I've been reading Steven Jay Gould's Wonderful Life lately, and I think I've finally found something worth traveling to see. The The Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation offers Guided Hikes. Here's a .kmz file containing the location of the Burgess Shale in Google Earth. (Like so many places I'm interested in, it's just outside a high resolution area. What is that, anyways?)
In an ideal future, I'll get laid off early next year and spend the summer traveling on my package while I wait for pogey to kick in. (I fear my employer will require my services until at least fall of next year, however.) Another destination on the grand tour will certainly be the Colorado Plateau. For a while now I've noticed, without knowing the source, the mapping work done by Dr. Ron Blakey, Professor of Geology at Northern Arizona University. I think I might finally understand the attraction. I need to see the Grand Staircase.