Geology trip through Sierra Nevada.

Our field trip began Friday evening when we met up by the loading dock and flew into San Francisco. We landed around 11PM Houston time, so we checked in and slept until the next morning. We stayed at a place which was divided by railroad tracks cutting through the motel. We dutifully woke up early to meet at 7AM for a little bite & first day on the road.

railroad tracks cut through the hotel- California sunrise

In our two sorta-matching SUV's we drove through San Francisco downtown. Hilly, sightings of people walking around on a Saturday morning, lots of Chinese restaurants, trams going to and from, and fog covering the buildings in the distance making reality seem surreal.

driving by the San Francisco city hall

And of course, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. There were people jogging along the sidewalk, and I was immensely jealous, like "I jog on the GGB every morning, yep".

crossing the Golden Gate Bridge

Our first stop on the hill along the side of the road at the Marine Headlands Chert. The professors unfolded a geological map of California to point out where we were, and what we should expect to observe here. Then we crossed the roads whose curves were obscured by the giant hill we were supposed to look at. First of many dangerous j-walking on this field trip.

unfolding of the geo-map by the road

It became foggier and foggier as the sun came up, until the GGB was almost completely hidden and the rest soaring above the foamy fog.

alternating silicate and softer carbonates

Golden Gate Bridge in rising above the fog

We went up the Ring Mountain to look at Eclogites with had garnet and omphacite, where we also made an unexpected discovery (science is everywhere!).

Next stop, we went to the Point Reyes Lighthouse where we saw sandstone cliffs and pillow basalts.

lighthouse on the beach- windy!

Point Reyes lighthouse- vertebrae of white shark (temp 50-60!)

We spent our second night in Sacramento, continuing across California on our way to Reno:

We looked at serpentinites, amphiboles, then climbed up this dangerous slope- three of us that took a different path almost fell off- at one point I was standing on a slipping rock, three feet down from the road yelling out "help!" at a stranger walking his dog until M came and pulled us back up.