This horseback expedition was over a region that is part of a great geologic feature called the African Rift Valley, an area of tall composite volcanoes (one of which is perhaps the most unusual volcano in the world), cinder cones, explosion pits with tephra rings, hot springs charged with alkali, ash falls, thick basaltic lava flows, huge calderas, hyper saline lakes and outcroppings of very old Precambrian bed rock.  The most extreme and beautiful example of a rift valley lake and the one that we came to see, is Lake Natron.

The ride began on the slopes of a 15,000 foot volcano, Mt. Meru at a place called the Uto Farm.  From there we traveled by horseback down into the Rift until we reached the very remote and very unusual Lake Natron.  This isn't a story about how much fun I had in Africa.  As a matter of fact, I did not have much fun at all on this safari.  A lot of things went wrong  and many other things were done wrongly or poorly.  Please be forewarned, the following story isn't a lighthearted tale set in the African bush.  This is the story of an adventure, and adventures are seldom, if ever, fun.  On the other hand, if given the choice between a "fun time" and an adventure, give me an adventure any day.

This is a narrated slide show of a five day field trip where we traveled from the California Central Coast (Santa Maria) inland to Death Valley and back again.  This slideshow is long and unedited.  It was made for the members of the class and no attempt was made to shorten or make it more compatible with a casual viewer’s tastes.  I have attempted to be scientifically accurate, but it is obviously not a scientific study.

The presentation includes descriptions of the biology and geology of the various geographic provinces we passed through on our way to, through and back home from Death Valley.  The Geomorphic provinces we passed through include:
1) The California Coast Range Province.
2) The Central Valley Province.
3) The Sierra Nevada Province.
4) The Mojave Desert Province.
5) the Basin and Range Provence.

The topics we discussed and the scenery we observed included:
1) the geographic and biologic features of the San Andres Fault zone. 
2) evidence for the conversion plate boundary (subduction zone) that was active in this region from the Triassic through the Oligocene. 
3) various desert ecosystems and evidence of present and Pluvial era drainage systems. 
4) the local stratigraphy and tectonic forces that operated to create the topography and the outcropping of rocks ranging from the  Precambrian (Mazatzal Orogeny and Amargosa Aulacogen) to the Nevadan Orogeny to the Recent and present day salt pans and alluvial fans. 
5) lateral, thrust and normal fault zones,
6) evidence of upraised basins at Red Rock and the Funeral Mountains,
7) rhyolitic and basaltic  flows, cinder cones, the Ubehebe explosion pit,
8) moving rocks on Race Track Playa,
9) the huge salt pan at Bad Water,
10) many interesting sites ranging from Scotty's Castle, to the many beautiful vistas such as Zabriskie Point and Dante‘s View to the Pup Fish at Salt Creek and Ash Meadows.

Five friends and I traveled over some of the most rugged terrain in North America.  On the way I nearly lost my riding horse, Rusty when he fell off the trail and down a steep slope.  Somehow he made it back up and we made it to Santa Cruz Creek after a harrowing ride where we had a wonderful experience camping there. The next day we foolishly drawled and then let the foolishness that comes with haste lead us to make a bad decision that nearly ended in death for my pack horse, Samson. 

For all the danger, the only injury was some severe swelling in a leg suffered by my horse Samson when he had a serious and potentially fatal fall off one of the worst and steepest parts of the trail.  Through some quick thinking, hard work and a hell of a lot of luck we got him back home alive and after some treatment, his leg was just fine.

This is the story of how some bad information and foolish over optimism nearly ended in disaster. We also learned once again that the only difference between a horrible disaster and great adventure is simply this: if nobody gets killed, it's an adventure.

This slide show consists of a lot of still photographs of hunting with foxhounds, harriers and beagles in the desert south and west of the town of Ridgecrest, California, January 18, 19 and 20, 2008. Due to the harsh drought of the last couple of years, the hunting was very bad and we didn't see a single coyote and just a couple of rabbits, but the company was great and we all had a wonderful time.  As always, the beagle pack was fun to watch.  It is presented in two versions.

This is a slide show of our Desert Ecology Field Trip to the Mojave Desert.  Our center of studies was the Zzyzx Desert Research Center near Baker Calif.  We set traps on an alluvial fans to observe desert mammals and invertebrates such as Kangaroo Rats and Hairy Scorpions.  We also observed desert plant life such as the Smoke Tree, the Mesquite Tree, the Palo Verdi, the Joshua Tree, Yucca Plants, the Creosote Bush, Barrel Cactus and many other smaller species of plants.

This narrated slide show is an account of my Sept. 2004 vacation trip to Egypt. 
Please note, this is an amateur and non-scholarly presentation of my personal impressions of Egypt both ancient and modern.
During this presentation I will talk about and present pictures of the many places I visited including: the Giza Pyramids & Sphinx, Islamic, Coptic and modern Cairo, a rug factory near Memphis, scenes along the Nile from my cruise boat, the Temple of Osiris at Abydos, the temple of Hathor at Dendara, the Temple of Horus at Edfu, the extensive Temple of Ammun complexes of Karnak and Luxor at the site of ancient Thebes, the Valley of the Kings and Queens, the Colossi of Memnon, the Aswan dams, the Isis Temple of Philae, the Temples of Ra and Hathor at Abu Simbel, and the sights in and around Alexandria, its waterfront and new library.