Images

Anya Metcalf was the insict expert on this trip. We started pointout out and catching bugs for her to identify. This one crawled across camp during our podcast recording. It turned out to be a Golden Stonefly with a small pseudoscoprion attached to the mandlible using the fly for dispersal.

The final morning view from my text as the sun rose from the east and illuminated cliffs on the west. This trip was so wonderful and exceeded all of our expectations, it was hard to go back to reality.

This was our final campsite before we left the river, approximately 9 miles upstream of Sand Wash. The scenery was beginning to transition from the flat and expansive Uinta basin to the high canyon walls that were upcoming in Desolation-Gray.

On our last day of the expedition the landscape was dominated by the Green River Formation, famous for its fish fossils (although none were found in camp).

We camped on a 20-30 ft. tall hill our last night, so shuttling kitchen gear up and down from the rafts was no easy task.

Nicholas Hammond is soaking up the views on his last day on the river. Photograph taken by Ben Capelin (SCREE).

Although we were all hoping it would never end, the final day on the river was a bittersweet reminder of the amazing experiences we had in the Uinta Basin.

Early morning panorama of cliffs that signal the start of Desolation Canyon. This was our last, and probably most spectacular, campsite of this section of Uinta Basin. It was approximately 9 miles from our take-out at Sand Wash.

An integral part of each segment of the expedition is a recorded dialogue in which participans reflect on such things as Powell's legacy, the future of the West in light of water and energy issues, and what personal growth has occurred as a result of the expedition.

A properly rigged cataraft on the banks of the Green River in the Uintah Basin

Hydrologist Nick plays a river tune

Our last evening on this section of river, exploring the cliffs and buttresses of the Uinta Basin. One of our team member pauses on heavily banded member of the Green River Formation with distant cliffs glowing in the setting sun

Although this section of the Green River in the Uinta basin lies between sections of dramatic red-stone cliffs of Ladore and Desolation Canyons, we did experience some profound geology. These cliffs are near the start of Desolation Canyon to the south.

Team D braces itself on a windy bluff to watch another beautiful sunset

USGS geologist Graham Lederer (L) wrote a song about the expedition while floating down the river, and Professor Pat Likut (R), who teaches art at the University of Wyoming, did landscape sketches that he will later turn into oil paintings.

This calm section of river flows through a National Wildlife Refuge where we observed a great deal of wildlife, including beaver, peregrin falcons, waterfowl, a coyote, bighorn sheep and American white pelicans

Starting two years ago, Professor Tom Minckley, from the University of Wyoming geology department, conceived and organized the Sesquicentennial Colorado River Exploring Expedition (SCREE), also known as the Powell 150 expedition. The USGS joined as a partner last year.

University of Wyoming grad student (media and communications) Ben Kraushaar is also an accomplished filmmaker, and is making a film of the expedition using both eyelevel shots and lofty drone aerials. He was instrumental in getting equipment of all types donated to the expedition.

The brick-red, flat-lying Duchesne Formation sandstones dominated the landscape for a couple days. Its bluffs are a favorite nesting spot for cliff swallows, of which we saw many, and peregrine falcons, of which we saw two.

Mitch and Graham collect sediment samples on a transect

On a calm river with no rapids or impediments, boaters often tie up rafts together in a flotilla or 'party barge' to socialize, share snacks or just enjoy the scenery with a group