Find a trip, click, and go!
The entire list is visible on the right side of this (and every) page by scrolling down. Field trips are arranged geographically under the “Field Trip Locations” main page tab.
A primer on using map coordinates is here.
British Columbia:
-Harling Point erratics and migmatite, Oak Bay, Vancouver Island
-Westsong Way and Songhees Point, Victoria.
-Capricorn Creek’s giant mudflow of September 2010 is initially described here, and later updated here.
Whidbey Island: A series of trips to see Pleistocene glacial stratigraphy
Glacial erratics in the Salish Sea region are listed as a group, from Vancouver BC south, as well as Hood Canal. This set of trips visits large, unusual, or particularly significant erratics only.
Chuckanut formation geology (regardless of location):
Field trips to cool places in the Chuckanut Formation, including the large 2009 Racehorse Creek landslide, and fossils found there.
Lowlands of Whatcom County:
-A short beach walk at Whatcom County’s Point Whitehorn Marine Reserve to see till, erratics, and nice island views.
San Juan Islands:
-West Beach, Lummi Island; alternating thin beds of sandstone and conglomerate (Chuckanut Fm.) on a nice beach.
-Pillow lava on San Juan, Lopez, and Cypress Islands
Western foothills of the North Cascades.
-Fragrance Lake Trail, Larrabee State Park; discussion of quartzite pebbles in glaciat till.
-Oyster Dome on Blanchard Mountain ( “South Chuckanut Mountain”).
-a stilpnomelane and chert deposit on Blanchard Mountain
-Greenstone of Bald Mountain and Big Rock, east of Mount Vernon
-the old limestone quarry above Concrete, Skagit valley
-short walk to phyllite east of Saxon, Whatcom County
-roadside pillow basalt in the Middle Fork Nooksack, Whatcom County.
Trips in the Cascade Mountains (excluding Mount Baker):
-The huge 2400 year old Church Mountain landslide in the North Fork Nooksack River at Glacier, Washington.
-Wells Creek Volcanics, near Nooksack Falls, North Fork Nooksack River
-Thick accumulation of Mazama ash alongside Highway 20, Skagit River valley
-Intrusive breccia of the Pollywog agmatite along highway 20, east of Ross Lake.
-Gold Mine Trail, Sumas Mountain: basal Chuckanut Fm and relics from a mining scam.
-The Baker River Trail: metamorphosed ocean basalt (greenschist), alluvium, waterfalls, cobbles in streams
Mount Baker geology field trips:
-Cougar Divide hike- felsic rocks from the Pleistocene
-The Schreiber’s Meadow cinder cone
-The Pinus andesite lava, above Nooksack Falls, North Fork Nooksack
-A published GSA field trip guide to some Mount Baker Holocene deposits in the Baker River valley.
Olympic Peninsula
-Pillow lava along the Heart O’ The Hills Road, Olympic National Park.
-A beach walk on Marrowstone Island to see an intrusive dike, Pleistocene glacial deposits, and coastal erosion
-Adakite lava and breccia of Tamanowas Rock, west of Chimacum in Jefferson County.
-Unconformities and turbidites at Beach 4, Olympic National Park.
Southwest Washington
Fantastic pillow lava at Cape Disappointment State Park
Where to collect nice black augite crystals in Lewis County
