Spring Break Trip, 2009

Geology 496/695

A road trip through Colorado, eastern Utah, and the sand hills of Nebraska.

March 14-22, 2009.

The Trip:

The trip was a combined Geosciences-Soil Sciences trip designed to get students of all levels into the field to see the geology and soils of the high desert. We left Fargo on the morning of Saturday, March 14, in two university vans. We made stops in the Sand Hills region of Nebraska and a few more in central Colorado before we arrived in Grand Junction where we started our loop through canyon country. For the next 6 days we camped out, eventually making our way back to Grand Junction.

The Class:

The trip was offered as a 2-credit class. Our Spring Break trips have no prerequisites - all are welcome.  Before the trip we met on Wednesday evenings at 5:00 to discuss planning and to prepare the field guide. The guide was made up of student-written chapters, each detailing something we'll saw along the way such as dinosaur trackways, modern sand dunes, desert or prairie soils, rock sequences, bedrock structures, and geomorphic features. At the associated stop each student presented their chapter and led a short discussion.