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Show needed rest during recent trek to petrified forest. HIKING CLUB ACTIVE. Members of the Cedar City Junior High School Hiking Club pause for CJH Hiking Club visit Petrified Forest either during or following the hike. Project included zoology, botony, photography and journalism. jour-nalism. The addition of a required project in order to participate reduced the number of par- Seventeen students, members of the Cedar Junior High School Hiking Club, recently enjoyed a hike to the petrified forest near Zion National Park. Advisors making the trek with the students were James Dunaway, Doug Braithwaite, Arlene Braithwaite and Lana Johnson, Language Arts instructor in-structor at the junior high. Each of the students participating par-ticipating in the hike was required to complete a project ticipants, but, limited the group to those interested enough in hiking to "pay the price." The hike to petrified forest took approximately nine hours plus traveling time on the bus. Petrified Forest is a rather remote and unknown area. Students were informed that the "forest" has been hundreds of millions of years forming. This area had formerly been a swamp and as each tree fell it was replaced, bit by bit with a mineral. Some of the trees were 10 to 20 feet long and two to three feet thick, students report. One of the students reporting the activity described the event as follows: "We followed a creek bed to a place where the stream came out of the cliffs. The view was beautiful and there were still many pieces of petrified trees still inbedded in the soil. "From there we climbed a rocky hillside to a small chimney in the cliff. It was just large enough for a man and his pack to fit through. The chimney led to a large plateau where most of the petrified trees were found. "After hiking through this area for several hours Mr. Dunaway led us to an old oil well. From there we struck out on our own in small groups, following a stream back to the bus. "A brief stop was made at LaVerkin for refreshments. Other than a few spots where we had accidently stepped on a cactus we were all still alive and returned to Cedar that night asking where the next hike would be and when." |