Mark My Words: Calcite and halite

I thought I had a brilliant idea this week to get more steps in. Most of the time at work, I'm just sitting there, so I thought there was no reason I couldn't do 1,000 steps every hour. So that's what I've been doing. (It often involves being as inefficient as possible; for example, I found a small pile of garbage, so I threw it away one piece at a time, walking back and forth to the garbage can.) But I don't know how long it will last.

See, I've been having stressful dreams that make me toss and turn and sleep poorly, and at least one of them is directly related to dreaming about taking more steps. So if these stressful dreams keep happening, I'll have to abandon the stepping.

That increased my steps this week. But so did crossing off two more things from my bucket list.

Yesterday (Saturday), I went down to Timpanogos Cave, which I had never been to. My dad came with me for the hike, but they were sold out of tickets for him to go on the cave tour.

The hike was a mile and a half one way, with a climb of about 1,000 feet, and it was all paved. So not too strenuous or difficult. It was a lovely hike up American Fork Canyon. We headed up through various geologic formations, including three that I remember from my field studies class five years ago: Tintic Quartzite, Ophir Shale, and Maxfield Limestone. (Every August, I find an excuse to talk about that class.)

The cave is located in the Deseret Limestone. There were various interpretive signs up the trail that showed the ages of the formations, but they didn't say what period they were. Once we got to the cave, I heard that some people hadn't showed up for their appointment, and they ended up letting my dad in the tour, even though he didn't have an appointment. So that was nice.

At the beginning of the tour, our guide said it was mostly a geological tour. So I asked what I thought was a straightforward geological question: "Is the Deseret Limestone Mississippian in age?" He said that was too geological for him to know. (Turns out it is, indeed, Mississippian.)

It was a wonderful cave, with all sorts of calcite formations. Caves are pretty fabulous. But as they talked about the formations and geared it to kids, I remembered that in elementary school, they emphasized the difference between stalactities and stalagmites. Of all the things we could learn in school, that's what they think is important?

The great heart of Timpanogos.

Once our tour was over, we headed back down the trail and drove home. I was happy to see changing leaves. Fall is my favorite season, yet summer is the only season that I'm sad to see end. What's up with that?

But that wasn't the end of my bucket list day. In the evening, I took three friends up to the Great Salt Lake. The second saltiest body of water in the world is in my home county, yet I've never gone swimming in it. I had to fix that! So I headed up to Antelope Island to swim in the briny waters.

I must say it was less gross than I expected. There were lots of brine flies, but they flew away as you approached. The water was cooler than I expected for a lowland lake in August, but it was tolerable. And true to its reputation, it made me float. I can't float on my back, but I easily could in the GSL. I didn't put my face in the water, but as I got some water splashed in my nose, it was painful. I also found it charming to taste the saltiness on my lips. (I didn't deliberately drink it, of course.) I also liked admiring the brine shrimp. I felt safe in the water, because I couldn't sink, and there aren't any dangerous animals.