PEDD 9616 - The Geology & Natural History of Yellowstone National Park Part 3

Course Description

Geol/Natl Hist Yellowstne Pt 3

This class will offer the student a look at the eastern part of Yellowstone Country.  We will travel east from Cooke City, down the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River along the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway.  This route passes through one of the most scenic areas in Wyoming.  Among the fans of this country was Ernest Hemingway who wrote “Death in the Afternoon” while staying at the L Bar T Ranch on Clarks Fork in the summer of 1930.  The geology here is spectacular.  We will see evidence of the uplift of the Beartooth Plateau and the Heart Mountain Detachment, a landslide the traveled at 500 miles per hour and slid for 50 miles.  We will end the first day in Cody Wyoming with time for dinner and a visit to the Buffalo Bill Cowboy Museum.

Our second day will take us west along the Shoshone River back into Yellowstone Park at the East Entrance Station.  After viewing hoodoos and 2 billion year old rock, we will top Sylvan Pass (8530 feet) and stop at Mary Bay to see evidence of the largest hydrothermal explosion crater in the world.  From Mary Bay we will skirt the north end of Yellowstone Lake and end the day at Fishing Bridge, a small resort within the park.

*SELECT PEDD 9616 - 011 for non-credit participants.

*SELECT PEDD 9616 - 010 to earn 3.0 PDUs.