Outdoor Excursions

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are the home of awe-inspiring geological features and resources.  The parks contain a significant portion of America’s longest mountain range, the Sierra Nevada.  Included in the Parks’ mountainous landscape is the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States, Mt. Whitney, which rises to 14,491 feet above sea level.  Eleven additional peaks taller than 14,000 feet are also found along the parks’ eastern boundaries at the crest of the Sierra Nevada.  This course will include discussions of the origins, uplift, and sculpting of the Kings Canyon landscape.  The geologic history of the 400 mile long Sierra Nevada mountain range will be discussed along with the many glacial features responsible for the Kings Canyon scenery.  Other discussion topics will include plant and animal adaptations and Native American history.

Online presentations will be followed by a 2 day field trip.  Field trip stops will include: Panorama Point, Junction View, Horseshoe Bend, Chevron Folds, Roaring River Falls, Zumwalt Meadow, Roads End, Muir Rock, General Grant Grove, Giant Forest Museum, Moro Rock, and Crystal Cave.

Date: October 3 - 4, 2026

Code: PEDD 9617

Day one stops will include: Mono Lake Overlook, Bennettville, Nunatak Nature Trail, Dana Meadows, Lee Vining Canyon Overlook and Warren Bench.

Day two stops include: Panum Crater, South Tufa Reserve, Aeolian Buttes, Mill Creek Delta, Black Butte and the Old Marina.

We will discuss the geologic history of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the effects of glaciers on the range, the mining history of Bennettville, and the natural and human history of Mono Lake.

Date: October 24 - 25, 2026

Code: PEDD 9639

The Geology and Natural History of the Mammoth Region and the Eastern Sierra Nevada. Mammoth Lakes Sierra is a beautiful and exciting region of the 400 mile long Sierra Nevada Mountains.  The excitement comes from the earthquakes and volcanic activity of the area.  The Mammoth Lakes area is one of the most likely places for a volcanic eruption in the lower 48.  We will caravan from Mammoth Lakes to Mono Lake making stops at Mammoth Mountains, Inyo Craters, Devil’s Punchbowl, Obsidian Dome and Panum Crater. Our discussions will include glacial features, the Mono Lake Basin ecosystem and the major plant communities of the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Date: December 5 - 6, 2026

Code: PEDD 9601

On October 31st, 1994 Death Valley was designated a National Park.  With 3.3 million acres it is the largest National Park in the contiguous United States.  It includes the lowest point in the western hemisphere (282 feet below sea level) and, in 1913, an air temperature of 134 degrees F was recorded.  This land of extremes offers a fascinating look at plant and animal adaptive strategies, faulting, volcanism, and human history.  On-line presentations will be followed by a field trip to Death Valley.

Date: January 23-24, 2027

Code: PEDD 9612

Join us for a natural history tour of the Claremont Wilderness Park and the San Antonio Canyon. This course covers geology and plant communities of the Eastern San Gabriel Mountains. We will identify the major plants of the chaparral and riparian plant communities, discuss plant adaptations to the Southern California climate and explore how plants have adapted to chaparral fires. In addition we will see 1.7 billion year old rocks, debris fans and the Cucamonga thrust fault. We will view and discuss the major faults of San Antonio Canyon, see some of the oldest rocks in California, observe huge landslides and end up at a beautiful waterfall. Our drive will take us up in elevation about 5,500 feet through 5 biotic communities: Coastal Sage Scrub, Chaparral, Riparian, Yellow Pine Forest, and White Fir Forest. Our discussion will include plant adaptations to changes in elevation and names of the major plants in each community.

Date: February 13 - 14, 2027

Code: PEDD 9609

This class will explore the geology and natural history of California’s Central Coast. The field study will take us as far north as Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park on the Big Sur Coast and south to Morro Rock. We will discuss the geologic history of the rugged Big Sur Coast, the origin of Morro Rock, and the formation of Coast Ranges. Discussions will also include the components of the Coast Redwood forest ecosystem and the role of fire and introduced species. California?s cross section is a textbook example of an oceanic continental subduction zone. We will see ophiolite sequences that represent the scraping off of the Farallon Plate as it subducted beneath the North American Plate during the formation of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We will also see some to the most beautiful and rugged coastline in the world.

Date: March 20-21, 2027

Code: PEDD 9603

This class will cover plate tectonics, geologic time, basic rock types, and the structure and behavior of faults. Features associated with faults will be discussed and then observed on a 2-day field trip along the San Andreas Fault.

Date: April 17-18, 2027

Code: PEDD 9611

We will car caravan the length of Owens Valley from Fossil Falls in the south to the Bishop area in the north. The geologic history of the Owens Valley will be discussed while viewing rocks as young as 10,000 years and as old as 500 million years. On Day 1 we will visit Fossil Falls and see sculpted basalt worn smooth by glacial melt water during the Pleistocene Epoch. We will stop at Owens Lake and discuss its natural and man-made history. We?ll visit the scarp of the 1872 Lone Pine earthquake, an estimated 8 magnitude, one of the largest in California recorded history. Our last stop on Day 1 will be the basalt flows of the Big Pine Volcanic Field, just south of Big Pine. Day 2 will include a look at some 500-million-year-old rocks ? the Poleta Folds and 5,000-year-old trees ? the Bristlecone Pines of the White Mountains. Our last stops will be in Round Valley, just west of Bishop. We will visit the Buttermilk Boulders and the Pine Creek moraine.

Date: June 16 - 17, 2027

Code: PEDD 9643

Our 2-day excursion will take us to the Owen Gorge, Long Valley Caldera, Convict Lake, Devils Postpile and Rainbow Falls. The Owens River has cut a 450-foot canyon through the Bishop Tuff, exposing spectacular patterns within the tuff. At our Long Valley Caldera stop, we will see the depression left by a supervolcano eruption 760,000 years ago. Convict Lake sits in a glacier-carved bowl and is bounded by 2 towering peaks, Mt. Morrison and Mt. Laurel. We will discuss ice age features and enjoy one of the most beautiful scenes in the Eastern Sierra. The second day will take us to the San Joaquin River drainage. We will visit and discuss the columnar joiting at Devils Postpile and walk along the river to end our day at Rainbow Falls.

Date: June 18-19, 2027

Code: PEDD 9638

The Geology and Natural History of the Mammoth Region and the Eastern Sierra NevadaMammoth Lakes Sierra is a beautiful and exciting region of the 400 mile long Sierra Nevada Mountains.  The excitement comes from the earthquakes and volcanic activity of the area.  The Mammoth Lakes area is one of the most likely places for a volcanic eruption in the lower 48.  We will caravan from Mammoth Lakes to Mono Lake making stops at Mammoth Mountains, Inyo Craters, Devil’s Punchbowl, Obsidian Dome and Panum Crater. Our discussions will include glacial features, the Mono Lake Basin ecosystem and the major plant communities of the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Date: June 20-21, 2027

Code: PEDD 9605

Yosemite National Park is a world-renowned display of vertical granite, thousand-foot waterfalls, meadows, forests, and wildlife.  This course will include classroom discussions of the origin, uplift, and sculpting of the Yosemite granite.  The geologic history of the 400-mile-long Sierra Nevada mountain range will be discussed, along with the many glacial features that shape the breathtaking Yosemite scenery.  Other discussion topics will include plant and animal adaptations and Native American history.

Date: June 22-23, 2027

Code: PEDD 9604