John Matel's Memorial Blog
Bryce Canyon is very nice, but more a theme park than a wild place. Alex and I went down into the canyon for a short hike. It was pretty easy until the last part.
Stopped off at the John Wesley Powell museum in Green River, UT. Powell explored the Green and Colorado Rivers in little wooden boats. It was a different experience than people today get going down in rubber rafts.
We drove across the narrowest ridge highway I ever used. The picture does not do it justice. There was sheer drop on both sides for much of the way. You can see Alex standing at the edge and I stuck my foot out over the chasm for illustration. On top of it all, it was windy and steep.
Spent much of the day living in the past – the deep past. We started on the trail through time, that went past a dinosaur quarry. They found lots of fossils and some are still there. Alex is pictured with the diplodocus vertebrae. It was a generally peaceful walk.
We also visited a petrified wood park. The fossil trees were like the Araucaria angustifolia I so loved in Brazil, at least that is what they picture showed. You can see what remains of it in the last photo.
Utah in those days was not the dry desert of today, but rather a lush subtropical forest. Deep time.
The ponderosa pine ecology is certainly one of the most pleasant in the world. It is a fire dependent landscape. The ponderosa pine system burns less often than the longleaf, but it is still meant to burn.
They manage the Dixie National Forest well with fire and according to the sign have been doing it for a long time. As a result, you see that healthy and diverse biotic community.
Ponderosa pine can live more than 500 years. For the first century, they have a kind of black bark, but that later turns to an orange-red, so if you see a ponderosa pine with this color bark, you know it is old.
Alex and I had pizza at the place pictured. The pizza was ordinary, but the ambiance was great. We got to sit outside in near perfect weather with lost of nice scenery.
Alex and I had pizza at the place pictured. The pizza was ordinary, but the ambiance was great. We got to sit outside in near perfect weather with nice scenery.
For Christine Johnson – sunrise on farm credit. Share with your co-workers
They get a lot of blowing snow on these highways. To prevent that, they have ordinary snow fences and living ones, i.e. trees. They even have signs that tell you that they are living snow fences. Living – green infrastructure is better.
Colorado mountains are very nice, but there are too many “wilderburbs,” houses way out in the woods. They are great for the folks living there, but it requires more infrastructure and makes it harder to fight fires and nearly impossible to do good prescribed fires.
Harry Truman was a plain guy who know next to nothing about international politics (FDR deliberately kept him in the dark) but ended up leading the creation of the most successful international system in the history of humanity.
But he knew how to let others work and he succeeded because of his great team, guys like Marshall, Kennan, Harriman and Acheson (shown below) and a generally deep bench of talent below. These “wise men” learned from the mistakes following WWI. They knew that you cannot rely on good will and idealistic talk, so they crafted institutions and structures that have lasted.
