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Saved: September 15th 2021
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I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but one of the greatest things about being a geologist is doing field work. Traveling to remote corners of the world (that's why I was in
Bolivia in 2009 to look at rocks gives you an opportunity to see cool geology and cool places. In some cases, like when I was in staying in
Estancia Palluma and the Puchuni Valley, you get to see and experience things a tourist never would.
This year, I had the opportunity to do some field work in the remote corners of my own province. I set out, with two other grad students, to explore west-central Alberta.
Our first stop was Bighorn Falls, where we were looking at some Lower Jurassic rocks. I'll try to spare you too much geology on this blog, suffice it to say it was fun exploring the creek just above the waterfall. From there, it was a long and winding drive along the Forestry Trunk Road to Ram Falls (see panorama above). They weren't "my rocks," we were looking at, but they were spectacular! Even more spectacular though was the view as we descended from a pass along the Forestry Trunk Road before we got to Ram Falls:
a big rainstorm had passed, and the afternoon light turned the meadows to glistening gold. In the east, just in front of the hills we'd come through, was a giant rainbow. Alas, it was a moment that passed too quickly to catch on camera, but it will be engraved in my memory for years to come.
The first night out, we camped at a campground along the David Thompson Highway so that first thing in the morning we could check out the Bighorn Dam (not to be confused with Bighorn Falls) to look at some rocks of the same age (give or take a few million years) as the ones at Ram Falls. We sampled some of "my rocks" along the David Thompson Highway before heading up to Hinton.
We'd had enough of the Forestry Reserve Road the day before, so we headed west into Jasper National Park and took the paved Icefields Parkway up to Hinton. The next day was a full day doing field work along McLeod River, which was the real destination of this trip. We walked along an abandoned rail line to reach the outcrops along the river. The rail trestles are over 50
years old, and crossing them is a bit dodgy, although not as dodgy as navigating the slopes above the part of the rail line that has been washed out.
I've decided that field work locations should always be chosen based on their proximity to hot springs. Once we'd set up our campsite within Jasper National Park, we drove up to Miette Hotsprings. What a spectacular place to watch the last light of day on the peaks of Jasper. And what a great way to finish off a day of field work.
Fortunately, the campground we were in had cellular reception (we were practically closer to Hinton than to the town of Jasper itself), so early in the morning of September 2, I was able to get the text messages saying that my first nephew had arrived safely at his home in North Vancouver the night before.
The drive home from Jasper was spectacular. There were plenty of opportunities for what I, somewhat inappropriately and irreverently, refer to as "drive-by shootings," with my camera.
In the four days we were away, the wildlife count came in with: marmots, deer, goats, elk, one bear, and some moose. All
of which we saw from the safety of the rental car.
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