Afton Canyon

Tuesday’s Second Entry:

This afternoon, we went on a hike through a place called Afton Canyon. It is where the Mojave River flows. For much of the year, there is at least a little water in the river. Part of the year, though, the river dries up completely. Today, there was enough water that we couldn’t drive all the way back into the canyon. So instead we hiked through part of the canyon and climbed a couple of gently-sloped canyon walls up to the mesa at the top of the canyon. The views were spectacular. It was so great to take a few minutes break from thinking about science and to just enjoy the Grandeur of nature.

But, back to the science….

In this region of the Mojave, the geologic features are sedimentary. We could see the layers of sediment in the canyon walls. That means that some time ago these canyon walls were most likely at the bottom of the ocean or at least a big lake! It is a little hard to understand how you can climb through an area that was the ocean floor.

This area, Afton Canyon, is also undergoing significant weathering and erosion so that the pieces that flake off will become sediment all over again. Dan says he teaches about the rock cycle at school and he was obviously excited to see a portion of it in action.