Grand Canyon National Park round 2

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Ashley and I attempted the Grand Canyon Hike again...actually allowing ourselves 2 days to hike it, enabling us to get to the bottom and back! In total, it was a 17 mile hike...we hiked to the bottom one day and then back up the next. It would have been great to stay longer, and now after seeing the bottom of the canyon and the different campgrounds I am dying to go back!

This was a little oasis a bit before the Indian Garden Campground...so pretty!

Bright Angel Creek, right in front of the Bright Angel Campground where we stayed, at the bottom of the canyon

The warning sign telling you not to try to go to the bottom and back in one day...we were surprised to see many people trying this...it is such a bad idea!

A beautiful canyon view

Arches National Park

On my drive from Montana to Arizona, I stopped at Arches National Park. It was a beautiful day, and a really pretty place to see.

This is the balancing rock. I really have no idea how it stays where it is.

One of the grander rock formations....I think it is called the Courthouse

One of the classic arches in the park. How an arch is defined is kind of bizarre...and most are so think they are impossible to see through....this is one of the bigger ones, you can see the people at the bottom of it.

Final Days of Fundraising

As I am preparing for my move to Bhutan, I am finishing up all sorts of last minute things before I leave- shopping for warm weather clothes, buying school supplies, and finishing up with the fundraising for my journey to Bhutan.

All donations are due December 16th...you can go online at https://bhutancanada.merchantsecure.com/donatenow/ and donate...please put my i.d. number, 31206, in the comment section

Thank you all!

Fundraising for Teaching in Bhutan

Dear friends and family,

In February of 2012 I will be beginning a year-long contract as a
volunteer teacher in Bhutan with the Bhutan Canada Foundation! I am
very excited about this opportunity. I am writing to those who may be
willing to financially support the work I will be doing. The
Foundation sends teachers to Bhutan in order to support a developing
democracy and to help build a stable and strong education system.

The need for teachers in Bhutan is very real. Since the 1960s, when
Bhutan first established its system of modern education, the country
has been steadily increasing the quality of and accessibility to
education. However, with these improvements comes a whole new set of
challenges to the Bhutanese education system.

The provision of free education to all Bhutanese youth means that many
schools experience overcrowding, with more than 40 students per class.
The Minister of Education in Bhutan estimates that the country
currently faces a shortage of 1,000 teachers, primarily in rural
areas.

The Bhutanese government has set a target teacher-student ration of no
more then 40 students per class. They have asked the Bhutan Canada
Foundation for assistance in reaching this goal, by providing up to
100 Canadian, American, and other native English speaking teachers to
teach in the country.

Not only is it my intention as a teacher to improve literacy and
encourage learning, I also look forward to working diligently with a
team that is able to give hundreds of Bhutanese youth the opportunity
to obtain an education that might otherwise be unattainable. It is my
hope that together we will be able to have an impact not only on
education in one rural community, but on the transformation of the
education system of an entire country!

I greatly appreciate whatever support you are willing to offer me in
this endeavor! Donations are tax-deductible, and need to be received
by the first week of December. Cheques can be made out to "The Center
for Cultural Interchange" and should note my unique BCF ID number,
which is 31206. The Center for Cultural Interchange will send you a
tax receipt. You can send them to me at,

Sarah Carlin
7803 Cocobay Ct.
Naples, FL 34108

If you would like to learn more about the Bhutan Canada Foundation,
and the work I will be doing while I am in Bhutan, their website is
www.bhutancanada.org and facebook page is
www.facebook.com/teachinbhutan. I will also be writing about my
experiences in Bhutan on my blog,
sarahstravelsandadventures.blogspot.com.

WIth much gratitude and sincerity,

Sarah Carlin

My Life in Transit

These days, it feels like I spend most of my time on the move. Specifically behind the wheel of my car. Driving is not one of my favorite activities, and living in such rural locations has made me strongly dislike highways, but I am trying to tap into my NJ roots and be more confident behind the wheel on 5 lane interstates.

I finished up my job at the ranch at the beginning of the month, jetted off to Miami for a lovely R&R vacation, and then began my drive south from Bozeman MT.

Besides the actual driving the car aspect, I really do enjoy road trips. There is a lot to see out the windows, and you have enough time to look at everything you want to. You can get food and take bathroom breaks pretty much whenever you want, and listen to music/books on tape all day. Its a pretty good life...except for the whole driving part, and that I am stuck in my itty bitty car all day almost every day.

But, another plus about road trips, and especially solo road trips, is that you can make pit stops wherever you want. I am currently in Denver visiting old friends from college and the Ice. This weekend, I will hike to the river of the Grand Canyon, and with any luck, hike out, with Ashley. And then its Thanksgiving, then home to Florida for a short time before the eternal travels start again for the Christmas season.

But, the culmination of it all will be in January.....

when I go to BHUTAN for a year to teach!!!

Bison!

My favorite thing about Yellowstone National Park is by far the wonderful bison. They are very cool, and really just look like mythical animals. They roam all over the park, and even into Gardiner, the town at the north entrance.

This is the bison hanging around the town cafe in Gardiner. They are free to roam outside of the park in the winter and early spring.

Both males and females have horns on their heads, and the males can weigh upwards of 1000 pounds. They are literally everywhere in the park, and often will walk in the middle of the roads.

In late August and early September, the bison have the yearly "rut", where all the colonies get together, mate, and raise their young together.

When bison are born, they are a light brown, and they darken over time.

Endurance: An Epic of Polar Adventure

Endurance: An Epic of Polar Adventure by Frank Arthur Worsley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have read almost every book written on the Endurance expedition, and quite a number of books about polar exploration.
This is my favorite one.

View all my reviews

Cake Dumplings!

Inspired by reading about cake pops on thecraftypenguin blog (see the link in my previous post) I decided to try and make my own, but put my own twist on it. Which, I admit, came from the fact that I didn't have any popsicle sticks to put them on. So, with that change, I decided to make "cake dumplings"

Most of the steps of cake dumplings are the same as a cake pop. First, you bake a cake and then when its cool crumble it into little bits. Then, you put about half a can of icing in, and stir it around to make the mixture stick together.

I used food coloring to make the cake and the icing pink (since I was going to use chocolate raspberry for the toppings)

Then you take a small handful of the mixture, for it into a little ball, and place it on a cookie sheet.

After that I made a double-boiler and melted half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and added chocolate raspberry sauce from the pampered chef that one of my roommates ordered before she suddenly quit and left. (al the pampered chef stuff was delivered like a week after she ended up leaving, and we've had a really fun time eating up all the leftover goodies!) Once the chocolate is melted, its time to cover the cake dumplings!

As the picture demonstrates, I just dropped them in the melted chocolate and kind of mixed them around to get them covered in chocolate. After that, you put them on a plate, and let the chocolate cool.

Yum!!!

The Crafty Penguin: The Basic Cake Pop (Plus Other Tips)

The Crafty Penguin: The Basic Cake Pop (Plus Other Tips): "Cake pops, a Bakerella creation, are a lot of fun to make because they can take on so many personalities. When I made Penguin Pops in Aug..."

This is my new favorite baking website. And I really want to try and make cake-pops sometime soon!!

But for now, I am very happy to say I am doing about a baking project a day for the guests on our ranch. Yesterday was cheesecake, today was flourless chocolate cake, and tomorrow will be key lime pie.

Hopefully some smores cupcakes and cake pops in the future!!!

Anemone Geyser

This is a video of my favorite geyser, Anemone Geyser, erupting. It is is the upper geyser basin, about a 10 minute walk from Old Faithful. It goes through a complete eruption cycle about every 10 minutes or so. Because it is so small, the eruptions are very small, but are still entertaining. It also is neat because its actually 2 geysers that are connected, and one will typically fill and erupt after the other one is done draining.

Glacier National Park

For 4th of July weekend, we went to Glacier National Park. It is an incredibly beautiful place, and I got to go on my first backcountry camping trip since I was 13. We went on a 4 mile hike to Avalanche Lake, which is a beautiful lake created by an avalanche, and has all these pretty waterfalls on the trail up to it, and falling into the lake from above.

A really pretty waterfall from the river flowing from Avalanche lake that you see on the trail

Avalanche lake and the waterfalls! We walked into the lake and it was very cold...well, my friends thought it was cold (but nothing compared to antarctica). The water is really pure because it comes from glaciers

After our hike to and from the lake, we started on our backcountry trip. We hiked 5 miles into our campsite that was on Lake McDonald. Our site was right on the lake and it was gorgeous!

The view in the morning from our camping site.

The next day we hiked the 5 miles out...which went quicker then the five miles in, but we were much more tired at the end.

At the end of the trail. We made it!!

Here are some more random pictures of our trip...

Heading into the wild!

Getting ready to leave the campsite

Hanging out at Lake McDonald

Grand Teton National Park

A few weeks ago, a few of us decided to drive down to Grand Tetons National Park. This is only 8 miles south of Yellowstone, so to get there we had to drive through all of Yellowstone which was pretty cool, because we got to see everything. And after the long drive, we were rewarded with some of the most beautiful mountains you could ever see.

Most of the Tetons are all around Jackson Lake, which you can take boats out on. Once it starts getting really nice out, we will definitely be going back.

So very pretty!!!

Upper Geyser Basin

Old Faithful, right before eruption.

One of my days off, a co-worker and I went to the park to see Old Faithful, and the rest of the Upper Geyser Basin. Old Faithful is the most famous of the geysers (it is very large and has pretty regular eruptions so its easy to see it go off) but there are tons of really cool geysers up in the basin around Old Faithful which were really cool to get to look at and experience their eruptions.

After seeing Old Faithful, we went up and walked around the Upper Geyser Basin. It's about a mile or so on a boardwalk from Old Faithful to the Morning Glory Pool, and it goes by countless geysers and pools that all erupt at different times in different ways. One of them is the beehive geyser.

This is the Beehive Geyser, before an eruption.

The beehive geyser is really neat because the eruptions it has are sporadic, but incredibly powerful. Its one of the geysers that has sort of a cult following. When we went by there was a ranger sitting by it, watching the indicators to see when it was going to go off, along with 5 or 6 people there with books and blankets, obviously having been there awhile, and were waiting for it to go off. We ended up getting to see the eruption from far away, but it was still impressive.

The Beehive Geyser erupting. It was really cool because Old Faithful started erupting right after it.

Beehive on the left and Old Faithful on the right, erupting at the same time.

Morning Glory Pool. It used to look like a morning glory flower but people keep throwing trash in it which makes it change color and plugs the vents in the bottom.

Some of the geysers are completely random (like Beehive) but some are predictable like Old Faithful. Some go off a few times a day, some a few times a month, and some a few times an hour. My favorite geyser in the basin is Anemone Geyser, which is actually 2 small geysers in one, and goes through its entire cycle of filling its pools, erupting, and draining, every 10 minutes or so.

Anemone Geyser, after draining

Mammoth Hot Springs

One of my favorite things to do on a day off is to go into Yellowstone National Park. Its such an incredible place with tons of stuff to see...wildlife, and geothermal features just to name a few. The north entrance is only 20 miles from the ranch, so we go visit the park a lot. 5 miles into the park are the Mammoth Hot Springs, which are some of the coolest things there.

The view from the top of the Mammoth Hot Springs. So pretty!

The Mammoth Hot Springs are different then most of the other geysers, fumaroles, and hot springs in the park. They look a lot different (the main mineral in them is limestone which is unique) and they are all on top of each other, which is why its referred to as the Mammoth Terrace Hot Springs.

The top of the springs...the water in the very middle of the pool is the hottest, and is blue and clear because thermophile organisms live in it and make it that way. The outer edges are brown and orange because of the different kind of thermophiles that are those colors and live in those temperatures.

The water movement through the springs are constantly changing as well (quicker and more dynamic changes then take place with the other geothermal features in the rest of the park.

This set of springs is at the start of the Mammoth Terrace walk. The day I took these pictures (a week or so ago) it was completely dry, and yesterday it was flowing heavily with water.

This is another place where the springs are changing. This spring has popped up relatively recently in this patch of grass by the boardwalk.

B Bar Ranch

Since late April, I have been working at B Bar Ranch, in Emigrant, Montana (20 miles from the north entrance to Yellowstone Park). The ranch raises draft horses and ancient white park cattle, and has an organic garden where they raise organic produce. It also hosts different environmental groups throughout the summer, and has cross-country skiing in the winter. There are 7 seasonal staff members who work in the garden, the kitchen, do housekeeping work, and general maintenance around the ranch.

It’s been a fun job so far, and I am really enjoying the variety of the work and the small community environment. The ranch is a little over an hour from Bozeman so we have been able to go there to do most shopping, and the go to the park and hike on days off. Overall, it’s a very rural location, in Tom Miner Basin, surrounded by mountains which is, needless to say, absolutely gorgeous.

My view from my window at the bunkhouse on the ranch

Fuzzy Trouper, one of the two steers that the ranch keeps as pets, and a kind of mascot. He is very cute, and was bottle-fed as a calf, but people can't approach him nowadays because he does not know his own strength and will smack you with his horns.

A view from lower down in the valley, with the (still snowy!) mountains in the background. When I got here everything was still covered in snow but most has melted by now. The ranch is 8 miles off the highway, and at 6600 feet (1000 feet higher then the highway). When we go on walks, we'll often drive to the lower elevation because its easier to walk down there, and warmer!

It is still "cold" in Montana, and especially cold at this elevation on the ranch. However, they promise us that summer is coming, and I can't wait for some really nice weather for some really good hikes.

Grand Canyon!

In February, Ashley and I went to the Grand Canyon. This was very exciting for us, because we had wanted to go there very badly for about a year and a half now, and were thrilled to actually be seeing it for the first time. I also had an extra level of excitement, because my roommate (and wonderful friend) in Antarctica, Gracie, had been to the Grand Canyon many times and had told me how wonderful it was.

However, Ashley and I didn't know much about the Grand Canyon, and so thought some really stupid things about it. Like, that we could climb all the way down and back up in one day. However, they have lots of signs around warning you not to do that, so we didn't try. This was disappointing, but really for the best, as we probably wouldn't have made it back up.

However, we took a long hike and got a good way down into the canyon, so we got to see the different layers of rocks

We climbed about 3.5 miles round trip, and were very excited when we made it back to the top. It was certainly a work-out, and our legs felt like jelly for the rest of the day. However, it was totally worth it as we had waited so long to get to go, and we are excited to go back and make it to the very bottom the next time :)

Friends & the Four Corners

The four corners (the point where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet- the only place I know that allows you to be in four places at once) is a wonderful national sight I have had the pleasure of visiting twice, both in the company of very good friends. It is ALWAYS a fun place to visit; along with the four corners point there are gift and food stalls, and quite a bit of scenery to see on the way there.

Four Corners or Bust! (Originally the goal was the Grand Canyon, but for the sake of time and other things, compromises had to be made)

Unlike the Grand Canyon where you pay $25 to enter, at the Four Corners, you only pay a modest $3 entry fee

And apparently, the fee is waived on Thursdays

As someone who has (much to my own surprise) become a frequent visitor of the four corners site, I have seen the place be redesigned.

Originally the 4 corners point was up on a platform

Now its been lowered so the gift stalls are above it. This makes the space more accessible and open in order to deal better with crowds. (This picture is not good proof of this, as this was taken 3 minutes before they shut the place for the night, and consequently the only people there were us and the security guard waiting to escort us out)