The trip from Hays to Washington fills 2 long days. On our first day, we drive over the Snowy Range of southeastern Wyoming, a part of the southern Rocky Mountains. On our second day, we travel along the eastern shore of Utah's Great Salt Lake, across the Snake River Plain of Idaho, and over the Columbia River. We spend our first 2 nights in motels to stay well rested. Our first stop in the Pacific Northwest is Mount Rainier National Park in the Cascade Mountains; here we begin our exploration of the montane and coastal ecosystems of Washington, Oregon, and northern California. When conditions permit, we visit Mount St. Helens before we move to the coast. Here we study temperate rain forests, coastal sand dunes, an estuary, and tidepools. The trip back home includes a drive through the Sierra Nevada and across the desert to visit Great Basin National Park near the Nevada-Utah border. From here, our journey takes us over the Colorado Plateau and Rocky Mountains, back to the Great Plains.

You can take this virtual trip in any sequence you desire by returning to this page, or you may follow it chronologically, starting with the Snowy Range and using the links in each site to travel to the "next stop". Most sites in this summary are visited each trip, but a few sites are visited only occasionally.

A composite checklist of organisms observed on the trips also is available through a link at the bottom of each page of this virtual fieldtrip; however, the specific organisms observed vary from year to year with conditions and the interests of the students.

Rocky Mountains: Snowy Range, Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming
      Montane Forest Ecology

Cascade Mountains: Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
      Montane Forest Ecology / Plate Tectonics / Volcanism / Glaciation

Cascade Mountains: Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument, Washington
      Volcanism

Coastal Forests: Oregon Coast / Olympic National Park, Washington
      Temperate Rain Forest Ecology

Pacific Coast: Oregon Coast Aquarium
      Marine Communities

Pacific Coast: Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area
      Sand Dune Geology and Ecology

Pacific Coast: Tide Pools, Sunset Bay and Cape Arago State Parks, Oregon
      Marine Communities

Pacific Coast: South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, Oregon
      Estuarine Ecology

Pacific Coast: Redwood National Park, California
      Temperate Rain Forest Ecology

Sierra Nevada: Calaveras Big Tree State Park and Lake Tahoe, California
      Montane Forest Ecology / Plate Tectonics / Volcanism / Glaciation

Basin and Range: Great Basin National Park, Nevada
      Montane Forest Ecology

Checklists of Plants and Animals

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