Monday, March 14, 2011

Cloudland Canyon


This weekend we went up to Cloudland Canyon to experience what they had to offer in backcountry camping. There are a number of sites with electric and sanitary for your RV as well as tent pads if you just wanna park and sleep. Previously we've visited their 'walk-in' campsites which are slightly closer to the the car than the backcountry sites. The park is frequented mostly by day tourists outs for a scenic hike. THe West Rim Trail (5mi) is described on the park map as among the 'most scenic in the nation.' While it is scenic, I suspect they mean the Dawg Nation. We found the backcountry loop of sites (2 mi) to be pretty quiet and to have some surprisingly good sites. Sites 1-6 are along a stream that was flowing during our visit in early March. Sites 7-11 are less desirable but all feature amenities like picnic tables and individual or shared outhouses. We took site 6 which is a little further back into the backcountry loop but was large enough for our two tents. Sites 1 and 4 also looked very good. The fire ring at six is superb and proximity to the stream is great. For dinner we fashioned a grill out of leftover aluminum foil and sticks. It worked well.

The weather was perfect for camping. not too cold at night but cool enough. The next day we headed to Rocktown, a nearby bouldering area.

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

GSU Visualization Wall

Georgia State University's new Petit (read Petite, though it is anything but) Science Center features a 200 million pixel visualization wall that can be used by teachers, classes and student for new approaches to displaying, examining, and manipulating visual information and data. Th whole wall is divided into four parts which can each feature a different piece of the overall presentation or can be used in coordination for a huge wall of images. Above, Google Earth displays the extent and star fertility of the Nile Delta. Notice where you can actually see the curvature of Earth of to the South West (far left of image).

Weather Again


To provide some contrast to my last few post.