Day 6: Friday, 8/3 (Colorado River Rafting in Moab, UT)
Friday was an early morning as we needed to be to Red River Adventures in Moab (approximately an hour drive) at 8am, so we did a quick breakfast of muffins and hit the road. I haven’t processed the GoPro videos yet, but here is an image from the river trip. Some of us also took the opportunity to take a quick bath in the Colorado.
After a stop at the Moab Garage to get some nitro ice cream (a quick dessert-before-dinner snack…sorry to all the students parents), we headed back to the Yurts to devour a hard-earned pasta dinner before heading to the Dead Horse State Park overlook for a breathtaking sunset.
We enjoyed a clear nigh sky with a perfect view of the Milky Way Galaxy, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and some shooting stars.
Day 7: Saturday, 8/4 (Moab, UT→McMillan Springs, UT)
The sunrise at Dead Horse State Park did not disappoint!
Our 4-wheel drive vehicles came in handy today! Most of our day was spent navigating winding dirt roads in the Henry mountains. Our first stop was at Pandora Mineral Resources Mine in Hanksville, UT. We were greeted by geologist Kim Wilson, who also happens to be the mayor of Hanksville, and given a personalized tour of the mine. Originating as a gold mine, using the alluvial deposits from abandoned mines in the Henry Mountains, they have branched out to rare earth elements including palladium, tellurium, rubidium, scandium that are also present in the ore they process. Kim and his colleagues use X-ray Fluorescence, as opposed to a mass spectrometer, to determine the minerals present. These rare earth elements are used in many items that we use daily including cell phones, batteries and ball point pens! However, their product is sold to North Texas Refinery and is distributed to NASA JPL for use in satellites and spacecraft! At the end of our tour, we all had the opportunity to hold a $260,000 gold nugget in our hands!
We ended the day with a hike up Mt. Ellen, a drive down some dicey (read: fun) mountain roads and caught a sunset at McMillan Campground while we ate dinner.
Captain Wegmann 
Me with the student crew 
Your enthusiastic instructors! 
It looks like an easy crest hike… 
McMillan sunset with delicious Chili over chips..mmmmm