I just saw the big daddy of lightning canons. That’s not really a laser but it’s pretty darn close. My best bear bud and I got a private tour of the Pulse Powered Facility at the Kirkland Air ForceResearch Laboratory. The place looked right out of Tron. Here, I laid eyes on the Shiva Star. This thing is MASSIVE.
Imagine a machine capable of storing nearly 10 million joules of energy. And then being able to pulse 120,000 volts and 15 million amps in one millionth of a second towards an object. I don’t know what that means, but it sure sounds like a lot!
Anyway, any target of this machine stands no chance.
I got to feast my eyes on what little remained of a test cylinder, which was not much. The thing was compressed into almost nothingness.
I want this kind of power in my paws. I want Nicholas to make me my own Shiva Star. These guys are only using for research on how to achieve nuclear fusion. I’ve got so many better uses than that.
First stop, Joey’s. He and his wife Jill live in a very cute adobe house.
Immediate next stop - hotel room where I can get some much needed sleep to make up for the trauma of being forced to get up so darn early in the morning.
Last stop in the park was the Painted Desert, which is this massive expanse of stratified red stuff that covers several states. Supposedly it’s one of the more impressive features of the park but I was pretty worn out by the time we got here. So I took a look, tried to say hello to some Texans who gave blank stars back at me, then went back to the car.
I’m sure the place would have been more spectacular during sunset, but we had places to go and no time to dwadle!
Next on our list was Crystal Forest. This place used to be the home of many petrified logs in a variety of colours. But the best looking ones were hauled away by the first visitors before the whole region became protected…so we only got to see the specimens deemed not worth taking (or too heavy).
Our next stop was Agate Bridge, which involved backtracking 15 miles towards the entrance. This is the kind of smart planning that happens when everyone in the car is groggy! By now it’s only about 8:00am and but the light is already super bright.
Agate Bridge was nothing special. It’s just a petrified log that formed a bridge when all the stuff under it washed out.
I made up for my disappointment by climbing a nearby tree that wasn’t petrified.
Blue Mesa was our first stop at the Petrified National Forest. It’s located in the middle of the park and had a 1 mile hiking loop. There were a few specimens of petrified logs on the ground. At least what was left after earlier settlers hauled out the best logs. This area was once a subtropical area with dinosaurs and other cool things. Once, as in about 225 million years ago. Now it’s a bunch of hills with stripes in them and logs in them.
Petrified wood is formed when dead trees soak in mud for a really really long time. Over time, minerals in the mud such as manganese, iron and copper replace the organic parts of the wood and turn the whole thing into stone. The stuff is heavy. And hard. In fact it rates 7.8 on Moh’s scale. That’s like well on its way to being as hard as a diamond!
So we got up early to go to Petrified National Forest. We were the only ones on the road and probably the first ones to the park…with the exception of the park rangers who probably live in the park.
Neither of us were awake for the first picture.
One thing about being at dry and high elevations (6000 feet) early in the morning is that it gets really cold. We were both shivering for this picture.
