rissy stories

Utah Trip (Days 14 & 15)

 Sunday & Monday, 5/15/16 & 5/16/16: Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, & Ohio 🙂

Hey guys! So, unfortunately, we have reached the end of the Utah trip. This will be my last travel entry for this trip! I hope that you’ve enjoyed it and learned a lot – because I sure did!

So, on this day, Casey and I woke up around 6-6:30 to start getting ready to leave the hotel at 8. (I originally was going to take another shower that morning, but I decided against it because I was exhausted.)

We had toast and cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then we left the hotel around 8. We drove until 10, then we stopped at another gas station. Then we hit the road again until lunchtime. We were headed out to Rocky’s mom’s house to spend the night and take, yet, ANOTHER exam. So, obviously this car trip was spent studying.

And here are the notes and classmate research that I have for the Dinosaur National Monument (another site that we didn’t get to visit – but it’s the last lecture we had at lunchtime):

The monument is spread over 210,000 acres along the Colorado and Utah border with fossils on the Utah side.

It’s situated on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains = subrange of the Rocky Mountains, developed during the Laramide Orogeny.

A total of 23 rock layers are exposed here.

These layers make up one of the most complete stratigraphic columns exposed within the National Parks System. 

With the exception of the Devonian, Silurian, and Ordovician – all of the geologic periods, from the Precambrian to the Miocene are represented in Dinosaur National Monument.

When the Rocky Mountains began to rise, the rock layers were pushed below and squeezed from the side.

This resulted in the warped, uplifted, and cracked layers that we see today.

Over millions of years, the waters of the Green and Yampa have cut deep canyons, exposing rock layers that were uplifted during the Laramide Orogeny.

FORMATION DOWNCUTTING: river carves out a canyon or valley.

At Dinosaur, the canyon walls reveal folded and faulted rocks formed during the past two billion years.

The majority of the fossils in the monument came from none other than the Morrison Formation.

10 dinosaur species, one mollusk species, one mammal species, and two amphibian species have been identified within Dinosaur, in addition to an assortment of trace fossils.

Yes, the town is actually called “Dinosaur.”

The main attraction is the Carnegie Quarry – Earl Douglass found it. 

The Quarry Exhibit Hall was built around the wall of dinosaurs.

They built the building around an outcrop.

They also took some out.

700,000 tons of bones in the Carnegie Museum come from the Dinosaur National Monument.

Now, after we had this lecture (we were still at a rest stop, finishing lunch at this point), Rocky handed us our first exams back…

And to say I did badly would be an understatement. Let’s just say I barely passed. And I’m not doing that thing where people say: “I actually got a 90 on the exam, which is barely passing in my mind,” no – I LITERALLY mean that I barely passed this exam.

So, I had about a five-minute conversation with Rocky after everyone loaded up and moved back into the vehicles. Rocky and I stayed behind on the rest stop benches and talked because I was more than slightly concerned.

You see – I switched to from a Geology major/English minor to an English major/Geology minor starting the second semester of my sophomore year in college. So I had just spent 3 solid semesters without taking any Geology courses because I was trying to catch up on all of the English I missed.

So…now, at the end of my junior year (I’m all caught up on everything I missed), in order to finish the Geology minor – I have to get back into Geology courses (hence why I was on this trip in the first place). And Rocky knows this – so she eased my fears on jumping back into Geology after taking three semesters off.

I expressed concern about my grade for this class as well as two future Geology classes that I’m going to be taking next year – and she told me not to worry about any of it – that my professors will take into account that I’m not a Geology major and that I haven’t taken courses like these in a while.

So…I tried to ease my anxiety about this and I jumped back into the van with everyone else – and we were on our way. Unfortunately, the next several hours were going to be full of anxiety for me.

I began to study like crazy for this second exam (this is all going to be information that was stated in detail in early travel entries, but here’s a quick refresher of all the important information that I needed to know for the exam) (Yes I wrote this down in my journal again – don’t judge :P) :

Information for the second exam…

The similarities between Quarry Exhibit Hall and the Aaron Scott Quarry:

1. Morrison Formation
2. Laramide Orogeny
3. Types of Dinosaurs

The differences between Quarry Exhibit Hall and the Aaron Scott Quarry:

1.Uplift

2. We were in a delta/lake.

3. They have more plants associated with their dinosaurs.

4. They had a lot more bones than we did.

The San Rafael Swell:

I-70 runs east-west

The flat irons dip to the west on the gentle side and the flat irons dip to the east on the steep side.

Breached asymmetric anticline.

Rock strata takes on a rolling shape.

Anticline rises and syncline pushes towards table.

Exposed layers = Permian in the deep canyons, Triassic in the reef – back end of the swell.

Geologic Phenomenon – 5 million years ago – major uplift – Laramide Orogeny, Late Cretaceous, Early Tertiary.

Utah:

Bone name in the center of the quarry: dorsal/cervical – Allosaurus.

We were in the Aaron Scott Quarry.

First thing found: caudal – tail vertebrae.

Found in 2000, started digging 2002.

Cerepod = long tail/long neck.

Cervical = neck vertebrae.

Dorsal = back.

Camarasaurus – the dinosaur of the Morrison Formation.

Lake here in Late Jurassic.

Brushy Basin!

Nonconformity = Cretaceous on top (sedimentary rocks).

Repository = Cincinnati Museum

Taphanomy = what happens to an animal from the time that it dies to the time that it is found.

Interested in the connection – why we map them out.

Lake level rose and fell, but never dried up.

Deposition during times of drought.

Delta progressed into the lake.

The bones are not articulated, but they are oriented.

River was flowing West.

Bones either floated or tumbled.

North/South = Tumbled.

West = Floated.

Sedimentology tell us that = little mud balls.

We were working on limestone.

Farther up you have siltstone.

Allosaurus and Barosaurus died right there, the rest washed up – lake water seeping into Barosaurus stored that data.

Isotopes recorded the climate.

Inside the bone = humid.

Outside the bone = arid.

So, drought or the Allosaurus killed the Barosaurus.

Green layers = lake sediments.

Red layers = where the lake dried up.

Very top = Buckhorn Conglomerate.

Spotted Wolf Canyon:

Colorado

Layers of San Rafael Swell dip to the east (steep side)

Also to the west (gentle side)

Flat Irons

Navajo Sandstone crowns the flat irons

Kayenta Formation = stream channel sandstone, cemented shales, and siltstones.

Dark red = Wingate.

Water – Green River – formed canyon.

Glenwood Canyon/Springs:

Colorado.

Granite to marine limestone

Metamorphic and igneous here. Precambrian rocks at the bottom.

2.5 to 1.5 billion years ago – orogeny.

Cambrian

Marine deposits (Devonian and Mississippian)

Dotsero Formation

Unconformity

Paleozoic

Tertiary

Colorado River cuts through the canyon

Colorado Plataeu

NO NAME FAULT runs through here.

Migmatites: metamorphic and igneous.

Granite intrudes Gneiss.

Precambrian = mountain building and erosion.

Cambrian = Dotsero Formation – marine deposits and erosion (Sawatch Quartzite). Beginning of a transgression

Ancestral Rockies.

No Name Fault = displaces the Mississippian Leadville Limestone against Precambrian rocks.

Dotsero:

Colorado.

Produced basaltic eruptions.

Pennsylvanian and Permian Sedimentary rocks from the Minturn and Maroon Formations.

Crater = 1,300 feet deep / now its 2,300 to 2,460.

Youngest volcano

Basalt, Scoria, and Tephra.

Last erupted 4,150 – 4,200 years ago.

Pharetomagmatic eruption = when water comes into contact with magma and blows up – creating a crater.

Maar volcano

Destroyed scoria cone and showered tephra.

Red sandstone bedrock.

Dotsero then became dormant.

Magma body heats up Glenwood Springs.

Scoria, basalt, limestones, siltstones, shale, gypsum.

Diamonds inside basalt.

Dino National Monument:

Colorado and Utah.

Southeast flank of Uinta Mountains – during Laramide.

Precambrian to Miocene = except for Devonian, Ordovician, and Silurian.

Rocky mountains rose and rock layers were pushed below and squeezed from the side.

Resulted in warped, uplifted, and cracked layers we see today

Green and Yampa Rivers cut deep into rocks, forming canyons – Laramide orogeny chiseled.

FORMATION DOWNCUTTING 

Canyon walls reveal folded and faulted rocks.

Fossils found in Morrison Formation.

WAY more dinosaur species than in Aaron Scott.

Main attraction = Quarry Exhibit Hall.

Earl Douglass found it.

Built around an outcrop of dinosaur bones.

Grizzly Creek = exit to Glenwood Springs.

A Formation is a rock unit that is distinctive enough in appearance that a geologic mapper can tell it apart from surrounding rock layers.

Valles Caldera:

New Mexico.

1.2 million years ago.

Eruptions expelled over 750 cubic kilometers of lava and ash.

Caused the landscape to sink in on itself and form a crater.

Crater had “blisters” as magma rose.

A magma chamber still exists.

OBSIDIAN – igneous.

xxx

I was about halfway done with that when we officially arrived at Rocky’s mom’s house in Missouri. We ended up having to move everything out of the van & truck because we had to thoroughly clean out the inside of them before returning them to campus the next day.

We also moved everything out of the trailer and we sprayed the inside with a hose.

Meanwhile, I moved all of my stuff inside the house (back into the Barbie room that I mentioned in my second travel blog entry – feels so long ago, doesn’t it?), and I immediately got back to studying.

My cousin ended up calling me while I was there, asking me about plans for my birthday dinner when I returned home for the summer. Then Rocky returned with clean vehicles – and we spent about a half hour or so studying before Rocky emerged with the second exam. (We started around 5:30 pm.)

We all went out to her front porch as she read the questions off to us – and at the end, she asked if we had any questions. To our amusement, her mom raised her hand and asked: “Were the dinosaurs here before humans were?”

Everyone snickered slightly while Rocky nodded and said: “Yes, mother, they were.” She retorted with: “How do you know?” And Rocky followed it with: “Because we dig up their fossils.”

At this point, everyone was engrossed in the exam, so the rest of the conversation was left unheard by most of us. Some of us went back into the house to finish the exam, some went other places, and some remained on the porch – I was one of the ones who remained on the porch.

I was also one of the last ones to finish – I’m REALLY rusty on Geology.

And after I handed mine in, Rocky collected my journal – so I actually didn’t record these last several hours, as well as the next day. My memory of these next several events may be a bit shaky because it’s been a couple months since they happened.

I do remember that my anxiety was still very high, even after the exam was over, and all I really wanted to do was go to sleep – but everyone wanted to go out to dinner. So, that’s what we did.

We went to a small BBQ restaurant (again, I unfortunately don’t remember the name of it), and the guys sat at one table while Casey, Rocky, her mom, and I sat at another. The guys ordered beer and all kinds of meat while Casey and I decided to order wine and no meat.

(Casey ordered a glass of Chardonnay while I ordered a glass of White Zinfandel):

And after about half a glass (yes, we both drank half of our glasses on empty stomachs) – Casey was pretty much gone. She was more of a lightweight than I originally thought, but both of our moods skyrocketed nonetheless.

Our food eventually came, and let me tell you…IT WAS THE BEST GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. They must have soaked that bread in butter and it must’ve had at least three different cheeses on it – it was SOOOOOOO good.

Once we left the restaurant, we drove back to Rocky’s mom’s house and then Casey got into an “altercation” with Gene in the driveway because he had jokingly (I assume jokingly) told her to “Get back in the kitchen,” or something to that affect – obviously knowing that this would upset her.

She ran to “attack” him and I had to pull her away – none of the guys were having it and they wanted me to take her inside. So, I dragged her away from the scene and I took her inside, muttering: “It’s hard to be the sober friend when the sober friend isn’t entirely sober.”

I locked her in our Barbie room while the guys remained outside. She called one of her friends while I wrote in my journal (not my class journal – my personal journal), and then we both started to simmer down.

Once we actually started getting ready for bed, the guys were still outside – but we were exhausted. Plus, we knew that we had to get up before the crack of dawn again so that we could get back to the college at a decent hour the next day.

So, Casey fell asleep pretty early and that was the night I finished reading Dark Places by Gillian Flynn before I fell asleep too.

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Day 15:

This day started with my alarm clock (on my phone) going off at 2 in the morning – it was playing “The Great Divide” by Breaking Benjamin. I remember that specifically because I was so mad at the fact that I kept getting up super early for two weeks straight.

We got our things ready to go by 3, and then we all hopped back into the vehicles and began to drive. Everyone (besides Coleman, Rocky, and Mitch) fell back asleep until the sun came up. I remember fully waking up when we stopped around 7 or 8ish – I think we were at a WalMart (or a rest stop) for bathroom breaks.

The majority of this day was actually pretty uneventful (besides driving, stopping, and eating lunch) until the later afternoon rolled around. Rocky had to pick up her husband at the airport and Colby was being dropped off closer to where his home was instead of at the college.

So, once Rocky told Mitch to make a detour (with Coleman following behind us in the truck), Brent began to complain. He started talking about how the way that we were going was wrong – that we should have gone a different way because now we would have to back track and it would take even longer to get to the college.

He was basically non-stop fighting with Rocky about where we were actually going – we were going to stop at a restaurant parking lot to meet Colby’s mother so we could drop him off first, and then Rocky was going to pick up her husband at the airport.

Now, the plan was as follows: everyone who was driving home right after we made it to the college was supposed to move all of their stuff into the van and drive back with Mitch (It was originally supposed to be with Gene, but Gene ended up deciding to not drive home on this day. Plus – Mitch was half-jokingly/half-seriously concerned that “Gene was going to kill us all” with his “reckless” driving.)

However, everyone who was spending the night in the town that our college resided in (and then drive home the next day) was supposed to go into the truck with Rocky – and they were going to pick up her husband and then drive back to the college later.

I originally was going to spend the night in my dorm room one last time, but I knew that it was going to be incredibly lonely because there would be literally no one in the dorm building – which is very odd to say the least. My roommate had moved out two weeks beforehand and my kitten was at home.

I remembered what it was like right before we left for Utah because it was pretty bad. I could have used the alone time, but I didn’t want to feel that alone, you know what I mean?

So, I decided to drive home that night, even though it was going to be a 5 hour drive.

Anyways, Colby grabbed all of his belongings and put them in his mother’s car while his mother had a conversation with Rocky. Meanwhile, the rest of us grabbed all of our stuff out of the trailer and shoved it into the back of the van. Randy (who had been in the truck the entire trip) also moved all of his stuff into the van.

The plan ended up being that Coleman and Gene were going to travel in the truck with Rocky to the airport (and then eventually back to the college) while Mitch, Randy, Jesse, Casey, Brent, and I traveled back to the college (because we were all planning on driving home that night.)

Brent remained in the parking lot with Rocky, Colby, and Colby’s mother along with Coleman and Gene, while everyone else hopped into the van. One of the first things Mitch told us when he jumped into the drivers seat was: “I’m about to tell Brent that if he complains about what direction I decide to take, I’m going to make him walk home.”

We had a slight laugh, and then after everyone hopped back into the van – we rearranged seats. Randy ended up taking the passenger seat, and Brent moved up to Casey’s seat (which was in front of mine) because the very back seat (where Brent was sitting the whole trip) was full of all of our stuff from the trailer.

Casey ended up deciding to let Brent sit next to her because Jesse and I had the longest drives home that night – so she gratefully allowed us to have our own seats so that we had as much room to sleep as possible. (I relaxed, but I couldn’t fall asleep for the life of me.)

Eventually, we reached the college and Mitch dropped us off at the campus police station so that we could pick up our cars. Once we grabbed our keys and unloaded the van, Mitch drove off, everyone filled up their cars, everyone said goodbye – and Casey handed me a card before we parted.

I drove back to my dorm building and packed up the rest of my things – then I was finally headed home for the summer (Needless to say, I was extremely exhausted for the next several days.)

Once I actually arrived at home that night, I opened Casey’s card, and this is what it said:

I may or may not have cried from exhaustion as well as sadness because she just graduated, and I knew that I wasn’t going to be seeing her next year.

But either way, this was obviously the end of my trip. It was amazing to say the least and I was so thankful that I was able to go. It was expensive, and I feel in debt to my parents for providing me the money that I needed to attend, but it was all worth it in the end.

So, if you’re reading this and you currently attend my college (if you know which one I go to)– I HIGHLY recommend that you go on this trip. You’ll have to go into the Brown building and visit Rocky (her office is on the third floor) for more information. I’m not sure if they’ll go again next year – it might be the year after next year (because it is a very expensive trip.)

And you don’t necessarily have to be in Geology in order to go – but you may want to take that into consideration if you’re not interested in Geology. It is a class, not a vacation – but if you’ve taken a Geology course (or Rocky’s Dinosaur course) for a science Gen Ed and you found it to be interesting, go ahead and talk to Rocky about it! (Because that’s what Casey did.)

And you can also go if you graduate right before you leave for the trip. (Because Casey and Brent graduated literally the day before we left for Utah.)

If I had the money and they were going again next year, I would definitely consider going on this trip again (like Mitch and Coleman did this year). And in case you were wondering, I wound up with an A- in the course because positive participation was worth 60% of our grade. (I’m not sure how I did on the second exam, though – thank GOD the exams weren’t worth a lot in this course.)

In the end, I made a lot of new friends, became closer with people I already somewhat knew, bought a lot of souvenirs, collected a massive amount of rocks, and I had A LOT of fun on this trip. (I also learned a lot.)

So unfortunately…this is the end of the travel entry journey for now. And until next time…I’ll catch you later!

-Rissy ❤

(Taken shortly after I got home, which is why I don’t look very appealing lol. I was so tired.)