Arizona Update
I know that most of you are dying to know about Trinity, but this update is an update from Scottsdale, where Autumn and I have been all this week. Autumn has been conferencing and I have been working from the hotel. We've been able to visit a couple of neat places, including Biosphere 2. It was an interesting tour of what amounts to a VERY large greenhouse. Back in the early 1990's there was a group of scientists who lived sealed in the Biosphere for 2 years. Now THAT would be an interesting experiment. The University of Arizona manages it now and they are studying the affects of water on climate change and vice versa. Very interesting if you are into that sort of thing. Here are some pics of the Biosphere 2:
It looks like something from a science fiction movie
The guided tour took us through the environment that was created for maximum oxygenation. There were 5 biomes that were all tropical in nature. There was an ocean, a rainforest, a savannah, a desert and a zone that represented where two biomes came together. I would not have thought of a desert being tropical, but I guess that is the difference between scientific terminology and the names that a layperson gives things.
This is a view of the ocean biome and the savanah is above it.
In this case even a goofy Autumn is too tall for the doorway! Underneath the whole thing were miles of pipes and hallways all setup to create and control the environment above. That way they can observe the affect that temperature and humidity have on different enviroments.
The view up top was AWESOME! There was 360 degree view of the entire Phoeniz area, which is HUGE! I guess Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the United States. I didn't know that, did you?
This little section was very steep, so steep that they installed a fence and a couple of hand rails to help hikers get up and down. Here's Autumn making the descent. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours, which was nice since we didn't have a lot of free time each day. It was nice to have a hike so close by!
It looks like something from a science fiction movie
The guided tour took us through the environment that was created for maximum oxygenation. There were 5 biomes that were all tropical in nature. There was an ocean, a rainforest, a savannah, a desert and a zone that represented where two biomes came together. I would not have thought of a desert being tropical, but I guess that is the difference between scientific terminology and the names that a layperson gives things.
This is a view of the ocean biome and the savanah is above it.
In this case even a goofy Autumn is too tall for the doorway! Underneath the whole thing were miles of pipes and hallways all setup to create and control the environment above. That way they can observe the affect that temperature and humidity have on different enviroments.We also were able to go for a short hike one day because right in the middle of Scottsdale and Phoenix is a mountain that you can hike up called Camelback Mountain. You can read more about it here. From where we parked, it was about 2.2 miles round trip, but man it was a steep climb! It was more like a scramble than a hike. Here are some pictures:
This is not unusual for this trail: very steep and very rocky!
The view up top was AWESOME! There was 360 degree view of the entire Phoeniz area, which is HUGE! I guess Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the United States. I didn't know that, did you?
This little section was very steep, so steep that they installed a fence and a couple of hand rails to help hikers get up and down. Here's Autumn making the descent. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours, which was nice since we didn't have a lot of free time each day. It was nice to have a hike so close by!We are done with the conference this afternoon and we fly back tomorrow. We'll have more Trinity pics after I get back and get organized. I know that's what you're waiting for!
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