Thursday, October 8: Archaeological Dig, Arches National Park and "Glamping"

 Thursday morning we woke up around 6:00AM so that we could finish packing and get to breakfast early. We had to leave that morning. Linda asked Katie if we could see the real archaeologists dig in the real site. We didn't have high hopes, but to our surprise, Katie talked to the site manager and she gave the thumb's up! We drove 5 minutes to the site right across the street from Crow Canyon. We walked around all the different dig sites, and to our surprise there were pottery sherds (not shards) scattered all around….even on the road. Some of the pottery sherds were corrugated (which means the pots had bumps to make the heat increase) and other pottery sherds were painted black on white. We wanted to move the pottery sherds off the road, but Katie reminded us that we had to leave the artifacts where they were found.  Something special about the desert southwest for archaeology is that some of the artifacts are on top of the ground. Sometimes archaeologist only have to dig a couple of inches to find something. At this site one of the big excavations was a Kiva. This is a site from the Pueblo II and III period.

We saw all the archaeologists go through fascinating steps of trowling out the dirt, crushing it up, then giving it to the sifters. The sifters simply put the dirt on the sifter screens and shook it hard. When you first see the dirt unsifted, you think nothing is in there. When the sifting is done,  a bunch of little sherds appear.

The adult archaeologists invited us to assist them in an actual dig!!! Maryn found some flakes from a flint-knapping project. Linda found a turkey bone and Colter found a rare pottery handle. You guys might think they put the artifacts there for us to find, but no one knew they were there.  We were the first people to touch these rare artifacts in 1000 years. Most archaeologists have to dig a long time to find anything. It's very special that we got to excavate and we were very lucky to find a couple of artifacts!!!!!

After we left Crow Canyon, we drove to Arches National Park near Moab, Utah.  The drive there was  exciting, exhilarating, spectacular and beautiful. We stopped at "The Windows" to do a little walk.  The arches were beautiful and made us feel small under the mighty rocks. We walked around and scrambled up a bit, but not too much. Linda was a little over-cautious. She didn't let us go very high. Maybe we could come back with our dad and be a little bit more risky! Even with Linda the scared-y-pants, we had good time.

A long time ago, all the arches were one big mesa. After millions and millions of years, the elements carved out the mesa into arches. The forces were wind and water erosion. We recommend anyone who likes to hike and loves nature to visit Arches National Park.

 Can you find Maryn and Colter in the photo on the above?

After we left Arches, we ventured to our overnight stop. Colter did not know where we were staying. Maryn wanted to surprise him! We turned on to a dirt road driving to where these tee-pees and big tents were. We checked in, found our tent, settled in and began to explore.   

We went to go paint pictures of the mountains and mesas. We painted for two hours. Then we went to eat dinner that we got from the market earlier that day. We ate outside of our tent.  After our delicious dinner, we went to the campfire and roasted marshmallows. On the way back to our tent we lay sprawled in the middle of the path and looked up at the constellations. We stargazed and looked for shooting stars.

The day was overwhelming in a good way. 

Colter and Maryn at Fisher Towers

The next day we went to Fisher Towers which was amazing. Colter wants to go again. The little walk we did was so beautiful. We saw lots of lizards. While walking, we heard this giant "Boom!" above our heads. Colter thought a boulder was going to fall on our heads. Linda thought it was thunder, but we had blue skies! When we looked up we didn't see anything. Suddenly a giant green and blue parachute opened up above our heads. A second later, another one boomed open. Two parachuters had jumped off of the cliffs above us. It was really cool how they weaved though the tall red rock towers. 

 Our final stop for the day was at the Dinosaur Museum in Fruita, Colorado. Maryn the vegetarian was a little nauseated seeing this.

Our last overnight stay was at Glenwood Springs Hotel. We got to swim in the hot springs.

When we arrived home on Saturday afternoon, Mom showed us this poster that she drew welcoming us home!

Our adventure was an exciting, daring, surprising, beautiful and academic trip. It's a great way to learn. I would rather do this than be stuck in a school room!

This is our last blog. We hope you enjoyed all of our posts.
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The Heap Twins