Six geology students and Professor Jim Welsh have returned from their spring break fieldtrip to Big Bend National Park and Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Here are just a few photos; more highlights will be forthcoming.
Six geology students and Professor Jim Welsh have returned from their spring break fieldtrip to Big Bend National Park and Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Here are just a few photos; more highlights will be forthcoming.
My favorite part from this trip was when we visited Boquillas Canyon near the Rio Grande Village camp. As we hiked into the canyon it must have been 95 degrees and the sun was beaming off the canyon walls allowing us to see the hundreds of strata layers. Seeing the pictures I took from the canyon does not do justice for the actual massive scale that the canyon walls actually were. During our hike we encountered some merchandise the local mexicans from across the border were selling. They had things like walking sticks, gypsum chunks and little handcrafted metal scorpians. We later saw the mexican men across the Rio Grande and one was singing to make some money.
Also while hiking into the canyon I decided to run up a small sand hill and when i got to the top I stumbled upon a geologic survey marker, which I thought was quite a find. Entering into the canyon the first thing I spotted was a great fault cutting through the strata. There was also a giant sand hill that we climbed up, which was rediculously hard to climb. The sand gives way wherever you walk, so running/jumping down the hill felt like you were jumping on clouds or something, it was exciting. After the sand hill we walked down next to the Rio Grande and waded around. The current was moving pretty good in a couple places. Then Rob, Ryan and I decided we better swim on over to the Mexican side. So we swam over and touched the canyon wall just to say we experienced Mexico.
Overall it was an amazing trip and I got to see first hand many geologic structures and formations that you generally only see in books. I would recommened visiting Big Bend at least some point in your lifetime, it is a great experience.