Dinosaur National Monument Carnegie Quarry

Monday, May 25, 2009

In 2006, structural anaylsts informed monument officials that the building housing the quarry, visitor's center, and offices was structurally unsound and that allowing it to remain open would mean taking an enormous risk with people's lives. Within 48 hours, the building was vacated and closed down.

The roof is all that is holding the glass facade, the rest is detached from the building:

Spiral fractures cutting clean through cinderblock:

Slumped door frames:

The cause of this slow deterioration is a bentonitic layer beneath the foundation of the building. Bentonite is a swelling clay formed from the weathering of volcanic ash. During every rain storm, the clay swells up and pushes the rock strata above it, as it dries, it contracts. The old visitor's center here could only take so much of that pushing and pulling from beneath: forty-eight years to be exact.

It has been a source of immense frustration to tourists hoping to get inside the quarry to see the thousands of bones in high relief on the cliff face. This quarry was the reason that Dinosaur National Monument was created in the first place. Happily, the monument is receiving $13 million in stimulus funds to demolish and rebuild the Quarry building and to build a brand new, permanent visitor's center elsewhere in the monument.

Some of the treasures of the rock face:

Such immaculate preparation....wish I'd been born 50 years earlier...

See the camarasaurus skull and cervical vertebrae in this last one?

I was lucky to get a chance to go inside to see these bones this summer. The monument is expecting to reopen access to the quarry by as early as late spring, 2011.

Meanwhile, DNM 16, another quarry site in the monument has received renewed attention in the media. This is the quarry site where I cut my teeth in paleo-work in 2004. BYU was back this year to extract more bones from the same quarry, and I got to spend a few days digging, reliefing, and making plaster jackets up there. You can read about it here. Brooks' quote at the end is classic.

Desert Flowers

Desert sunflower:

Phlox:

Desert Paintbrush:

Primrose:

Globemallow, (my favorite):

"Water, water, water... There is no shortage of water in the desert but exactly the right amount, a perfect ratio of water to rock, water to sand, insuring that wide, free, open, generous spacing among plants and animals, homes and towns and cities, which makes the arid west so different from any other part of the nation. There is no lack of water here, unless you try to establish a city where no city should be." - Edward Abbey

trophy on my car

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Top of Multnomah Falls

On the 15, 340, 39480@#!(&$#@#-hour drive to Provo from Tacoma, I stopped off at Multnomah Falls for a little walking break and ended up doing the 1-mile hike to the viewing platform at the very top of the falls. This is something I've never done before. Usually people just hike to the bridge and snap some pictures.. actually I didn't take any pictures of the waterfall, sadly. But I did take a couple of the view from the top:


Who wouldn't miss this place?

Snowshoeing on Mt. Rainier

Last monday, Kj and Kelli and I took off up to the mountain for one last little happy outdoor time together before I left for Utah. Even though it was the end of April, the snowpack was still too thick for there to be much in the way of hiking trails available. So we went snowshoeing which is even better!


Here is Kelli all fired up to blaze some trails:


Actually that's the wrong way :( There are no trails that way. Just more jagged mountains.

Aside from one other group of people we passed, the three of us were the only ones out there on the trail. My favorite thing about snow and nature is the utter silence. Or rather, not silence, but the complete absence of human or manmade noise. All you hear is the soft crunching of snow beneath your feet, the wind rushing through the valley, the owl hooting and echoing through the trees, the rocks cracking against eachother as they slowly erode and roll down the hill.


We hiked out to this viewpoint of a glacier-carved valley:


Kj fixing a loosened snowshoe strap:


Waiting for success with these shenanigans as my REI rentals needed no such adjusting. Caw!



It was a great day and a great way to unintentionally celebrate Grandma Pat who we found out later had passed away that morning. These things are what life is all about. Thanks Kj and Kelli!

"Bratwurst and shillelaghs, paging Dr. Freud"

Finally finished this. Had it laminated, so hopefully it won't yellow or age anytime in my lifetime.


Here is my Scandinavian line:


Middle section:


And my Scottish/English side:

Happy Pagan Holiday!

Sunday, April 12, 2009