G Camp Day 4

Alrighty, here we are at day four! Bare with me, I have a ton of photos to share with you today and if that didn't quench your thirst for G Camp adventures, check out my pictures on facebook. :) The first stop we made today was at a Flat Iron in Stonewall, CO. It is made of Dakota Sand Stone and was formed when the Rockies pushed the layers up as they formed. The other side to this particular flat iron is on the other side of the road.

Yes, I am a good G Camper taking notes about what I see. :) I got to use my rock hammer a little bit here and collected some rock samples.

 This garbage truck was in front of us for quite a way and we could see the dust from it rolling over. Turns out, the driver fell asleep and went off the road, causing the truck to flip. It's a good thing he was at this spot and not where there was a drop off. He was very lucky.

In this photo I just got done using my handy dandy rock hammer to knock out some rhyalite from this dike. There were a lot of these on our journey today.

This formation is known as kissing camels. They were lifted up like the flat iron was but because of erosion they now look like kissing camels... supposedly.

This picture contains Mount Mestus and another mountain that I can't remember the name of. :) One of our tour guides, Rick completed his Ph.D work on this mountain. 

About 20 minutes from the last accident, we saw another one! Needless to say, I have been a nervous wreck on the bus and I forgot my Xanax. At least our bus driver is the same one they have had for the past few years and they keep asking him to come back so he is keeping everybody safe.

The last set of pictures are from the Great Sand Dunes and I have to say, pictures do not do it justice. I even managed to get a few "post card" pictures aside from the spots on the side of the picture but I can't figure out what they are from and I have tried cleaning my camera. I guess that's what I get for getting a camera off of Craigslist. The sand dunes crest at 700 feet. Most of the dunes are made up of quartz and volcanic rock. The black sand is magnetite and has a magnetic property, which would have been fun if I had some magnets with me... next trip!

This is one of the three Sherri's. She is the one that is also our expert on Vernon, TX.

I had a hard time walking back to the bus and part of it could have been some extra weight and some of that was in my shoes! Look how much sand was in my shoes!!! I had my own little sand dunes going on.

I didn't post this yesterday but last night's hotel had pretty much the same view. A parking lot. At least the weather is gorgeous here. Cristina and I decided to stay in tonight and relax our bodies. They were pretty sore. The pizza was the best decision ever and beat fast food or walking to town. More fun adventures for you tomorrow!

G Camp Day 3

Wow! Today was a busy day! We left Vernon, TX at 7 am and started our route to Trinidad, CO. On our way there we saw a small windmill farm and I managed to get a few pictures from the bus, so don't mind the glare.

We still had a few lectures to cover so Rick went over some information on Igneous Rocks and Environments. I thought I would show you how our "Lecture on Wheels" sessions go. :) 

Along the way we saw "Rabbits Ear Peak" which has an interesting story. Short version: Settlers from Oklahoma would use that to gauge their distance to Texas. Apparently, if you go to the backside of the peak you can see wagon wheel ridges still in the ground. The "mountains" we saw today are actually a result of volcano activity, which I thought was pretty cool. I always think of volcanoes in the ring of fire, not in the middle of the continental US.

Here is Mount Capulin Volcano. I climbed to the top, walked the rim and climbed into the bottom!! Holy Cow! I got some exercise today. Capulin is a cinder cone and has not erupted in 30,000 years. However, you can still see the rocks that resulted from the eruption and see the lava flows, which are VERY cool! So, we asked the park ranger which way to take and she suggested to go to the left. She said it was a steep walk up but an easy walk down. Man! She was not kidding. I never felt so nauseous from walking in my life! I'm sure the altitude change didn't help much. 

I finally made it to the top!! It was so amazing to see all of Earth around me and the amazing land forms, volcanic flows, critters and butterflies.... HUGE butterflies. They wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get a good picture, which made me sad but I managed. I couldn't get a picture of the butterflies, but at the top of the mountain there were tree trunks and branches COVERED in ladybugs! It was unbelievable!
On my Picture a day blog, I will display another one of my favorite pictures from today. Hint: It has to do with ladybugs!

Here I am with some Scoria (I think), a type of Volcanic rock. This rock was all over the place, around the rim, inside, and throughout the surrounding area. I even have a few pieces that we picked up (not in the National Park) for my own collection.

I just thought this was a fun picture for you. Cristina and I never stayed on the trail. We did whatever we had to do to get the perfect picture. At this point we were traveling down the volcano so I was feeling good. :) After Capulin, we traveled about 10 miles further to the K-T Boundary. At this area you can see the difference in rock from the Cretaceous period and the Tertiary period. It marks the end of the Mesozoic and beginning of the Cenozoic, which is associated with the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, which is why we have the black layer between. 
Here is a picture of the Boundary and the black part is actually coal. The rocks on top are younger and progress to older rocks. The black rock is considered the Tertiary period.

This picture displays cross sectional cuts. I will tell you more about this later! I hope you are enjoying the blog as much as I am enjoying G Camp. My random "fact" that I learned today is that we should not say that Earth or any part of it behaves a certain way because this is Geology... not Psychology. We should say it responds. Everything that happens has a scientific explanation. I have a lot of reading so I am going to get to that before I fall asleep. Feel free to leave comments!!

P.S. Day 2

Here are some random things I learned today.
1. Never refer to Earth as "The Earth". We don't say "The Mars". It is a proper noun.

2. Donkeys are kept in cow pastures to keep coyotes away.

3. A lady that is traveling with us was an Houston Oilers cheerleader back in the day.

4. Another lady was part of the first class of women accepted to Texas A&M.

5. And... another lady was the first woman to receive a sports scholarship to Texas A&M.

6. Finally, teachers LOVE to hear their own voice!

Day 2

Don't you like the catchy titles? Today we started with a rock and mineral lab and had to identify all of these rocks and more! Did I tell you we had a test yesterday? I'm pretty sure I bombed it and now I have to learn these??? Well, I don't have them memorized but I can name a few of them. Hopefully I will learn them all before I am done with camp. We were in lab for an hour and a half.

Look at me being all scientific and testing the streak of this mineral, while posing for the camera... I am that talented!

This is my roomi Cristina for the next 2 weeks. She is a pre-service teacher and will complete her student teaching in the Spring in High School Biology. We get along very well and I think we are two of the youngest teachers here.

Okay, onto the bus ride. We left College Station around 11:00 am. We are on a 50 passenger bus and have 35 people traveling with our group. Cristina and I were fortunate enough to get seats on our own so we could stretch out and we had the perfect location. There were some issues, nothing major but stuff that is aggravating when you are crammed on a bus. I took a nap, finished a book, texted Katie about teachers and the funny things they do, and attempted a crossword puzzle. We passed around a microphone and introduced ourselves, which I always hate doing and man, teachers love to hear their own voice! Introductions were supposed to be short and I swear some teachers were up there for 30 minutes!

Blog world, I would love for you to meet Sheri. She is from Vernon, TX, our stop for tonight and she gave us all sorts of history as we entered the area. For instance, the river is one of the few places cattle could cross safely. There is a coal power plant and as we were riding through we saw a train with TONS of coal.

At 5:00 we rolled into the Holiday Inn Express in Vernon, TX. This is the view from our room. I will have one of these pictures for you every day as a fun game to see the scenery. Apparently our view in Ouray is gorgeous!! We start seeing some cool stuff tomorrow and we have another long bus ride so keep looking for more adventures!

Day 1

Today was our first day of G Camp. We arrived at the hotel and checked out of bucket of supplies. Then, we traveled to A&M for lectures on science (how important observation is) and Earth systems, which goes perfectly with 4th grade TEKS. After the lectures we went to Chicken Oil for dinner and had the juiciest (a.k.a greasiest) burger ever! I'm looking forward to our adventure tomorrow. We are leaving town around 11 and will travel 335 miles to Vernon, Texas. I have my book packed and am ready to go!

Only a few days left...

G Camp on Facebook

If you are on facebook, click on the above link and "like" the page. You will be given updates about our G Camp adventure. I will share all that I am learning and beautiful pictures that I will attempt to capture. Thanks for following the updates and leave comments or questions! :) I promise to respond. 

One week left until....

G Camp!! I can't believe that I leave in a week and I am so excited. Check back here for updates on everything I am learning and the exciting things I am seeing.