All posts by The Derksens

Arches National Park and Area

March 25, 2015FamilyJesseThe Derksens

The most unique house I have ever seen is Hole N”The Rock near Moab, UT. It is a 5000 sq. ft house blasted out of the rock.

On the grounds of the house are also many unique works of art made of scrap metal.

We also pulled over for a quick stop at Wilson Arch.

Dad, Mom, and I were the only ones that went up because the other boys were too wimpy (sick).

The next day we saw dino prints! You can see the three toed footprints on the rock on the left of the picture above.

The four boys also quickly ran up a hill nearby. You can see us in the middle of the picture above.

The Colorado River flows through this area and there are unique rock formations everywhere you look. We also saw petroglyphs on some of the rocks.

Now we are at Arches National Park. Double Arches. Like almost all the other ones, these two arches are huge. You can see Andrew and I under them.

Balanced rock

“Sphinx”

Landscape Arch. One of the world’s largest rock arches at 290 feet!

Delicate Arch. We had a wonderful day of hiking in this area seeing a unique part of God’s creation!

Date Palm Tour

March 18, 2015FamilyMicahThe Derksens

On Saturday, February 21st, our family went for a date farm tour with the Bard Date Company. It was very interesting but strange to be walking in such a warm climate in the middle of February:) Some days it was a 40- 60 degree Celsius difference between Saskatchewan and Arizona!

The trees were in perfect lines every direction!

The palm’s fruit is Medjool dates which were brought over to be planted from the Old World. The original trees are still living in this area. The Medjool dates in Europe were originally only to be eaten by the Royal Family.

Imagine going up one of those 80 foot palms in a bucket to pick dates, especially when its windy:) The workers have to go to the top of each tree about 17 times each season to pollinate, prune, pick, etc.

We all enjoyed the tour, even though some of us couldn’t digest the thought of eating much of that fruit.

Winging Over the Grand Canyon!

March 16, 2015FamilyMicahThe Derksens

On February 24th, Dad and I set off for a flight over the Grand Canyon with Papillon tours. Here is a video of some of the footage I got with our family playing background music – How Great Thou Art.

Living Waters

March 12, 2015FamilyMicahThe Derksens

On Thursday, February 19, we had a tour at Living Waters Publications. It was interesting to meet Ray Comfort and his staff. The night before we came, the Living Waters parking lot was filled with cameras and actors. They were filming a scene of “Audacity”, their newest movie. We got to watch a couple clips of a scene with an EMT, who was actually Ray Comfort’s “favorite” atheist friend:)

We also got to see Ray Comfort’s very humorous side. The whole bookstore area was covered in different funny signs. He also had a whole Bible in one picture frame. Those words were mighty hard to read, even with a magnifying glass!

If you blow this picture up, you will see: “Stand up. I’m just a man!” We all bent down on our knees to see what the tiny print said:)

Upon coming out of the building, who of all people should we see but Josh and Anna Duggar getting out of their car! They were doing some work with Ray Comfort.

We had an awesome time, and pray that the Lord would use us and the tracts we bought for His glory.

Walking the Washout

March 9, 2015Creation, FamilyJesseThe Derksens

Hiking the Grand Canyon!

On Febuary 25, shortly after 7am, Josh and I hit the trail. Although it is not recommended to go down to the Colorado River and back in one day, it is possible but difficult! We hiked down the South Kaibob Trail.

Starting off the hike in subzero weather made us thankful for microspikes!

From a distance

Close up look at the same rock formation you see on the picture above and below this one.

Looking back to the South Rim where we started.

Skeleton Point!

Continuing to descend

A mule train. This is how many people come into the canyon, how food and supplies are hauled down to Phantom Ranch and how garbage is hauled out!

Looking back to the South rim from the plateau

And the North Rim

First view into the inner canyon. Might look close but still a long ways to go!

Met a friendly Longhorn Sheep!

Red mud on the trail was the story of most of our way down.

We got to cross two suspension bridges. The first: Kaibab (Black) Bridge which was made in 1921. It is 420 ft. long and about 60 ft above the river!

The second supports the Trans-Canyon pipeline which supplies the park. It pipes water from a spring on the North side all the way up the South Rim! To give scale, if you look carefully you can see me on the bridge.

The “burning” bush!

You can barely see the rim of the canyon rim from the river!

On our way up Bright Angel Trail.

In the background of this picture you can see some bent brown rock which shows that this rock would have bent while it was still soft because if it is bent after hardening it would only crack and shatter.

We made it! 10 hours later, 27 kms and over 9000 ft of elevation change PTL!

Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: Jeremiah 32:17