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A Series of Fortunate Events: Fall in Yosemite National Park
 It was a privilege this last weekend to conduct a field studies exploration of Yosemite National Park and the surrounding region. It was a new class, but was similar to one we last taught back in 2008...
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A Series of Nearly Unfortunate Events: Fall in Yosemite National Park
Oh jeez, that's not something one likes to see on a field trip...How many horror movies begin with people ignoring the warning signs, both literally and metaphorically? The doomed characters doggedly...
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Tuolumne River Trail Nears Completion: A Short Explore Along a Priceless River
The value of a river can be measured in so many ways, and the Tuolumne River here in California is no exception. It has headwaters in the spectacular high country of Yosemite National Park, flows...
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A Series of Fortunate Events: Chasing Away the Ghosts of Nelder Grove
Not much can kill them. And once they've been killed, it takes a long time for them to go away. There's one in the picture above, can you see it? No, this isn't a post about zombies, it's a story about...
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A Series of Fortunate Events: Is it Time to Rename Half Dome?
We spent three days exploring the geology of the Yosemite region last week, and the first stop on Saturday was Washburn Point, an amazingly quiet viewpoint given its proximity to Glacier Point. It's a...
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A Series of Fortunate Events: Glacier Point, Living Up to the Hype
Glacier Point on the rim of Yosemite Valley is hands-down one of the most spectacular places one can stand in the world. There's just no place like it. And it's noisy. It's crowded. There is a busy and...
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Picture Yourself Here: Multidisciplinary Field Studies in the Hawaiian...
This might be of interest only to my Modesto area readers, but anyone who is interested in learning about the natural and human history of the Hawaiian Islands may want to investigate this field...
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A Series of Fortunate Events: Why Settle for Half a Dome When You Can Have a...
Imagine standing at one of the most famous park viewpoints in the world. Ask people standing in that place, the Wawona Tunnel Overlook at Yosemite National Park, how many granite domes they see, they...
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A Series of Fortunate Events: Climbing a Dome That's Not Exactly a...
There are domes and there are "domes". Yosemite National Park has a lot of domes of one sort or another, and there has always been a bit of confusion about their origin. From various points in Yosemite...
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A Series of Hopefully Fortunate Events: Saying Goodbye to Yosemite's High...
Our field studies trip to Yosemite National Park reached a climax when we reached Tioga Pass (9,943Â ft / 3,031 m) at the east end of the park. The pass is the highest highway route in the state (a...
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Fixing What We Broke: A Few Scenes From America's Serengeti Plain
I live in California's Great Valley, also known as the Central Valley. It's one of the most important agricultural regions on Earth, in that it produces around a quarter of the nation's produce. It's...
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One of Those Precious Days, Seeing Half Dome from the Great Valley
Sometimes, it is the context that makes something precious. A drink of water on a hot day in the desert, for instance. A few drops of rain in a crippling drought. In our valley, a clear day is a...
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The Karst Topography...of California? An Exploration of Chaw'se
California can mean a lot of things to people: sunny beaches, snowy ski slopes, glacial canyons like Yosemite, or Redwood forests. But few people ever connect karst landscapes with our fair state....
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The Karst Topography...of California? Getting Filthy Rich from Karst in Columbia
The Fricot Nugget at the State Mineral Museum in Mariposa, CaliforniaAs I noted in the last post, California has some unique landscapes that are unfamiliar to most visitors, specifically karst...
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The Karst Topography...of California? California has Natural Bridges, and not...
I've been reviewing some of the stops on our recent field studies course through the karst country of California. This landscape is the portion of the Sierra Nevada Mother Lode that is underlain by the...
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The Karst Topography...of California? Into the Black Chasm
California is not really known for her expanses of karst topography, the landscapes that develop where limestone or marble lies underground. In my short mini-series about the karst of California, we've...
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The Great Valley Museum at Modesto Junior College is Seeking a Director
The Science Community Center at Modesto Junior College is a monument to the importance of science education, with state-of-the-art labs and classrooms for biology, astronomy, chemistry, physics, and...
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2.0% of the Tuolumne River Story, Courtesy of the Tuolumne River Trust. And...
Standing on the Dana Fork, close to the headwaters of the Tuolumne River in January of 2012 (when no snow had yet fallen)Rivers often get used as a metaphor for life. Writers might compare the...
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Intense November Weather in Central California...and Tornadoes?
Credit: Jacquetta WehkingI tell my students on occasion that they live in a place that is relatively free of the most serious geological hazards. We are a fair distance from the earthquake faults that...
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The Karst Topography...of California? A Look at California Caverns
We took a field studies trip a few weeks ago, and it turned into a mini-series on the karst terrain of California, a landscape that forms over limestone and marble. The development of caverns leads to...
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