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The Magic of a Pristine Cave: Wanderings in the Black Chasm
The miners were not kind to the caverns of the Sierra Nevada.The search for gold in the foothills led fortune-seekers all over the hills and valleys of the Mother Lode in the Sierra Nevada, and...
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I Went Rock Collecting Today...For Really, Really Big Rocks
I'm thinking how many times I've been on a field trip looking at a massive boulder composed of some kind of interesting rock and making a joke about how we would need a crane to get the thing back to...
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Horrible
And you know the sun's settin' fast And just like they say nothing good ever lasts Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover 'Cause your heart's bound to die Go on now and say...
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A Journey of Ten Million Years...the Salmon of the Sierra Nevada
Chinook Salmon attempting to enter the fish ladder at Camanche Dam on the Mokelumne RiverThey've been coming here for at least ten million years. Every year, without fail. The lands changed, but still...
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The Way It Was: The Deep Grassy Valley of the Ahwahnee
No geology exposition in today's post. Our state is choking in a toxic inversion layer filled with ash and particulate soot that is a sad reminder of the lives lost and lives destroyed by a horrific...
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Fall Finally Arrives, California Style
I would never try to compare our fall season with the hardwood forests of New England and the Appalachians, or even with the aspen groves of Colorado or Utah. But there are a few benefits to...
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How Much Can Happen in a Minute? The Anchorage Earthquake of 11/30/18
The Anchorage Alaska 7.0 magnitude earthquake as measured at Modesto Junior CollegeAttention must be paid. If you are one of my friends or readers in California or Nevada, you need to watch this. If...
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Why did the Road Cross the San Andreas Fault? 16 Years of Geologic Change (an...
2002I've been leading geology field studies trips to lots of places in the American West for 30 years and started to take digital pictures in 2001. I sometimes struggle to find new things to photograph...
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Wait a Minute...What Happened to the Rocks I Picked Out?
Something kind of extraordinary happened on campus this week. I was pausing between classes and saw a large truck and a crane downstairs in the staging area for the Great Valley Outdoor Nature Lab. The...
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How to Make a Rock Garden: Update on the Great Valley Outdoor Nature Lab
How to make a rock garden:First, you have to find rock seeds. Try for variety, a mixture of igneous and metamorphic, maybe some sedimentary. Local rivers are good places to look. They're even shaped a...
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Colorful Gifts of the Earth: the Butterflies
If there were a single thing about our planet that I could guess that the deities made for pure visual pleasure, it would be the butterflies. I'm not aware that they are an environmental scourge...
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No, It's Not Erupting...and Probably Won't Any Time Soon: Mt. McLoughlin in...
There is a grand and momentary sight to be had if you are driving south on Interstate 5 about seven or eight miles north of Medford, Oregon. If the weather is clear when you round the last bend before...
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Can You Name the Third Highest Cascade Volcano?
Can you name the second highest? How about the highest?It's probably not a fair question for most of you. I've always had a mind for the elevations of mountains, having memorized them effortlessly...
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Good-bye to 2018: 12 Months of the Joy of Geology
Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National ParkIt's been a year. There are lots of ways of looking at the events of 2018 and so many of them are tragic and unjust. But there is always hope as well. There are...
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A Surprise Today on the Tuolumne River: A Bobcat!
Here's some unexpected fun...Mrs. Geotripper and I decided on the spur of the moment to watch the sunset from upstream on the Tuolumne River near Turlock Lake. Of course I was watching for bird...
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Another Surprise from the Tuolumne River: River Otters!
This year just gets better and better (I have a futile hope that this trend continues for the entire year...). Yesterday I get the best look ever at a Bobcat on the Tuolumne River, and then today,...
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The Outdoor Nature Lab at the Great Valley Museum Takes Shape
For thirty years it was nothing more than a dream, something hoped-for, but never realized for lack of funds. Ten years ago it became a possibility when our country passed Measure E to redevelop the...
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Join the Geotrippers! British Columbia, the Channeled Scablands, the Olympic...
What are you going to do this summer? Are there places in the world that you've thought of visiting but never made a plan? Maybe we can be of assistance in fulfilling your dreams! The geology and...
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The Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse from under a Rainstorm
By all rights none of these pictures should exist. It was one of the astronomical events of the year, the...um..."Super-duper Blood Red Wolf Full Moon and Eclipse Extravaganza", or something like that....
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Exploring our Precious (and Abused) Places: Death Valley - February 14-18, 2019
Now that the much-lamented government shutdown is over (for the time being), some of our attention can turn to our much abused national parks and monuments. It was a crime that they were left exposed...
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