Crater Lake Field Trip

Whitney M.

October 11, 2009 - 10:29 PM

At the U of O, the geology department offers a course called Geology of National Parks, which, for those of us who are working on bachelors of arts, is a wonderful gift from the science department.

As a senior, I have postponed my science classes until this point, and now, I am tackling them one term at a time.

Today, we were given the opportunity to go to Crater Lake National Park to look at the geological elements first-hand! My boyfriend, and best friend, went with me and listened to me recite all of the things that I learned during that week's readings.

We made about seven stops around the caldera, looking at different rock types and discussing how they came to be. We saw pinnacles, volcanic rock, the Phantom Ship rock structure, Wizard Island, and tons of other stuff on the way to and from.

The lake is bigger than I thought it would be, the color is astoundingly blue because it is made of rainfall!

It was a wonderful thing to be able to take advantage of while in college. Seeing it with Collin was even better! It was fun to meet people along the way. College puts you in situations where you can find things in common with people you might never have spoken to otherwise.

I think that is one of the greatest gifts of college-it helps you to open your heart to people because you are united in many different ways even though your lifestyles might be eons apart.