San Gabriel Mountains

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On Thursday I went to the San Gabriel Mountains as a field trip with my Geology 1 class from Pasadena City College. I was pretty excited about the field trip because you hardly get field trips anymore, especially in college, and I personally think field trips are a great way to learn. Anyways, I definitely brought my camera, so there are pictures!

This is my Geology professor, Dr. Bryan Wilbur. He’s quite a dork when it comes to lectures, like he digresses a lot, but he keeps them interesting. That’s definitely something important in a six-hour lecture class like this!

A view of the San Gabriel Mountains – I don’t remember what’s this side called, though.

Ah, yeah, the students carpooled to get here. I thank Florescia (I can’t spell her name!) for the ride, and I definitely have to remember to pay at least $20 for the carpools she will be giving me.

Professor Wilbur talking about the rocks. If you look next and under him, you’ll see an “X” mark. That is called a “dyke” or something. I clearly don’t remember how is it formed at the moment, but I made sure to remember the name and how it looks like.

Another view of the San Gabriel Mountains. Like the smog out here? Haha.

A mountain full of diorites, which are rocks that look salt and peppery. My lab partners, Florescia and Vincent, and I think they look like cookies and cream.

Apparently, there is a tunnel called the Mueller Tunnel. It was pretty cool inside. Literally, like in terms of temperature.

The inside of the tunnel. Oooooooooooh.

You see the line shift? It tells you that there had been an earthquake here before because the plates shifted.

There’s an observatory called the Mt. Wilson Observatory. It’s where the Big Bang Theory was discovered and all that.

So, there’s a museum dedicated to show people how the Big Bang Theory was discovered.

I didn’t really get to read all of it, but there are some fascinating pictures out there.

This bridge is called Bridge to the Stars because it heads to the 100 inch telescope. There was a sign with a picture that had Albert Einstein here!

The outside of the 100 inch telescope. It was so huge! Imagine carrying a 100 inch piece of glass up to the mountains.

Inside of the telescope. It was pretty cool, but I bet it’s even cooler at night because you may be able to see the stars or something.

I think this is another sign that the earthquakes had been here before because of how the rocks formed a wavy line.

And this concludes my picture tour of the San Gabriel Mountains. This class will have four other different field trips, and I will just continue taking more pictures then!