Mountains Are NOT Triangles!

Yesterday we hiked 6.5 miles up and down Mt. Cahuilla. Mountains may look like flat, pointed triangles in cartoons or when you draw them on paper, but you have to remember that they're 3D. I know this, but every time I hike up one, I still get a little surprised. As you can see, when you get to the top of any point, what you usually find is a valley or a bowl. This video shows what it looked like around 5,600 feet where we stopped.

It's hard to create 3D representations of 2D (flat) objects, but it's fun to try. Draw something at home, and see how you do.

California Palm Trees

Today, besides teleconferencing with my students, we hiked a couple of miles down Deep Canyon to. . . a palm tree.

What's so special about a palm tree, you ask?

Well, this is the only type of palm tree native to California. Let me repeat that. THE ONLY TYPE OF PALM TREE actually from California.

All those other ones you see around Los Angeles and everywhere else in our state: they were brought here from somewhere else in the world.

Take a good look at it. You will never find it in the city. You only find it out in the oases in the deserts. Its name is Washingtonia Filifera.

Look around at the palm trees in your neighborhood. How are they similar to it? How are they different?

Here's today's slideshow:

Flowers & Fruit

Today we hiked 7.5 miles up a mountain and back to collect plant specimens. There were all kinds of interesting plants and trees, but the only specimens we were allowed to gather had fruit or flowers on them.

Why? We learned that flowers & fruit help a botanist identify plants. Specimens have to be in flower or fruit form in order to be accepted into an herbarium.

I never thought about this before, but it makes sense. Try picking four leaves from four different plants. Put them away. Look at them the next day. Could you tell what plants the leaves came from? Probably not. So many plants have similar leaves.

Now look at the flowers or fruit. As soon as you see either one, you know what plant it came from or else you can go find a picture of it and identify what plant it came from.

Try it at home or on the schoolyard and see!

Here's today's slideshow:

Why is It Green Over There?

Today we drove up into the mountains where there was an enormous wall of slate grey clouds. The temperature dropped, and rain began to fall down from the sky. The same mountains looked completely different from yesterday, all because of WATER.

Right above are three different pictures I took today. Look at them carefully. Compare and contrast them. Why do you think the clusters of trees and greenery are growing where they are growing?

Here's the daily slideshow of our activities.

Collecting & Pressing Plants

Today, we went up to about 4,000 feet above the desert floor and photographed, collected, and pressed plants. We saw some remarkable specimens (hmmm, what does that word mean?). This week I want all of you to try doing what we did.

1. First, break off part of a plant that's big enough to fill up a sheet of paper (about 8 inches long).
2. Next, put a paper towel on each side of it.
3. Finally, put it inside a big, fat book so that it gets pressed flat.

You can use a telephone directory or a big dictionary or even your Open Court Reader. Then you're going to LEAVE IT ALONE until I get back. You can pick a flowering plant, or one that's woody, or one that soft and green.

When you're done, you will have pressed a plant, just like a real botanist.


Meanwhile, here's a slideshow of where we hiked today and what we saw. These are just some of the pix I took!

Borrego!

We got here, and within 20 minutes, I was looking up at the crest of the mountains when I noticed something moving. Something big. It was two big-horn sheep (borregos). They watched me from the top of the ridge. They slowly moved along the ridge. Then, suddenly, they started chasing each other all the way along the mountain, bouncing up and down.

As we watched with binoculars, they disappeared from sight. Then, five minutes later, they were back. They chased each other across the mountain a second time!

Here's a picture of big horns I took in Glacier National Park in Montana. The ones today were too far for me to take a good picture. Try doing a google image search to find your own borrego pix. Click here to learn more about big horns. What do you think the horns are for?

One More Day

Thank you all for your comments. There are too many to post, so I'm going to be selecting the best ones. That means the ones that answer the questions most thoroughly, in the most interesting way, with the least mistakes.

Click on Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center to see pix of the building where I'll be staying and working, including my bedroom and the library.

There's a lot to explore at that website. It includes a link to live webcams placed around the research area. YOU can even control them remotely. Just follow the directions on the page.

For those of you asking about animals, all the pages give you clues about what lives in the desert ecosystem.

You can also click on a photo gallery of more animals from the area.

OK, I've got to go pack now. More tomorrow...