The cold and snowy Thanksgiving forecast threw us for a loop with some difficulty deciding where to spend it. In the end we circled back to the original plan of doing landslide fieldwork in the Saline Valley. It would be cold, and the road snowy, but hopefully not too much. I was worried the hot springs would be overrun with people on the holiday weekend, and I was certainly right. The drive down Grapevine from South Pass was snowy and beautiful if slightly stressful worrying about traction. We managed to find a place to camp out of the wind near the hot springs but didn't even bother soaking with the hoards.
Fieldwork was looking at a very large and very old rock avalanche I identified, in particular, time was spent looking for convincing textures and attempting to map the boundaries of the landslide. Some of this was successful, and some led to more head-scratching. We managed to find our way down a steep and loose slot canyon in the rock avalanche which added some interest. Also of interest was recent evidence of a raging flash flood with scour marks 40ft above the main stream channel. I have more work to do but it was a good start. The second night we camped with Keith's family and their nice fire and even managed a quick soak in the volcano pool with some annoying Angelinos. More fieldwork and then the long drive home.
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