Geology Trip part II

Well, since I finished my reports for Ken Ham's class early (everyone's pretty ticked off at me for that hahaha) I figured I'd tell you guys about the second geology trip we just had.

This trip was two weeks long and covered the South West portion of the U.S. The first day of the trip constituted an 8 hour drive to Grand Junction, Colorado. Day two, we met our professors, Dave and Mary Jo Nutting from Alpha and Omega Institute, had a "short" class and took off to Colorado National Monument. Day three, pretty much driving to Moab, UT.

Day four, we went to Arches National Park. While there we took a Ranger guided tour through the Fiery Furnace and then went and played around climbing on the arches. While here, we discussed the evidence for the global Flood of Noah's day.

Wonderful scenery!
One of the arches.
A picture of the view when leaving the fiery furnace at arches national park. I took so many pictures here!!!!
Day five, Canyonlands National Park. This was my favorite spot of the whole trip (Green River Overlook). When you look at this picture you see a small canyon but each crescent bend in it is the size of dry falls! Another thing, pan out your view and you'll notice that the "small" canyon is inside a much larger one!
While in Moab we took a side trip to look at some petroglyphs. This one is curiously shaped like a woolly mammoth. When I brought it up to a park ranger they said it wasn't possible because the drawings are only a couple thousand years old and mammoths died off long before then. I beg to differ. If we believe in a literal interpretation of Genesis then the people who made this "image" (my terminology was corrected by the ranger) could very well have lived side by side with these animals.
Day six, we headed to Natural Bridges (that brought back memories, haha)! While there we hiked down to the bottom of the canyon and looked around. We saw pottery, shards of flint from arrowhead making, old dwellings, and a very interesting pictograph.

A picture from under the bridge.

The very interesting pictograph. You tell me, looks like a behemoth (sauropod type). It also looks as if there is more than one. Another evidence that people walked with dinosaurs just a few thousand years ago.

Oh yeah! This was our little friend scorpion we found under a rock. The dinosaur is named Roarlando and is owned by Lesley. He got his picture taken all the time so Lesley could show where all he'd been on her blog. One time he ended up in her ice cream cone. (Silly dino was trying to eat her dessert!) hahahaha

Oh my goodness, we had a blast!

Due to some uncertainty in whether or not our government was going to shut down (which would close the national parks) we headed down to Phoenix, Arizona. Once there, we got to see Pastor Don at the Oasis (his house down there) and some of us stayed at Kaitlyn's (a fellow student) house for two nights. We swam in their pool, played Dance on the Wii (that is a whole nother story, tell you about it later), and enjoyed a couple days off. Because of the stop we got to listen in on Pastor Don's sermon on Sunday as he addressed the church in Jackson over video chat. So we spent Day seven in Phoenix and left on Day eight for the Grand Canyon.
Day ten, we stopped at two places. One was Sunset Crater. We saw the after affects of a volcanism and viewed some cinder cones. The scenery was amazing. The ground was completely black with ash and lava but the sky was beautifully blue adding to the mountains standing majestically in the background.

A picture of the black ground.

After leaving Sunset Crater we headed to the Wupatki ruins. These ruins were left by the Wupatki people as they moved on to let the ground rest from their cultivation. I thought it was interesting that God told the Israelites to do the same thing. Every seven years they were to let the land rest for an entire year. Unfortunately they didn't obey, so God allowed to be captured by Babylon in 586 BC for 70 yrs. (Ten years for each year they neglected to let the land rest.)

The Grand Canyon (A big hole in the ground), Day nine. (Yes, I know my days are off, please bear with me, it's really hard to change pictures around once you've put them on here. So just imagine you're going back in time!)

Though the scenery was really cool it really couldn't compare with the Green River Overlook. Everyone kinda went, "Cool, another canyon. I like the colors." Other than that we were really unimpressed. haha

Me at the Grand Canyon. (We spent all day taking pictures, that's why I have so many.)

While at one of the stops at the Grand Canyon we found this sign. Most of the students didn't even see it because it was so discrete. Among all the signs of millions of years, evolution, and naturalism was a testimony of God's power and sovereignty. Sadly, signs like these are very rare and we didn't see another one the whole trip.

Day eleven, saw us at Glen Canyon Dam. There we were shown how fast water can erode through solid rock.

Day twelve, we spent at Zion National Park hiking and looking at waterfalls! Woohoo! We even got to run through one. This was my second favorite place.

That night, we camped out at the park and almost got blown away. (There were some thunderstorms that night.)

Day thirteen, Bryce Canyon National park. Very pretty and extremely muddy. We hiked down into the canyon, took some pictures and hiked back out.

After leaving Bryce we headed for our campsite for that night, however, since it was going to be really cold we changed plans and decided to stay at a pastor's house in the area. So we stayed just long enough to use the camp ground's showers and eat dinner.

While waiting in line for the shower, some of the boys took off up into the surrounding rock outcrops. This is a picture of four of them on the very top. They said the wind was blowing so hard they could barely walk! I said they were nuts.

Zoomed in as far as my camera could, this is the best I could get.

From left to right: Caleb, Chris, Stephen, and Seth.

Me and Lish at a stop on the way to Moab, UT.

Me and Tat (I think it was at Colorado National Monument).

Day fourteen, the drive home. We got back to campus and had a wonderful chicken dinner prepared for us by Jared! I can't think of a better way to have ended the trip. Oh yeah, by the way, before we got home we stopped at Fossil Butte National Monument. While there, we were joined by Pastor Don and, surprise of all surprises, Ken Ham!!!!! He just nonchalantly walks in and we're all speechless and trying not to stare! hahaha He even joined in on a talk me and Richard (another fellow student) were having with the ranger stationed there. We showed the ranger, "with meekness and fear", how the traditional dating methods could not be trusted and got him to admit that evolution is a "religion", requiring faith. It was a great conversation and I think everyone, even the ranger, enjoyed it.

Now that we're home, we have to put together a travel guide of all the places we stopped. That is my next goal for today! But one thing at a time. hahaha