Here's some images from my first post-master's-post-master's graduate class: "Bahama Montana," Dave Lageson's one-credit examination of carbonate sedimentology with a particular focus on some interesting features in the Bridger Range: Waulsortian-type bioherms. This field trip was on my fourth day in Montana this summer, following a two-hour lecture the previous evening. Unfortunately, the road to Fairy Lake still wasn't totally open, which meant that we had to add an additional three miles each way to our hike, which meant we didn't get to examine the bioherms themselves at close range. Oh well; next year perhaps...

The class hiking up to the summit of Sacagawea Peak:

(The green stripe on the left/west may look familiar from the satellite image I shared yesterday.)

Sacagawea Cirque, not looking especially "Death Cirque"-like* today:


The view south from Sacagawea Peak:


The class, looking east from the summit:


The elusive Waulsortian bioherms, off in the un-logistically-feasible middle distance:

...Interesting that they weather out in high relief, eh?

Dave instructs:






Some cool Columella stromatolites that I hadn't noticed on previous trips up Sacagawea:


More Columella stromatolites:


The class was a good example of how field trips have to be modified to fit local conditions. It was a bummer the road closure added six miles to our hike, but we were able to scour the talus slopes in Sacagawea Cirque for Mississippian fossils like crinoids, brachiopods, corals, and bryozoans. I got some sweet samples of fenestrate bryozoans, but saw none of the spectacular rugose corals that I collected on my first visit to this cirque 2 years earlier.

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* The "Death Cirque" moniker is one applied by my NOVA Rockies students the following week, for reasons I shall reveal in due time...

Labels: field trips, fossils, limestone, mississippian, montana, stromatolites