this sure is an overdue blog post. oopsie! Time goes by so quickly when your working , and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. Lets see if i can still remember enough from summer to update you.
GEO 660
Our Route:
We started bright and early May 24th, 5:30am I think, and drove through some spectacular west Texas scenery. We Reached The Guadalupe Mts National Park sometime in the afternoon and got right to work!
El Capitan
First Day!
Dr. Mohrig Explaining something
A Horny Toad!!
To say day 2 of Geo660 makes you want to chop off your legs, gouge out your eyes and swear off geology for the rest of your life is a gross understatement. It is to every graduate of the Jackson School of Geology known as the DEATH MARCH,aka the Permian Reef Trail. If you really want to know more, you can read about it here, written by this guy. But if you just want the short version it's a 2000 ft in elevation and 4.2 miles long (not round trip, so 8.4 miles total), uphill the entire time. Also keep in mind this is done in 100 degree weather with your backpack, rock hammer, lunch, water, field notebook, clipboard, and observing geology and taking notes the entire time. There are 28 stops total, and i was tired by the time we got to stop 2. eek.
Daniel and Jeremy
Car #5:(Evan, Me, Jessica, Nam, Miriam, Alejandra,Alex)
The Entire Group
While we were in Carlsbad, Jessica and I decided to order from Pizza Hut for dinner. We were sick of pizza and Jessica is a vegetarian, so the following conversation resulted between me and the Pizza Hut Girl:PHG: Thanks for calling Pizza Hut, how may i help you?
M: Hi, what kind of pastas do you guys have?
PHG: (lists the pastas, all of which have meat)
M: do you have anything without meat?
PHG: Bacon Mac'n Cheese
M: ...Bacon?
PHG: OH! right I'm sorry, Duh!
M: That's ok. I know you're pizza hut, but do you have anything that's not pizza, not pasta, and does not contain meat?
PHG: Chicken Wing!
M: ... Goodbye ...
Poor girl can't tell the diff between veggies and meat. Or maybe chicken is considered a veg in Carlsbad.
Our Campsite
Exploring the woods
From Cloudcroft, we worked in White Sands National Monument, white is filled with beautiful white gypsum sand. Possibly my favorite project during the trip!
Of course, who can leave New Mexico without going to the Carlsbad Caverns. Beautiful Stalactite and Stalagmites, practically a geologist's heaven.Entering...
On our last night in NM, we camped at Abiquiu Lake, which was a nice change from Cloudcroft. Jessica, who cannot look at a body of water without going in even took a dip in the lake which was in the 50s. Nice little preview of what was to come.
Driving out of NM and into Colorado, we passed some amazing sights. Colorado, i think, has to be my favorite state (Texas not included) during this trip. So Beautiful, and comes with a cellphone signal.Ouray, CO the real life south park
We stopped at Molas Pass, our highest elevation at 10910ft, for lunch. It was rainy, but still breathtaking.
on a good day
We eventually made our way to Grand Junction, CO where we stayed at Mesa State College. I loved this place. The weather was nice, the dorms that we stayed in were brand new ans suite style and the chef who cooked for us out did himself everyday. From Grand Junction, we commuted everyday to do field work in Utah. Insane. We drove 3 hours to do 1 hr of field work. Thank goodness for the Starbucks and icecream breaks courtesy of Dr. Steel. Love that man.
Book Cliffs
sweet herringbone
Wildcat's den that we stumbled upon, luckily no wildcat
On our first day off, Alejandra, Jessica and I decided to walk around main street Grand Junction, which was Bursting with small town charm.
Main Street
A supposed baby mammoth skeleton...hmmm... (of course we manage to find the only rock shop)
At the first gas station we stopped at in Wyoming, the girls decided that we should stretch our legs a little so we walked in, looked around and saw some jackalope paraphernalia. At first we thought it was so cute and funny, and then we saw this:
Except the Texas said Wyoming of course. And then we saw another post card and another and another! All with extremely convincing pictures and jackalope facts like this one! Andrea and I looked at each other and were like: OMG! ITS REAL!!! and we rushed outside to the car to show the boys. The boys took one look at it and said "You guys are dumb." and dumb we felt. So I bought a mini jackalope and named him Roger to remember this experience. lolz. but not really.Roger sitting on Jessica
We arrive at the Green Oasis Campground in Greybull, WY in good time. Of course when you hear the place is called Green Oasis Campground, you automatically assume that it's going to be crap (Es Basura! as my friend Alejandra would say), because life is just one big Oxymoron, no? well at least Geo660 is. And if you did assume this place is crap, you would be right, because Green Oasis Campground is actually some dude's backyard. in Greybull, WY. Never been to Greybull? it's ok. you can die happier this way. according to the owner of said "campground", and I quote, "you guys are the biggest thing to hit town all year round!" sigh.Setting up our sad tarp
We did all of our cooking under our tarp, so it's a fairly important piece of the pie. Don't worry, the TAs and professor eventually felt bad of us and made did it for us, lol. this is what happened when you have all girls in a group who have never even used a tarp for cover let alone tie it to trees. Green Oasis Campground(right most tent is mine!)
See the patch of pebble on the right of this picture above? that's the dude's patio. See the white stuff on the yellow tent and all over the ground? that's his busted bag of crack. j/k, it's snow. YES, SNOW. IN JUNE. and guess what? we still had to go into the field.
Unfortunately for us, this particular field is covered in bentonite, an extreamly soft clay that turns into slippery slopes of death the second it comes in contact with water. fun stuff. even more fun in snow and hail.Goose Egg Dome
Getting schooled by Dr. Helper
sweet chevron fold
Eric and I observing geology
See my shoes? that's after I cleaned them.Finally, After a week of Greybull, we were ready to move on to better things: Yellowstone!!! woohoo!!
Yellowstone Lake
We didn't camp in Yellowstone, instead we camped in Grand Teton national Park, which is connected to Yellowstone.
A herd of buffalo walked past our cars!!We were told there was a huge lake very close to our campground so we decided to go check it out.
a little trail that leads to the lake
taken from inside some sort of shelter made from logs.and then, we found it...
Panoramic View
Logs on shore
The Girls
Couple of crazies that got into the 30 degree water
The Coors Light Duo
random waterfall
Having fun on our half day off in West Yellowstone (can you tell i'm getting tired of writting?)
Alejandra Bear, Andrea Wolf, Michelle Buffalo and Ashley Moose
After a blissful day of freedom, we mosey off to Lewis and Clark Cavern State park, where we camped out for a week. So if you've been keeping track, you will notice that we've been camping for two weeks straight now. what i haven't told you is that before we left, the professor told us to pack for one week. yup. It was terrible. I had to double dip into my bag of dirty clothing and rewear. including soggy, dirty socks. yum-o. But i have to say that this camp site was probably my favorite. the weather was nice, and the scenery was beautiful. We were on a wide stretch of grassy field with tall moutains as our backdrop and a river running through the grounds. I loved this place.
we were visited by a rainbow every night
On a hike after dinner
Indian Leg Wrestle
how we did our work every night
The Boys
our mapping area (Black Sage)
we're not posing
Next Destination: Dillon, MT
This place had excelent weather, but was unfortunatly a dump. The coolest most happenin' place in town was a dairy queen. BUT, we did get to stay in dorms here which was nice but not nearly as nice as Mesa State (Grand Junction, CO). This was the first time on this trip that we had internet access, so naturally, I lived in the library after dinner.
Outside of dorm
Our mapping area, Sandy Hollow, is aparently one of the most popular in the area because there were alot of other geology field camps there. But we were the best. of course. This area is know for awesome geology and rattle snakes. i think i saw at least two a day. and almost got bit by one.
this place really sucked. that's pretty much all i can say about it.From the luxury of the dorms, we moved on to our biggest challenge: primitive camping in Hecla. Hecla is absolutly beautiful. It's also in the middle of nowhere. The only way to get to our camp ground was to drive 30min at 5mph on an unpaved, rocky road. Oh, and theres no bathrooms. It's as if we traveld back in time 200 years and decided to camp in the middle of a forest. Theres snow everywhere, and it's so cold at night we have to do our work in the cars.
campsite
Stream of glacial melt that i showered in (aprox. 30 degrees)
Cook Group! (notice the immeasurably better tarp that we set up BY OURSELVES!!)
Campground in the morning
where we got water everyday 
Dr. Helper trying to convince us the water is drinkable
Abandoned Log Cabin
Getting ready for the day:
Field Area:
Burning everything the last night
Finally, Arches National Park, UT on the way back.
Done!!
I know 660 is going to be one of those things that I will always remember and tell stories about no matter how long it's been. Looking at these pictures, everything seems like such a dream. I can't believe I did all these things and went to all these places. Yet, I can remember exactly how I felt on every moment of this trip. The first couple of weeks went by so slowly that it felt like months. I clearly recall Andrea and I exclaiming to each other that it couldn't possibly been only a day,a week, two weeks. I didn't think i was going to get through. But somewhere in the middle, I began to actually enjoy myself, and before I knew it we were on our way home. It was really bitter sweet the first couple of days back. I woke up in my own bed, without 30 other tents surrounding me. I didn't see everyone everyday, I didn't have to be somewhere every minute. I found myself really missing everyone, and the whole experience. Andrea, Alejandra, Jessica, Ashley, Alex, Wan, Evan, Jeremy, Daniel, Stephen, Nam, Miriam, I really miss you guys, and I think if i had to, I would do the whole thing again.
*Edit*
The Field Geologist's Tan:
