Images

The last night, as we neared Desolation Canyon, the bluffs got taller. Since the Green River is calmer here, it reflected the colors of the sunset. I was so worried about making it before the sun went down that I climbed the peak in my chaco sandals, a decision I regretted the next day since my foot were banged up.

The photo above has been cropped here to better show agitation on the pond surface. The agitation could be due to escaping gases from below rising through the water, or from the water boiling, or, perhaps, a combination of both.

Most of our views were from the river level, where you are intimately connected to subtleties in flow, wind, and temperature. It was a welcome opportunity to view the river from above and gain context. We stopped here on the last full day on the river.

These lands have never been empty, although in some places it feels that way. Before western settlers arrived, these lands were polulated by other peoples throughout prehistory. Tom McKinley estimates that these images were drawn during the Fremont age. Some images are clearly human, one may be a fish, others are less clear.

Beaver lodge and drained impoundment in tributary of the Noatak River, Noatak National Preserve

A USGS field crew captures fish during a boat electrofishing survey

Impounded water above beaver dam on the Wrench Creek, Noatak National Preserve

The CMHRP has been conducting scientific investigations at Fire Island in order to protect natural and cultural resources.

Image screen shot of GCMRC sediment monitoring application

Littlefield Creek middle study site

The PCMSC research vessel R/V Parke Snavely heads out of the Vallejo Marina on June 11, 2019 to deploy instrument frames in Grizzly Bay for the ERO19 study.

USGS researchers have been monitoring changes in a breach in the island that occurred during Hurricane Sandy (modified from  Hapke et al., 2017). 
 

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.

View of lake at Fernhill Natural Treatment Wetlands.

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.

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.

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).

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.

Lukas Winkler-Prins checks on the frame setup on June 10, 2019.  This tripod has an RBR CTD, an RBR bursting pressure sensor, an RBR optical backscatter sensor, a LISST-200X, an altimeter, and two Nortek ADVs + Seapoint optical backscatter sensors, which will reveal information about water temperature and salinity, wave height and period, total s

USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory staff, June 2019

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.