Day 3: Field trip begins…off to see stromatolites at Mt. Dunfee!

The first day of the field trip began with gassing up the vans and a couple pastries from Erik Shat’s Bakery in Bishop, CA. It seems that my days are defined by pastries…well yeah, so far…

Next we headed back up towards the Bristlecone Pine reserve to cross Eastward over two mountain ranges. It was some hairy driving but incredible views. 

Then on to the unpaved roads…

After driving through the touristy ghost town Goldpoint, NV, we arrived at the foot of Mt. Dunfee, NV. Here we are assembling at the foot of Dunfee, with a 45 min hike to the stromatolites.

Stromatolites!!! These are about 546 million years old or so. There is a layer of cloudina fossils, which date to 542 mya. Just above that, there are these beauties.

 These are the cloudina fossils…

 Big stromatolites…see the domed, laminated structure? Those were microbial mats that got lithified and grew out of the sediment only to get buried again…

John Spear and I climbed on up to the top to see about 4 million years of stromatolite evolution…and great views. Very profound afternoon.