So yesterday I finally had the geological field trip which Jeff has been promising (threatening?) since I got here. Ostensibly we were just going to collect some rocks to put in a turtle tank but once we were out in the country there was no stopping him.

First we went to a creek to collect the stones. It was really very beautiful, in the woods, with just a shallow stream running over the characteristic red rocks of the area. The erosion of the rocks formed them into almost perfect rectangles so that the bed of the stream appeared almost like paving stone, with the water forced into straight channels with right-angled bends. I'd never seen anything quite like it in nature and wished I was still young enough to paddle.

Then we drove around a bit (following the compass, rather than any actual road map) on our way to Ringing Rocks Park. This gave us the opportunity to drive through several covered bridges (like the ones in the film, 'Bridges of Madison County) which are very cute. You can see photos of the ones we drove through and others here (though you'll need to scroll down a bit). We drove along the side of the Delaware River for a bit which is apparently a fun place to visit in the summer but not so good in flood season.

At Ringing Rocks Park we regretted not bringing a hammer to hit the rocks ourselves but fortunately everyone else who was visiting had remembered theirs, so we could hear the ringing sound quite clearly. Boulder Field is the main attraction. It's a field of boulders. It is more impressive than it sounds (yes, I know, you're thinking it would need to be!) You can see pictures here (though there wasn't any snow yesterday). We did trek down to the waterfall to allow Jeff to do some more rock climbing/searching/explaining-the-underlying-geology while we watched from a safe distance and then clambered back through the woods, eschewing the safe, easy trail we'd come down.

So our 'hour and a half, two hours max' trip took five hours, most of which was fun and interesting. And at least Bowser the turtle can breathe again.