The triple crises of civilization: Times Argus Online

The triple crises of civilization: Times Argus Online

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A collection of peak oil, end of world, end of civilzation,
doomday readings, malthian predictions, ad nauseum.

Oil Spill Insights from a Retired Manager of an Offshore Underwater Service Company

Oil Spill Insights from a Retired Manager of an Offshore Underwater Service Company

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A good reasoned tome on the gulf oil leak/spill from an expert. I cannot take the stupid summaries of this disaster from the inept biased MSM, which only harp on the calamities and ecological damage without providing actual detailed accounts of the heroic efforts being made by BP and coastal rescue cleanup agencies to deal with this mess.

10 largest oil spills in history

http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fenvirowonk.com%2Fcontent%2Fview%2F68%2F1%2F&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNFKlly7yJ35_zoaveVPrP3M9RFmSA

latest news and setbacks of gulf oil spill:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6446

cofferdam_q4000_deploys.jpg (JPEG Image, 3500x2333 pixels) - Scaled (22%)

Just to put things in perspective, the largest oil spill in history is the 1991 Kuwait spill when Saddam Hussein sabotaged Kuwait oil tanks/rigs, spilling 500 million gallons of oil into the Persian gulf. If our Gulf oil spill is leaking 5000 barrels per day(EST), it needs 2 months to exceed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill of 240,000 barrels/11 million gallons. We get oil tanker/oil rig discharges in far off countries almost on a regular basis, but these major spills only damage the ecologies/environments of faraway unknown third world countries, not our own precious shores, so never get CNN coverage and are kept out of sight. US public could care less for eco-damage from oil spills in Persian gulf, China, africa, or some other far-off country as long as it is there and not here.


US decision to halt further offshore drilling just means that we will require more imported oil transported on Oceanic tankers, increasing the chances of another Exxon Valdez-type oil tanker accident. Not to mention chances of a terrorist attack on a vulnerable tanker in the Persian Gulf or other regional/global hot spot. Protecting this US foreign oil lifeline will require continued US military commitments/presence in Middle East/Iraq, and continued US global military buildup/dominance, which means
continued big US military budgets. The wacko environmentalists, who are also 99% anti-military, must be scratching their heads on this conundrum.

Video of Temporary Dome Solution; BP Safety Violations; Well Still Leaking 5,000 BPD, Could Hit 60,000 BPD; Maps

Map of oil spill trajectory

Video of Temporary Dome Solution; BP Safety Violations; Well Still Leaking 5,000 BPD, Could Hit 60,000 BPD; Maps

Some reports and info on gulf coast oil spill

Did a little research on the Gulf oil leak tragedy and, though the problems with plugging leak(s)and oil spill containment are indeed challenging and appear almost hopeless, i have faith that BP and Fed agencies will eventually resolve the oil leak.
Yes, it won't be a quick fix and yes, there will be severe eco-damage, but over time the resilient vast oceans, with assistance from man's technical ingenuity, will swallow and absorb this oil spill.
What will happen is that after a year or two of halts to new offshore drilling, the public and politicians will get back on board with more domestic drilling and oil resource extraction, especally when gas prices surge to $4.00-$5,00. If US halts all new offshore drilling or other domestic oil extraction projects we will only increase the % of oil that we import. That oil travels on oil tankers, which are also are at risk of oil spills. No one called for banning oil tankers despite the 1989 Exxon Valdex tragedy. US will require it's oil fix, and it will get it despite the shril calls from extremist wacko environmentalists to halt any and all domestic offshore oil production.
The politicians simply roll with the winds of public opinion, and shift policies and positions based on public outcry at the moment. Right now the politicans are responding to the gulf oil spill by halting new offshore drilling, but rest of world will drill off their coasts and simply export their oil to US, via oil tankers, which terrorists could easily sabotage.

Greeks rioting in response to EU- imposed austerity measures

Up close action shots of violent Greek riots: these folks are pretty pissed off!

On Phoenix Suns wearing 'Las Suns' jerseys

This is a problem for me. As a supporter of Arizona's tough anti-illegal immigration law SB 1070 i have called for a boycott of los angeles due to LA mayor/city council calling for arizona boycott. I despise all opponents of Arizona's law and am angered that major league professional sports franchises are getting pressured into opposing SB 1070. Even the NBA has become embroiled, with Phoenic Suns actually showing support for diversity and symbolic opposition to SB 1070 by donning jerseys with las Suns imprinted on them.
I am a big NBA fan/fanatic and actually like the Suns and am rooting for them to beat the Spurs. I dislike the NBA/Suns involvement in a hot political issue and believe that this is a big mistake for major league teams to get involved in politics. The majority of NBA/major league fans/followers/TV watchers if polled would likely mirror the general population and support stronger borders and stricter enforcement of laws against illegal immigration. However, fans are not political fanatics and are normally disinterested in politics. This major league involvement in the Arizona boycott could backfire, leading to reduced revenues for professional sports franchises.

That said i will still watch the NBA playoffs and root for the Suns till they reach the lakers in western conference championship. The Suns & all professional sports franchises will see the light and tone down their politics-the owners will realize that it is bad business to mix business and politics.

Greeks rioting in response to EU- imposed austerity measures

'Greeks protest over forced austerity measures after the European Union announced a €110 billion ($145 billion) aid package for Greece on Sunday. Soon after, Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou announced the tough cost-cutting measures to meet European Union and International Monetary Fund conditions for the deal.
The package includes a promise by Greece to cut its budget deficit to 3 percent of the country's gross domestic product, as required by European Union rules, by 2014, according to Papaconstantinou.'

US and especially CA is a greater fiscal train wreak than Greece, yet we happily print and borrow to keep the welfare entitlement gravy train going here. US and at least 10 states are putting off the hard fiscal austerity choices Greece is now confronted with, as no US/state/local politician will make the politically suicidal decisions to drastically curtail or cut entitlement spending , esp the Democrats who depend directly on Government-dependent voters.

CA earthquake interactive map 2010

Here is the latest map of Southern California's major earthquake faults. The one that is of most immediate concern to me is the Newport/Inglewood fault, which runs almost directly along the SCal/Orange County coast ,runs right near me in long beach, and snakes up thru heavily populated South bay and western LA County and thru city of Inglewood before terminating in the Baldwin Hills near Culver City. Last major quake along this fault was the 1933 6.6 mag quake which leveled long beach. I don't know the dormancy period for this fault but most faults lie dormant for 100-1000 years, so i am not overly worried.

http://www.quake.ca.gov/gmaps/FAM/faultactivitymap.html

Map: Southern California faults - latimes.com

Map: Southern California faults - latimes.com

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Here is the latest map of Southern California's major earthquake faults. The one that is of most immediate concern to me is the Newport/Inglewood fault, which runs almost directly along the SCal/Orange County coast ,runs right near me in long beach, and snakes up thru heavily populated South bay and western LA County and thru city of Inglewood before terminating in the Baldwin Hills near Culver City. Last major quake along this fault was the 1933 6.6 mag quake which leveled long beach. I don't know the dormancy period for this fault but most faults lie dormant for 100-1000 years, so i am not overly worried. Plus i live in a sturdy wood-frame single-story house which has survived the 1971 Sylmar and 1994 Northridge quakes without any noticeable damage, thou the epicenters of these two quakes were both 40 miles away. Most of Long beach sits on loose alluvial soil so any 6+ mag quake would cause severe damage from excessive jiggling of the loose clay and river deposits upon which much of long beach sits.

quick dirty primer on LA Region likelihood of a major quake

We just had a 7.2 mag quake located in northeast corner of Baja pennisula 110 miles east of tijuana and 20-25 miles south of US-Mex border. Time was 3.40 pm PST, Sunday April 4th Easter day. Quake epicenter was 300+ miles from LA Region but was widely felt all over SCal as a long rolling, rocking 45-second motion which did little damage. The longevity of the quake, coupled with it being felt over a wide region of SCal and South Arizona, indicates a major massive plate movement, possibly 3 to 10 meter shifting/fracture of the earths crust but very deep down(6-8 miles)so that SCal was able to absorb the shook. The damage to Baja region of this 7.2 quake close to quake epicenter is unknown as of this time of writing.


The quake is in a very active sesmic region centered in the imperial valley fault zone whch straddles US/Mex border and runs along Imperial Valley south all way to north end of gulf of CA/Sea of Cortez, where it likey contines underneath that sea. This appears to be a spreading rift zone which sometimes occurs along plate boundaries, though we area told that the pacific plate and NA plates are sliding or bumping into each other, not spreading apart. My view is that plate boundaries are complex and characterized by sliding, undercutting, grinding, rifting, uplifting, underthrusting, ect. The NA/PACIFIC plate boundaries here in Scal are mostly characterized by the sliding of the PAC plate northward in relation to the likely westward movement of the NA plate at rates of aveage 6-10 CM per year.

However, in one section of the plate boundary(the north La County section of San Andreas fault), it appears that the PAC plate is undercutting/grinding north/Northeastward against the NA plate, causing numerous secondary offshoot faults in the LA Basin and creating the uplifted youthful masses of the SCal mountains. This also snags and locks this dog-leg bended section of the SA fault which in time wil snap and create one hell of a quake, time uncertain but probablity next 10-50 years.

What is more of immediate concern are the 100's of mid- sized faults(from 70 to 200 Kilometers Long) which crisscross LA Basin. Some of these such as newly discovered LA Puente Hills fault and the famous Newport/inglewood fault, are capable of an LA City-leveling 7.0 or greater mag, though all of these mid-sizes fault lie dormant most of time(like a volcano), snapping once every 100 to a 1000 years. They will accumulate stresses over time however, and a major snappage of one major SCal fault such as SA, san jacinto, elsinore or imperial valley fault, could unleash secondary aftershock faults along any of these minor LA Basin faults.

Before the big one breaks along the SA fault we will likely get a 6-7 mag fault rupture along an undiscovered fault running beneath the LA Basin. Or a break of a established Mid-sized fault within LA county/city such as the la puente hills, newport/imglewood, siera madre, or northridge/ sylmar/ santa susanna faults. The chances of a super-killer 7-8 mag fault rupture is extremely rare for these secondary faults but not 100% failsafe.

event:http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/lanowblog/~3/07VaUvNG98U/30-earthquake-hits-malibu-one-of-several-california-temblors-after-72-shaker-near-mexicali.html

http://goo.gl/WvLm

http://shar.es/m2dYs

http://bit.ly/dt1nHQ

http://sciencedude.freedomblogging.com/2010/04/04/6-9-earthquake-near-san-diego-shakes-o-c/95905/

On cal meltdown: personal views

The CA government is tied up in knots with a 20 billion budget shortfall. There are dire warnings of imminent calamity with threats of shutting down the vast welfare safety apparatus, upon which est 10-15 million Californians are directly dependent.
Such programs as Healthy Families, home heath care for seniors, medi-cal, Calworks, we are told, face massive budget cuts. I do not think that we will see much cuts at all. Nor do i see CA tackling the state employees pension problem, which is bankrupting CA. The vested interests will fight tooth and nail to protect their benefits and programs.
I truly believe that all this dire screaming coming from Sacramento and their media spin meisters is just that, spin and agi-propaganda, initiated to get the population prepared for more massive tax increases, and to get Obama to bail out CA with a fed bailout of 7 billion. I have seen this dog and pony show last 2 decades: each year we have a budget shortfall and each time CA manages to slime it's way thru their mess with gimmicks, accounting tricks, borrowing from this fund to bolster that fund, use short term borrowing in the Market, ad nauseum.
Here's some solutions: sell more state assets, some state parks, and other prime properties to China. Allow more offshore oil drilling and more resource extraction, deport 2-3 million illegals who drain the CA social welfare net and steal jobs from UE native Californians, have the IRS & state franchise tax board go into LA and start collecting revenues from the 40% black market economy here in Los Angeles. And cut back on the retirement pension benefits of CA State employees to reasonable levels, which would not break out budget.

Summing up 2009 -observations

We end 2009 on a quite dismal note. If u ignore the nonstop happy talk of the MSM and seive/sift beneath the layers of BS you will find a prostate country with record high UE, out of control public debt, record # of bankruptcies, record foreclosures, ect.
It has been questioned whether we are as bad off as the first great depression 80 years ago. Hard to judge as society has altered greatly and the US gov has become much more interwined in the economy with more active assistance to those who have fallen through the gaps.
10-15% of the population is now on food stamps, and the gov keeps extending UE benefits. Also the Fed is printing money non-stop and is throwing bailout money
at everything. At least the banking system appears to be more or less stabilized, with a chosen few mega-banks controlling the credit system, with the active(maybe sinister)assistance of the FED.

In CA( my home state), at least 50% of the population is receiving direct assistance(handouts) from the state and feds, whether in food stamps, section 8, healthcare subsidies(medicare/medical/healthy families),UE bennies, diability pmts,supplemental SS,amd probably a 100 other forms of direct aid.
A significant portion of this aid has to be supplemented by Obama stimulus funds as CA is plain broke and prostate. I will say more about CA being in dire straits in another post.
.
In sum, 2009 goes down as a bad year for Joe Public, especially with the dismal UE rate being at 17% U-6. Worse, credit has tightened severely and credit lines are severely constricted for both consumers and small businesses. 2009 was above all a deflationary year, a year of contraction. Everything contracted except maybe movie house receipts. In bad times folks flock to cheap entertainment such as movies in order to escape their bad economic predicament.

What makes Avatar click

I have to admit i am a big Avatar fan. I've seen the movie 3 times on 3D format, the only way to see it. It is an astonishing cinematic achievement from James Cameron. I have seen all his movies and it ranks right up there with T2 and Aliens, his prior masterpieces. It may not quite have the pulse pounding adrenaline action of T2 and Aliens but it is more like Titanic in it's script flow. The special effects are, pardon the pun, out of this world.

To bring balance to my discussion, there has been quite a bit of negatives put out in the Web from readers discussions, and even mainline media pundits. It think it is because of the hugh amt of publicity and advertsing put out in the marketing of this film. Avatar has become the 1600ib gorilla in the minds of the naysayers, given it's $240-300 million production cost. It is seen as this gigantic special effects mega-movie, without content and meaningful dialog. It is a special effects movie and yes, the plot and acting is average, on par with such other entertaining content-empty megahits as Transformers, Star Wars, and Spiderman. Also the 3D ticket prices are a bit high($11.00 average in LA/SCal), but so is everything else. It might be a good strategy to lower prices for Avatar3D to $9.50/9.99 across the board, adult price. In a bad economy when folks are on tight budgets this would bbe a good strategy to make Avatar more accessible to a wider audience.

There has also been some negatives regarding its anti-corporate, anti-military, and pro green message(rape of the earth). My advise: leave the politics at the door and just watch the movie and enjoy its astonishing CGI/3D generated special effects.

I will add that being an avid camper and hiker i can relate to the scenes of the Pandora floating mountains,big trees,jungles and waterfalls. They are all CGI generated but the 3D really makes the cliff drop offs, jungle plants,trees and water scenes so lifelike you actually seem at times to be participating in the action. There will come a time when you can walk into a 3D/CGI animation screening room and do simulated rock climbs, parachute drops, or plunges over a high cliff into a water pool.

comentary on PBS national parks series

I have watched portions of Ken Burns PBS television series on the 'National Parks, America's best idea'. I watched the Yosemite part entire featuring the Sierra Nevada Mountain bard John Muir. His name live on in sierra lore and in the 200 mile long John Muir trail, which i have done about a third of. It is indeed quite spectacular in parts and slices thru the heart of the sierra high country but the lateral trails are also quite nice as well.
I have or did have at one time the same spirit which imbued John Muir, in looking at the sierra as kind of mystical, a feeling hard to describe. You see the waterfalls, pines,granite rock, meadows, creeping shadows, domes,outcroppings, gnarled pines clinging to life at timberline, the lonely tiny flower clinging to life in an alpine meadow, and take it all in. Everything else falls away to insignificance and the worlds problems and hassles as well. The deeper you get into wilderness and especially being alone in it you feel as one with it, being interconnected to it and also sometimes vulnerable and small.
The wilderness has dangers and can envelope you with sudden storms, a trip over a rock causing a ankle sprain or cracked head, a bear attack, a slip over a waterfall or down a raging river in spring flood,or u may get disoriented and lost and get exposed to a bitter cold wet night and end up with hypothermia. I have practiced and studied wilderness survival techiques and have backpacked deep in sierra wilderness solo for up to 8 days.
The dangers and eree silence of a truly wild place may be part of the mystic experience which awed John Muir, the feeling of being so small,insignificant and vulnerable deep in the wilderness. U are truly on your own and must depend on your own survival skills to travel safely thru the wilderness.
BTW the PBS series is indeed a marvelous piece of work, though 95 % of park visitors never get more than a few miles away from the trailhead(civilization) and really commune with remote nature as John Muir and i have.

short essay on backpacking - is it for anyone?

I started backpacking the local SCal mountains back in the 1970's. I hiked all over the San Gabriels and San Bernardino Mts. I was an early convert and really got deep into hiking and backpacking. Not only backpacks but hundreds of long day hikes all over the local SCal mt ranges. Then i ran a business from 1980 to 1986. After that venture went under i started getting back into serious hiking and backpacking again but now i was strictly into the high sierra nevadas, the only place to do serious backpacking and see the best mountain scenery in America, maybe the world. For once you do a sierra trip all other mountains pale in comparison. The Sierras are pure magic and mystique, a truly magnificent range with towering Sequoias,luch fragrant pines trees,deep gorges,jagged towers, gushing rivers and creeks,lush lower elevation meadows and high fragile montaine meadows, monumental granite domes and cliffs( think Yosemite), and 10,000 high country sparkling lakes. The visible wildlife is mostly Deer and bears, but if u look and listen carefully u will notice woodpeckers, bluejays,thrushes, and other birds whirling thru the tall pines. If you love blooming flowers the sierra meadows abound with them. If you love tall stately pines the Sierras has 10 varieties from the lordly sugar pine to the ever present lodgepoles with the cornflake bark.

I leave this short essay which is very brief, and will now answer the question-is backpacking for anyone? Answer is, no! It takes a special mindset-an urge to get into the mountains,a special liking for maps and topograghy,maybe high geological interest, a rugged self-reliant personality. And most of all a mystic connect with earth,rock, pines,jagged cliffs,roaring pristine streams,something like when the earth was pristine and primeval before man came and destroyed a good part of it.

Another sierra interlude atop bighorn plateau

The pics above are of tyndal creek campsite and upper kern basin day trip shot


This account followed my Hi Sierra backpack journey from high atop 13,200 ft forester pass down to the Bighorn Plateau and just short of Mt Whitney ascent. It is mostly following the JMT (John Muir Trail) as it traverses this high 11,000 ft plateau. I have already covered the descent from forester pass and the astounding view of the U-shaped, natural 2000 ft high black-colored amphitheater-bowl, which is the kern/kings divide. This was the most difficult section of the JMT to complete and the last gap in the JMT. Anyway, i am now down at the bottom of the bowl and passing thru some lakes as i head to Tyndal creek campgrpund. It is a rocky treeless moonscape i pass thru, eerily beautiful and haunting, though stark and bleak. I did a one mile slant off the main JMT trail to an overlook and saw a 360 % panorama of the entire south section of the sierra range. Very awe-inspiring and in mid-July there was still lots of snow-capped peaks.
I reached tyndal hi-country campsite which is marked as a main backcountry backpackers site. It is quite a beautiful site with plenty of boulders interspersed with small pines, and with the nearby creek. There was a good number of backpackers camping there but it was uncrowded and with plenty of privacy.
I made tyndal my basecamp for 2 days as i did a long adventurous day hike next day, following an unmarked trail westward to the upper headwaters of kern river. Very isolated inaccessible region, and very few ever venture there. Trails are mostly erased & unmarked and much of this jaunt was crosscountry. My goal was lake South America, which upon reaching it was indeed splendid ,and at 12,000 ft the highest large lake in Sierras. There is more to this account but i will post it separately.

Musings on grand canyon hiking, sightseeing, part 1

I want to provide a short insightful acct on my one grand Canyon experience. I spend two days there in late march 1995 on last leg of an eventful 30 day hiking/camping/sightseeing tour of US desert southwest, most of it spent in Utah Redrock Country. I arrived at CG and like everyone else I went to the CG village there which is quite built up with shops,lodges,eateries,almost like the mall at Yosemite.
I left there soon and got a good campsite at Mather Campgound, which is a pleasant, shaded large site. I spend a night there sleeping inside my camper shell as temps dropped to 15% overnight. I was shivering all night in that cold camper shell but survived. Next day i went on a long long all day hike down to canyon bottom. I was in tip-top shape to do the 5000 ft elevation drop and return and 20+ mile hike. At the beginning the Bright Angel Trail was crowded but as i got farther in the crowds dropped off. There was at least one pleasant shaded rest stop halfway to bottom : i rested and continued. At the lower part the trail was more open with desert-like cactus scrubland. I reached the muddy Colorado and walked the suspension bridge to other side. It was around 200 yards wide( my estimation) and the water was rushing and chocolate brown. I spent an hr at bottom before returning. Return trip not too memorial as it was a long grinding slog but i remember that as i got near the top there was a swarm of folks which had attempted the hike but did not get far. It gets really steep as u near the top and that culls out most regular CG tourists. Upcoming Part II will provide more insights on my CG experience.

Posts on safety of nuclear reactors and on current CA economic malaise

Post 1 LA county unemployment rate at 9.9%

LA county was 1-2% ahead of CA UE rate all year. And that 9.9% is way understated. It counts only those who have filed for and are collecting UE benefits. Probably another 5% of the county population have exhausted benefits or have simply dropped out. Another 10% have had their hrs cut back to part-time status. There is also a huge population of UE/underemployed minority teens and young adults including second gen immigrant siblings who are unable to get work or are marginally employed part time in service or in temp make work gov't job corps programs. There are also huge numbers of independent contractors(including illegal alien yard workers driving jalopy pickups) and commissioned agents who are not eligible for UE insurance and/or are not counted in the employed workforce stats, and who have seen their income disappear or reduced to almost zero.
U-6 UE rate here in LA County is at least 20% and more likely 25%. Both the city & county never had much high paying job sectors to begin with, just a few high tech defense jobs in the south bay, union port jobs and the hollywood industry. These sectors are also hurting from the bad economy and are cutting

A quick tour of San Onofre Nuclear reactor(in San Diego county):

I will provide a detailed description of one Nuclear power plant here in Scal. It is the San Onofre Plant in San Clemenete just off freeway 5 at border of Orange County and San Diego county. It is operated by SCal Edison and is situated next to a verdant lush green protected coastal Belt, where SCE has their administrative and warehouse facilites. Immediately south of the nuclear Plant is San Onofre State Park, a favored haunt of surfers and campers.
I have never heard of any complaints about this plant, and the area around it is practically a protected coastal preserve, as is Camp Pendleton immediate to the south.
I hope this dispels any thoughts of nuclear plants being noisy ,dangerous, environmentally polluting, ugly coastal nuisances.back on labor costs. Only the health industry may stay intact.

Why i do mountain pic's?

The remote mts and desert places i have been to simply scream to be photographed. Photography is simply a way to capture a time, place and scene which the shooter feels memorial in his /her own way. For me, shots of mts, rivers, desertscapes, rock formations, forest meadows, ect have a peculiar attraction. Too bad i was only using a simple point and shoot camera, as i never took to using fancy over priced photo equipment, preferring to focus on more fundamental aspects of hiking/ climbing such as trip logistics/wilderness expedition planning & execution. The photography is just a sidelight, a sort of diversion. More important is to get to the remote scenic spots in the first place and focus on the climbing route.

The famous climber Mallory was once asked why he climbed mts. His reply was: "because they're there". I choose to hike and explore wild regions, deserts and mts because
of a mystic connection, a way for me to be in touch with the almighty creator, or simply because earth, water, forest bring me to the elemental, the basics of existence.

My take on this Great depression II

Part I
The economy is in complete total meltdown with rapidly escalating EU, jobs cuts. Ca Gov't ready to axe and cut out payrolls and services. I go all over and see that the crowds have disappeared in the local shoreline resort areas, even during this past holiday. The consumers wallet has emptied out and credit has dried up. Fear of job cuts is on everyones mind - are U next? Retail is dead. I call this deflation, the worst since the great depression. Most folks haven't a clue and have their heads buried in the sand or get their info from the MSM and TV cable,. which are a bunch of liars or don't know squat. Better get your info on the real state of the economy from unbiased high-level blogsites such as Mish Global Economics and Bens Bubble Blog.

Part II
Ca gov't is completely BK and might as well shutter down for all i care. They can lay the axe on a good % of their useless state employees. As far as i am concerned The state is a hindrince to me though i hate to see such state treasures as our splendid state parks go to rot due to under maintenance and reduced staffing. Ca has bk'ed itself thru massive socialist spending -half of the state population is on the dole and the state will reach out to grab more taxes and wring more $ from the few productive working citizens. Ditto for county and local municipalities-the ruthless revenue collectors( your local police depts) are aggressively ticketing drivers to keep local city budgets afloat-their survival means your financial ruin.

Why redrock canyons fascinate me?

Most folks see the grand canyon at one time in their lives but never immerse themselves in the total canyon experience. I did hike down the canyon to the bottom and back in one day, a long hard hike. Saw the muddy chocolate colored Colorado river and walked along it banks. And the GC is not even near the best canyon experience on my list as i only did two trails -there are 100's of trails in the large GC expanse, and the best one is on the more remote northern rim, the thunder river/ deer creek trail which i have yet to do.
Back to SW canyon hiking. I liked Zion, bryce and capital reef canyons,. Best thing about canyons is to traverse a narrow twisting slot canyon and even wade thru it. The Virgin river narrows in Zion is a great canyon for doing a wading canyon hike . The san rafaell swell is also great for canyon slot hiking. There are also canyons where U can observe anastazi ruins such as johns canyon and grand gulch
Thing is i sold all my Utah/arizona canyoneering books on e-bay as i have chosen to devote all my remaining hiking/ camping years to the Sierras , the grandest best mts in the world.