Rob McDowell, PhD.
Day 1: Arrive in Salt Lake City, Utah
You will arrive in Salt Lake City and be met at the airport by your smiling Evening at Emory trip leaders, who will take the group to the Alta Lodge, near the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Between soaring, glacier-carved cliffs of limestone, still streaked with winter snow, we will eat dinner at the Lodge. A short drive down the canyon that evening will take us to Snowbird ski resort, or a short walk up the canyon will take us to the Albion Basin, a glacial amphitheatre where the floor show has been spectacular and free of charge for 11,000 years.
Day 2: Salt Lake to Montpelier, Idaho
Our first day of exploring will be spent in the vicinity of Salt Lake City, at the junction of four major geologic provinces. After brunch at the Alta Lodge, we will ride the Snowbird aerial tram to the top of Hidden Peak above 11,200 feet. Surrounded by the glaciated alpine terrain of the Wasatch Mountains, we will have a breathtaking (literally) view of the desert Great Basin to the west, the edge of the Colorado Plateau to the south, the massive, snowcapped Uinta Mountains to the east, and the western Overthrust Belt, which extends as far south as southern California and as far north as Alaska. Descending into Salt Lake City, we will stop to see ancient shorelines and deltas that formed along the Superior-sized Lake Bonneville, the ice age ancestor of Great Salt Lake. We will walk out onto salty sand flats at the edge of Salt Lake, then drive northward along the towering Wasatch Front towards Logan, Utah, where we will follow Logan Canyon into the heart of the Overthrust Belt. After dinner at Harbor Village Resort, overlooking turquoise-blue Bear Lake, we will spend the night in Montpelier, Idaho, headquarters for oil and gas wildcatters in southern Idaho. It was in Montpelier that Butch Cassidy and his Hole in the Wall gang robbed their first bank, J.C. Penney opened his first department store, and wagons traveling the Oregon Trail paused before crossing into the western desert.
Day 3: Montpelier to Jackson, Wyoming
There will be several options available on this morning. One group will depart the hotel early to go bird watching in the Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Dozens of species of birds live around Bear Lake, and it is a stop on southward migratory routes in the fall. A second group will have a more leisurely morning in Montpelier, visiting the Oregon Trail historical center and seeing the first Penney's. The third group, exhausted from beautiful scenery and good food, will be allowed to sleep in until our departure around 9:30 AM. From Montpelier, we will travel northward through rugged mountains and canyons of the Overthrust Belt into the town of Jackson, Wyoming, in the Rocky Mountain province. From Jackson, we will drive north into Teton National Park towards a stunning encounter with the incredible Teton Mountains. Towering more than 13,000 feet above sea level, the Tetons are still rising! Glaciers that formed during the Little Ice Age of 1300-1814 still exist in the highest cirques of the Tetons, and the sharp, hornlike peaks of the Cathedral Group evoke images of the Alps. To the east, the "sleeping Indian", whose profile inspired the name of the Gros Ventre Mountains, naps un-self-consciously in the crisp Rocky Mountain air. In the afternoon, we will drive along the front of the Tetons towards their northern end, pausing for discussions of glacial and structural geology, to Observation Point, which has inspired photographers from Ansel Adams to us. Dinner will be at Dornan's in the tiny Jackson Hole village of Moose. Our third night will be spent in Jackson, where wooden sidewalks, swinging-door salqons, and an archway of antlers remind us that we aren't in Kansas anymore.
Day 4: Jackson to Gardiner, Montana
Once again, we will have several options: One group will spend the morning hiking along Jenny Lake and the lower slopes of the Tetons at the foot of the Cathedral Group. The second group will see the Tetons up close by van, stopping at Jenny Lake for unforgettable images of the Tetons and their reflection. The second group will also stop to see the Teton Fault, the cause of the magnificence before us. The third group, perhaps a bit weary from the saloons and the card games, will rest and recover in their luxury hotel rooms in Jackson. After lunch, the combined group will head northwards to Signal Mountain and one last up-close look at the Tetons and Jackson Hole before entering Yellowstone National Park through the southern gate. Once known as "Jim Bridger's Lies", after the grizzled fur trapper and mountain man who first reported on Yellowstone in the first half of the 1800's, Yellowstone National Park combines the beauty and danger of Nature. Formed from a series of cataclysmic volcanic eruptions, the rnost recent of which was 75,000 years ago, Yellowstone still seethes from the heat of molten magma below. Roaring geysers, boiling pools of mud, and steaming rivers all attest to the intense volcanic heat that rises from the base of the Earth's mantle and escapes through Yellowstone.
After entering the park, we will skirt Yellowstone Lake, the largest mountain lake in North America and the source of the Yellowstone River. At different times, the lake has drained into the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean via Hudson Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico. Continuing north, we will see the thundering cataracts of Upper and Lower Falls, where the Yellowstone River has cut deeply into weathered volcanic rock that gives the park its name. Making many stops along the way, we will head towards Mammoth Hot Springs, where hot water and calcite create the otherworldly, steaming pools of Minerva Springs. That evening, we will leave the park to stay in Gardiner, Montana, dining at The Yellowstone Mine.
Day 5: Gardiner to West Yellowstone, Montana
Sunrise illuminating Electric Peak will be our first sight this morning. As before, there will be three options: one group will go hiking either in Yellowstone National Park, or just outside the park in Tom Miner Basin, where perfectly preserved petrified logs and tree stumps can be seen standing upright in rocks of the Absaroka volcanics. The second group will leave early, and drive through the northeastern section of the park, stopping for breakfast in Cooke City, Montana. Continuing on, the second group will drive over Beartooth Pass on one the most spectacular highways in the United States. At more than 10,000 feet, Beartooth Pass is the highest pass in the US that is not on the Continental Divide. Once there, we will see deeply carved glacial valleys, "patterned ground", high alpine meadows, and the enigmatic Rocky Mountain sub-summit surface rolling as gently as the Georgia coastal plain. The third group, now completely without shame, will relax at the hotel in Gardiner. The combined group will reunite at Tower Junction for lunch, and in the afternoon we will see the steaming geyser basins of the western side of the Park. Old Faithful, Artist Paint Pots, and Gibbon Falls will punctuate the day as we leave the park for a night in West Yellowstone. Tonight will be an open night, with each person fending for themselves for dinner and entertainment. And there's lots to see and do. The grizzly bear park and exhibit will get you as close as ever to a live grizz (unless you saw one this morning and survived). Excellent restaurants and shops, and even a movie theater, provide a wide variety of opportunities to blow off some steam of your own.
Day 6: West Yellowstone to Indiana University Geologic Field Station, Cardwell, Montana
No rest for the weary today. Our morning will start bright and early, as we head west to explore the effects of a devastating earthquake that killed 28 people in 1959. Fault scarps, boulder falls, collapsed roads, and sunken houses are all still visible along the Madison River Canyon. We will visit the massive landslide that blocked the Madison River, forming Quake Lake and burying a full campground. From there, we drive northward towards Bozeman, stopping for lunch in beautiful Madison Valley. After a brief stop to see the Bozeman Trail, the old stagecoach route to the gold fields of Montana, we will arrive at the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University for a guided tour of the dinosaur exhibits. A surprise visitor may join us from Jurassic Park Leaving the museum, we will continue westward and up into the rugged Tobacco Root Mountains, to spend the night at the prestigious Indiana University Geologic Field Station, where cutting-edge research and education into Rocky Mountain geology have a world-wide reputation. After discussions of geology and hot chocolate around the fire in the lodge, we will drift off to sleep to the sound of South Boulder Creek roaring past the Field Station. Another surprise visitor may join us that night, so keep your food up and your door closed!
Day 7: Indiana Field Station to Salt Lake City, Utah
Like thousands of students and Rocky Mountain scientists before us, we will be awakened this morning by the ringing of the bell at this highland monastery of geology. A hearty breakfast and hot showers will send us on our way along the Lewis and Clark trail. Groggy from our early rise, but flushed with excitement, we will drive to Three Forks, where the Missouri River is formed from the confluence of the Madison and Jefferson Rivers. This was an important goal for Lewis and Clark, whose entire trip had been on the Missouri. Continuing west, we will visit the poignant Big Hole Battlefield, where a drunken platoon of American soldiers attacked a camp of Nez Perce Indians, who had paused on their tragic attempt to escape into Canada. Heading south, we will again pick up the Lewis and Clark trail, trekking up to Lemhi Pass, where the expedition crossed the Continental Divide and "first tasted the waters of the mighty Columbia". We will also stop and see Beaverhead Rock, identified by Sacagawea as the boundary of her tribe's territory. Salt Lake beckons, and we will turn due south, passing between the Overthrust Belt on the west and the Rocky Mountains on the east. If time permits, we will hunt for invertebrate marine fossils in Mississippian limestones of the Tendoy Mountains. Crossing back over the Continental Divide, we will traverse the young lava flows of the Snake River Plain, left behind in the wake of the Yellowstone hot spot. Returning to Salt Lake by sundown, we will watch the western sun set over the Salt Lake desert, sip a cocktail mixed with Columbia River water, and say farewell to Teton-Yellowstone country.