This photo, taken during Staff Training for our summer programs, shows some of the dramatic geology surrounding the San Juan River in Southeastern Utah. To begin the day’s leadership exercise, the group of new and returning field leaders hiked over this sandstone bulge and onto the rugged Mule’s Ear “diatreme” in the background. We were lucky to have a couple of geologists in the group who could decode the surrounding landscape for us. The diatreme is an area of vulcanic rock exposed as the softer sandstone around it erodes. Diatremes tend to bring up all kinds of interesting things from deep down in the earth, and standing on top we found tiny garnets scattered around. The Mule’s Ear for which the feature is named is the prominent “fin” of Navajo sandstone on the left of the shot. This was just the begin of a challenging 10-mile hike, during which we met a herd of feral donkeys, spotted some incredible Ancestral Puebloan ruins high up in the walls of Chinle Wash, and, deep in the canyon, saw a bear cub and its mother – an extremely rare (once in a lifetime) sight in this location.
A full report on a wonderful staff training is on the way, but suffice it to say that we are excited about this new generation of outdoor leaders that have joined Deer Hill.
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