Swell!

The San Rafael Swell, that is. Located along I-70 just west of Green River, UT, the swell is a large monocline (half of a fold) that was pushed up by a fault at depth approximately 60-70 million years ago.  The students are spending a few hours mapping a small portion of it and I'm sitting on a little hill looking at this:

While on the internet. Technology is amazing. When it's not deleting your blog posts.

Oh the wonders of technology

I do apologize for the long radio silence. I was writing a long update a couple of days ago and was just about to post it when the internet connection crapped out and I lost the entire post.

Please do stay tuned! I'm collecting pictures from the students and will get some posted asap. We are enjoying a day off today in Moab and will be heading out to central Utah tomorrow.  We will be stopping at the San Rafael Swell for the students to map it for a few hours. Then on to the Canyon Range (near Delta, UT).

Zion National Park

Today we started "doing geology". Which just happened to involve spending the day hiking and exploring Zion National Park.  We'll get more of the students' pictures up here soon.

At the summit of Angel's Landing, overlooking Zion Canyon.

(front) Anthony, Marko, Melissa, Justin, Rafik

(back) Cal, Josh, Steve, Kyle, Erin, Cody

Craters of the Moon National Monument, ID

We woke up in Helena, MT this morning and arrived at Craters of the Moon around lunchtime.  We took some time to check out spatter cones (preserved lava "fountains"), hike up a cinder cone (small volcano), and explore a lava tube.  Tomorrow night will be our first night camping - in Zion National Park!

Click on picture for larger version.

Spatter cone

Frozen lava flow

Pahoehoe ("pah-hoy-hoy") - Hawaiian for "ropy texture"

Inside the Indian Tunnel - a lava tube

Exploring the lava tube

A snowball fight IN the lava tube! (Not too many people can say they've done that!)

Most of us - we'll get everyone next time.

Follow our route!

Click here:  Google Map of trip route

Thanks to Cody for putting this together!