Recommended Geology Field Trip Destinations

Here are three lists of places that I think offer great geology field trip destinations - one list of trips in the Pacific Northwest, one list of trips elsewhere in the U.S., and one list of international trips.  All of the trips in the U.S. are places I've been, but some of the international destinations are still on my "to see" list.

Trips in Washington and Oregon

Nooksack Cirque

(North Cascades)

 It's seldom visited and the trail isn't well maintained, but you'll have spectacular views of hanging glaciers and glacial landforms on the north flank of Mt. Shuksan.  Plus some of the world's youngest granites, an eroded volcano - Ruth Mountain - and some big old growth trees.  

Crater Lake

(Southern Oregon)

 You really have to visit Crater Lake to appreciate the scale of this caldera.  
Ruby Beach

(Olympic Coast)

 Along with the "rubies" (actually garnets) this Olympic beach has scenic sea stacks offshore and a great angular unconformity in the sea cliffs where near-vertical turbidite layers are overlain by flat-lying sands and gravels.  
Mt. St. Helens    
Mt. Rainier    

Trips in the United States

Yosemite National Park (California)    

Vulcan's Throne & Grand Canyon

(Utah / Arizona)

 Vulcan's Throne is a young cinder cone perched on the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  Lava flows from the cone spilled over the rim and created rapids 3000 feet below.  It's a long drive on an unpaved road to get to this campground, but there are no crowds ... and no railing at the edge.  

Lake Powell

 (Utah)

 This lake was created by damming the Colorado River.   

Beartooth Highway

 (Montana)

 TV reporter Charles Kurault called this the most scenic highway in the U.S.  There aren't many other places where the road is this high (10,000 feet) and the rocks are this old (over 2,000,000,000 years).

Medicine Lake

(California)

 Looking for a diverse assortment of volcanic features all in one place?  This is the trip for you! Obsidian flows, pumice deposits, cinder cones, spatter cones, basalt flows, fissures - all in .  
Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming)  

Glacier Bay

(Alaska)

    

Ouray

(Colorado)

 A picturesque former mining town in the San Juan Mountains.  Soak in the hot springs, then hike up to a dramatic angular unconformity.  

Tent Rocks

(New Mexico)

 Erosion has sculpted weird landforms and narrow canyons into volcanic ash deposits.   

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

(Hawaii)

    

International Field Trips

Santorini

(Greece)

 A Greek island in the Aegean, Santorini was the site of one of the greatest volcanic eruptions in human history in 1628 BC.  The center of the island collapsed into a caldera and some think this was Plato's Atlantis (personally, I don't).  

Stromboli

(Italy)

 Known as the Lighthouse of the Mediterranean, this volcano on an island north of Sicily has erupted daily for over 1500 years.  You can trek to the top at sunset and from there peer into the crater to watch fire-fountaining lava eruptions.  
Iceland I went here on a college field trip; the high points were crunching across fresh pahoehoe and aa flows (some still quite hot) and soaking in the hot springs.  Lots of glaciers and waterfalls too.  
White Island (New Zealand)    
Burgess Shale / Royal Tyrell Museum

(Canada)