Buffalo Fork of the Snake River Packraft Aug 13

Undeterred (encouraged?) by signs that tents were not allowed at the Turpin Meadows Campground due to grizzly bear activity, we drove on to the campground at the end of the road and just a mile shy of the Teton Wilderness. We had a quick look at the Buffalo Fork. Although we were told that we needed >500 cfs to run the river in a packraft, the current 350cfs looked considerably more enjoyable than the condition we found the Hoback to be in in the morning. I suggested we might just barely have enough time to packraft it if we were motivated. To my surprise Sara rallied to get gear together and we set off from the camp at a very late (but cool I guess) 6pm. It was a pretty loose and dusty pack trail we followed to the confluence of the North and South Buffalo forks, but we clipped along at a speedy pace knowing that daylight was a precious and fading commodity. We reached the river at 7:30pm and set-off at a disturbingly late 7:45pm! To save time we opted for splash jackets instead of a full wetsuit and hoped for the best.

To gain time we paddled hard down the mile of wide open meandering river down some minor riffles as the last of the day's light left the hills above. In minutes the Buffalo Fork gorge built up around us, and the river narrowed and steepened to mimic the surroundings.The low river level and fading light meant extra challenges identifying and avoiding shallow rocks. The rapids were excellent, the scenery superb. Though we were pressed for time and had four miles of gorge to go, the river moved swiftly and we made efficient time. I read most of the rapids with Sara following but one of the most menacing, where the river narrowed and squeezed over a drop between rocks, Sara boldly powered past me and slipped over effectively. For almost three miles a group of ducks, on what I can only imagine was the duck equivalent of an evening walk, ambled on ahead of us down all the rapids.

I got few photos due to the low light conditions and drive to push forward. After what seemed like a lot longer than an hour, we reached the riverbank nearest the campground and carried our boats the short distance to our campsite. The last of the visible light, 8:45pm, 5 miles of excellent wilderness boating in one hour! Though tired and hungry and perhaps a little cold, I was super impressed that Sara rallied to fit in one more adventure. It was an excellent and memorable trip, even if the photos don't quite show it.

We had a great night's sleep in the cozy grizzly-proof confines of the Prius at our quiet campsite, feeling pretty satisfied at what we had already managed to fit in over three days of vacation despite much driving.

Hoback River Packraft & Grand Teton NP Aug 13

Well we found the Hoback River to be running a very low 400cfs but it seemed enough for a pleasant stress-free 7mi Class II (-III) float from Stinking Springs Bridge to Hoback Junction. To ensure success we parked our car at Hoback Junction near the exit and stuck our thumbs up just upstream of the traffic circle. It took a long five minutes with many cars passing before a young carload of park employees off for a climb stopped to cram us in. Thanks to them we got prompt deliver to the appropriately named Stinking Springs Bridge (with a copious volume of sulfurous springs entering the river nearby).  Boats were inflated, I put on my wetsuit (in hindsight the latter was overkill), and we scooted off.

It was not a particularly noteworthy float but nice enough, particularly to have it nearly completely to ourselves. We passed many monstrous cabin/lodge hybrids along the river and saw ducks and birds of prey. The rapids were quite spaced out and mostly riffles at this flow but nevertheless a good packraft re-immersion for Sara. The last few miles bedrock began emerging from the river channel and the walls gave a slightly more gorge-like appearance. In about three relaxing hours we reached Hoback and I fetched the car. We had lunch in Hoback where we discovered the joys of Hoback Market's homemade alcoholic slushies. A refreshing finish to a fun morning.

We drove on to Jackson Hole in search of a bear canister for backpacking. We found Jackson Hole to be exactly that: a hole. From our quick drive and walk through town in search of a bear canister, I can honestly say it is one of the very worst places I've ever been. We visited or called five "outdoor" stores, none of which had even considered stocking a bear canister, as this would take up crucial room for overpriced Patagonia gear that tourists can't live without. We ran down the crowded sidewalks, past gourmet food stores and jewelry stores that sell tacky (expensive!) buffalo diamond pendants and thousand dollar cowboy boats, and through the arguably tackier archways in town made of thousands of deer antlers. Rot in hell I say. We escaped as quick as we could, flipped off the rear view mirror, and drove on to Grand Teton National Park.

Grand Teton NP was overly crowded too so we opted for a quick drive through and then an escape to the Teton Wilderness. Perhaps I am being unfair but GTNP seemed a bit overrated: lakes, decent peaks, tiny glaciers, lots of people. If you removed Grand Teton Peak it could be any one of a number of mountain ranges in CA or NV. I did find it interesting how all the tall and craggy peaks were in front of the divide, and I bet Grand Teton is worth a climb. Anyway we opted for the quick tourist drive-through and headed for the pleasantly unpeopled Buffalo Fork of the Snake River outside the park.

Fifth Water & Homestead Hot Springs Aug 11-12

Fifth Water Creek in northern Utah's Uinta National Forest contains an interesting and surprisingly accessible group of hot springs a short 2.5 miles hike through a pleasantly wooded conglomeratic valley. We pulled into the Three Forks trailhead quite late in the day to find it full with about 20 cars. As we planned to camp at or near the springs and I was under the impression that camping options were limited, this had me a little worried at first. A quick survey of the vehicles and their contents however led me to wager that most, if not all, would not be backpacking and would soon be hiking back to their cars. Being a short backpack we over-packed and set off.

We passed many groups of people and an equal number of empty campsites. Things seemed like they were going to work out. We crossed the bridge over Sixth Water where the majority of the creek flows from (a surprisingly large catchment), and then soon were walking along a cool but sulfurous little creek. In about an hour and a half we reached the obvious start of the hot spring area. I was surprised by the number of pools (well over twenty), some scalding hot, other luke warm. The good ones unsurprisingly lined with the last holdouts of the day. We hiked on passed and up two waterfalls in search of the best pools and best campsite. Although we appreciated the relative quiet of the area above the first waterfall the springs and camping were less inspiring.

We walked back down the creek and found a perfect tent spot about 2 minutes walk below the first pool- just far enough to have some peace and quiet, close enough that we had great spring access. After establishing camp and dinner we set out to sample a few of the pools. Though not the warmest, we eventually settled into the pool closest to us which had excellent depth, ambiance, and a nice milky blue color (frontispiece).

A good night's sleep was interrupted by our alarm clock at 4am. We awoke and stumbled to our near pool where we enjoyed about 20 minutes of the Perseid meteor shower. It was perhaps a little overhyped but an excellent show nonetheless. Worth waking up at 4am for the second morning in the row. A couple more hours of sleep, a bit more soaking, then a speedy sub-hour hike back to the car and on the road. The springs were excellent! It's too bad they're not further from a road to keep more diaper and beer tossing riff-raff away, but they served as a perfect stopping over place for our road trip drive. I imagine they would be fantastic in the snow.

We had one further noteworthy stop of the day, the curious Homestead Crater hot springs, just outside the strange Switzerland-in-Mormonland town of Midway. Though not a crater, it is a curious hundred-plus foot tall mound of travertine, open at the top like a volcano and hollow inside with a significant hot spring upwelling into it. Allegedly when Mormon homesteaders first came on the "crater" the water still flowed out from the top of the mound. In an attempt to divert the water to their fields they drilled into the crater, permanently lowering the water level (punchline: it was a failure as crops could not grow in the alkalic waters). Now an adit has been carved into the side of the crater allowing access to the half-filled cavern. The "crater" is a popular place to learn to SCUBA dive, with its 65ft deep waters (and modest visibility). I'm usually not one for pay hot springs but it was an incredibly fascinating place to float around for a half hour.

After our soak we finished off the last bit of Utah and drove the straight, fast, and barren roads of Wyoming to Hoback Campground near the gateway to the Tetons. We thankfully found a nice spot in the campground before it filled. Though a little buggy and close to the road (and the river appeared much lower than I had hoped), it was a great place to stop over.

Kanarra Creek Aug 11

Attending a four-day teaching workshop in the far off land of southwest Montana, a little late summer time before the Fall quarter tornado, and access to a 45mpg road warrior seemed like enough motivation to embark on a Montana road trip. Of course there would be nowhere near enough time to properly explore the area so careful planning ensued. I did the best I could to balance large amounts of driving with interesting stops and places to stay along the way, and to balance the touristy need-to-see stops with some places a little further removed. We particularly sought out the things we are starved of in southern California- waters both hot and cold. It would also be my first time to Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, and Glacier national parks.

7 states (3 new)
5 hot springs (all new)
4 National Parks (3 new)
4 packrafts
2 Montana friends visited
1 workshop successfully attended

Despite frustrating last minute packing, I managed to get us out the door and on the road by 4:30am. Vegas traffic was pretty much a non-event at the time we passed through and soon found ourselves driving through the Virgin River Gorge. The river was in a rare flood-state (excellent for packrafting) from a localized thunderstorm the previous night and took everything I had to stay on track for our original plans instead of tearing the car apart for packrafting gear and an uncertain attempt to hitch through the gorge.

After gearing up in St George we pulled off the highway and drove through the quaint Mormon town of Kanarraville, access to Kanarra Creek, a short Navajo Sandstone slot canyon featuring a few small waterfalls. I heard it was like a mini Zion Narrows and had wanted to go for years but it was always a little out of the way. It was something like 11am when we arrived, perfect timing for a short walk and a lunch. Refusing to pay the $10 parking for the hikers lot, we parked in the center of town and took the extra five minute walk of shame through town and to the trailhead. Lots of people hiking, lots of them slowly with kids. My patience was challenged multiple times, but the few short sections we got to walk devoid of people certainly made it worth it. The day was already warm and sweaty but the cool narrows and cooler water was just right.

What started as an unassuming valley spilling out on I -15, cuts steeply and narrowly through Navajo Sandstone above. Deep and in some places sinuous narrows, and we hit the golden light just about right. The two waterfalls with ladder/rope bypasses were sites of annoying log jams (read: tourist and child jams; log jams would have been much preferred), but the rest was nice. We had lunch above the second falls in relative solitude before returning the way we came.

I do not think I would ever have the need to visit the canyon again, but it was the perfect stop to break up a long day's drive. We drove on to Spanish Fork and detoured up into the hills for a short evenings backpack to Fifth Water Hot Springs, another place that had been on my visit-list for years.

Summer Field Part II July 1-15

Group photo at El Cap, the one rock to rule them all.

For the second half we stayed at another UC field station, the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory (SNARL) near Convict Lake. Things were a little different here as we had to work between three different facilities and self-cater. Being in a more accessible location meant that we could usually leave camp at the more civilized hour of 8am rather than much earlier. This second half also had projects more experimental in nature that I was quite curious to see how the students would react to. We also had a bit more flexibility with what we could do with our time, which meant more "fun" geology to even out the pain of the first half.

We had a glacial geomorphology project mapping the relative ages of moraines in our Convict Lake backyard. We did a tectonic geomorphology project looking at the classic Hilton Creek Fault at McGee Creek and taking our UAV for a test drive to create structure from motion models. This was basically the first time I flew the thing, which ended up being pretty stressful given my low skill, the uneven terrain, and a pesky wind. The students seemed to enjoy playing around with structure from motion and came up with some really interesting models.

        Mapping glacial moraines at Convict Lake

        Digging a small soil pit in a moraine

        Stormy horizons

        Mapping the Hilton Creek Fault scarp (above and below)

The students were needing a break (even though the 4th of July was a day away) so we took them on a grand tour of some of the classic geological locales before we got into our next big project. In one action-packed day we went to the South Mono Lake Tufa, Panum Crater, Obsidian Dome, Inyo Craters, Earthquake Fault (a volcanic fissure), Horseshoe Lake, and then ended with a refreshing visit to Hot Creek. It was a good day!

        South Tufa

        Pumice appreciation at Panum Crater

        Obsidian Dome (above and below)

        Inyo Craters

        Hot Creek (above and below)

Next up was the two-day Black Point project which I thoroughly enjoyed (even if I spent half of one of the days in the car grading). This is a fascinating subaqueous to subaerial volcano that, thanks to the now lower Mono Lake, is well exposed and perfect for teaching students how to map lithofacies. And how complicated explosive volcanoes can be! Black Point features several spectacular and wonderfully confusing outcrops and a really interesting fissure system which provides a nice lunch break from the heat. It's quite a scenic spot too with unhindered views of the Sierra Front and the islands in Mono Lake.

        Black Point fissures / lunch spot

Many of our students have probably never even heard the word "geotechnical," despite it being one of the more viable professions they could go into if they choose to stay locally. To give them a small taste I tried to design a project looking at rock slope failures along a road which would use some of their existing stereonet experience while also teaching them new applications. I chose the Middle Owens River Gorge because of its tall and diverse outcrops, persistent failure problems, and mostly importantly, the road is gated so untraveled other than the occasional slow moving LADWP vehicle. This worked well...but would have worked much better if I had the foresight to put the fieldwork in the afternoon when the road would be in the shade rather than baking heat. We got some nice validation when a LADWP employee stopped to chat and said he was glad that we were doing that project and that they have had frequent rockfall problems on the road, possibly requiring expensive engineering to remedy. This project has one of the greatest potentials for improvement.

The Crowley Lake Mystery Project (as described in the previous post) was a big hit. We just turned the students loose to observe while I observed further along the coast in my packraft. The much more controlled setting meant that several students were able to test fly the UAV with low risk which they enjoyed. A definite highlight was swimming in the warm lakewaters while looking at the columns and having a back and forth discussion of their formation theories.

         Learning to fly

Nest up was the two day Gull Lake project to look at metamorphic roof pendant rocks near June Lake. This was a particularly scenic area with trees, lakes, and snowy peaks, but also lichen-covered rocks that seemed to challenge our students. I got pretty burnt out on student enthusiasm and capability on this project and ended up sitting the second day out to do grading instead. As a shorter day we took the students to the Antelope Kaolinite Mine, which ended up being incredibly fascinating. Lake sediments hydrothermally altered by volcanism to create some very interesting textures.

After learning that only three of the students had been to Yosemite before, I worked to re-arrange the schedule and got the Park Geologist to kindly agree to highlight some of the active and relevant research in the valley, particularly studying glaciations, rockfalls, and floods. We then drove out of the valley and took a short hike with a detour to a "secret" natural waterslide across granite slickrock. This was a big hit. I probably got about fifty slides in. Lastly we stopped at Pothole Dome for a great view over Tuolumne Meadows. I was impressed most of the class fearlessly stormed up the steep granite slabs to the top.

        Climbing Pothole Dome

        Tuolumne Meadows view

We had intended to take students up to the Champion Mine to do an economic geology project but the combination of late start, hot day, and out of shape students derailed my plans. With some effort we managed to coerce all the students up to Black Eagle Camp where we gave them a chance to explore, relax, and then discuss a little of the mining history before it was time to turn back around. Many of the students surprised me by suggesting they would have been interested in an overnight trip, which could be a great idea for next year. With my ever refining eyes for rock avalanche textures I spotted some surprisingly large deposits so I got something out of it too.

The last day we wanted to end on a slight bang. We were able to get gondola rides up to the top of Mammoth Mountain (another first for many students), where incredibly we could see almost everywhere we had been the last month, from Mono Lake to White Mountain. It was a perfect overview to recap that last month's journey and give them a new perspective on all the smaller scale projects they worked on. It was also a great opportunity for an epic snowball fight! Next we drove on to Devils Postpile to enjoy the glacially polished columns, and then another hike on to Rainbow Falls. We ended the evening at Wild Willy's Hot Springs. After that there was little to do other than start cleaning and packing!

There were highs and lows (mostly highs though). I learned a lot, and I think the students learned even more. It was a great experiment with huge demands on my time, but I did come away feeling it was a necessary endeavor. Not only to challenge them and give them a capstone experience, but also to get a gauge on what our majors get out of their degree and what improvements we can make. Thanks to the Summer Field 2016 group for the memories.