[Group]

Saturday, August 20

The Drive to Salt Lake

Two vans carrying ten students left from the Arms parking lot around 7 AM and started the focused 12 hour drive to Salt Lake City. Most of the students managed to make up for their sleep deficit during this trip (the record for the least amount of sleep the night before was 15 minutes - by accident!), although it did raise the question from the Faculty participant as to why students, during their summer 'break', still displayed symptoms of the sleep deprivation that they normally attribute to the intense academic load at Caltech.

Meanwhile, Joe was packing up luggage for his wife and kids, who caught a flight for the Kirschvink home in Osaka, Japan at around 2 PM, the same time Joe caught a Southwest flight for Salt Lake City. From the Salt Lake Airport, Joe took a cab to a Borders bookstore near the I-15 and I-215 junction, and patiently waited about three hours for the bleary-eyed student crew to arrive. The rendezvous went smoothly, after an intense, multi-town hunt for a Walmart where we could purchase a 5-gallon water cooler. The gang of 11 camped at the Redman Forest Campground, pulling in at about 7 pm ("The Kopps are coming!" the camp manager declared) with plenty of light remaining for cooking the dinner of spaghetti and stimulating sauce.

Sunday, August 21

Fossil Lake

After breaking camp, a rapid breakfast, and lightning packing and stuffing of the two vans under direction of the 'Professional Tetris players', Petterson and Balta, we drove for about three hours farther north to our destination. A few miles after entering Wyoming, we received a polite gesture from a highway patrolman, which made us a teeny bit late for our visit to the Smith Hollow Quarry near Fossil Butte, in the Eocene Green River Formation. Anthony Lindgren, son of the owner of the quarry (Green River Stone Company), gave us a guided tour of the exposure, including a bed-by-bed description of the vertebrate fauna present in each unit. The locality was incredible -- the quarry produces everything from small hand-sized shale partings with superbly preserved fish to fossil-covered slabs large enough to cover entire counter and bench tops. When Anthony saw that the crumbling layers of shale were making the students eye their rock hammers, he brought out a collection of chisels, led us to an active part of the quarry, and gave us permission to go hog wild! He claimed several of the economically and scientifically important fossils that were found, but everyone had the thrill of discovering and keeping an assortment of beautiful fish and gastropod specimens.

After a communal lunch at the quarry headquarters, we drove the remaining 140 miles to Hoback Junction, just south of the Tetons. Along the route, Charlie described the imbricate thrust faulting of the Sevier orogeny and the basement-cored uplifts of the Laramide orogeny, the Cretaceous and early Tertiary orogenies that built the Rocky Mountains. Our day was topped off with fajitas and a night at Hoback Canyon under clear, starry skies.

Monday, August 22

Tetons, Day 1: Tram Ride

We woke up to a fresh coating of morning dew, and after sun-drying our gear, we packed up camp and tried to coax our vans up an off-road hill to observe Battle Mountain and discuss the Bear and Prospect Sevier thrust faults. We then drove for 2 hours to the Jackson Hole ski resort, where we piled into the Teton Village Aerial Tram to the top of Mount Rendezvous. There, we had our first experiences at serious altitude for the trip, with a packed lunch above tree line and a short hike that reminded us what breathing in a thinner atmosphere was like. We made our acquaintance with the Flathead Sandstone and other Cambrian units, the Ordovician Big Horn dolomite, the Devonian Darby siliclastics, and the Madison limestone. Most of the group scrambled up the section, while Charlie, Theresa, and Bob walked down in the valley, where they found abundant Paleozoic reef organisms in the boulders and played in the snow.

Upon leaving the ski resort, we picked up David, fresh from his summer photography workshops in Bermuda, at Jackson airport. We then headed around Jackson Lake to look at scarring from the 1925 Gros Ventre Landslide. Here, we heard from Lisa, who popularized the catchphrase "slickery slide!", which is properly used under circumstances in which one has sufficiently obliterated any attempts at a coherent explanation or has no idea how to answer a conceptual question. Despite much demand for hot springs to play in (mostly from a faculty member who shall remain nameless) and a good review from our hot springs guidebook, Kelley Spring warm hole turned out to be a bit disappointing - it was much smaller, somewhat colder, and more stagnant and algae-covered than promised. This sight, combined with the ominous storm clouds and lightning strikes in the not-too-distant distance, meant that our plans for a late-afternoon soak were abandoned in favor of Shadow Mountain Campground. As we arrived at camp, the rain that had followed closely behind us all afternoon began to pour down, accompanied by relatively gusty winds. Sheltered beneath a tarp strung between the two vans, we cooked a dinner of stew, the warmth of which made it particularly tasty in the otherwise miserable conditions. The storm cleared up in time for a mind-blowing sunset behind the Tetons. We went to bed after being spooked once by the eerie sounds of a bison herd.

Tuesday, August 23

Tetons, Day 2: Garnet Canyon

The crew woke up to a delicious classical breakfast of eggs, bacon, and hashed potatoes cooked by the master chefs, Brian, Charlie, and Ryan. The hearty breakfast left us well-prepared for our eight-mile day hike up Garnet Canyon, between the peaks of Grand Teton and Middle Teton. It was a welcome bout of exercise after a few van-heavy days; Charlie blazed ahead of the group while the gaggle of undergrads kept a steady pace and spent the early afternoon scrambling among the schists and gneisses of Garnet Canyon. Those who elected to take a slightly more leisurely pace (altitude and elevation gain are not everyone's friends) were treated to Brian's descriptions of the boulders' stories of weathering and deformation. When we reached the top, we lounged on the canyon's boulders and took in the beautiful views until dark grey clouds floated over the peaks of the Tetons, signaling the arrival of the 3 o'clock thunderstorm and provoking our hasty retreat down to lower elevations. Much celebration ensued at the prospect of showers at Colter Bay campground. After Brian's BBQ dinner and show, Bob and Ryan disappeared with a van and returned with a delicious surprise - ICE CREAM! Once it was devoured, David amazed us all with a tour of the night sky, showing us the Andromeda Galaxy, Vega, and anything else to which we pointed.

Wednesday, August 24

Yellowstone, Day 1

Our first stop today was the Grassy Lake Reservoir Quarry where we looked at the B member of the Lava Creek tuff. Lucas talked about the Yellowstone Hotspot, and Brian explained the history of the Yellowstone eruptions.

The next stop at Huckleberry Hot Springs, just south of the Yellowstone National Park, was our first real encounter with Yelllowstone's famous hydrothermal system. We waded across a knee-deep stream and passed through a lovely meadow to reach two pleasantly warm pools edged by wildflowersÉthe deadly hot springs! These hot springs, as our guidebook and multiple Forest Service signs warned, are inhabited by dangerous amoebae that can cause meningoencephalitis and death within ten days. The guide book also mentions that the radiation level of the springs is about one hundred times background. Nonetheless, Joe decided to go for a soak while the rest of the group looked on and issued a variety of dire warnings. Lisa and Valerie each filled a small water bottle with water from the springs, because you never know when a radioactive biohazard will come in handy.

This afternoon we finally entered Yellowstone National Park through the South Gate. Our first stop in the park was Lewis Falls, near the caldera rim. As we continued into Yellowstone, we drove past West Thumb, a part of Yellowstone Lake made up of a 150,000 year old caldera. We stopped at Pumice Point on the Northwest shore of Yellowstone Lake, which was very picturesque, but apparently misnamed, as there was no pumice to be found.

Our last stop of the day was at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, a feature created by the Yellowstone River's downcutting through andesite layers that had been softened and stained a variety of brilliant colors by hydrothermal alteration. The explanations further enhanced the view, which was a stunning spectacle in the late-afternoon sunlight.

We camped in Madison campground inside the park, where we had initially planned to spend several nights. However, a construction crew had closed the group campsites for repaving, so we were put in regular campsites. This wouldn't have been a problem, if not for the additional fact that a fleet of large RVs with noisy generators were parked in all the adjacent sites, leading to much repetition of the quip that we "could not see the forest for the RVs". Ouch! Even the only hot spring in the area was unavailable, a circumstance causing special distress to our faculty advisor.

Thursday, August 25

Yellowstone, Day 2

Today was excellent. We got up early and left the Madison campground, receiving a refund for the two subsequent nights we had initially planned to stay there, then headed to the Old Faithful Inn for a cooked breakfast buffet. We hung around the Inn until 10, when Old Faithful was scheduled to erupt, then toured the rest of the Upper Geyser Basin, including the considerably more impressive Beehive and Grand Geysers. Becky gave us an introduction to the principles of geyser hydrology, which led a number of tourists to mistake her for a tour guide. This part of Yellowstone was swamped with other tourists - several hundreds surrounded Old Faithful to wait for its semi-regular eruptions. The crowds of tourists also serve as good indicators of wildlife. Traffic jams and camera-toting tourists on the side of the road helped us spot bison, elk and even a wolf.

In the afternoon, we left the heavily-traveled paths for the Firehole Lake Drive area, where we examined the terraced sinters of Great Fountain Geyser and went on a short off-road walk to examine Octopus Pool up close (though a small pile of bones at the bottom of the pool served as a reminder to everyone but Joe and his walking stick, crafted from a branch of a millennium-old Japanese god-tree, not to come too close). Octopus Pool was particularly neat because we could walk right up the pool's edge and examine the precipitates closely. It is also of no small significance for molecular ecology; many strains of thermophilic bacteria and archaea in the 16S rRNA database come from work done here by Norm Pace's group at the University of Colorado.

The day rounded up with visits to Midway Geyser Basin and Lower Geyser Basin. The group undertook a scramble to the top of a bluff across the street in an attempt to see Grand Prismatic and other brilliantly blue pools from an aerial view, but was foiled by the unfortunate angle of the setting sun; the effort was well worth it, though, for the overview it provided of the entire geyser basin. At Fountain Paint Pot in Lower Geyser Basin we entered "an alien garden of mud cities" where "the mud seems alive, like a planet being born", as a sign along the trail informed us. Fed up with the conditions of the Madison Campground, we spent the night at the Stage Coach Inn in West Yellowstone after having dinner at a local pizza joint.

Friday, August 26

Yellowstone, Day 3

After breakfast in small cafŽ in West Yellowstone, we headed back into the park and stopped at Tuff Cliff, which is made up of Member A of the Lava Creek Tuff. A few of us hiked up the cliff for a closer look and examined lithic fragments and fiamme in the cliff face.

Next we drove to Norris Basin, where Theresa gave a talk on acidic vs. alkaline hot springs. Norris Basin offered a dazzling array of colors: the milky blue of Colloidal Pool (which Joe said was "Nature's milk," not "Darwin's milk"), the vibrant stripes of yellow, orange, and green photopigments of Pinwheel Geyser, and the aptly-named Black Pit and Emerald Spring.

After a short stop at Sheepeater Cliff, where we climbed on excellent examples of columnar jointing in a 500,000 year old post-caldera basalt flow, we headed on to Mammoth Hot Springs. There travertine precipitation forms huge terraces. The terraces and mounds at Mammoth Hot Springs are similar to the geyserite formations we saw earlier, but much larger because travertine precipitates faster than geyserite. In fact, we saw one travertine terrace that had engulfed a tennis court. Our stop at Obsidian Cliff was converted to a drive by since the park service had closed access to the cliffs. We then drove back to West Yellowstone for dinner at the Wolf Pack Grill and another night at the Stage Coach Inn.

Saturday, August 27

Yellowstone, Day 4

We started today with a quick breakfast in the parking lot of the Stage Coach Inn, while we simultaneously packed the vans and filled the water jugs in the hotel bathtubs. Then we returned to the park and entered the Absaroka range. We hiked to the Mt. Washburn Fire Lookout Tower from the North, passing over Eocene volcanics of the Absarokas. Along the way we encountered a herd of Bighorn sheep crossing the trail. When we reached the top, alas, the air was too foggy to see the view the lookout ought to have afforded us.

After lunch, we headed to the Calcite Springs overlook, where Tony gave a talk on the petroleum deposits at Calcite Springs and elsewhere in Yellowstone. Our last stop in Yellowstone was a 50 million year-old fossil redwood tree, surrounded by a fence, a parking lot, and numerous signs announcing "Petrified Tree." Ryan informed us that, as of a few years ago, the road signs had read "Petrified Forest," but they had apparently since been changed to reflect the solitude of the tree.

We then drove out of park at northeast corner through, and set out on the Goose Lake Jeep Trail to our campsite. It took about two hours for the vans to slowly crawl four miles over the steep, boulder-covered trail. Eventually we couldn't make it any farther up the rough trail, so we camped at Star Lake. After a tense ride to the campsite, we all unwound with a delicious spaghetti dinner, and more importantly, heavenly massages from Bob and Theresa. We found Star Lake to be aptly named; not for only its star-shaped shoreline, but also for the breath-taking reflection of the stars in its cold waters.

Sunday, August 28

Beartooth Mountains, Day 1: Grasshopper Glacier

Today the group split in two, as last night one of our party came down with a case of altitude sickness; one van therefore headed back down to Cooke City while the rest of the group hiked the 4.5 miles from Star Lake to Grasshopper Glacier. The hike, partially a scramble over glacial moraines, was a bit rough, but the landscape was a well worth it. Brilliantly-colored wildflowers, mountain streams, shimmering azure lakes, and bare glacier-carved peaks drew our gazes in every direction and made it difficult to keep our eyes safely on the trail. The glacier itself has shrunk considerably since the half-century old photo in our guidebook was taken; we would estimate that, in a few decades, the glacier will be gone.

The three hundred-year-old glacier's name comes from the grasshoppers frozen into it, one of which David managed to find and photograph. Our efforts at sliding, slipping, and crawling across the glacier in search of grasshoppers forced us to admire the herd of mountain goats we saw traverse the glacier with much more agility. As we returned to our campsite, Lisa and Tony rushed ahead to allow enough time for a quick swim in Star Lake's chilly glacier-fed water. This evening the group reunited at a campground outside of Cooke City.

Monday, August 29

Beartooth Mountains, Day 2

The morning began with friendly visit from a pair of moose about twenty feet from Becky and Theresa's tent before breakfast. As we enjoyed our breakfast, the moose moved to the nearby meadow to enjoy their own. Today we drove through the Beartooth Mountains, making several stops where Ryan explained the glacial features near Bear's Tooth peak and the stratigraphy of Beartooth Butte. Around lunchtime, we met up with Ed Beutner, a professor emeritus from Franklin & Marshall with whom Amy Hoffman, a first-year grad student who had not been able to come on the trip, had set us up.

Ed showed us around the Heart Mountain Detachment, a fault upon which Paleozoic sediments and Eocene Absaroka volcanics have slid tens of kilometers, with little deformation in much of the footwall along the fault plane. Ed argues the movement was partially caused by collapse of a volcanic cone and partially by a catastrophic slide of the upper block on a cushion of Big Horn dolomite transformed into carbon dioxide, in which the block moved tens of kilometers in less than a hour. He led us on a hike to an exposure of the fault, which we had to dig out from a small slide of dirt. There we found a unique phenomenon in the fault surface: tracks of small pebbles which look like a turbidite flow. According to Ed, this supports theory of that the grains were suspended in a gas cushion of carbon dioxide. After the hike, we returned to our campsite, where we enjoyed a refreshing bath in the river, fajitas, and s'mores.

Tuesday, August 30

Beartooth Mountains, Day 3

Today Ed Beutner continued to reveal the Heart Mountain story to us, with stops at Cathedral Cliffs, Sunlight Creek, White Mountain, Dead Indian Hill and Buffalo Bill Dam. Cathedral Cliffs offered a good view of the Heart Mountain Fault, which would have been excellent if the angle of the light had been better. At Sunlight Creek, he pointed out the glacial features of the valley, including striations on the Flathead Sandstone. Next we hiked up to an exposure of the Heart Mountain Fault at White Mountain. On the way to Dead Indian Hill, we saw a beautiful example of meter-scale kink bands in the Park Shale. At the top of Dead Indian Hill, Ed was able to give panoramic view of the Heart Mountain story as we sat on felsenmar eating wild raspberries. Our final stop for the day was Buffalo Bill Dam outside of Cody, where we observed folding and the Great Unconformity. We then headed back to Cody for dinner at an Italian restaurant. After a long, joyful dinner, celebrations continued late into the night at the motel.

Wednesday, August 31

Hebgen Lake

After breakfast at a restaurant in Cody, we spent the morning making the long drive to Hebgen Lake, where we witnessed the effects of the magnitude 7.5 earthquake that occurred there in 1959. As we approached Earthquake Lake we were struck by the tops of skeletal trees rising from the surface of the lake. A museum near the lake explained how Earthquake Lake formed when a landslide associated with the 1959 earthquake dammed the Madison River. A sign at the museum also explained how the Yellowstone hotspot may be an ancient meteor "still glowing deep within the earth" and ended with what became our new catch-phrase: "Geologists don't know." Next we stopped at abandoned buildings destroyed in the earthquake. We also stopped to look at examples of fault scarps at Cabin Creek, where, a sign informed us, a "21 foot fault scarp severed the campground," and at another exposure, where Valerie, Tony, Lisa and Becky discovered (and became obsessed with devouring) a large patch of thimbleberries.

On the way back to our campsite at Hebgen Lake, we stopped to help a woman whose truck was stuck in a ditch. While we were winching her out, she gave us treats to feed her horses, Circe and Ringo. Back at the campsite, we enjoyed a tasty dinner of chili.

Thursday, September 1

The Drive Home, Day 1

This morning the trumpeting of a pair of cranes walking along the edge of our campsite echoed in the mountains like reveille, as if they wished to wake us to witness the glorious sunrise over the misty lake. Most of our group cursed the noisy squawking and went back to sleep until they were woken by the smell of the glorious pancakes Brian was preparing. After breakfast, the thimbleberry-crazed undergrads walked up the road to pick bowlfuls of berries to be enjoyed in the vans as we embarked on our long trip back south. We stopped at the Menan Buttes, phreatomagmatic cones on the Snake River Plain. After lunch at Beaver Dick Park, we had our last geology stop of the trip, Hell's Half Acre, a visitor-friendly basaltic lava field that seemed to be rather proud of its pahoehoe. We went to dinner at a burger joint in Utah with fantastic milkshakes. We spent the final night of our trip camping near Nephi.

Friday, September 2

The End

After a quick stop at the Devil's Kitchen, a "miniature Bryce Canyon" near our campsite, we began the long drive back to Caltech. We stopped for lunch at Quail Creek State Park in Utah. We arrived back at Caltech not long after dark.

Many thank to the GPS Division for making this trip possible.

This web page was created by Bob Kopp. Last updated: 2005-10-06 18:00.
The trip log was written by the field trip participants. Copyright © 2005 by the authors.
All photos are copyright © 2005 by the photographers.