Fauna of Field Camp (Or, Nerdy Moments in Field Camp)

A few great moments in field camp so far:

Standing atop an oyster bed at 7500 feet with a 500+ foot drop behind me!

















Lunching in the Midas Mine.

















The Dump Chief. Oh the SMELL.

















BRUNTON FIGHT!!!

















Acme. Fencing.






















Wishing we could swim in the reservoir!






















Roadkill at the end of a long mapping day.






















(Reposted photo) These are not the drinking shoes.

Field Camp Flora

Some shots I've been collecting for the last couple of weeks from some of our mapping areas. More posts to follow in different categories.

Nevada, ho! (heheheheh)

Off to Nevada for more mapping and some mine tours. Back in four days, I think?

(We don't know many of the finer details of this mission - like what we're doing in terms of food, etc.)

Too tired to make a real post tonight . . .

Summary:
Zebra leg
My next real post is going to be amazing. I've been gathering material for it for several days.
Our "day off" will be spent driving to Nevada.
I like mapping . . . a lot. Who knew.
Laundry. Mmmmm.

Back from the field on time today! Today was part 1 of a two day field mapping project. The only comment I will make about it is that agates are present in the Quaternary wash. No surprise, since we were finding them in southern Utah washes back in March, but still cool to come across.

Still haven't mailed myself the shots from my cell phone, but here are a few other fun pictures from the last three days!


This is the Chateau Apres. Hoity-toity-sounding name, no? This has been the site of the Wasatch-Uinta field camp for about 40 years now, and according to the directors, hasn't changed much in that time. It's in very good condition and considerably more modest than most of the places around here. Food's pretty decent as well. We carry sandwiches into the field, and one must be downstairs by 6:20 am to get the sandwiches you prefer!












This was taken at about 10000 feet. I'm estimating, so for all I know I'm 1000 ft off one way or the other. This is looking back toward SLC and Park City. This is from Empire Pass.











Huge oysters in Jurassic age sandstones. Frontier Fm. This one is about 9 inches long and apparently these get up to one foot long! That's some serious aphrodisiac.














This was making everyone nervous yesterday. We had the cold air mass that produced the snow this morning forming those clouds and a decent amount of rain for the climate here, and there were heading directly for us. The system was producing strong, chilly headwinds that were pretty much cancelling out any warmth we were getting from the sun at that point (a considerable amount!).












Just a neat shot during a break from today's mapping.
















Stinky boot garden after our triumphant return!

*grumble*

This is one of the first things I saw today. It's 6:30 am here and it's 34 degrees out.

. . . Welcome to Utah.

Short Post Today

Sorry, no pics yet. Some are downloaded from the camera and still need to e-mail the ones I took on my cell phone to myself. Maybe I'll do that between sites tomorrow.

-Overdressed this morning. Better than underdressing! Being a Midwesterner, it's easy to forget how much one warms up in the sun out here despite the cool morning temperatures.

- ~1/3 mile hike up the Wasatch Fault at our first stop. I'm acclimated to 600-850 foot elevations, having grown up in a basin. : ) We're at roughly 7000 feet, and the atmosphere thins on a more or less logarithmic scale. What does that mean? 1/3 of a mile up a mountain face and I'm panting like I just sprinted a mile. For that matter, so was everyone else. We'll be acclimated in a couple of days, thankfully, and then we can start the "real" geology instead of just hanging out at road cuts.

-Speaking of which, we were looking at a Permian age outcrop at one of our sites, and someone drove by, shouting, "FIND A DINOSAUR!!" Hee hee. I wish, except for the small problem that, um, dinosaurs came a few million years later.

-Large black beetles around these parts really seem to like hanging out on the back of your neck.

-One day in the field and I'm sunburned. Some will fade overnight as usual, but I am definitely breaking out the long sleeves tomorrow.

-Do not, I repeat, do NOT, sit in an ant pile. I don't care if you aren't aware it's there. Thankfully no fire ants. Regardless, these buggers are VERY temperamental.