COLUMBIA BASIN FIELD TRIP

Introduction  This is not a compulsory part of the course, but we encourage you to come along. Students who participated in past years have found it worthwhile - a chance to see some of the upcoming lecture material written in rock, and meet your classmates and instructors.

The trip will depart from the parking area west of Johnson Hall at 8 a.m. sharp on Saturday morning, October 6. We will travel in UW vans. The cost of the vans has been taken care of in the course fee.

Itinerary   We will drive east on I-90 to Ellensburg and take a short drive down the Yakima River canyon. We return to I-90 and drive toward Moses Lake, then proceed to Ephrata, where we will purchase food for dinner. We continue to Soap Lake, and Sun Lakes State Park in Grand Coulee, where we will camp Saturday evening. Weather permitting, we will plan to prepare a group dinner that evening. Sunday we drive to Mansfield and Chelan Falls and then proceed south along the Columbia River to Wenatchee. We return to Seattle over Blewett and Snoqualmie passes. We plan to be back in Seattle by 6 p.m. Sunday evening.

Geological Attractions   We will view and discuss a wide range of features including but not limited to: folds in the Columbia Plateau basalts, deltas of pillow lavas deposited in Miocene lakes, sand dunes, the geomorphic evidence for repeated catastrophic floods about 10 to 15 thousand years ago that carved the Channeled Scablands, and diverse glacial features.

What to bring   You will need a sleeping bag and tent, or you can share a tent with a classmate. Bring a lunch for Saturday. For our group dinner, the department will supply all the cooking equipment and plates, so all you need to bring is a personal cup. You should also bring a raincoat and footwear suitable for light walking and scrambling over rocky outcrops.