Our trip to Death Valley was an amazing experience for me. I'm a Master's candidate in Geology & Geophysics and have been on many field trips in the past, yet, I'm always eager for another opportunity to explore.

It's important for scientists, especially geologists to understand the rocks they are discussing. I have a wide background in course work studying Precambrian fossils, but never for fossils as old as these! Just to find them requires a pattern recognition because they are so faint and sparse. Fossilized soft-parts are NOT easy to find!

It was very rewarding to share my geologic knowledge with non-geology students and to get their opinions on non-geologic questions which arose in the field. We were also very fortunate to have the expertise of our professors and that of the UC Riverside professors, Mary Droser and Martin Kennedy, as well as their students and field assistants. The combined expertise of the group was impressive to me and I appreciated their advanced discussion.