Rowan Discovers the American National Parks

Today we left Fresno to the Carrizo Plain where the San Andreas Fault is clearly visible in the landscape. During the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, the fault moved 9 meters (about 30 feet).  We had a quick lunch at Subway and headed to our hotel in Costa Mesa, a few miles from the Santa Ana airport.

At 8 p.m. with had our “banquet” dinner to celebrate the end of a successful trip during which each participant received an award. Our master of ceremony was George Talnagi.

As the leader of many students trips, I must say that the participants to this trip behaved perfectly and made my life very easy during these 23 days. They were punctual, kind to each other, and very helpful.

We are leaving today at 12:40 p.m. from Santa Ana to Houston, and from Houston to Philadelphia on Continental/United Airlines. Our estimated arrival time is 11:30 p.m. A bus will pick us up at Philadelphia Airport and drive us back to Rowan University.

See you tonight!

Dr. Lemaire

On our 21st day, we left Fresno at 8:15 a.m. after a hearty breakfast at Carrows (delicious oatmeal with blueberries, pecans, and raisins). We have clocked 5,370 miles so far…

Upon leaving Fresno traveling to the Giant and King Sequoia National Monuments (decreed by Presidential proclamation) we saw vast vineyards and mango orchards. Dr. Lemaire explained by walkie talkie to both vans that the San Joaquim River Valley is famous for its fruits.

At 10 a.m., 64F, we arrive at Sequoia Kings Canyon and saw signs explaining that rangers were doing prescribed burn yesterday July 10th. Giant sequoias need fire to reproduce so they drop the seeds contained in their cones. They can live up to 2,000 years and their trunks can reach up to 25 feet in thickness.

We saw the raging Kings River as we traveled the winding mountain roads to view the huge granite/marble mountain walls. We saw the highest canyon wall in the United States rising some 8,350 feet! A definite Kodak moment – the Kings Canyon Overlook with rushing river. Flowering Yucca and a spectrum of lavender, yellow, white, orange, and purple wild flowers periodically peeked out from the Kings Canyon mountain walls. White butterfly bushes dot the road side too. We shopped till we dropped at the Grant Grove Gift Shop and market. Excellent!

At noon, with a temperature of 77 F, we ate a lovely picnic lunch at the Grizzly Falls, simply breathtaking!

After lunch we had a geologic stop where we learned that most of the rocks in Kings Canyon date back to the Cretaceous period (dinosaurs!). Also we walked along the winding road and river to see the effect of folding in marine sediments. These tiny folds are very rare.

We continued traveling through mountains with elevation varying from 1,600 to 14,000 feet. We stopped at the Lodgepole Visitor Center and on the way we saw the cutest marmot. Ferns and wild flowers were the ground cover for the sequoias. We saw the largest grove of giant sequoia trees, in fact we drove through one “tunnel log”. We hiked one mile to the General Sherman sequoia which is the tallest of the giant forest.

Upon departing the twin national parks of Sequoia and Kings Canyon it was wonderful to see the American flag flying. Our country is truly amazing!

We arrived at the Super 8 Motel in Lindsay, CA, and enjoyed the pizza party Dr. Lemaire gave us poolside.

George and Debbie Talnagi, van 2.

After a wonderful breakfast at Denny’s we went to Obsidian Dome located a few miles north of Mammoth Lakes, CA. This landscape is formed from rhyolite. When rhyolite cooled quickly it formed a black volcanic glass called obsidian. We observed obsidian and banded obsidian (in which layers of rhyolite alternate with layers of obsidian).

We then drove to the southern shore of Mono Lake which has an interesting ecosystem. It is similar to that of  Great Salt Lake in the sense that it is salty (2 to 3 times the salinity of the ocean depending on the amount of precipitation the lake receives compared to its evaporation).  In Mono Lake, just as we observed in Great Salt Lake, brine shrimp live. When the shrimp die, the wind pushes their remains toward the shore where flies eat them. We also saw the seagulls that eat the flies that eat the shrimp! We learned about the tufa spires and mounds that form from calcium carbonate precipitation and how these tufa mounds now visible on the shore indicate how the water level of Mono Lake has lowered over time.

Next we drove to Yosemite National Park. We learned that the rocks that make up this area are granite. The three minerals that compose granite are quartz, feldspar, and mica. We learned how these batholiths of granite evolve through exfoliation. As we drove through the park we realized how much congestion there was. It made it difficult for us to find tables for our picnic but we eventually found one.

After lunch we made the journey up the valley to see the wonderful Bridal Veil waterfall. As we attempted to get a closer view of the fall we were hindered because of the enormous amount of mist the waterfall creates.

Finally we saw Glacier point. From this stop you can see Half Dome. This granitic dome was eroded by glacial movement. We ended our day with a delicious dinner at Acapulco restaurant in Fresno where many of us enjoyed a Margarita and chowed down on tasty Mexican food.

Alanna and Amanda Irizarry.

Today we awoke at the Center City Motel in Carson City, Nevada and walked across the street to the Nugget Casino for breakfast. I had a scrumptious Belgian waffle before we loaded the vans and hit the road.

Roughly two hours later we arrived at Bodie Historic State Park, a ghost town in California. Walking around, we could see furniture left in the houses, learning materials left in the school house and beer still in the saloons. One of the abandoned buildings was converted into a museum with very interesting facts about the town. Inside, I learned that Bodie was originally founded as a gold mining town. Mining gold had extremely harmful side effects because they used cyanide to extract the gold found in hard rock.

Afterwards, we drove to Mono Lake from which we could see active volcanoes throughout the surrounding basin located in the Sierra Nevada. Historically Mono Lake and the surrounding area  have been compromised by humans due to the water extraction and sent to the city of Los Angeles. Luckily this was stopped before Mono Lake disappeared.

Next we stopped at a local restaurant called Nicely’s for a quick lunch before heading to Mammoth Lakes and the Devil’s Postpile National Monument. The natural formation was amazing because this basaltic lava flow formed perfectly formed columns. Most of these columns are six-sided and seen from the top,  each column looks like a perfect hexagon. In fact, the last glaciation eroded the top of the columns and the top of the lava flow looks like a perfectly tiled kitchen floor.

When leaving the park, we saw horns, moraines, and cirques before eventually stopping at a section where the moraine displayed multiple fault scarps created during an earthquake in 1980.

We reached our hotel in Bishop, California and had a delicious meal at the swanky Whiskey Creek restaurant before retiring at the Vagabond Inn.

Daniel

Today we started our day with a wake-up call at 6:30 a.m. We ate a delicious breakfast at Lulu’s  which was right next to our hotel. At Lulu’s we saw an old bullet hole in the window. After breakfast, we continued our journey towards Lassen National Park.

When we arrived at the park from the north we found out that the road going through its center was closed due to 14 feet of snow. We traveled as far as we could on this road until it was blocked off, and traveled down a dirt road that parallels the park to get to the opposite side. We entered the park this time from the south and observed the Broke Off volcano, studied Mount Tehama, and saw glacier striations on the rocks and sulphur deposits. We also ate a nice picnic lunch surrounded by tall snow banks.

After lunch, we left Lassen and headed towards lake Tahoe. After a few hours of driving, we finally arrived at the lake. Here some of us went swimming while others rummaged throughthe shops nearby.

Once we were finished in Lake Tahoe we drove to our hotel in Carson City, Nevada which is the capital of the state of Nevada. We then went to dinner at Red’s Grill where we struggled to scarf down the huge portions they served us.

Finally after dinner we all came back to the Center City hotel for relaxation and a good night’s rest.

Today we opened with a buffet breakfast at the Chalet Restaurant. After our meal we hit the road and made our first stop at South Chemult Pumice Mine. We were able to feel, pick up, climb, and even throw chunks of pumice. We learned about its different uses, how it is made, and that it comes from the volcano in Crater lake which is where we headed next.

Our next stop after a 40 minute drive was on the rim of a caldera at Crater Lake. We discussed how over time the volcano’s size has decreased from about 11,000 feet to about 8,000. The volcano in the middle of the lake is called Wizard. The lake water is formed by rain and snow and has a gorgeous blue and green coloration. Crater Lake receives an average of 40 feet of snow each year.  We were lucky and visited this park without any snowfall and a temperature of 54 F. Last year the Rowan University Discovers the NP visited Crater Lake on 7/2 during a snow storm (4 inches of snow) and a temperature of 32 F!

We then enjoyed another picnic but this time Dr. Lemaire treated us with warm turkey breasts and roasted chicken.

We got back on the road and stopped at our final geological point. We learned about another volcano at Mount Shasta Vista Point. Its last eruption was in 1786 and the oldest volcanic rocks of this complex volcano are 500,000 years old.

We ended the day in Redding, California and slept at America’s Best Inn after enjoying dinner at Lulu’s Restaurant. We kick off tomorrow bright and early and will head to Lassen National Park and Lake Tahoe.

Pleasant blogging!

Eric and Bill

Today we made our second attempt at visiting Mount St Helens. This volcano had a major eruption on May 18th, 1980 and smaller ones in 1982,1984, and 1986, The 1980 eruption had all kinds of warning signs including steam, smoke, steam explosions, and hundreds of earthquakes per day. Nevertheless, some residents decided to ignore the order to evacuate. Within 2 seconds of the beginning of the eruption an air blast occurred. The air blast was caused by the collapse of one third of the cone which displaced the air at the speed of hurricane winds.  It was combined with a hot mudflow caused by the melting of the snow and ice when these came in contact with the hot lava.

These caused devastation to many campers and to those who refused to evacuate the towns on the slopes of the volcano. When we arrived at the Johnson Visitor Center, we could see steam coming out of the ground in two areas of the crater.

We then stopped at Government Camp and had a picnic. We drove to Newberry National Monument located a few miles south of Bend, Oregon. We saw the AA lava flows that came out of the Newberry cinder cone. This is where the first astronauts came to practice walking on the airless moon. We ended our day in Chemult, Oregon, after a nice chicken dinner, to relax after a long day on the road.

Lauren and Lana

Note of Dr. L.

The road cuts on route 99 at Mt St Helens and on route 25 south of the volcano on 7/5 increased our driving distance by about 220 miles. Your children behaved perfectly in light of this unexpected problem. You should be proud!

We started our day with a 6:15 a.m. wake up call and a Happy Birthday shout out to Alanna! We headed to breakfast before beginning our trip to Mount Rainier. While we were driving there, we observed the scab land left behind by the Spokane Flood. During the last ice age, Lake Missoula, a large lake occupying the western part of Montana and the northern part of Idaho, was held back by an ice dam near Spokane, Washington. When the ice dam broke 10 to 12,000 years ago, it sent westward five cubic miles of water that formed the scab land.

Our first stop was at a scenic view called  “Dead Horse” overlooking the Columbia River Gorge. We carefully walked down the path being cautious for rattlesnakes (but we did not see any).

We had a picnic at White River in Mount Rainier National Park. We then moved on to the Visitors Center and saw a beautiful view of the landscape at Sunrise Point. We learned about the 26 glaciers found on this volcano and how they sculpted the landscape into what we see today. Though this park attracts thousands each year, only a few realize that it is still an active volcano with steam eruptions as recent as  1963.

We headed towards Mount St Helens, however due to road closures we were unable to enter the park and were forced to detour. With an addition of 3-4 hours ride to our hotel, we had to forfeit our prepaid hotel reservation to cut our drive time substantially and get a chance to see Mount St Helens from the west entrance of the park.  Wish us luck!

Amanda H. and Lauren

Today was a relaxing and fun filled day. We drove all morning. After our asphalt conquering excursion we went to a water park. Some of our peers did not want to go (aka. Van 2 minus one). Van 1 plus one was more than excited to attend. The water park was filled with fourth of July celebrators. We spent some time in the lazy river and then played volley ball. After some trips down the slide we went out to a fancy dinner. Following our succulent dinner, which we consumed with much vigor we watched fireworks from the balcony with our lovely friends. What a culmination to a fantastic day to watch multiple clusters of fireworks along the skyline. We wished our dear friend Alanna a happy birthday at midnight sharp and hit the hay like a fat horse on a diet.

Da nah dun,

His excellency, Zachary A. C. Kiss
And
Erich Walter Harris Moen esquire.

Yeah our wake-up call was 7 a.m. We ate breakfast at the Gaynor’s Ranch and were on the road by 8:30 a.m. Temperature was in the 50s from Whitefish to Eureka, Montana. We have traveled 3200 miles so far in the last two weeks. We stopped to take pictures of an osprey in her nest.

Purple lupine, white aspens, and Ponderosa pines line the winding mountain roads as we traveled through the Montana forests to Yaak River Lodge.

Today is our day off only traveling 100 miles.  We arrived at noon , and lunch at the lodge and went canoeing, kayaking, and fishing on the Yaak River whilst ran behind the lodge. George caught is first speckled trout! Dinner, hot tub, and campfire completed our day! Wonderful…

Allen, Allen, Allen

Rock bocce ball rules…

Happy 4th of July!

Debbie and George