Geology of the Greater Bears Ears Area, SE Utah (put on by UGA)

The FCGS is invited to join the Utah Geological Association to explore the geology of the spectacular red rock country sandwiched between 5 national parks, monuments and recreation areas in SE Utah. Bears Ears National Monument was originally designated to preserve thousands of archaeological ruins and artifacts, but its geology would be reason enough. We will see excellent exposures of a nearly complete Middle Pennsylvanian to Late Cretaceous section, Oligocene laccoliths, Laramide-age structures, and the deep canyons of the Colorado and San Juan Rivers.

Learn how the trip leaders mapped the geology of Bear’s Ears, including sorting out stratigraphic puzzles, and created a final geologic map for the new Bears Ears National Monument chapter in the fourth edition of UGA Publication 28, Geology of Utah’s Parks and Monuments. Topical experts will speak to us about water resources of the Colorado Plateau and their current monitoring efforts, mining history in the area, new stratigraphic studies, oil and gas resources, the geology of the Paradox Basin, and active engineering geology and hazards monitoring projects.

Dates: October 1-3. We overnight in Blanding, UT on Thursday and Friday. Saturday we return to Durango.

Leaders: Keilee Higgs, UGS and Grant Willis, UGS

FCGS Coordinator: Kim Gerhardt 

Transportation:  Carpools from Durango.

Registration opens: Saturday, September 5th, at 8am, here on our website.

Registration ends: September 21st, at midnight.

Registration Fee:

Includes: 2 lunches, snacks, handouts, entrance fees and lodging option below.

Does not include: Thursday lunch, all breakfasts, all dinners.

·      $100pp for “find your own lodging".

·      $180pp for “share a double room at the Bears Ears Hotel, Blanding, UT”.

·      $280pp for “single room at the Bears Inn Hotel, Blanding, UT”.

Limit: 

·      No limit for “find your own lodging” participants.

·      16 for those who wish to stay in the hotel. (May change depending on which rooms go first, will post changes on the website.)

Cancellation Policy: Drop by September 14th to get your payment back minus our 3% processing fee. After that you will only get refund if your slot can be filled from the waiting list.

ITINERARY:

Thursday Oct 1st: Meet UGA (who are coming from Salt Lake City) at Hite (might change). From Hite through Natural Bridges we will examine Permian to Triassic depositional environments & stratigraphy, formation of bridges & arches, and ancestral Puebloan archaeology. Drive through northern Comb Ridge and up to Blanding. Spend the night.

Friday October 2nd: Drive south to look at the Blanding basin and uranium processing, then north back through Blanding to the Canyonlands area looking at Morrison through lower Cretaceous stratigraphy, the Abajo laccoliths, salt tectonics, a track site and several petroglyph panels. Return to Blanding and spend the night.

Saturday October 3rd: Travel a counter-clockwise loop from Blanding to the Butler Wash dinosaur track site and ruins, Grand Gulch, Muley Point, Moki Dugway, Goosenecks State Park overview of the Penn-Perm in the San Juan River canyon, then on to Mexican Hat and a discussion of the Raplee Anticline, followed by a view of Lime Ridge, where the Cedar Mesa SS (aeolian) transitions to sabkha, and finally east to the Sand Island Petroglyph Panel and Bluff. Bluff is home to a historic fort and cemetery. We will depart from UGA in Bluff for a two-hour drive home. They will return to Blanding for the night and drive back to Salt Lake City the next day.