Down the River: Geotripper Goes Geo-Rafting

I'm on the verge of one of my great life adventures. Sunday morning, I'll be rolling over the Paria Riffles (below) on the first day of a 226 mile journey down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. I've never done it, and I've always wanted to, and after 40 years of waiting, it's happening. I'm excited to have the chance to explore the depths of the canyon pretty much for the first time. I've hiked to the river on three or four occasions, at Hance Creek and Bright Angel Creek, but those trips were decades ago, and had little to do with the river itself.

Of course, there is no communicating with the outside world, so Geotripper will be on hiatus for a couple of weeks. If you are new to this blog, this is a great chance to catch up on some of the past Geotripper series on the Colorado Plateau, the Sierra Nevada, and other wonderful parts of the world. They're listed below...

See you all in a few weeks! With pictures, I hope, assuming I don't drop the camera in the river!

The Other California: what to see when you've seen all the really famous places in the Golden State (in progress).

Vagabonding Across the 39th Parallel: A journey through the geological wonderland in central Nevada, Utah and Colorado in 2011.

A Convergence of Wonders, a compilation of posts on our journey through the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rocky Mountains in 2011.

The Abandoned Lands, a compilation of posts on our journey around the margins of the Colorado Plateau in 2012.

Time Beyond Imagining: A "Brief" History of the Colorado Plateau - this was an extended exploration of the geology of one of the great geological showplaces on planet Earth

Under the Volcano and Into the Abyss: Yosemite National Park - Exploring a few of the lesser known corners of Yosemite Valley, from below and from above

The Airliner Chronicles: My First Blog Series - Seeing geology from the perspective of seven miles above.

A Convergence of Wonders: A Compilation

The trip I called the Convergence of Wonders was a combined geology and archaeology course that we conducted on June 15-30, 2011, in which we explored the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rocky Mountains. Our students and volunteers traveled more than 4,500 miles through regions that have been influenced by convergence along the Cascadia and related subduction zones, as well as a hot spot and continental divergence. Each day revealed stunning geological features and insights into the human occupation of the region over the last 13,000 years or more. This is a compilation of all of the blog entries I posted about the trip.



"Journeys in the Pacific Northwest" was the introductory post about the series, and provided some background about why we did the trip we did, and what our goals were. 





"Journeys in the Pacific Northwest, Day 1" was the story of the trip from home to our first camp at Lava Beds National Monument on the night of the full moon. En route, we explored the flanks of Mt. Shasta, the largest stratovolcano in the Cascades, and found out that a record snowpack and late spring was going to be a problem on this trip.

"Day 2, Lava Beds and Newberry Caldera" includes our exploration of Lava Beds National Monument, including the extensive lava tube system, an incredible panel of petroglyphs, and the site of the last war between the federal government and Native Americans in California. Late in the day, we visited an obsidian dome in Newberry caldera.

"Day 3, Crossing the Subduction Zone" chronicled our passage across the Cascades to the Washington coast at the mouth of the Columbia River at Cape Disappointment State Park. Smith Rock State Park in Oregon was an incredibly scenic view into the heart of a rhyolite caldera eruption, and our day ended looking pillow basalts from the floor of the Pacific Ocean floor. In between, we checked out an excavation taking place at Fort Vancouver.

"Day 4: Cape Disappointment and Real Disappointments" was the story of weather-related disappointments. The skies opened up throughout the day, including along the flanks of Mt. St. Helens, which was to be the centerpiece of our exploration. The mountain remained invisible in the clouds. The sun emerged, of course, but not until we were far beyond the crest of the Cascades and almost to our camp in Yakima.

"Day 5: In the Land of the Great Flood" was a narrative of our passage across the wastelands produced by a series of catastrophic floods that defy human imagination. At Dry Falls, we looked at canyons (the coulees) that were carved in a few days or weeks of remarkable "river" flows hundreds of feet deep. We also had a chance to see the Wenas Creek Mammoth at Central Washington University.

"Day 6: In the Land of the Great Draining" was an exploration of the lands where the floodwaters originated: glacial Lake Missoula. We traversed a barren valley (the Camas Prairie) where ripplemarks thirty feet high convinced many geologists of the occurrence of the Spokane Floods. We arrived in beautiful Glacier National Park at the end of the day, and were greeted with an incredible rainbow.

"Day 7: Of Time and Pressure in Glacier National Park" found us at the Canadian border where we started an exploration of Glacier National Park, at least the parts that were not still snowbound. We checked out the Lewis Overthrust, and examined the Proterozoic sedimentary rocks that make up much of the park.

"Day 8: Of Time, Pressure, and the Plain Truth" found us out on the Great Plains east of Glacier. We toured the Museum of the Plains Indians in Browning, and worked our way past numerous thrust sheets in Sun Canyon, where convergence pushed numerous fault slices over one another. We also checked out some exhibits on some of the most famous discoveries concerning dinosaurs at Choteau, Montana.

"Day 9: Into the Depths of the Crust, and of Time" discusses one of the most spectacular roads in America, the Beartooth Highway from Red Lodge to Yellowstone National Park. We also checked out the Stillwater Mine, where platinum and other rare minerals are produced. The outcrops we were traversing including some of the most ancient rocks on the continent.

"Day 10: Explorations of a Real Hot Spot" was just that...a tour of Yellowstone National Park, one of the crown jewels of the National Park System. We explored Yellowstone Falls, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Mammoth Hot Springs, and Norris Geyser Basin. The highlight for many of us was the witnessing of a wolf competing with a raven at a kill site.

"Day 11: The Orange Steam is OK, but the Blue Stuff Will Kill You" was a further exploration of Yellowstone, with visits to Grand Prismatic Hot Spring, and the famous geysers in Upper Basin (yeah, Old Faithful was spouting off, but I was watching Beehive). We ended the day in Grand Teton National Park.

"Day 12: A Richness of Geological Drama at Grand Teton (and Pelicans)" was a beautiful day of exploration in the Grand Tetons. We also checked out the Gros Ventre Slide, one of the most famous slope failures in the United States.

"Day 13: Hidden Treasures and Hazards on the Road in Western Wyoming" saw us beginning the long journey home. We checked out the Game Creek Archaeological Site and Fossil Butte National Monument, and saw a lot of sagebrush as we made our way south into Utah...

"Day 14: Treasures Discovered and Lost in Nine Mile Canyon" chronicles an expedition through seventy-mile long Nine Mile Canyon, a showcase of Fremont Culture artwork and archaeological sites. The canyon is also a site of controversy, as heavy industry is mining natural gas in the area, with profound effects in the canyon itself. Later in the day, we saw the Dinosaur Museum in Price, and ended the day searching for Topaz crystals in the western Utah desert.

"Day 15: We Go Underground in Great Basin" saw us making a 500 mile journey across the Basin and Range Province, with a stop at Great Basin National Park for a tour of Lehman Cave, and a stop at Garnet Hill, for, eh, garnets. A motorcycle accident caused us to arrive in a spooky camp at 11:00 PM.

"Day 16: Our Home Mountains, Giant Swimming Reptiles, and a Bunny" was our last day on the road. We checked out the bizarre Mesozoic creatures at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada, Mono Lake in eastern California, and Yosemite National Park in our backyard before arriving at the end our journey.

A Convergence of Wonders, Day 16: Our Home Mountains, Giant Swimming Reptiles, and a Bunny

After 15 days and 4,200 miles, we woke up to the last day of our Convergence of Wonders, the geological tour of the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rocky Mountains. It was June 30th. We had traveled through the Cascades and the Coast Ranges, the present-day manifestation of convergence along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. We had traveled across the Columbia Plateau and the Channeled Scablands, and looked at evidence of past convergence in Montana's Glacier National Park, and Sun Canyon. We explored the inner parts of the earth's crust along the Beartooth Highway, and saw the evidence for a gigantic mantle plume (hot spot) at Yellowstone National Park. We saw the vast heavings of fault lines in the crust at Grand Teton National Park. And now, after a series of adventures in Utah and Nevada, we were finally headed home.

In the most technical sense, we could have started driving and made it home for a late lunch. But we couldn't pass up several of the most spectacular geological sights of our trip. We were almost home, but we could still be distracted by geological sights!

When we arrived at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park very late the previous night, not a few of our students were just a bit spooked by finding we were spending the night in a ghost town. The menacing looking ruins of the dark night were a little less nerve-wracking in the morning sun, so we packed and headed up to the quarry for a tour. Berlin-Ichthyosaur is a two-fer park: it preserves a late 1800's gold mining town, and a 200 million year old paleontology dig.

The ichthyosaurs were the dolphins/whales of the dinosaur era, the Mesozoic, aside for being in the wrong biological class. Whales and dolphins are mammals, of course, and the mammals were a rather minor part of the Mesozoic ecosystem, and as far as I know, none of them were adapted to marine conditions. Ichthyosaurs were air-breathing reptiles that were wonderfully adapted to life in the sea. They had the four limbs of their terrestrial ancestors, but their body shape was streamlined for fast swimming in the oceans. There were many species, ranging in length from a meter (3 feet) to 20 meters or more (65 feet). They had huge eyes, exceeding the size of pie plate in some of the larger species. That's a full-scale model of a Shonisaurus popularis in the picture above (the fat one is Geotripper himself, providing scale), the species found at Berlin-Ichthyosaur.

The bones of the ichthyosaurs were first noted by the miners, who used the massive vertebrae as doorstops and dinner plates. The site was excavated by paleontologists in the 1950s and 60s, who discovered more than three dozen more or less complete specimens. Nine or ten specimens were left in place for public viewing, and a structure was built over the site.

The bones don't differ overmuch in color from the surrounding rock, but the shapes are fairly obvious. The parallel bones above are ribs. Below are a number of vertebrae.

The skulls were the most delicate part of the skeleton, and were often crushed during preservation. Some portions of a skull are present in the photo below. Few teeth were found at the site.

One of the mysteries is why so many of the ichthyosaurs ended up dead in this one place. Numerous ideas have been suggested, including strandings, volcanic eruptions, spawning behaviour and others, but the favored explanation of the moment based on available evidence is that they died from mass poisoning, much as marine animals are killed today by red tides (toxic microorganisms). For more information on the topic, check out vignette 14 in Geology Underfoot in Central Nevada, by Orndorff, Wieder and Filkorn.

After our excellent tour by ranger Robin Riggs, we hit the road, and after a few hours we passed a welcome sign, the one that said we were back in California. Our beautiful home mountains, the Sierra Nevada, filled the horizon.

 Highway 167 is a very straight road in this part of the country!

Lest the students get lazy, we still had a few classes to go! We stopped in at Mono Lake County Park to sit in the grass under the Cottonwood trees. Mono Lake is an interior drainage lake; water flows in, but doesn't flow out. During the ice ages, glacial meltwater filled the basin, forming a lake 600 feet deeper that overflowed into adjacent basins, with water ultimately reaching Death Valley. In recent times the lake was 45 feet deeper than it is today, but in 1940, Los Angeles started diverting water from the incoming streams, and the lake started drying up.

 The spot we were walking on (below) was underwater half a century ago...

The lake is a critical stop for millions of migratory birds, as it has plentiful food in the form of fairy shrimp and brine flies. The birds need the nourishment to allow them to complete their long journeys. The conflict of human use and ecosystem preservation has dominated the politics of the region for decades. Recent agreements may stabilize the situation...maybe.

The mountains on the skyline are the Mono Craters, a series of rhyolite plug domes that have all erupted within the last 35,000 years or so. The last eruptions were only a few centuries ago. That makes this 9,000 foot ridge the youngest mountain range in the country.

Freshwater springs in the lake caused the formation of tufa towers, masses of calcium carbonate that stand like frozen sentries in the water.

After a quick lunch at the Whoa Nellie Deli, we headed over Tioga Pass and passed through Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. By now, even the instructors wanted to go home, despite the incredible scenery. We will go see this stuff on a day trip later! Meanwhile we stopped for a wrap-up lecture and group photo at Olmsted Point. Half Dome loomed in the distance...

I snapped a quick picture of Mt. Conness and Tenaya Lake, and we got in the vans for the final hundred mile drive to Modesto.

We got in about 6 o'clock, and there were many happy shouts of reunions with loved ones. There was also a huge mess, but most of the students were cool enough to stay and help clean up. I love these folks! We were home. Mrs. Geotripper and I headed to the house said hi to our animals and managed to hang around the house for ten days before we got restless and hit the road again.

 As promised, here is the bunny. Mrs. Geotripper caught it in the early morning at Berlin-Ichthyosaur.

 It didn't fully cooperate in the careful posing category...

And that is the end of our Convergence of Wonders! I hope you enjoyed traveling with us!

A Convergence of Wonders, Day 15: We Head Underground in the Great Basin

It was Day 15 of our Convergence of Wonders journey in the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rocky Mountains (June 29th). Being only a day from home, we had actually left the PNW and Rockies far behind, and we would be traveling upwards of 500 miles on this day to get as close to home as was practical. We were crossing the vast, mostly barren expanse of the Basin and Range Province in western Utah and eastern Nevada on America's "Loneliest Highway".

People may be forgiven for thinking that "lonely" equates to "uninteresting". I know differently, having gone to college in Reno, and doing some extensive geo-touring across the region. Silver Fox, over at Looking For Detachment, understands this as well, and is a great resource for understanding some of the incredible geology to be found in this unique landscape. Unfortunately, it had been two weeks of hard traveling, and it was getting harder to rouse the troops! But two stops caught everyone's attention.

We drove the two hours from Topaz Mountain to Great Basin National Park near Ely, Nevada. We found a nice spot under a huge cottonwood tree at the visitor center to talk about the park's geology. It's rich, and I will have more to say about it in the future. But the park's centerpiece is Lehman Cave, and we were going on a tour.

Of course, we needed a guide, and we heard the usual thing one always hears: "Don't Touch Anything!" Of course, such admonitions are necessary, as caverns are one of the most fragile environments to be found anywhere. A single broken stalactite will take centuries to grow back, if ever (many caverns are not active...few parts of Lehman Cave have any water at all). In the earliest days, cavern explorers took a stalactite as a souvenir. More than a million people have now toured the cave...how would the cave look if even a fraction of that many people broke something off and absconded with it?

Luckily many of the cavern's decorations, called speleothems, are still intact. There are rich examples of dripstone speleothems, like the familiar stalactites, stalagmites, and columns. Photographing caves and cave features is always a challenge for me. Flash can be used, but such pictures are often washed out and have little depth. I try to use the provided light when I can (I almost wrote "natural light", but that would be silly to say). Tripods aren't allowed on the tours, so I braced the camera on the railing for the pathway, and used a 2 second delay on the shutter so the pushing of the shutter release wouldn't shake the camera.

 Here are lots of the familiar dripstone features...

Lehman Cave is unique for the 300 or so cave shields that are found within. They are only found in about 80 other caves around the country (out of thousands). The shields can be thought of as two fossilized cymbals, two large disks separated by a thin crack. Their origin is not well understood.

 There's another shield in the little alcove below...

 And a pair of shields in a solution tube...

The cave is well worth the long journey. And there are many other features that make Great Basin a unique destination. Unfortunately, the tour ended, and we were in a hurry to get across the desert.

We made a brief stop at the Baker Archaeological Site, a village on the desert floor that is the westernmost Fremont Culture site so far discovered. The site itself is unremarkable to see (it was excavated years ago and no artifacts are displayed), but the view of the Snake Range and Great Basin National Park is spectacular.

We made a gasoline stop in Ely, the metropolis of eastern Nevada (around 4,000 people), and headed up the hill near Ruth, Nevada to search for some more gemstones. This time our target was the garnet crystals of Garnet Hill. Most geologists probably associate garnet with metamorphic rocks, but on Garnet Hill, the gems are found in a rhyolite intrusion/caldera complex that is very similar to the rocks that hosted the topaz crystals that we found in Utah the previous day. The federal Bureau of Land Management set aside the site from mineral claims to keep it accessible to casual collectors like ourselves. It's at the end of a three mile dirt road which is usually passable for passenger cars.

There were different strategies for finding deep red garnet crystals...one could pound rocks open with a rock hammer, and use a lot of calories and sweat, or one could let the car traffic do the work for us. There are enough crystals that car tires break the gems out and they can be discovered by simply walking along the road watching for dark spots.

The crystals display very nice faces. They look black, but if you look closely (click on the photos), you can make out the rich deep red color (this variety is called almandine garnet).

These specimens are pretty small, less than a quarter of an inch, but I have seen some found here nearly an inch across.

It was getting on towards 3 o'clock, and we still had something like 250 miles to go, and it was going to be sundown when we arrived at camp, if everything went right. Everything didn't...

It wasn't our accident, but some motorcyclists lost control in the heavy winds that were buffeting the highway and crashed, and we had to wait for ambulances to come and clear the scene. Apparently no one was dead, but the traffic was blocked in both directions for well over an hour, so we were suddenly grievously behind schedule

Instead of waiting until late in the evening for dinner, we stopped in Eureka and invaded their few restaurants. 180 miles to go, and the sun was hitting the horizon. There were storms all around us, and the skies were glorious. The sunset was one of the more beautiful ones we saw this trip, but we couldn't stop for pictures.

We rolled into camp at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park just before 11 o'clock and set up camp for the last time. Tomorrow we were going home. And yet still more treasures lay ahead on the road. That will be the subject of the next and final post of this series!

The sunset and storm pictures are courtesy of Mrs. Geotripper.