By Sherry Palacios and Shawn Kefauver
When they weren’t reading up on their projects in preparation for next week’s flights, many SARP participants went on hikes this weekend!
On Saturday, Sherry led a group to Devil’s punchbowl county park. Zhanna, Julia, Nick Atkins, David, and Michael went on the 7-mile hike to the Devil’s Chair. Daniel and Sherry took it easy and hiked down into the punchbowl to explore the desert streams. They found a delightful desert stream which was a welcome relief at 50 degrees F.
Much of the ‘hike’ was spent wading in the pool of a waterfall. Daniel was very excited to explore the geology and lamented that he did not have his field scope handy so that he could identify the microscopic particles in the sandstone composite.
SARP on a rock
On Sunday, nine SARP students plus Sherry and Shawn braved the heat to go for a hike at the Saddleback Butte State Park just outside of Lancaster, CA. We took plenty of water and had a great time exploring the native fauna, flora and rock outcroppings of the area. Sightings included one fox, one jack rabbit and numerous chipmunks. There was a skunk in the area which we fortunately did not encounter and only smelled from a distance. On the way back we all sat down for some tasty Thai food.
