Petrology Field Trip to the Appalachians

March 25-28, 2004

The group at Germany Valley Overlook

From left to right: Tom Tatum, Dave, Mandy LeBlanc, Anna Lizon, Kent Holesinger, Dr. Sarah Hanson.
Day 1. We left Adrian at 9:00 am on a cold, windy, wet day. We drove for much of the day only to arrive at Cheat River State Park and find it closed. So off we went looking for a place to camp. We found it, finally, at Bear Heaven Campground in West Virginia. And no, we did not see any bears...
Day 2. We headed down US 33 toward Shenandoah National Park making several stops along the way.
Our first stop was the Germany Valley overlook where we saw an excellent example of a breached anticline. Sarah explained the geology of the area.
After a few more stops we arrived in Shenandoah National Park. Our first stop was Dark Hollow Falls where we hiked down to the waterfall. Anna Lizon is in the photo on the left and Kent Holesinger in the photo on the right.
We ambled through the back country near Little Stony Man overlook looking for pillow basalt.
We then camped in the George Washington NF, cooked burgers and dogs and enjoyed a campfire. The students roasted marshmallows and made smores (or are they just roasting sticks?)
Day 3. After a somewhat wet start to the day the weather began to clear and we spent the morning on Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park and then proceeded on to Harpers Ferry National Historic Site.
The view from Skyline Drive looking east. The view from Skyline Drive looking west.
We examined the Catoctin formation and some of the finest columnar jointed basalt in the eastern US.
Tom Tatum and Anna Lizon at an overlook where we examined the Pedlar formation.
Here we are at the confluence of the Shenandoah and the Potomac Rivers. The students learned about the history of the Harpers Ferry National Historic Site from Ranger Mike. We also stopped to look at the type section of the Harpers Phyllite.
After finding another campground closed and one that didn't like college students we headed up to Gettysburg and found a "college student friendly" campground and had a wonderful spaghetti dinner.
Day 4. After a few quick stops we headed back to Adrian.
One of those stops was Sideling Hill where we saw the wonderful syncline that was exposed when the I-68 in Maryland was constructed.