Saturday afternoon we arrived in Zion National Park to learn about the spectacular Navajo Sandstone Formation that makes up most of the park. We finished up the day with a refreshing hike through the Virgin River following the famous Narrows trail. Sunday we awoke early to hike the Angel’s Landing trail; a 2.4 mile long trail that leads to the top of a 1,208 foot tall rock formation towering over the Virgin River. Everyone made it to the top in time for a triumphant group photo.
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Angel’s Landing Hike
Posted Jul 13th, 2011 By GeoJourney in GeoJourney News With | No Comments
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Desert Ecology
Posted Jul 13th, 2011 By GeoJourney in GeoJourney News With | No Comments
Desert Potholes description during GeoJourney’s visit to Canyonlands National Park in Utah, the students took a moment for a group photo in between their studies of desert pothole ecosystems. These fragile communities of micro and macro organisms are adapted to surviving extremely long periods with no rain, contained within pockets eroded out of sandstone and sealed with desert varnish. In the occasion of a burst of showers, as GeoJourney experienced this day, the potholes fill and come to life with tiny snails, tadpole shrimp, and mosquito larvae. The desert is far from deserted. GeoJourney saw firsthand the adaptations that organisms have made to survive in such an extreme habitat.
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Bandelier
Posted Jun 27th, 2011 By GeoJourney in GeoJourney News With | No Comments
As usual, a lot has happened in the past few days. On Thursday morning we left the southeast and entered a drier climate, however not before we spent a few soggy days in LA. We made it to Amarillo and set our things out to dry in the wind and the sun. As part of a recent tradition we went to the Big Texan steak house where our own Don Eberle met the challenge of the Free 72 oz steak for the second time.
On Thursday night we received news that the Group Campground at Bandelier National Monument had been closed due to fire risks. We also experienced some mechanical trouble with our truck. Because of these issues we were unable to get out of Amarillo until Saturday morning. This made for an early breakfast, but we were still able to complete most of our objectives in the Santa Fe area before moving on to Lake Abiquiu for the night. During our long day, we made several geology stops in the Sangre de Cristos and visited the archaeological site at Bandelier. Some of the trails in Bandelier were closed due to the forest fires in the area but many remained unaffected and the students got their first glimpse of Ancestral Puebloan culture.
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Summer 2011′s first week
Posted Jun 22nd, 2011 By GeoJourney in blog With | 2 Comments
Our new website is live!
As part of our new site we will be attempting to update visitors to our website from the road.
It has been a busy week for GeoJourney! We started the week at Laurel Hill with “ready week”, where the students learn the foundations they will need for the rest of the trip. While at the CCC camp in PA some of the original Corp members from the 1930s stopped by.
From Laurel Hill we drove to Polyface Farms in VA. While discussing the alternative agricultural practices used on the farm we ran into Joel Salatin, the owner. He was kind enough to give us a few moments of his time and shared some of his knowledge with the students and staff.
From VA we drove to GA and visited Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon. We ended our day with a lecture from Ewell Lyle on the long leaf pine forest ecosystem at Chehaw park in Albany.
After a night in the rain, we rose before dawn to visit Providence Canyon, a canyon that has formed in just the last 150 years due to erosion from farming! At Providence Canyon we said goodbye to Jim and Sandy Whitney and headed to St. Andrews State Park on the Gulf Coast. We arrived at the beach and tried out SCUBA diving with Divers Den of Panama City Beach.
On Sunday, we drove to New Orleans after a beachside lecture about barrier island and passive margin processes. Monday was our first day off! We arrived in the French Quarter at 10:00 am and the students enjoyed the more touristy areas of the Big Easy.
Yesterday we packed up and again headed into NO. This time we analyzed the damage that occurred as a result of the levee failures after Hurricane Katrina. After discussing the past, present and future of New Orleans levee systems, we headed north along the Mississippi River to Natchez, MS. We drove through some thunderstorms along the way to camp just across the river in Mississippi.
Today, the trip visited (for the first time) The Grand Village of the Natchez, a historic Mound Builder culture who were still living along the banks of the Mississippi River when the French arrived in the 1600′s. After another round of thunderstorms, we arrived in Vicksburg, MS to discuss fluvial processes and get our final look at the river before we head into the West. Our final stop of the day is at Poverty Point, LA – the largest earthworks in the western hemisphere at the time of their construction in 1700 BC!
Be sure to stop by our blog often for more updates from the road!
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Look for news from the road here
Posted Apr 28th, 2011 By GeoJourney in GeoJourney News With | No Comments
Hello and welcome to the GeoJourney blog! In the coming weeks we will be preparing for our June 11th departure for GeoJourney Summer 2011. While we are traveling we hope to keep friends and family informed of the goings on in camp. Keep in mind that we are without internet most of the trip but check here for news from the road. You also may wish to checkout our twitter and facebook pages for quicker, shorter updates.
