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How it Was Today: Reflections in Yosemite Valley
What is my favorite season in Yosemite? Hard to say, but I tend to think that it is whatever season it is when I happen to be there. Except maybe for hot dusty August. I just had the happy opportunity...
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Thoughts for Earth Day 2013: There is a price to pay
Andrew Alden at About Geology notes today that he hosted an Accretionary Wedge on Earth Day in 2008. I had only been blogging a few months at the time, but I contributed, and in reading over my post...
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The Other California: Springtime along the Great Western Divide
Lupines along the Kaweah River gorge (Moro Rock and Alta Peak in the distance)The Great Western Divide? Where's that?My off and on blog series on the Other California is an exploration of the...
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The Other California: The Biggest Living Things and the Deepest Canyon in the...
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks were established 50 years apart (1890 and 1940), and they preserve different aspects of the Sierra Nevada, but they are adjacent and as such are jointly...
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Some Resources on Yosemite Valley and the Mother Lode of the Sierra Nevada
Because we all know I almost NEVER mention Yosemite or the Mother Lode on Geotripper....It's been quite a long time since I first ventured onto the Internet, about 15 years ago. I quite clumsily put...
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Science Community Center at Modesto Junior College: Ribbon Cutting on May...
If I've been blogging less of late, it has something to do with the end of the semester, finals week, and the big move to the new building that is the end of a 10 year long journey from the original...
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A Bit of Blue Gemstone for a Friday
As I've mentioned a few times, our new Science Community Center at Modesto Junior College is opening soon. Most of the first floor will be devoted to the vastly enlarged Great Valley Museum along with...
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Is There a Golden Age of Teaching? Ruminations on Moving and Great Students
It's a busy week to say the least. There was the hectic rush through finals and the posting of grades, and the deadline, only three days later, of having an entire Science Building packed and ready to...
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Science on Screen: Jurassic Park at the State Theatre! Sunday, May 12
The final film in our State Theatre "Science on Screen" series is happening this Sunday, May 12 at 2:00 PM. I'm looking forward to this one especially because I will be serving as the speaker before...
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It's Like a Disaster Movie...sort of. Put Aside May 21st!
You all know how the plot of a disaster movie plays out...amid the destruction of the city, the world, the solar system, a small plucky group of survivors goes about surviving, the concerns of the few...
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There IS Hope for Science Education in the Central Valley
It was quiet this morning in the Science Community Center at Modesto Junior College. I walked up to the roof to have a look around and there was a beautiful cloud pattern and the Diablo Range rose in...
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Time Beyond Imagining Becomes a "Book" (or: "Where I've Been Hiding These...
A best-seller if there ever was one! In fact, I think the first run will sell out (15 copies in the first printing, so not really a surprise). If you've been following Geotripper for very long, you...
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On the Road Again, To the Mysterious Realm of the Colorado River!
This summer is all about the Colorado River, one of the most geologically mysterious rivers on planet Earth. Most rivers start in some mountains, flow onto a coastal plain, and hence into the sea. The...
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From a Land of Riches to the Barrens: The Basin and Range
We set off early today on our journey of exploration on the Colorado Plateau, but to get to the plateau we needed to travel nearly 500 miles from California's Great Valley to Las Vegas, passing through...
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Seeing Things Upside Down in the Red Rocks: What To Do When You Get Bored...
Bored in Las Vegas? Really? Okay, the town is such an aberration in the desert that one can hardly get bored, but my attention was really elsewhere as we tried to get ready to meet the people traveling...
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Picture of Peach Springs Tuff (with Big Bird Bonus)
The Internet connection at our hinterlands location is slow and undependable, so tonight is just a picture of the Peach Springs Tuff, an 18.5 million year old rhyolite tuff that covered a vast area...
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A Dam Big Dam and a Dam Big Bridge...And a Dam Frightening Problem
Oh, how mighty are the works of man...and how arrogant we sometimes get when contemplating our great works. Our first stop on our tour of the western Colorado Plateau was a visit to Hoover Dam and...
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Where They Almost Damned the Grand Canyon...
Is there a limit to the destruction that humans can do? Yesterday's post concerned our desire to control the natural world around us, which in the case of the Colorado River meant the building of...
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What to do? Playing the Slots (Canyons, that is)
One of the most beautiful sights you will ever see is a slot canyon on the Colorado Plateau. Formations like the Navajo Sandstone are good cliff-forming rock layers, and yet they are easily eroded...
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A Dam Big Shame, and Things Lost and Gamed...
A different "Paradise Lost"...It just doesn't get much better than this, to stand on the brink of a high cliff in the barren desert, and to see a stream of life-giving water in the depths below. Of...
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