[Rockhounds] Accommodations

[Margaret Malm]

Hi, Jeanette & Glenn --
Enjoyed your Zion story (being a Zion person myself!) -- I'm not surprised
about the wind -- but I'm surprised you didn't also get it in the evening.
What happens is the old phenomenon of warm air rising. Being a canyon, it is
particularly pronounced. So (especially in the hot weather in summer)
starting in late afternoon the warm air "rises" by blowing up-canyon.
During the night, as the air cools, the cool air (being heavier) "sinks" by
moving down-canyon underneath the warmer air. It dies down about the time
the sun gets down into the bottom of the canyon.
However; Your description of a short blast sounds like something totally
different, that I have never experienced here, myself. But I do remember
that once, in Australia (during our Great Australian Rockhounds Runabout),
we were camped (south of the Rabbit Fence), and we had a wind that seems to
have been just like what you described. They saw it coming and told us to
get into our tents so the tents wouldn't blow away.
Anyhow, glad you enjoyed your night in Zion -- at least most of it!
We do have some gorgeous sunrises and sunsets!

Margaret

>AND...we had a pup tent, we decided to spend 
>the night in Zion.  
-----
>Well, 
>evidently a thick bed of cottonwood tree down, and clothes for pillows
>makes 
>good sleeping because that was one of the more comfortable nights of
>camping 
>we've ever had.  At least until just before dawn....I awoke out of a sound 
>sleep to the sound of distant roaring.  I lay there wondering what the heck

>it was when the wind hit the tent. Evidently there is something about the 
>air heating up down in the desert that sends a morning blast of wind up the

>canyon.  It only blew a few minutes, just long enough to pull the "stakes" 
>out and blow the tent down on our heads, but the rocks kept it from blowing

>away.  We crawled out and watched the most incredible dawn as the sun lit
>up 
>the west side of the canyon walls.  I grabbed the video camera and got
>about 
>a minute of the sunlight racing down the walls before the battery died....
>Jeanette
    >and Glenn


>>  ...weirdest, most primitive (or high-end), most dangerous or coolest
>>  place that members have camped, boarded or otherwise racked out during
>>  a rockhound trip.
>
>
>
.  In the morning I was treated to about  the most magnicent
> sunrise I'd ever seen; clouds and colors kept changing as the  sun moved 
> up
> toward the various hanging clouds and fog banks down low in the  valleys 
> to the
> south, and I took "gazilions" of pictures with my digital  camera.
>
> Pete Modreski, Denver CO
>

-- 
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