Well, I am back in Geneva. It was an adventure and a journey to get here, but I did it.
Last week Tuesday, we finished our final project and then had all of Tuesday and all of Wednesday to do what ever. It was such a nice feeling to be done and to just be able to hang out. People started leaving though, and that was sad. The people that we had spent the last 6 weeks with were leaving! So sad! We said goodbye to two groups of people that day and the numbers of camp slowly started getting smaller. :(
Since it was super hot, we decided it would be fun to hang out by Shell Creek that runs along the back of our camp. This is a snowmelt stream… so it is usually really cold. Well, it still was really cold, but it felt really good in the 102-degree temperature! We brought logs in and sat there and occasionally walking in a little to our thighs. Me and the boys just hanging in our creek. Later that day we went into Greybull for the last time and did our laundry. We got everything cleaned that got gross from Yellowstone and camping and were ready to head home. We made it back just in time for dinner. Later that night, I started packing up and a bunch of us watched a movie in the dinning room.
The next day, more people left and the camp became quieter and smaller. It was hot again, so we spent a long time down by Shell Creek. We sat for a while then, we got crazy and started to ride in the current. It was super cool getting your whole body in, but way fun! I only rode the stream two times since I had a rough time getting back up. I tried to stand after riding it, and just couldn’t get my footing. I banged my legs up pretty good with bruises and cuts, but after floating about 30 yards further downstream I got up and crawled out on to the bank. Ha! Wooo I went for a wild ride! We just hung out there for while and then later continued to pack. We had out last super and then we had a good last night with everyone. There was a fire and lots of bonding!
The next day we headed for home. We packed the cars up, and headed out after saying goodbye to the Nebraska people and some teachers who were staying there. I ended up driving the entire way back, not so much fun, but I had too. We had only two extra drivers, and they already had people to switch out with them. Booo. It was really odd to leave. We had made that our home for 6 weeks and it was sad to go. We drove over the Big Horns and once we made it to the other side you could see forever! It was cool, we had not been to that side of the mountains forever! We stopped for lunch, and then stopped at Devils Tower. It was nice to see, but a lot of us where just in the mood to get home. We drove to a town that I can’t remember about 2 hours west of Souix Falls South Dakota. We had dinner there and then camped. I went all out and slept outside, no tent, just me and my sleeping bag on a tarp. I wanted to go out with a bang! (I regret it a little, because I got a lot of bug bites, dang bugs!) It was fun though, perfect temp and I slept under the stars. :)
We woke up early the next morning and left at 6am! Woah, early! We hit the road and again I drove. It was rough driving this morning, I was really tired! I have my pop though so I blasted through South Dakota and then we rocked out in Iowa! We all got so excited the closer we got! We stopped in Des Moines first to drop of people at the Air Port and the Bus Station. Then we headed to ISU!!!!! We finally returned around 2:30 and unloaded the vans and said good bye to people. Kurt was really nice and took me and all me stuff to the Theta House were my car was waiting for me. I loaded up my car and said bye to Kurt. I tried getting into the Theta House, but it was all closed, darn. I then made the decision to keep my driving pattern going, and to drive home. So I grabbed some food and the kept driving towards Chicago! I stopped in to see Erin, a theta sister, in Iowa City for a bit and catch up, then I continued my drive back. I made it back to Geneva at 11pm. It was a long driving day for sure!
I have been back for a couple days now, and it is great to be home, but I do miss Wyoming. It was the perfect summer place. I really did enjoy my self. The camping outside thing I think pushed me too far, but the base camp in Shell was not that bad and it is sad to be away from all the Friends I made there. Most of them ill see in the fall at Iowa State, but some I wont for a while. I am so glad I was able to do this. It was hard and a change, but I ended up learning a ton about Geology and about my self. I am still Alyssa, but I do really enjoy the hiking and being outside and climbing mountains thing. I am even looking into other geology related jobs/internships for next summer. I love teaching, but it was nice to see that I have the potential to do other geology things. I am so glad to be back and sleep in my bed and take a nice shower, but I will miss Wyoming. I have so many great memories and stories from my adventures in Wyoming, this was definitely a summer to remember!
We made it to the wind rivers, this camp site…. Ummmmm….. special…. Really testing my camping/ mountain women ability. It was literally in the middle of no where with no running water, and a hole in the ground with a little room around it for a bathroom….. yeah. We stayed here for three nights… yeah. Anyway, we set up camp, we are pros now, and then went into town (aka 40 minutes away) to have dinner. It was a really good dinner, I had fish and chips and we hung out there for about two hours. Not going to lie, at this point I was really iching to get home…. REAL BAD. I can check camping of my to do list and I was ready to be done with this whole thing. We went back to camp and had a fire and hug out. The next day we actually had to work in the field. So we got all our gear on and headed out. Not climbing mountains for a week really gets you out of shape, ha, we had to climb a ridge, it was hard work! We were looking at metamorphic rocks and had to take stike and dip (like we have been doing) as well as trend and plunge of the rocks. This shows how the rock was squeezed and stretched during metamorphism. We saw many dikes and basaltic intrutions and we even saw PILLOW BASALTS! They were so cool looking! It rained on us for a bit then went back to being hot. Gotta love crazy WYO weather! We then dove to the BIF (banded Iron Formation) and got to collect rocks! I went kinda crazy and got a ton plus a couple big ones! They are heavy too since they have iron in them, but I think they look cool. We then went into town (Atlantic City, and hung out at the bar. The people are so nice, we didn’t have to pay for over half the stuff we got. We walked back to camp and then hung out around the fire.
The next day was our LAST DAY IN THE FIELD EVER!!!!!! Our team rocked it! We had to attack a mountain and describe all the types of rocks and take measurements! We found a lot of cool rocks and enjoyed our final geology field moments. After we finished mapping we went to South Pass City, an old mining town and we saw gold flakes in the river! NEAT! It was a cute little town! Then we stopped at town more places to see more rocks from the same formation, they were sparkly, so I loved them. And the last stop was to see kinematic indicators that told us what way the rocks got stretched. Then WE WERE DONE! We celebrated by jumping in this huge mud pit by camp and got covered in it! Then we jumped in the lake to clean off! It was a lot of fun!
The next day we headed back to base camp. On our way we stopped at Thermopolis and went to swim in the hot springs. Boy, they were hot! It was cool though, then we tried to shower… but I was really ready to take a real shower. I have never been so excited to head back to the base camp in shell! It was so nice to get back. Tuesday we finished out Wind rivers project and then did laundry and hung out by the creek. It was 102 here yesterday and Is pretty hot again today. We are all ready to leave I cant wait to get back. I had a blast while I was here, but getting back to GENEVA and AMES will be great!
We leave Thursday (tomorrow) and we drive for two days to get back!
Posted by
Alyssa Howlett
12:17 PM
The Grand Tetons are stunning! Absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! I loved them! We had a really fun day and this park. We were “let loose” to do what ever we wanted at Jenny Lake. So a bunch of us went Kayaking! It was a blast! I had never been before but I thought, Hey this would be fun and another adventure, sign me up! So we put or swim suits on and then more clothes since it was hot outside, but about 55 in the water, BRR! We all got two person kayaks, so went with Kurt and we were so pro and kayaking! We had the paddling thing down so quickly! The view was great, we were right next to the mountains! We had a blast, I got splashed a lot, but it was ok, it was hot out! We were on the lake for about 2 hours and then we all hung out on the shore for the rest of the day just hanging out! It was a great day!
We then headed to make camp, this was a lot more wooded and more rustic, bathrooms not as nice and again, no joke, THERE WAS A BEAR IN THE AREA. What is up with bear following us around! BOO. We made dinner and then went to take our last shower for the trip (mind you we have 4 days left of this journey…. Yes….. gross…) anyway it was nice to shower, but it was the worst shower ever, I cut myself trying to shave and uuugk it was not a good time. Later that night it rained, my favorite. I love camping in tent while it is rainings with the poetical to get all wet and get eaten by a bear! WOO for camping. I ended up waking up with wet feet. Yes the rain came in the tent again and my sleeping bag was wet and the bag that my sleeping bag goes in was wet…. Gross. We got all packed up, and the ranger came by and told us the bear walked right through our camp last night…. Good thing it just walked. Woah scary and creepy though. Oh I have been choosing to sleep with ear plugs in, because I did not want to hear any little rustle of anything. So I guess this is good, I did not hear that bear!
We packed up the vans ( I am a pro packer, I mean I packed the bug with all my school stuff, packing a 15 passenger van with camping gear, easy.) Another reason that our van rocks, is that our van was packed and ready to go before any other van, yes! We are awesome! I also gave up the driver seat. I was tiered of constantly driving so for the rest of the trip Kelli drove and I got to be the passenger! We stopped at the Tetons and talked about how they formed and we also stopped at the largest recorded US landslide. Then headed to the wind rivers! This was a long long car ride, but we made it fun with singing and playing games! Our van was also getting realy gross right now, full of clothes, food, and people. But at least we were having fun!
Posted by
Alyssa Howlett
11:57 AM
Well, it has been a wild week, let me tell you. I have been back in Shell at base camp for two days now enjoying the luxury of showers, real cooked food, and most importantly- a bed. And yes, that is right, I said these past days at camp have been a high class treat. I say this because for the past 8 days I have leaved out of a van and have been camping, legit camping.
We left for Yellowstone on Monday June 21. We were all super excited. And the trip started out well. WE fit all our luggage into the van, we found a dead stiff mouse in our ceiling, and we saw the special Shell Peacocks at the start of our journey. I love out van too, we had a great time. We sang and laughed and slept but overall it was a pro van. IT consisted of Me, Kelli, Kate, Lisa, Jordan (the girls in my cabin) and then Kurt, Sebastain, Rob, and Meeteetsee (aka Michael) with special appearances by some teachers like Josh and Karen.
On the way to Yellowstone, we stopped at The Buffalo Bill Dam. This was the largest dam before the Hoover dam was built. It was really neat. We stood right on top of it and looked down. Crazy! While we were here we got a “road side geology mini lecture about the Absarahaka Mountain Range by Cody. It was really different and cool to see “hard rocks” since we have been looking at “soft rocks” for the past 5 weeks. (hard rocks=metamorphic/igneous and soft rocks= sedimentary) It was also very interesting since we had just learned about how the whole Yellowstone/Grand Tetons area formed, and woah baby it was rock party of bending and smashing and lifting! So cool to learn and then see it all!
As we continued to drive we stopped and looked at more volcanic rocks. Then we drove into Yellowstone, listening to the one and only, PARTY IN THE USA! It was a perfect summer America moment! Ha!! Our windows were down and it was so so so so so gorgeous!!! The views were spectacular and we even saw a moose, (really quick, but for that one second, it was there!) and we saw a buffalo! (we made a pact that in our car, you had to yell if you saw animals, and you could cry wolf, because I was the driver and I wanted to see, I said if they joked I would kick them out of my van, ha! We made it to the camp ground, but since it was opening day, there was a HUGE LINE! So we vetoed that idea of waiting and went to see the West Thumb Geyser Basin. It was really neat, they were all by the lake and so so clear! They smelled a little, but we got used tp the lovely sufer smell real quick in Yellowstone. We got back to the campsite and got to our camp. It was a mad dash to find a suitable tent set up site. ( I have learned so much about all this, I basically am a tent set-up/take down pro fyi) We got all out tents set up and it looked like a mini village! We even called it down town, mid town, and up town. I had 3 other girls in my tent, Kelli, Jordan, and Melanie. But to make things more fun, guess what? We were told that there was a bear in the area… WOOO my favorite. I love the fear of bears at night, plus, wolves, and other creatures while I sleep, great. So I got a tad freaked, plus the boys like to be cool and tell us more things to scare us.. nice. This means nothing could be left out. Everything was in the vans, clothes food, bathroom things only me and my sleeping bag were in the tent. But we set up had chili and then had a fire. I was scared, but I did it. I made it through the night! WOO! Check, night one, done.
I will say the bathrooms at Yellowstone to camp, just perfect! 3 stalls, running water (it was ice, but hey.. water is water, and nice to have around). We had breakfast and then headed to sight see! We stopped at Old faithful first! I was so excited! YAY for touristy things! We walked around and looked at all the hot springs and geysers and then at 10:10 am OLD FAITHFUL erupted! WOOOOOOOO! It was pretty cool. I wanted a Geology badge to show the rangers, so that we could get closer, but they don’t make those, darn. After that a group of us went through the shops! So sweet! And then had a hot lunch! (we have been having cold meat sandwiched everyday… a grilled BBQ chicken sandwich was AMAZING!) Then we headed to the Grand Prismatic Hot Spring. It is the largest Hot Spring in the world! And oh so pretty! We were cool though, everyone else walked on the board walk like, “smuchs” our teacher said. We were cool and hiked to the top of a ridge and looked out over the spring to see it in a birds eye view instead of right up close. I also and now an acclaimed Christmas Card photographer! I took 2 families pictures by this and I must say, beautiful! For sure the Christmas card! Ha! :) We then traveled some more and saw more hot springs, and basked in the sulfur smell once more! Yum, (not really, I gagged a lot and ran through all the steam, it was gross we all smelled like sulfer and just felt uuck covered in it!) When we got back to the camp site, our tent was flooded…. Super. I just love sleeping in a tent…. So we dried it out and moved it. We had dinner then back at camp, fun foil things with han and potatoes, I rocked it! Everyone had foil blobs, I would like to that the Reynolds wrap ladies for teaching me how to create a good foil cooker! Ha! We then BIG NEWS….. took a shower!!!!! Woooo!!!!! It was great, we had 6 min. but it felt so good! Then we played card games in my tent and then it started to rain. Lovely, and we had to pre our tent to keep water out. So in the pouring rain, we tied off ends and made the fly cover more and not touch the tent. We made it and slept dry.
This day we got up and headed to the Grand Cayon of Yellowstone, extremely pretty! A beautiful waterfall that cut into a canyon. On our way there we celebrated Jordans b-day in the van and saw herds and herds of Bison! Two even ran right in front of our vans and along side them! Scary to drive, sweet to take pics! Was also saw a Bull elk, so amazing! The antlers! WOAH! Then we headed to Tower Water Fall and on our way there (throught eh mountain windy scary roads) we saw a bear!!!!!!! A little black bear, and there was bear jam, it was cool! A ranger and a ton of people looking at this little bear! We then saw columnar jointing of basalts, very cool. We stopped on the side of the road and took pics! It is funny though, in Yellowstone, if any, and I mean any cars are pulled over everyone slows down to see what people are looking at, it is really funny! So later we drove to Mammoth Hot springs. Here was were able to walk around and see more hot springs. I was kinda hot springed out, but still they were really cool looking. It was really hot this day too, so hot + hot springs + sulfer = not so comfortable. After this we drove to specimen ridge. Here people could optionally hike really high and far up to see three pieces of petrafide wood. I said, no thanks and hung out by the van for three hours. Lisa and I layed out and chilled, it was nice. But since all four of our vans were pulled over, people stopped and looked and slowed down hahahaha it was funny. We were just sitting there, looking at nothing. We then went out to eat at a cafeteria place, it was ok, but nice that we didn’t have to cook it. We then RoCkEd OuT in the vans back to our camp site. We all listened to the same radio station and sand storm and shout were played hahah it was hilarious! We were all going crazy, all three vans! So much fun! Our last night at camp we had a fire and enjoyed Yellowstone. We headed to the Grand Tetons next!
Oil update: We didn’t find oil, but we did do very well on the project! Jimmy’s Angels (my groups oil company) ended up drilling in the correct spot, we were right within the sandstone we needed to be in and we were projected to get over $184 million from our well and ~2.5 barrels total! We did really well in our presentation as well and ended up getting a 95/100! Again, top grade! :) YAY!
Since then we have been working on mapping Beaver Creek. This area is a lot closer to the mountains than we have been previously and was really messed up. There are rocks going everywhere and after we were convinced the rocks were formed one way, we would walk a little further and be confused again. We spend two days out there walking up and down ridge after ridge. The project was due this morning. I got it all done and fell good about what I marked down, but it was funny that no one had the same looking topographic map. The contacts were very hard to see due to a lot of alluvial material and vegetation. I will say, even though the formational structures were hard to figure out, it was really neat to see all the structures we talked about in class actually in front of me.
Later on Saturday, some of us went to see petrogliphs, Indian drawings carved into rocks! This older women showed us them and we took a ton of pictures! It was really exciting to see a drawing from so long ago.
On Friday night, Dirty Annie’s, the general store/restaurant up the street had a “Friday night event” which included a bond fire, dj, and karaoke. It was really fun. We all sang songs and danced around! A great last weekend for us. Since the place is up the road, we all walked, who knew it was going to be the longest walk ever! But, it was worth it. I wanted to sing “Party in the USA” but they did not have it! Crazy, how could they not have my song! So intend I say “See you again” by Miley (not as good as the first Party in the USA concert done on Halloween, but it was not to bad). Ha. We also did some swing dancing to the country music and then at the end, the dj played some dancing music! We busted out the moves! It was mainly just us at this event, but that is perfect because we bring the party!
We are heading to Yellowstone, the Tetons, and the Wind River Basin over the next 8 days. I am really excited since I have never been to these places before. The good thing is the whole time we are at Yellowstone, we don’t have any projects! We just fun touristy things with a little geology thrown in on the side for fun. I mean since we are nerds and like all that stuff. We are legit camping for 8 days. Yes, sleeping on the ground for 8 days, having to pay to shower, and cooking all our food. We usually take 4 vans into the field everyday, we are taking 6 vans on this journey across Wyoming, one being completely food! Whoa!
I also will be without a computer for the next eight days as well. No internet while camping in Yellowstone. So I will be slightly cut off from the world for a bit, but I will have my phone, and I hope I get service while I am out there (and I hope there are outlets somewhere, bathroom maybe? To plug my phone in! ahh).
Our last couple days on this trip will be spent doing our final project. Once we get back to camp on Tuesday the 29th we will finish the project and then clean up camp on Wednesday, then depart for Ames on Thursday! I really cannot believe how fast this has gone. After that first week, time here has completely flown by! I am glad and excited to get back, but also, it is nice here, in it own special Wyoming way. We are having a good time, and it is nice that this is a retreat for me. Nothing else to worry about, I am getting tan (kinda, I have some pretty special tan lines) and my hair has never been happier since I have only blown it dry 3 times. Ha Ha. It is going to be a switch going back to not being outside all day long and not climbing mountains
We started working on oil prospecting on Tuesday and I was Geology Barbie this day. I wore a pink tank top, jean shorts, my boots, a pink bandanda headband, and my hair in a high pony. It was great! Ha yeah for Geology Barbie in Wyoming! :) We practiced by looking at Greybull Sandstone and finding channel flows. Teams were picked for this project and I ended up with two other girls from my cabin and one guy, Jim. We have to have a oil company name, we picked “Jimmy’s Angels”. are working great and finding everything we needed to. We climb and found where the channel pinched out and then moved around more to find the other side. We also took paleocurrents, that tell us what way the river was flowing. We did this for two channels and charted them on our maps. We found a great place for lunch, it was perfect! We ate under this ridge so our tops were in the shade and reclined and our legs were still getting sun (I wore shorts so I could finally give my pale pale legs some color!) It was really hot Tuesday. Upper 80’s and we are outside from 9-4. It gets intense climbing and hiking. We then climbed to the top of Fox Mesa and took more paleocurrents moving south along the sandstone channel. We ended up seeing Indian “church” types of places were Indian went to think. It was kinda neat to still see these intact. We then took a billion mile (ok just 2, but it seemed like forever) hike back to the vans. I needed a sugar pick me up, I was lagging! But we got back to the vans and ended up having a water fight. We brought squirt guns and were shooting at the boys and each other. Too bad the boys didn’t have guns, instead they all decided to through their water bottle water at me. Great. It actually felt perfect, but still, dang boys!
I have been driving the vans all the time, but the past couple of days I have had some muddy, dusty, bumpy roads to deal with. But I want to let you all know, I am a pro. Some boys have even complimented me on my good driving skills and how I can keep up with the men in my driving. I guess that is good. I also have been awarded “baller” points from two boys Kyle and Josh, for taking my van through a very big dip like a champ. I did not flip it or get it stuck, yay me!
We also have been watching movies in our room the past couple of nights. We use the projector from lecture, and watched The Proposal and Dear John. We have bonded as a room, it is so fun!
Today, we went searching for oil. We drove to the same location we have been hanging out at for the past month. (it is actually really neat, if you get high enough on a mountain, you can see four places we have worked) But we drove forever to find out outcrop of Greybull Sandstone. Today was my day. I climbed like it was no ones business multiple times and just kicked butt and took names going up the mountains today! It was sweet! Once we climbed to the top mountain, we mapped currents. It was a really pretty view and we did a good job of figuring out how the channel was flowing. After, we took a group picture and finished out that outcrop. Then we got back in the vans to drive to the other side of the mountain to check the flow direction there. We drove by everything we had mapped before; it was like a little trip down memory lane. We also rocked out big time in the van. The Dance Marathon Morale Dance was played as well as other sweet jams. I had to drive through some mud… that was not so fun, but again, pro driver in the house, and I drove through with no problem! Once we stopped to get out, we were told the agile people in the group were to scale the mountain, get paleocurrent directions and get back to the vans… rain was coming! WE cannot be on the road when it rains, since they will turn instantly to mud and driving over them guarantee a stuck van. So Jordan and I booked it up to the cliff and we took measurements. It was really neat, I felt like a goat climbing to the top. There were a lot of big boulders, so climbing was fun!
Once back at the van we haled butt to get on to the main road, we made it fine and ended up getting ice cream from the professors and seeing really sweet lightning. We have to work on our projects tonight and determine where we are going to drill for oil and create a presentation. Wish me luck! :)
Posted by
Alyssa Howlett
6:30 PM
I have been to a rodeo.
It was quite an experience, and was really fun. I of course have to dress the part, so I got myself a hat and busted it out for the rodeo. A bunch of us dawned out western gear and headed to Greybull for their big summer celbration called “Day’s of 49”. At the rodeo we saw roping, bull riding, barrel racing, and wild horse saddling. Our group had a great time! We even got announced to from the press box to stand up and cheer! Ha!
Saturday we had to work for most of the day, that was not so much fun. We looked at cores from Colorado and analysed them from their lithologies to how they matched with gamma ray logs. We also completed a project about cores, linking them to sea levels and currents. There were a lot of projects to work on to keep us busy! Saturday night was supposed to be a street dance in Greybull as part of the festival, but it ended up getting rained out. I was sad too, because I was thinking that a western street dance would be really fun! Dancing with some cowboys! :) Instead, a group of us went to do our laundry. Lame, I know, but I chatted with mom and dad and got all my dirty clothes clean.
Sunday was a free day, so we slept in! Then all the girls in my cabin and three boys drove to Cody! Woo big town, ~8000 people! It had lots of stores! It was exciting to see these things again! We had dinner/lunch at Pizza Hut (us cool college kids missed our regular intake of pizza) then I went with Kelli to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. It was really nice! We learned all about Yellowstone and even got to see things that we have been learning or doing! Great day!
Monday, we drove to an area near all the other area we have been to in the middle of no where called Sheep Mountian. We mapped all the formational contacts and then we were looking for faults (my fav!!) So Lisa and I partnered up and started our day with a nice summit of sheep mountain. It by far is the highest we have climbed, and of course on one of the hottest days! Whoopty doo! It got intense, but it was really amazing! So pretty! We ended up mapping all of the map from up there and even getting a major fault. I really enjoy imaging what this area looked like before it was eroded and folded, so todays purpose was interesting to me. We had lunch up there and then moved on to our next mountain to climb. I figured out all the crazy stuff that was happening (I even got right on the professors convo discussing what exactly was going on. They asked for my opinion and I seemed to be spot on with what they were thinking, YAY) Monday I saw GREAT anticline and a syncline! So cool! Later that night we chatted about oil and gas and got a new slue of instructors.
Posted by
Alyssa Howlett
9:19 PM
This week has been full of changes. We had a change in our instruction, the Nebraska professors left on Wednesday and the Iowa State Professors got here today. It is great having ISU people here I must say. I little bit of comfort knowing how they teach and stuff.
Monday was raining and the road we needed to drive on was too muddy, but we didn’t know that tell we drove there, and hour away, then we turned around to come back to camp….. two hours of driving…. I was driving….. others slept….. and they played lame music…. I was not so much of a happy camper. But then later in the day we climbed some mountains and saw some sweet views in a different place. It was a weird day since we had a quiz and didn’t follow our regular day pattern, but later that day Kelli (a girl at camp) and I, and some others went to the top of exercise hill. That is a tall hill next to camp, it is super steep and a for real “exercise” to get up there, but again the views were great! I even held a horn frog! He was cutie and we chilled for a while together.
The next day we went back to the location we drove an hour too and looked at ancient dirt called paleosols.. sounds lame, but they were really pretty colored. We had to scale a steep cliff side to see these and measure the bed (I almost slipped and fell down 3 times that day! Good thing we were not high up.) Later that day we got back to camp and had to construct a strat column with our groups and then after that take a quiz about what we saw and what kind of environment all the sediment was deposited in, was there and increase in sea level, how did the sediment end up the way it looked etc. Then, after dinner we had to construct a graph of the age of the formations here in Wyoming verses their thickness. Luckily that was easily done on excel and we were able to have the rest of the night free. A big group of us went to the top of exercise hill again to look at stars. I cannot describe how amazing it was. I had been looking forward to seeing the stars here for a while and it was perfect, a little cloudy around horizon, but overall AMAZING! I was such a nerd too! I brought up my star chart and was pointing constellations out to everyone! I saw 2 satellites, the milky way, and a couple of constellations that are usually really faint like the little dipper and draco! Loved it, and the company up there was not to shabby either, we had a great time.
Later that night, there was a battle. And we won. We had a mouse and after being very scared and creeped out we caught it! Kelli and I moved our beds to the middle of the room so we were not next to anything, but that didn’t help we couldn’t fall asleep because all we could hear was the mouse running around above us in the ceiling. Then at 4am.. SNAP!!!! We got it, but only its nose and arm. So, great it was still moving and being gross. Kelli and I started to make a commotion and the other girls in our room woke up, I was standing on my bed with the flashlight and Kelli was next to me. Kate, another girl in our came over to pick up the trap and through it outside into yard. So, we were kinda mean.. but we didn’t want to let it free incase it came back in. But we won. Now we have to deal with bats in the closet. I love nature.
Wednesday, to sum up: had a pop essay test on basically everything we had learned and then got dropped of in the middle of the desert, and had to map. I am for real. The professors left us (only 2 TA’s were there) to map a 2 square mile area and said meet back at the vans at 4. Go. So that was a treat. I worked with Kelli, and we actually had great time talking about stuff, then talking about rocks. Ha. We found an antler, that was cool and had a cute date for lunch on a rock in the middle of the desert! :) we walked and hiked around finding faults and taking strikes and dips and mapping contacts of formations. We finished and turned in our maps right away. After that we were done for the night! Score! We played football catch and a ton of other outdoor games with everyone. It was really fun.
Today we got to see dinosaur tracks! Of my camera was in the van :( but other people got pictures! They were cool footprints on the ancient beach. They called it the “ballroom” because there were so many prints it looked like they were dancing. I was really cool and walked in ones foot prints. It was so awesome. I just walked exactly on real dinosaur prints, it is just so wild to me! As we drove to the mapping site, we had to drive through a grazing land, cattle were everywhere and we had to make some move off the road! Once at our spot, we mapped and measure a 50-foot section of limestones and mudstones. On the way home the Iowa State professor bought us all ice cream! YAY! And ever since we got back it has been raining and storming.
I cannot believe that I am at the half way point! Everything seems to have blurred together and not seem like I have been here that long. As much as I am ready to get back to regular Alyssa life, I am liking it out here and am kinda sad that it is going to end soon, and I more than likely will not be coming back here. It is really nice to have one thing to worry about, that it. At school life gets crazy and busy with everything I am involved in. Here, everything is laid back and chill, all I have to worry about is rocks and having fun.
My internet was being slow, so here are some pics/ a video! :0)
This past week (week 2) has been a busy one. We started a new project, and finished it turning in a topo map and a cross section of the area. We had a hydro project on Wednesday that was really nice. We got to head up into the mountains and into a more wooded area. We got into the stream and found out how fast it is flowing, looked at the pebbles and surveyed the land. We had a great time. It was so much more relaxed and full of life than us in the field. There was a stream and plants and trees, so nice! We came back that day and worked on equations showing us how important water is to Wyoming and how they use it for irrigation. Nifty info!
The past two days we have been working in a place called “Goose Egg” or “Alkali”. We had to map all the formation contacts and take strikes and dips of the beds to determine the structure of the beds (if they were folded or plunging). The area we had to cover was 4 square miles of cliffs, valleys, ridges, and gullies (aka A LOT OF CLIMBING AND WALKING) it was nuts! I am totally going to have some kickin’ legs when I get back! Woo baby! I keep telling that to my self when I am hiking up those steep sides, ha. We got a new group for this assignment, and I got lucky and got paired with Lisa, one of my good girl friends here at camp. It took us a bit to get started but after we figured out where we were and what formation we were standing on we rocked it! We ended up having lunch at the top of a cliff and then spent most of the day in the valley. Since 4 square miles is so big we rarely saw anyone all day, so Lisa and I bonded hard core. We got a little loopy after 2 pm. We were hot and tiered and ready to go. We ended up laughing at everything, so it was actually a lot of fun. Ha! We saw a badger too, but no one believes us! We ended up hiking to the top of a huge stepp cliff that is at the elevation of ~4500 feet! Woah, I felt like I was touching the clouds! We then had to find the vans, we laughed so hard about our day, just how crazy it was for the whole 30 minute walk to the vans!
The next day we attacked the same location finishing up our map. Lisa and I started the morning at 9am with a vertical hike to summit the one of the ridges. We walked along that ridge for about 2 hours and tried tanning while we are up there too! Hey, why not right? We got all our info down, since we are mapping rock stars, and headed back to the van. Creature of the day Friday June 4th: a Black Widow Spider! It was eating a fly! Cool!
We finished our map like pros and turned it in. We then all hung out and played games last night then made another trip to the Greybull bars to try our luck at Karaoke. We had a great time. About 20 of us went and were we go, we bring the party! ☺
Today I did my laundry and and going to have a chill night by the campfire and make smores!!!!! ☺
ON to week 3! I can’t believe how fast this is going! And Happy Birthday Brother! You are the coolest brother ever! Love you!!!!!!
I have been really busy over the past couple of days! We had a project due on Saturday and then anther due this morning. The projects include writing a description on the formations we are seeing, drawing a stratigraphic sequence of all the units we have seen, having a topo map that includes all the formation contact lines, and a cross section that is drawn to scale! Woah baby, it has been a lot of tedious work. No worries, jamming to Miley Cyrus kept me working away! It even helped me get the highest grade in the class for the first project! Yay! :) I am showing up all the geologists, go teachers!
This last project was a cross section as well, but with apparent dips and curving beds that we had to draw in under the topography. It wasn’t to bad, but still we had to work on it all night which is not as fun as hanging by the campfire, but we make it fun with music and everyone talking in the big dinning room.
We have moved locations, and have been working on Devil’s Kitchen and Poverty Flats. Google Earth it, it looks really cool. It is a Syncline and an Anticline formation where the earth bends and looks like a U then the other looks like an A. We got new groups, but Joe and I were still grouped together so “Team Awesome” as we like to refer to ourselves took strikes and dips all over Poverty Flats trying to see how the syncline is bent. We owned it basically and took over 20 strikes and dips, woo. But it was no easy task, let me tell you. An ant decided to hang out on my neck, a angry ant. I felt an itch and a sharp pain, so I itched and felt a little, nothing, then it moved to the front of my neck, same feeling, AHH, then I was freaking out a little and I felt it on my ring finger, dang ant was there! I got bitten by a dumb ant! I had little red dots for a bit. Then I thought live was good until…I almost stepped on a Rattle snake. It was right behind me, Joe reached out and grabbed my arm very slowly and I knew there had to be something behind me, I looked then it rattled, so I ran. I am all good, but I have been a bit extra cautious of sage brush. While looking for snakes I saw a ton of horned frogs! (go TCU) We named one Budda (he was a fat one) and another Whipper-snapper (he was fast). But…. then I had another friend visit me, Mr Bee. He decided that he wanted to hurt me for playing with the horned frogs instead of him and he stung me! OWW! I had some little yells and Oh my gosh, again partner Joe got eh bee out of my shirt, (yes it loved me that much it had to stay a tad longer) and then we used my handy tweezers in my pink Swiss army knife to get out the stinger. I then put a band aide on it, and hey back to mapping. As much as the dumb Poverty Flat seemed to own me, I really think we owned it. Joe and I had to meet up with my partners over at Devils Kitchen, so we hiked through gullies and up and down cliffs around 4 miles!
This past weekend was SO much fun! I did my laundry, which was an event, at the local laundry mat in Greybull (about 30-40 min away). We also went to the super market and got smores things, and we went to a Chinese restaurant that I don’t think had ever seen 20 people at once. We also had a great time Saturday night. Our group bonded so much! I think I am one of the guys now! Haha. The boys let me in on all there guys talks and told me I was cool, so hey since there are about 4x as many guys here, I think that is cool. We hung out at camp for bit then made our way to a Greybull bar were we hung out with the locals. Again, I am not sure if they were ready for us. There was one bartender who made made bank on us, but I think was overwhelmed when we walked in. We had so much fun! We danced and made up songs about field camp. It was great!
With on month to go, things have been going great. I am having fun and really loving everyone here! Of course I cannot wait to take a nice shower and put on nice clothes again, but for now, this is pretty cool.
Posted by
Alyssa Howlett
6:26 PM
The past three days I have been out on the field! It has been really cool but really tiring. I have done so many things that I would never do regularly, it has been great. Yesterday, we went to Greybull and looked at the Mesa Verde Formation and I got to use my rock hammer for the first time! It is so fun to beat up rocks! Ha! We mapped it and looked at the formation that we have been learning about. It is really exciting to learn about these things in a book and then actually getting to see them, it is so cool!
Two nights ago, a couple of us decided to go on a hike. We went up the really steep cliff right by our camp that we had been looking at for the past 4 days. It ended up being really steep and kinda scary, but so worth it. The view and the experience was AMAZING! We could see for miles and miles! It was sunset time so we got to see the sun set. Again, so pretty. I was tiered though climbing the side of a steep mountain, I got red mud everywhere! Boots officially not clean anymore! Then we went to the huge chimney rock. It is a huge land mark in this area and I touched it and climbed up a side kinda and did the whole “king of the world” thing. One of the guys climbed up the side a little and then threw down a rock with sweet laminations (strips) in it. We all like ran to the rock and were ooing and awing over it, I love geeking out about rock with these guys, it is great. I don’t feel like the nerd, since we are all nerds! :) After that we mad our way back to camp. On the way back we ending up getting lost in the fields with all the fences and one stream to cross, we ran into some hourses (on the other side of a fense that goodness and it got really dark. On the plus side we could see the stars, and it was AMAZING!!! So pretty! We finally made it to the road after climbing about 4 fences and hiking through fields. Then at 10:30pm (three hours after we left) we made it back to camp! WOW crazy, but so fun, and a great memory.
Yesterday we spent all day in the field looking at one formation, the Frontier. We got the strike and Dip of the rock and then fond the base of the rock formation and started looking at each bed about what it is composed of, and then measuring the thickness of the formation. We got into groups of four, I am with three boys, Derek, Joe, and Anthony. We are such a fun group Joe is crazy. Anthony is hilarious and Derek is really smart, then there is me, the mom. I hold everything and wrangle them together. But intern they look out for me. We climb and slide down a tone of steep beds and they were always making sure I was ok. We ate lunch with a gorgeous view of the Big Horns. I didn’t really think about until I took a second to realize what an experience it was. We did the same thing through 3 members of the frontier formation and then headed home. WE got back and then had homework to do and worked with my group analyzing our notes and drawing the strat column. It was a late night of working. BOOO.
Today was HOT! We were out in the field again all day today Looking at the Gypsum Spring, Sundance, Morrison, and Cloverly Formations. We were in our groups again, Group NINE baby. We covered so much ground today, (climbing up down up across down up across down up down up). It was insane to look back and see how far we went. I was wearing my tank top and then had my t-shirt around my neck. Only my shoulders got a little red. I COATED my body in sunscreen. I am smart. :) The boys found me a flower too! I collected squid fossils and pearl/clam fossils they are cool. And at the end we climbed a cliff covered in Bentinite (which is basically really think mud covered in a crust that looks like grey popcorn. I love Bentinite. I slid/climb the side then at the top Joe and I made a Bentinite Castle as our marker since we have to pick up there tomorrow.
We hoped back in the vans and drove to Dirty Annies and THE BEARD (that is our name for our professor) bought us all ice cream! It was so nice!
We are just hanging out. I am getting used to this and other than some new adjustments some aspects of life, I am really enjoying my time here. It is great and perfect way to spend my summer!
