Blue Mesa Trail scenery, Petrified Forest National Park / Rebecca Latson

Happy New Year! Where will the trails take you, this 2020? I'm planning on the trails taking me to at least a couple of national parks I’ve never visited.

Speaking of parks, since I didn’t hear any complaints about the first quiz/trivia piece I penned, I thought I’d start out the New Year with the Traveler by creating another one. I like doing this because researching for these questions and trivia bits teaches me about our national parks. I hope answering those questions and reading the trivia teach you, too.

Test your knowledge, first, before looking at the answers at the bottom of this page.

Who are you lookin' at? Zion National Park / Rebecca Latson

1.) Wild turkeys are a common sight in Zion National Park. Where do those gobblers roost at night?

               a) in thick grass

               b) in trees

               c) underground

               d) within the spaces of large boulders

2.) In Glacier National Park, what are Grinnell, St. Mary, Two Medicine, and McDonald?

               a) mountain ranges

               b) waterfalls

               c) lakes

               c) valleys

Canyon and river, Grand Canyon National Park / Rebecca Latson

3.) What’s the hottest temperature ever recorded at the bottom of Grand Canyon National Park?

               a) 90 degrees F (32 C)

               b) 106 degrees F (41 C)

               c) 120 degrees F (49 C)

               d) 110 degrees F (43 C)

Bunsen Peak, Yellowstone National Park / Rebecca Latson

4.) Bunsen Peak, at the north end of Yellowstone National Park, is actually a

               a) plug of an ancient volcano

               b) pile of glacial debris

               c) huge mound of travertine

               d) now eroded crumpled portion of two tectonic plates coming together

5.) Which national park sits directly on, or is within a 30-mile radius, of historic Route 66?

               a) Grand Canyon National Park

               b) Petrified Forest National Park

               c) White Sands National Park

               d) Joshua Tree National Park

6.) Before the area comprising Big Bend National Park became a national park, audacious settlers did a little commercial mining. What did they mine?

               a) silver

               b) sulphur

               c) mercury

               d) copper

7.) What composes the sand of White Sands National Park?

               a) quartz

               b) calcite

               c) gypsum

               d) feldspar

Emmons Glacier and "The Mountain," Mount Rainier National Park / Rebecca Latson

8.) What makes Emmons Glacier, on the north side of Mount Rainier National Park, unique?

               a) it is the oldest glacier in the continental U.S.

               b) it is the highest glacier in the continental U.S.

               c.) it is the largest glacier in the continental U.S.

               d) it is the lowest-altitude glacier in the continental U.S.

               e) both a & b

               f) both c & d

               g) both b & c

Inside Long House, Mesa Verde National Park / Rebecca Latson

9.) One novelist visiting Mesa Verde National Park is reported to having experienced the ruins as “more like sculpture than anything else.” Who was that novelist?

               a) Louisa May Alcott

               b) Edgar Allan Poe

               c) Willa Cather

               d) James Fenimore Cooper

10.) What is the average temperature of the water flowing out of the springs in Hot Springs National Park?

               a) 162 degrees F

               b) 143 degrees F

               c) 155 degrees F

               d) 164 degrees F

Now for a little bit of national park trivia.

Casa Grande, Big Bend National Park / Rebecca Latson

• As you drive along the Basin Road toward the Chisos Mountain Lodge in Big Bend National Park, one sight catching your eye is the flat-topped rock formation known as Casa Grande (Spanish for “big house”). One of the highest peaks in the Chisos Mountains, with an elevation of 7,325 feet above sea level, Casa Grande is a volcanic dome of igneous rock called rhyolite, the main components of which are quartz and plagioclase feldspar.
  
  
• According to the NPS website for this park, there are currently 120 known caves in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The Big Room of Carlsbad Cavern is 8.2 acres, the largest, readily accessible cave chamber in North America. There is quite a bit of wildlife in the park, including 17 species of bats known to live within the park, 3 species of which roost inside Carlsbad Cavern. The largest colony is the Brazilian free-tailed bat, estimated at a population of about 400,000.

Redoubt's devestation, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve / Rebecca Latson

• The highest point in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve is the active Redoubt Volcano, with an elevation of 10,197 feet above sea level. In 1976, the National Park Service designated Redoubt Volcano as a National Natural Landmark. Redoubt’s latest eruption occurred in March, 2009, and you can see some of Redoubt’s devastation in the photo above.

A summer sunrise, Padre Island National Seashore / Rebecca Latson

• Named for the Spanish priest Padre José Nicholas Balli, Padre Island, on which is located Padre Island National Seashore has one of the top windsurfing destinations in the U.S. (Bird Island Basin) and is home to one of six hypersaline lagoons in the world (Laguna Madre). Since 2006, this national seashore has employed the talents of Ridley Ranger, a Cairn terrier trained to find Kemp’s ridley turtle nests.

Keeping a toe hold on the rim, Bryce Canyon National Park / Rebecca Latson

• At Bryce Canyon National Park, geologists use trees to help gauge the rate of erosion along the rim of the park amphitheaters. As the rim erodes, trees growing on the rim “get left hanging in the air” and their exposed roots look like tippy toes as they grasp at what is left of the soil. A great example is the Limber Pine right beside that fenced corner of the Sunrise Point view area.

Quiz Answers:

1.  B

While wandering around the Court Of Patriarchs area, I saw for myself a big ole wild turkey fly from the ground to a low branch in the tree. My first thought was “Gee, turkeys really can fly.”

2. C

Each of these are lakes within the park. The largest of them is the 10-mile long, almost 1-mile wide, Lake McDonald, with a depth of 472 feet.

3. C

The hottest temperature at the bottom of the Grand Canyon was 120 degrees F, recorded three different times at the Phantom Ranch (1958, 1974, 1981). I wonder if that record will be broken due to climate change. What do you think?

4. A

This rounded, picturesque mountain started out as a magma in the neck of a volcano. The magma solidified, creating a plug to stop up further eruptions, and the surrounding rock was later eroded.

5. B

The question asks about national parks on or within a 30-mile radius of Route 66, so Petrified National Park is the correct answer. Grand Canyon and Joshua Tree national parks are within a 100-mile radius of Route 66.

6. C

Terlingua, a town outside the western point of the park, has preserved remnants of the mercury mining operations in a ghost town open for tourism. The Mariscal mine within the park boundaries, requires a drive on a rough road plus a short hike to reach.

7. C

The mineral forming the dunes of White Sands National Park is about 98% gypsum. This is rare because gypsum sand is water-soluble. So, you know this newly-minted national park must be very dry, indeed, and a great reminder for you to carry plenty of water with you when you visit.

8. F

Emmons Glacier is both the largest and the lowest-altitude glacier in the continental U.S. A great place for viewing this glacier is at Emmons Vista Overlook, in the Sunrise area of the park, a very short hike just south of the Sunrise Visitor Center parking lot.

9. C

Willa Cather achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life. In 1915, she was among the first visitors to Mesa Verde National Park.

10. B

Many of the hot springs contributing to the heated waters of the Hot Springs, Arkansas, bathhouses are accessible from the park’s main scenic road West Mountain Drive.

References

Don Lago, Zion And Bryce Canyon Trivia, Riverbend Publishing , 2011

Don Lago, Grand Canyon Trivia, Riverbend Publishing , 2009

William MacLeod, Big Bend Vistas: Journeys Through Big Bend National Park, Texas Geological Press, 2008

Janet Spencer, Yellowstone Trivia, Riverbend Publishing, 2006

https://ncptt.nps.gov/rt66/national-parks/

https://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz324165251c560.html

https://www.lascrucescvb.org/5-cool-facts-about-white-sands-national-monument/

https://play.howstuffworks.com/quiz/mesa-verde-national-park-quiz

https://play.howstuffworks.com/quiz/mount-rainier-national-parks-quiz

https://play.howstuffworks.com/quiz/glacier-national-park-quiz

https://play.howstuffworks.com/quiz/hot-springs-national-park-quiz

https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/warm-winter-hot-springs-national-park

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Redoubt

https://www.nationalparked.com/lake-clark