the Snuggle Bear. Sure, I hiked down to the river on an exceedingly hot day (in the 110 F range), and I know I could have hiked back out (on a trail, of course) in an emergency, but if called upon to guide a boat to Lake Mead, well, I might as well have dispatched a homing pigeon to the Daily Sun with the four word message: “There were no survivors.” Heck, for the short moment during the trip when I was handed the oars on a piece of flat-water, I was all wonky and out of rhythm

This post is brought to you by an unknown Googler situated somewhere in Arizona - I suspect living in a cave somewhere near the Grand Canyon - the poor dude or dudette googled 'Scary Apples Dancing' and stumbled upon my blog. For a wild moment I thought it would make an interesting search. Was I wrong, wrong, wrong. I felt so sorry for the poor Googler with their saucer like eyes and their visibly beating heart that I had to solve their plight... Let me introduce to you, the scariest dancing apples this side of Halloween.

We end our time with Nancy Viau this week with a 2k8 favorite... Two Truths and a Lie. See if you can figure out which is which!



1. There is a teacher in Samantha Hansen Has Rocks In Her Head named Mrs. Montemore. Mrs. Montemore loves science in my book, and this is ab-so-lutely the truth. She promoted science in every aspect of her classroom, but most importantly, she turned a smart, awkward kid into the science-lover she is today.

2. It’s so hard to choose names for characters, isn’t it? Every character name in my book is found in my real life, although their personalities have been changed to protect the innocent.

3. Most of you know that the story is based on a family trip to the canyon, but how much is truth and how much is fiction? When I visited the canyon a few years ago, I found that the best part was the hike down Bright Angel Trail. I’ll never forget that—especially the look of surprise, awe, and exhaustion on my children’s faces when we reached the bottom.

That’s it for Nancy’s week. Look for Samantha Hansen Has Rocks In Her Head in bookstores everywhere!



“…a terrific read for any 8-12 year old.” ~Teens Read Too

“Sam shares many qualities with Junie B.—the obligatory spunk, a chattily ingenuous voice—but her passion for science distinguishes her from other franchise heroines.” ~Kirkus Reviews

“(Sam is) lovable and full of the kind of spirit that makes for a lasting character. Nancy Viau weaves in seamless science lessons, sure to slide by young readers as casual plot, until they pop up and help them during science tests.” ~Young Adult (and Kids Books) Central

“A fantastic middle-grade novel…” ~Book Chic

Today, we have Nancy Viau, author of, Samantha Hansen Has Rocks In Her Head. Trust Nancy to talk about a vacation that is focused on, well, rocks!

Nancy: “I am not cooking this year!” I told my family. I was talking about Thanksgiving dinner, and three pair of eyes gazed at me as if I had gone completely insane. I explained that after so many years of being the “good mom” who prepared all the traditional favorites, I was ready for a change. (Besides, the big eaters—the grown “boys”—would not make it home, and I felt that the pigeon eaters—the girls—wouldn’t do my Turkey Day meal justice.) My family agreed, and one hour later, I had the four of us booked on a flight to Vegas. The Grand Canyon would be our destination.

We flew out to Vegas Thanksgiving day, ate a hot turkey buffet on the strip, and bunked in a cheap hotel outside of town. The next morning, we traveled to the Hoover Dam, got lost and ended up in a teeny bit of California (don’t ask), and then finally made it to the canyon. For two days, we hiked in freezing temperatures while listening to the complaints of our girls who would have preferred visiting their brothers in sunny, warm Florida. But we soaked up the awesome wonder of the park, and were forever changed by its beauty. Following that, we headed for Sedona. We drooled over guided backcountry tours and realized that none were in our budget. When we came to our senses, we realized we had been riding in a four-wheel drive vehicle for the last few days, and could easily take on the back roads ourselves. Duh.

What I didn’t know until months later was that this trip, with all its drama, would inspire a novel. Sure, Samantha Hansen Has Rocks In Her Head is just a story, but there’s a lot of truth in there, as well. Guess, it’ll be up to you to decide which is fact and which is fiction.


Now that's a Thanksgiving vacation!

I read my copy of New Scientist last week, and was duly outraged that staff at the Grand Canyon are not allowed to talk about the age of the Canyon, and are only allowed to sell a book suggesting that the Canyon was formed during Noah's flood about 4,000 years ago.

This morning I was just as outraged to realise that a) New Scientist just prints press releases without checking them in any way and b) the whole article was bollocks.

The Press Release itself began

HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WON’T SAY
Orders to Cater to Creationists Makes National Park Agnostic on Geology

Washington, DC — Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees.

If asked the age of the Grand Canyon, our rangers use the following answer: ‘The principal consensus among geologists is that the Colorado River basin has developed in the past 40 million years and that the Grand Canyon itself is probably less than five to six million years old. The result of all this erosion is one of the most complete geologic columns on the planet.’