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Phone: 616-331-3728 Fax: 616-331-3740 Geology Department geodept@gvsu.edu Padnos Hall of Science # 118 One Campus Drive Allendale, MI 49401 |
2009 GSA Pre-Meeting Field Trip for GVSU students and alums. Preliminary Itinerary
Pre-Geological Society of America Annual Conference
Oregon Trip to Cascade Mountains and Columbia Gorge
For GVSU students and alums
Friday October 16, 2009
Portland to Western Cascades to Sunriver
We will pick up participants no later than 12:00 noon at the Portland International Airport and travel through the Willamette River Valley to Eugene, Oregon. We will then head east on the McKenzie Highway along the McKenzie River. We will drive through the deeply weathered, and inactive, Western Cascade volcanoes up a scenic highway to Dee Wright Observatory. We will spend several hours here hiking through lava fields and enjoying the scenery of the active volcanoes of the high Cascades. We will then drive through Bend, Oregon on our way to Sunriver where we will share a heap of spaghetti dinner and stay in a rental house for the night.
Saturday October 17, 2009
Sunriver to Newberry Crater to Crater Lake and back to Sunriver
We will leave Sunriver at a civilized 8:00 am and travel south through the recent lava fields of the High Lava Plains. Our first stop will be at Newberry Crater and Paulina Lake where we will spend a couple of hours hiking through obsidian flows and exploring the guts of a young Caldera. From there we will travel south to Crater Lake, eating our sack lunch along the way. At Crater Lake we will explore one of the most impressive calderas on earth through a hike to an overlook at Mount Scott (highest point in park) at 8929ft (2721m). We will eat dinner at the Crater Lake Lodge and return to Sunriver and our rental house and the hot tub. One van may return to Portland from Crater Lake to participate in Sunday talks and posters.
Sunday October 18, 2009
Sunriver to Columbia River Gorge to Portland
We will get an early start at 7:00 am and travel north through the Deschutes plateau to the Columbia River Gorge. In the gorge we will examine the Columbia River basalts and evidence for the massive Pleistocene floods which passed through the gorge. We will spend an hour or so hiking along the old Columbia River Highway with amazing vistas of the gorge and exposures of Columbia River Basalt. On our way down the gorge we will stop at several majestic waterfalls created when erosion left valleys hanging far above the Gorge floor. We should arrive back at the Portland airport or your hotel late afternoon (4-5 pm).
Attached separately are google earth maps for each day of the field trip, showing our route and destinations for the day.
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| Last Modified Date: September 18, 2009 | |
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