The Field Station’s flagship course, Field Geology in the Rocky Mountains (EAS X429), is frequently the required capstone course for advanced college geosciences majors. Since 1950, over 5,000 students from over 200 colleges and universities have enrolled in this course. Alumni routinely credit it as a key educational ingredient in their career success because of its integrative content and how it has helped them to solve geological problems with a limited data base, as well as improve their conception of scale and 3–D geometry of complex structural morphology.

Note: This course is physically demanding. You should be in good health and capable of strenuous hiking on rugged terrain while carrying a daypack and field gear.

The overall multidisciplinary background of the X429 faculty permits all students at the end of the third week of closely supervised instructional phase of the course to opt for 6 days of focused field study in one of three geoscience subdisciplines. This focused study is conducted under the guidance of a faculty member with specialized training in the subdiscipline.

Each option maintains a link with the fundamental principles previously developed. This is followed by 8 days of closely guided, but more independent mapping and reconstruction of geologic history in a final study area. Skills, techniques, and instrumentation learned during the 6-day period are uniquely applied in the final study area. Students are encouraged to indicate on their application which option they would prefer, because assignments will be done on a first-come, first-served basis.