clikrf8 said:
Foy: I read with interest your comments about the geology of the area. Fascinating. I wish you were along on our trips throughout the West. We always wonder why and how the geology of an area came to be.
You may rest assured I'd like to be along on your trips throughout the West, too! Beats the pants off of working in an office all day. And to think I used to collect a paycheck + expenses for bombing around in a pickup truck all day looking at rocks and old mines. What was I thinking?
In addition to the DeLormes, now the Benchmarks where available, and an assortment of National Forest maps, my truck always has a Roadside Geology book (or several) on board. According to their website (www.mountain-press.com), the Roadside Geology series now includes 24 states and Provinces. To the best of my recollection, it all started with Roadside Geology of Montana, by David Alt and Donald Hyndman, who I believe were professors of geology at the University of Montana, and they started back in 1972, the year before I started studying geology at Appalachian State University here in NC. Be that as it may, the Roadside Geology series is a terrific resource for professionals and lay people alike. Each book starts off with a primer on geology and plate tectonics and a chapter about the state's overall geology. Then the major features viewed from principal Interstate, US, and state highways are described in detail as a logbook between cities and/or road junctions. Put it this way, as much as I love driving my old truck, and I do, I often persuade my wife to drive while out west just so I can ride shotgun with the Benchmark, the Roadside Geology book, a pair of binoculars, and a camera all in my lap. There is a notable, and excellent, Roadside Geology book for Yellowstone National Park, and my first Alt and Hyndman guidebook was "Rocks, Ice, and Water" (a roadside-type guidebook for Glacier NP), purchased as a supplemental text for an 8-week field trip we took to Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Idaho back in 1975.
More recently, I've really enjoyed the "Geology Underfoot" series. I was first exposed to it when my younger son was based at Port Hueneme, CA and I co-drove his truck cross-country to California once his first overseas deployment was over. I snagged my first Benchmark and a Geology Underfoot in Southern California and had a ball chasing the San Andreas Fault across the Carrizo Plain NM, the Temblor Range and up through Hollister while enroute to visit my sister up near Watsonville during my week in CA. Great resource, and I see from their website that Mountain Press sells Geology Underfoot titles for Death Valley and Owens Valley (boy, is that probably a ton of great stuff!), for Yellowstone and Yosemite, for Northern Arizona, and for Southern Utah.
Foy