The Longitudinal Groove – Field Notes

 

Field Notes:

3rd Location at Dry Falls: Longitudinal Grooves

Sunday, October 14th 2012

Audio:

Very quiet

Almost (but not quite) far enough from the highway not to hear it

Voices of other teams are heard but they are not in sight

Weather/Atmosphere:

Overcast, with slight rain, cold and windy

Measurement:

150 feet or less

15-20 feet deep

Composition:

Mostly light yellow dry grass inside groove

Rocks and stone dispursed

Mostly rock and ever-present shrubs outside of groove

Cattle feces

Fallen leaves and branches inside groove

Colors:

Red-purple, green-gold, yellow-white, gray-gold, brown, tan, pea green, bright yellow spores

Lots of dark brown

Yellow is a recurring theme

Texture and Shapes:

Rocks are generally rough and uneven

The area and the groove itself are not straight (more zig-zag)

Culture:

Cattle feces, no cattle in sight

Jeep tire marks

The ground is now dry but there are depressions in mud where cattle have walked, jeep has driven

As always, power line in the distance

Other notes:

Wind is more prominent here than on the bottom of the plateau

Rocks here currently look wet

Unlike the rocks, the grass growing here still looks very dry

We are now seemingly level with the museum building

The jeep lines almost accentuate the longitude of the groove

We spent a long time looking for this location: “Looking for longitudinal grooves…” was driven into my mind as a search object and now I am noticing lines in everything

Cattle feces in combination with the dry grass makes me feel like I am in the country, like a farm niche

Outside of the niche are the broken rock surfaces and sage shrubs to remind me of where we are

Very different places, outside and in

Smell of hay

The cows (judging from their hove marks) seem to have followed the already present jeep trail, just as we followed cattle and deer paths much of our way here

The presence of birds has diminished

Most barren, least active of the 3 locations

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