ups and downs - Caitlin

so today, we saw several cool things that weren't originally on the schedule. First we went to an ice cave in New Mexico and then along with that we climbed to the rim of a volcano. the ice cave was amazing. its hard to describe how it felt to be in 80 degree weather and then walk down about 50 steps and shiver because its so cold. I really liked the whole hike because there were quite a few really cool little stops that explained about different locations and had interesting little facts like about how trees have problems growing on the volcanic rock (which I know doesn't have to do with the ice cave but it was on the hike to the ice cave) so the trees twist, and not just a little twist the whole tree is twisted like if you twist strings together. we also learned about the algae growing in the ice and how when new layers form the algae freezes in the ice, and since the ice can be dated back 3400 yeas I wondered if there was algae from back then and if there was, then I wondered if anyone had drilled to take any samples to study. but then I realized that it was more a private park so probably not. we also saw some really cool green and orange lichen and moss, I was a little suspect about whether there was really orange lichens but in fact there are and they are almost as orange as well an orange.

after the ice cave we walked up this mini mountain to the rim to see into the crater of the volcano that erupted 10,000 years ago. I wasn't as impressed because it was just a crater, had there been lava still flowing I would have been more excited, but it was probably better to not be near an active volcano with a 6 year old. we had enough problems making sure he didn't fall off the side of the mountain! there was this part of the valley that the lava had flowed out of, it was called the devils playground, there was a few times where he was walking near the edge of the path, it was just a little scary.

then we got to my favorite and least favorite part of the day. we went to the wild spirit wolf sanctuary in New Mexico. we got a guided tour and it was really cool to learn about wolf dogs. the old problem was that it was a very long tour and we didn't bring any water on it, so that was a mistake!! but the wolves were very cool. it was interesting and fun to hear all about the personality's of each of the wolves we saw and about how they acquired each of the different wolves.

after that we tried to go to the pueblo ruins but we found out once we got there that there isn't really have any more 'ruins' because they have modernized most of the buildings.

today was a pretty good day, it stated earlier than I would have wanted and its ending fairly late, I have a sunburn even though I wore sunscreen (the worst part was where I put the sunscreen on!!!), a headache, my hair has dried out, but wee in Arizona, wee going to be at the grand canyon tomorrow and we will be in LAS VEGAS a few days after that... well, I will update more as we do more.

Caitlin

PS. I reread this all for grammar issues, and to put in R's because that key is kind of broken on this computer, and I can see that there are, but my mind is just scrambled enough that I cant fix it right now, so I probably never will... enjoy!