I Walked the Entire Solar System

Two days ago, the four of us went on a hike. This particular hike was hiking from planet to planet, in the Solar System. The Solar System Sculpture was created in 2004 and is constructed with recycled metals. Both the diameters of the planets and the distance between planets are to scale but it is still possible to walk in a day. I learned from the guide book that if you do hike it, you are traveling roughly four times the speed of light within the scale of the model. From each planet, you can see the sun, but from the outer planets, you need binoculars. Pluto is in the Solar System Sculpture because at the time it was built, Pluto was still considered to be a full blown planet. 

We began our hike at a parking lot, going to Pluto and working our way back to the the sun. First we hiked through a flat field with big tuffs of grass and bushes. Hills and slopes surrounded us. A few small, jagged rocky ridges stuck suddenly out of the grassy ground like giant mohawks.There were no trails, so we were hiking across country, but this was not like bushwhacking in Chile.

 

Porter hiking up one of the first hills

 Daddy showing me and Porter how to follow the GPS

We normally don't use a GPS for hiking but we did not have a good map, there was no trail, and the planets would have been hard to find without the GPS coordinates. Porter and I took turns using the GPS to navigate to the next waypoint. It was fun to be the person with the GPS because it made me feel like I was in the expedition, not trailing along after the explorers.

At one point it started to rain, then hail. We hid behind one of the boulders for cover. In fact, during the six hour hike, it rained and hailed multiple times. The good news is that we were always able to hide from the worst of it by hiding under ledges or in the lee of big boulders. And even better, while we were hiding we also had a snack, which was better than stopping just once for lunch.

I was expecting Pluto to be the size of a grapefruit and was really surprised when we finally found it nestled in the rocks and the size of a BB. The next big surprise to be was that the planets were not all in a straight line on one ridge but we had to go down, cross a river, and go up onto another ridge line to find Neptune. And again, I was surprised to find that Neptune was smaller than a tennis ball because we had to walk so far between the planets. At one point, I noted that I wished the planets were bigger so that they would be easier to find on the hike. But then Porter pointed out that if they were bigger, then the walk between them would be very long. Along the ridge, Uranus was the same size as Neptune and Saturn was the size of a large orange, not including the rings. The distance between each outer planet was more than a kilometer.

 Porter and I at Pluto

 This is me, standing near Pluto and pointing to the town of Port Stanley where the sun is. It is a long way from here!

 Daddy and Mama at Neptune

 Here we are walking along the ridge from Neptune to Uranus

 Porter, Daddy and I at Uranus, right after a big rain storm and snack

 Obviously this is us at Saturn

The last of the outer planets, Jupiter, which was bigger than a grapefruit, was right along the shore on the north side of Stanley Harbor. Directly across the water, you could just barely see the sun. So then we had to walk all the way back around the harbor. 

Standing at Jupiter, Mama is trying to point directly at the sun, which is actually just below and to the left of her finger.

The inner planets were really close together. Each one was well within sight of the other so it did not take us very long to see the last of the planets in the solar system sculpture. 

 Mars

 This is Earth and the smaller one is the moon

This is Mercury. You can see the sun just in the background. And unfortunately, we do not have a picture of Venus.

This is the sun with the other planets sitting right on it.

I enjoyed the hike itself but enjoyed the concept of the solar system sculpture even more. It was very interesting to learn the relative size of the planets, something that took me by surprise. Also, the sculptures turned the solar system into a treasure hunt because finding each planet was really fun. - Jack Rabbit