Students Explore the San Gabriel Mountains

The San Gabriel Mountains, located directly north of the Cal Poly Pomona campus, provide a diverse, complex, and fascinating natural laboratory.  Countless Geology majors and students from other departments have visited these mountains to study the geologic history, view examples of active geologic processes, and collect scientific data.  Many have proven to be industrious field assistants on geological mapping projects and  stream flow studies.   A wide variety of senior thesis projects and student publications have resulted from this work. The photographs below document more than a decade of student activities in the San Gabriel Mountains. You may also check out links to my San Gabriel Mountains Research web page and Hydrogeology web pages designed by my Groundwater Geology students.

View north across San Dimas and Claremont toward the eastern San Gabriel Mountains and Mojave desert

View north up San Antonio Canyon, a favorite place for Cal Poly students to visit.  Highest peak is Mt. San Antonio; Mt. Baden Powell is to the left, Telegraph Peak to the right.

Pablo Cortez measures strike and dip of Paleoproterozoic(?) augen gneiss exposure in the Middle Fork San Dimas Canyon.

Mt. Baldy 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders study the san Antonio Canyon fault in cut along the Mt. Baldy Road.

Miguel Espinoza mapping from near the summit of Telegraph Peak.  Icehouse canyon is on lower left; San Antonio Canyon in the distance.

Structural Geology (GSC 333) students enjoy a break at Glenn Falls.

Students from Alta Loma Elementary School and Ganesha High School kids check out stream flow conditions.

Shaun Wilkins examines outcrop of Vincent thrust mylonite.  View is east down Middle Fork Lytle Creek Canyon.

Dr. Nourse and Shaun scramble up a steep slope.

Matt Chuang and Ruben Acosta cook breakfast at camp on Glendora Ridge, well above the marine layer.

Ruben and Matt at Newman's Point, overlooking San Gabriel Dam.

Jeremy Lancaster measures a cross fracture that intersects adversely dipping joints on the wall of West Fork San Gabriel Canyon.

Boat ride to the west end of Cogswell Reservoir.

Drop-off point on delta of the West Fork San Gabriel River.

Eastern San Gabriel Mountains from Cal Poly Pomona campus

View east along the Sierra Madre-Cucamonga frontal fault system.  San Gabriel Canyon (note San Gabriel and Morris reservoirs) and eastern San Gabriel Mountains are in the left foreground; San Bernardino Mountains (middle) and Mt. San Jacinto (right) are in the distance.

Jessica Strand measures stream flowin Wolfskill Creek.

Backpack-mapping trip into  Middle Fork Lytle Creek Canyon, showing before and after condition of students.

Cogswell dam (left) holds back a full reservoir; Jessica O'Hanion stands in front of flow gauge at base of dam.

John Andrejeski stands on summit of Mt. Baden Powell.  View is to the southeast toward East Fork San Gabriel Canyon and Mt. San Antonio.  7000 feet of relief!  Trace of Punchbowl fault follows Cabin Creek on the left.

Shaun Wilkins rests on outcrop of the late Oligocene Telegraph Peak granodiorite in upper Middle Fork Lytle Creek Canyon.

Jeff DeLand, Terry Watkins, and Shaun Wilkins study a rare exposure of the San Gabriel fault in upper West Fork San Gabriel Canyon.

Matt and Ruben map an outcrop of Paleoproterozoic augen gneiss, beautifully exposed in  the West Fork San Gabriel River.

Matt and Ruben rest on spillway of San Gabriel Dam.

Pablo Cortez poses for scale at waterfall in the upper East Fork San Dimas Canyon.  This place is no longer accessible after the floods of 2005.