Day NINETEEN| Noteworthy Nicodemus

"Ring, Ring, Ring" Just like every morning the wake up call screamed for us to get up.  This particular morning it was at 6:00 A.M.  Today we were leaving Denver and heading to Nicodemus, Kansas before our departure to Ames saturday morning.  

Ranger Phyllis Howard leading the tour

Nicodemus is one of the oldes continuously occupied African American towns in the west.  We took a tour of this small, unique town and learned all the information from Phyllis (the Nicodemus park ranger).  We were also fortunate enough to meet Reverend Brown who invited us into his church and graciously answered our questions. We learned about the struggles of the first settlers who came to Kansas in search of self sufficiency and hope of a better life. The first residents lived in holes in the ground called dugouts and then progressed to sod homes before they could obtain the resources to  for stick built homes and businesses. 

Reverend Brown at the new Baptist Church

After we filled our brains with all the information possible we began our assignment for the day.  We were to walk Nicodemus and document what we saw through photographs, videos and drawings of the town.  There were a total of five historically protected buildings in the small town. When our work was done, we all had fun playing basketball on their local court. Much of what we discovered was the remnants of former homes and buildings when the town was thriving. In the 1980's, the population of Nicodemus was around 700, today there are only 20 people living in Nicodemus, but they are all decedents of the original black settlers who came here to live a life free from slavery. 

Historic Church on the left, new church on the right
Remnants of former homestead in the foreground

We then loaded the vans with all our stuff and headed to Hays for our last night of Savanna Studio Fall 2011.  So after we unloaded the vans we all headed to IHOP to eat dinner.  That night we all sat around in the hot tub and talked about what we were going to do once back in Ames the following night.  

IHOP! 

Zach and Kyle T

Day EIGHTEEN | Wenk and Associates

How did we start our last full day for Savanna West? Well we got down to business. In fact we visited a design firm. Dressed in our best savanna outfits,Wenk and Associates, located in downtown Denver, welcomed us with office tours and informative presentations. Between the three landscape architects (one of which who was an ISU alumni) we learned about different park projects, how they dealt with flooding and the fact that landscape architects have to have a wide range of skills. Armed with a new perspective of what it is really like to be a landscape architect, we left the firm sprite and ready to design anything that got in our way.

Soon after leaving, the professors came to the conclusion that our time at Wenk took longer than scheduled, so we made a change of plans and headed to Highlands Garden Village. This village was built with the hope that both general family housing and co-housing developments could work within the same community. Despite the general consensus that the village was mildly creepy, there were still some beautiful homes. After a composite drawing and a solid lay-down, we left for our final stop. This being "Taxi" development; an apartment/commercial  center that was designed by Wenk. We took advantage of the firm's ability to work with flooding areas and studied the water patterns of the space. Through careful walking and even more careful diagramming, we better understood what routes the water would take. Feeling accomplished, we packed up our things for a relaxing night.

    Tom and Colten

Day SEVENTEEN | On The Mall

Today started off with the usual seven o’clock wakeup call. It was great to finally sleep comfortably in a hotel bed rather than the floors of our tents! We ate a delicious hot breakfast that the Ramada put together for us then we headed to the lobby. Mindy gave us a brief speech that of course ended in laughs; she never fails. Michael then gave us our game plan for the day and we headed down Colfax to the capital building in downtown Denver. We sat in a plaza and had a lecture from Michael on “districts” and what we noticed as we walked. We then wandered to the 16th Street Mall and continued Michael’s lecture on our reading and plazas. 

William Whyte Assignment

We split up and found plazas to draw and also have lunch on our own. During lunch we saw many interesting things; there were several pianos throughout the 16th Street Mall that were painted with colorful designs. They had signs that said “we invite you to play this piano at your leisure.” 

Interactive Street Art

We also came across cement tables in the forms of people that also had metal chairs. Another interesting thing we discovered was the buses; the drivers were on the right hand side of the bus! We also saw a gorgeous mural underneath a bridge. 

Spear Bridge Mural

We eventually returned at one o’clock to start class again. We met at a section of Skyline Park where there was an empty fountain. Several students took it upon themselves to climb to the top and hang out for a while. We then had our last assignment for the day and were sent off to enjoy our evenings (and do homework of course) back at the hotel. 

Landscape Detail Assignment 

Hannah and Xuerong 

Day SIXTEEN | On the Road Again

Today was a long day spent on the open road as we traveled from the Grand Tetons to Denver. It was tough for some of us to say goodbye to these magical mountains but more adventures await! Until then, here is a video from our tram ride to the top of Rendezvous Mountain...

Julie

Day FIFTEEN | Best Day Ever!

Day 15 here we go! So wake ups calls are traumatizing to hear right after having a free day, but we had to get back to work. Julie reminded us that today was going to be one of the best days on the trip. As soon as people got their act together we loaded the vans and headed off to the National Wildlife Art Museum where Jane Lavino, Curator of Education, greeted us. Because of the large amount of students that we have, we were split up into two groups. One group headed off towards the art gallery (and sketched) while the others went on a tour of the outside construction area where sculptures will soon be placed (and sketched).

Sketching on the Sculpture Trail

After about an hour we left and were on our way to Teton Village to meet up with Jon Christensen (ISU BLA ’98) who is an alumnus of Iowa State University’s Landscape Architecture program. From the minute we drove into the parking lot there were many ooo’s and ahh’s. The architecture of this ski resort area was remarkable. We all piled out of the vans and headed towards the large green space in between the resorts. Jon Christensen welcomed us (and we started to sketch). So, Jon Christensen is, in a nutshell, pretty dang cool. He mentioned all the opportunities that landscape architects are given involving the National Park System.

Presentation by Jon Christensen with a glorious background!

It was nearing lunchtime and many of us were getting very antsy, so we ended our chat with John and headed towards the Mangy Moose. Fortunately, Julie had preordered about 12 pizzas before we arrived, and within the first five minutes we were there, the pizzas were demolished. Julie kept telling us that it takes longer to order and make the pizzas than it does to inhale them. So, after five minutes we all looked around at each other and were like “umm where are the pizzas?”In the meantime, cupcakes sounded more filling than pizza did. Yes, it was Mariah’s birthday (well two days ago) so cupcakes seemed to fill of gap of pizza.

Post-pizza inhalation 

After we consumed four more pizzas it was time to go to the top of the mountain (and sketch)! We hopped on the tram and went to an elevation of 10, 450 feet! Woah! We piled off the tram and heading down the backside of the mountain (to sketch). It is always easier going down the mountain than hiking back up but little did we know we had to do both. Because of the rare vegetation we were unable to complete an awesome Andy Goldsworthy project. Instead the professors had us sketch the rare plants in a two-page composite. By now it was almost 4:00 and we had to catch the 4:30 tram down the mountain.

The air may be thin up here, but that didn't stop the chatter! 

So, just letting everyone know, we are going to have the best toned bodies on campus. (FYI). We reached ground (not exactly level) and it was time for a lay down. Julie kept reminding us that a lay down involves our sketchbooks being viewed, but most of us refer to a lay down as NAP TIME! So we got our acts together, talked about the lay down and our day here was done!

Amanda and Sarah, heading back down the tram

Amanda and Seohee

Day FOURTEEN | Free Day!

Sunday was a free day! A large group of us chose to get up early to head into town for some breakfast. We ate at the Lotus Cafe in Jackson Hole which was heaven compared to the camp food we had been eating for the 3 days prior. Some orders included pumpkin pancakes, eggs benedict, freshly squeezed orange juice, apple cinnamon french toast, a Mayan style breakfast, and a personal favorite, Chai Tea.

After breakfast, we split up. One group went for a 6 mile hike around the notably gorgeous Phelps Lake, located in Grand Teton National Park. The other group stayed in downtown Jackson Hole, exploring local artists’ galleries, searching for souvenirs, snapping photos, and relaxing in the town square.

One of the gallery owners that we talked to was an Iowa native, who came to Wyoming in his early 20s, fell in love with the western mountain landscape, and has been oil painting and living here ever since. We don’t blame him for his decision - the Tetons are remarkably magnificent in the fall.

In the town square, we took group pictures in front of the iconic antler archways that frame the square. These arches are formed by hundreds of shed antlers, gathered by local Boy Scouts in the National Elk Refuge located just outside of the city. 

                                              

The day ended with great live music around a warm bonfire. Both improvisation and the classic were played and adored. 

Meredith and Da

DAY THIRTEEN | THERE SHE BLOWS!!

Old Faithful

There she blows!! As we walked past the Yellowstone Lodge Old Faithful erupted as if welcoming us into the park. BEYAH!!!!! We started out our day with a rude awakening by Gar-Bear’s phone in wake up call. EEEE EEEE EEEE EEEE. ENOUGH!! Following the sub par breakfast provided by the hotel, if you could call it that, we pulled out of the hotel 9:00 AM. As we made our way to the national park of Yellowstone, we were confronted by our first obstacle. A stampede of bicyclists flooded the road and really pissed all of us off. The road was not designed for two lanes of large RV’s, buses, vans, cars and then bicyclists on one side forcing everyone to go around them. All the way to Old Faithful we had to avoid hitting the bicyclists along with passing vehicles. However, once we reached Old Faithful, they were nowhere to be found.

Hot Springs

We then made our way into a clearing between the lodge and Old Faithful where we listened to our professor’s lecture us about the geysers, paint pots, fumerals and hot springs. Unfortunately that spot was infested with very angry biting ants which tried to make our legs their lunch. Following the epic lecture, we were given our task for the day: eat lunch, do a one page blended drawing of design strategies based around the Yellowstone Lodge, and then do another one page blending drawing in color pencil of the different geothermal processes around Old Faithful.

View of the Tetons on the drive to the campsite

We were given three hours to complete all of the tasks. At 3:00 we met back up to do a lay down of our drawings. After talking about the strengths and weaknesses of the drawings, we loaded the vans up and headed down to the Grand Tetons. The drive was reasonably short compared to the full day drivings with numerous pit stops that we had been doing before. As we broke through the boundaries of the Yellowstone National Park, we were confronted by the majestic mountains that are the Grand Tetons. We reached our campsite around 6:00 where everyone did the routine tent setup in record time.   After eating dinner and being reminded that we were in bear and moose country, we hit the tents for the night.

Setting up camp in the Grand Tetons

Garrett and Sarah

Day TWELVE | Reflecting on Mirror Lake

ReToday we woke up at 8:00 am, the extra hour of sleep was just what the doctor ordered.  After a hearty breakfast at the Yellowstone Lodge, it was time to pack the vans and head towards the park for our lessons.  For our warm up activity, we did two quick colored pencil drawings of the waterfalls.  We were given five minutes for our two-color sketch and ten minutes for our four-color drawing.  

Students frantically sketching the Lower Falls

After a quick laydown of of our materpieces, we continued our hike towards Ribbon Lake.  On the way to the lake we were introduced to a project that we would be assigned later in the day.  After our improptu lecture, we kept on trucking towards Ribbon Lake.  When we got there we ate lunch and began our watercolor postcards.  Many people thought these postcards were the best that they had made yet.  We also wrote haikus about the landscape:

Tranquil, quiet lake

Mysteries low in the hills

Nurture tired souls

(Emily)

A gem in the woods

Warm breeze invites my senses

I am connected

(Devon)

It was getting a bit late so we did a quick laydown and poetry reading so we hit the trails again.  Once again, we found ourselves by the beautiful falls and got a more comprehensive explanation for Julie's project.  We were supposed to identify patterns in nature and show where they were found in close, medium, and long ranges.  Most of us found this assignment a bit confusing but once we figured it out, we could not stop seeing the patterns everywhere.  

Emily sketching patterns in nature

After ANOTHER laydown, it was time to head back to the hotel to pin up our drafting assignments.  It was really nice to finally turn in our assignments after back-to-back all-nighters, and thinking about the assignment since Minneapolis.  Our hard work paid off with a pizza party thrown by the professors.  After dinner, we broke apart and all did our own things.  Some people took the oppurtunity to explore the town of West Yellowstone while others caught up on sleep or watched movies.  We were definitely ready to hit the hay after our long day.

Devon and Emily

Day ELEVEN | A whole new meaning for 'Vegging Out'

Today started like any other with our usual 7am wake-up call but followed with a critique of our site intervention projects. The project required us to create a gateway for the town of Cody, Wyoming to unite the old town with the cultural center. Eager for the day, everyone ate breakfast and got in the vans for another day of the unknown. The trip to our destination was about a 45-minute drive; most students slept. When we arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs, we ate lunch then we split into groups. Gary and Julie took a group on a small hike so we could learn how to document vegetation plots an area of the Park. Michael and harland took students to the original Stone Arch at the North entrance to Yellowstone and then to watercolor Mammoth Hot Springs.

The weather was perfect today, making it easier to take on the tasks that Gary, Julie, Michael, and harland had planned for us. Plotting is something that we have never done before so it had its ups and downs, literally - the first challenge was dealing with the harsh 14% slope. Once we got to the area we were assigned to a plot, we had to find out latitude and longitude with the GPS units, the direction of the slope, and a 25-foot radius circle including all of the vegetation.

Our time with Michael and harland consisted of a small lecture, a 30-minute sketch, and a watercolor. We did our 30-minute sketch at the original entrance to Yellowstone built in 1903, which contains a time capsule placed by former President Teddy Roosevelt. 

We had limited time to complete the watercolor postcards at Mammoth Springs and travertine terraces, but Michael and Julie feel that they are some of the best watercolors to date. I guess we are improving!

When we arrived back to the hotel, everyone dispersed for dinner, before taking over the hotel lobby and a room in the basement in order to finish our drafting assignment that we started in Minneapolis. Many stayed up until two and three in the morning putting all the finishing touches on their drafts. It was a long and tiring day for everyone, but we are proud of the work we have accomplished!

ROB AND ANDREW

Day TEN | Up All Night

Day ten of our trip and Cody offered to us a beautifully clear day and warm temperatures. Today we finally got to try our hand at designing. Dodging traffic and the occasional curious tourist, teams quickly split and set forth to the task at hand. With little time teams worked quickly and efficiently filling sketchbooks with incomprehensible details. Shortly after lunch it was off to Yellowstone National Park. This part of the drive may have been boring if it wasn’t for Julie and her roadside geology fun facts. Come to think of it, it may have still been boring as the van was full of sleeping students no offense to Julie.

As we reached the gates of Yellowstone, everyone was eager to see what the park had to offer. Following the winding roads, unsettling for those who get car sick, we came across hot springs, spectacular waterfalls and deep canyons with walls of yellow stone. Some bison and elk even managed to stop and pose for a picture or two on the way through. It was a long day of driving but the majestic views Yellowstone offered were a great compensation for the hour spent riding in the vans.

Reaching our hotel in West Yellowstone students soon found themselves fighting for tables and consuming countless gallons of coffee as our Cody Wyoming project was do early the next morning. Students seemed to slowly drop one by one until four in the morning when the last student finally went to bed This may have been the longest day of Savanna this year, but hey at least the project was fun!

Hard at work into the wee hours...

but it all payed off!

Rian and Yujiong

DAY NINE | Devil's Tower and Medicine Wheel

After three camping days in Black Hills, we finally set off for Cody,Wyoming. It is a long ride, but at the same time is full of surprise! We started out at 8am as usual. It is a nice day with genial sunshine and pretty breeze. Sad to say goodbye to black hills, but really looking forward to the Devil's Tower and Big Horn Medicine Wheel!

Devil's Tower

Around 1pm, we arrived at the amazing Devil's Tower. The 'tower' is upright, pointing to the sky and indeed standing-out when compared to its laigh surroundings. Thick gaps spread out on the rock body, which indeed reflects what one of the legends talks about the reason for such incredible formation---scratches from a giant bear. The Devil's Tower is generally bald, but the stripes with different depths makes it a facinating outlook. We were assigned a water color drawing of the 'tower' and it turned out we did a good job!

Watercolor Postcards

Our trip continued when we finished our lunch around 2pm. We Headed for the Big Horn Medicine Wheel which was built on Medicine Mountain with an elevation of almost 10,000 feet.

Medicine Wheel

It is a little chanllenge to get there with freezing blasts of wind and rocky path to climb. But it all paid off when we made it at last. It is a remarkable monument which reflects the unique Indian culture. We then did a 10-minute sketch and went down back to our vans and onto Cody.

                                                                              ----BY JIALI 

                                  

Day NINE | The Sacrifice

As we packed up early that morning, we were destined to run into frustrating situations.  It all started when Gare-Bear (a.k.a. Gary Hightshoe) was backing up in the good ole university vans.  A sacrifice had to be made before we headed to Devil’s Tower; it came in the form of Eric Ellinwood’s backpack. Whoops!  Luckily the van only crushed Eric’s “indestructible” water bottle and Prismacolor pencil case.  We all found this quite humorous.  We eventually made our way out of the Black Hills. We gazed out the van windows and witnessed the outbreak Pine Beetles killing off massive areas of Ponderosa Pines.  All that was left in those areas were little baby ponderosas.

The caravan of university vehicles approached the Devil’s Tower; there were several debates over how big the tower was.  It was not until we arrived that people understood the magnitude of the tower.  We gathered outside the vans to listen to Gare-Bear’s plan for the day.  As some of the students sighed of over another watercolor, Rian French and I made our way around the tower of our place projects.  We hoped to see the legendary giant bear that was said to have created the columns in the tower; we snapped pictures left and right. 

On the road again! We made our way to the infamous Medicine Wheel.  Most students were tiger snoozing and others were attempting to get as much of the readings done before cars sickness took over.  Several hours passed, and we arrived at The Medicine Wheel.  We were unprepared and taken aback by the snow.  We all bundled up except for Gage Berger in his shorts and cut-off shirt.  Many students thought it would be funny to throw snowballs at me. NOT!  We left the sacred Native American landscape as the sun set, creating a beautiful backdrop as we decended out of the Big Horn Mountains. Few were brave enough to drive down the nation’s most dangerous meandering road, these troopers included Kyle Thiessen, Rian French, M&M (Michael Martin), Kyle Brown, and last but not least Lucas Buscher. We all made it safely to Cody, Wyoming with out a scratch.

SYDNEY

Day EIGHT | To Lead or to Follow!

Our day started bright and early at 7am in the beautiful Game Lodge campgrounds in Custer State Park, South Dakota. Right off the bat Gary swept us into a barn west of our campsite, threw us a pop quiz and gave us a lecture on the Black Hills, which we have been exploring for the last two days. Immediately following Gary’s lecture we rushed to the vans and headed to a small mining town forty miles west of Custer called Lead, a former gold mining town. Upon arrival, we were presented with a list of tasks to complete in four hours. The list read as follows:

1) Go to the mining museum and find out what a “Lead” is,

2) Complete a two-page, composite drawing of Lead that includes an image of the open pit mine, an image of the townscape, and an image of an element of our choosing and,

3) Eat lunch.

With that we set off on the town to complete our tasks.  After enjoying a fantastic lunch, we re-assessed the list. I just so happened to have my Place Project today, so our list included another task: take a minimum of 100 pictures of the town for a project to be completed at a later date. With this laundry list of tasks we set off with our cameras and began taking pictures of the town.

Lead Pit Mine
photo by Julie

Many locals approached us, each of whom asked us, “Are you guys geologists?” Needless to say we responded no and explained that we are Landscape Architecture students from Iowa State University and we are studying the vernacular of their town. We noticed that many other students were questioned in a similar manner while sketching in different locations of the city. One resident informed us that Lead is a very common place for undergraduate and graduate geologist to go for their studies.

After taking many pictures we pulled out our sketchbooks and rushed to finish the assigned work in the last hour and a half. We finished the two-page composite, but failed to find out what a “Lead” is.

We are currently cruising through the winding roads of the Black Hills in one of our five vans on our way back to camp. We decided to bring up the question, what is a Lead, and Will Prescott answered that a Lead is an outcropping of ore, which Julie confirmed. Tonight we are having a group meal together and we will be grilling at our campsites. We speak for the whole studio when we say that a few burgers and some time to relax will be the perfect way to close off this busy day in South Dakota.

-Eric & Dylan

Day SEVEN | Free Dayyy!!

Today was a free day!  Two thirds of the students went up to Harney Peak, which is the tallest point between the Rockies and the Perinea’s in Europe.  It was a 3.5-mile hike up to the top.  We hiked through ponderosa forests and igneous rock formations.  When we reached the top we had lunch and enjoyed the fantastic view.  On the way down we passed 5 gorgeous horses and their riders.  At the bottom of the hill sits Sylvain Lake.  A few of us students ventured into the 60-degree water and swam to a small rocky island.  We sat on the rock for a few minutes deciding whether or not to make the fifteen-foot jump back into the water. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity.  Even though the water was freezing it was an awesome time and great reward after the seven-mile hike. 

–Max

 The other third of us went to Mount Rushmore.  We made a few stops on the way to look at the monument from a view and look at the gorgeous landscape around it.  Once we got to the monument we got to admire it up close, walking around looking at all the attractions.  We got chances to take many pictures and do a few independent sketches.  After getting lunch and looking at the gift shop we got invited to get a tour of a new winery in the area. After that, Gary was kind enough to stop at Dairy Queen to let us get some Ice Cream.  Then we got to meet up with the rest of the group at Sylvain Lake to watch people jump into the lake.  To wrap up the free day, most of the group took the vans to get pizza together in town and came back and then had a group fire together. It was a very busy and memorable free day. 




Michael

Day SIX | Massacre of Wounded Knee

Hello blog readers! Today we went to the sombering site of the Massacre of Wounded Knee.  We learned a plethora of interesting facts and noteworthy information from Cathy who has helped out with Savanna in recent years when travels had led us there. She discussed with us the history of the site and what happened through the eyes of the Native Americans.  She pointed out several sites where the Native Americans camped when they first arrived on the site, pointed out where the shooting began and gave us the grim details of how the bodies were disposed and how the soldiers conducted themselves during this massacre. With this experience in mind all of the students made their way up the hill, we immediately fell silent and were in awe of the graves.  It was a really different expeirence for most of us on entering this grave, looking at how graves where arranged and how the people on the reservation adorn their people’s graves with stones and prayer cloths.  Naturally, as design students everyone was sketching the mass grave monument dedicated to the souls who died in the massacre.  Of this site Cathy had to say, how the the sadness of this incident has really clung to their people but they wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but the reservation because this is their home.  This comment really set the tone for the day.  All in all though it was a great learning experience looking into another culture that seems foriegn to us, but is found in the heart and soul of America.

Day FIVE | The Badlands

Our last full day in the Badlands began just as chilly as the night that preceded it.  Much to the group’s dismay, the sun didn’t look like it would make its way out all day.  Regardless, everyone did their best to keep the mood light, despite the weather.  Our first assignment of the day entailed an hour long introduction to topography task, with the Badlands being our first subject.  The class split up and went on to map a relatively small area of their choosing.

Strangely, during the laydown of our work, we encountered two Iowa State alums who were more than happy to see ISU students out on the road.  Mixed results and muddy boots later, we were on to our second stop of the day: The Wall.  It is there that Gary directed us on a relatively brief hike around The Wall, pointing out plant species, both new and familiar.  While the group encountered interesting objects such as animal bones, though perhaps most exciting was when the sun finally broke out of the clouds and revealed the beauty of the park, while providing some much welcomed warmth right before breaking for lunch.

After a hearty lunch consisting of soup, peanut butter sandwiches, soup, soup, an apple and more soup with Emily Snavely I was ready to tackle my Place Project, while Kyle and the rest of the class tackled the first colored pencil drawing.  Fellow classmate Lucas Buscher and I split off from the rest of the group to capture the necessary pictures for our collage that’s to be completed upon return to Ames, while the rest of the class worked on their colored pencil drawing of the Badlands. While doing a laydown of the drawings, Kyle noted that all of the students had a different interpretation of the Badlands. With our workday being completed, we were surprised to learn that we would be treated to s’mores from Park Ranger Gene Johnson and his fiancé from Columbia, Monica.  The generosity was much appreciated and a fitting end to a full day.

Will and Kyle B 

Day FOUR | Farewell To Mindy

We woke up far too early this morning only to be pushed out of the hotel by 8 a.m. Before leaving, we said our farewells to Mindy Cooper which brought about a lot of tears (especially in the male population). After barely escaping Minneapolis, we headed west along the southern edge of Minnesota on our way to South Dakota.

Drivin' down the road singin' like....

Prior to leaving the state, we decided it would be a good idea to stock up on food before we spent our first nights of tent camping. Everybody seemed to be under the impression that they could survive the next few days on mainly bagels and peanut butter… we shall see how this works out. Soon after we entered South Dakota, the sky let lose all its fury on our convoy.  We almost decided to turn and go home until Julie gave us a pep-talk and basically called us a bunch of babies. The rain continued for almost three hours and it finally cleared up as we were reaching the Badlands.

Very Bad Lands

When we arrived at the camp spot, we set up our tents and ate some supper. We then went exploring through the local buttes which were super slippery and hard to navigate safely. Soon after all this was done, a blanket of darkness came out of nowhere and we were confined to using our headlamps. Then we sat down and wrote this blog.

Gage and Branden