Field Courses 

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

8:00am-4:30pm

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Fee: $115 per person ($140 after 8/1/26)

Minimum Number of Attendees to run the course: 18

Maximum Number of Attendees: 30

Recommended Equipment: Study, closed-toe shoes; all other required PPE will be provided. Background checks will be required

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At the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage Project we will see the 8,500-foot-long, 230-foot-tall rockfill dam that impounds the upper reservoir, and also tour the underground powerhouse.  At TVA’s Chickamauga Dam, we will tour the new navigation lock under construction by the Corps of Engineers.  Attendees will be able to go inside the cofferdam and see the miter gates, filling and emptying culverts, and other lock features from the floor of the 110-foot by 600-foot chamber.

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Tuesday, September 15, 2026

12:00pm-4:30pm

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Fee: $115 per person ($140 after 8/1/26)

Minimum Number of Attendees to run the course: 30

Maximum Number of Attendees: 38

Activity Level: Easy to moderate, some walking

​Recommended Equipment: Study, closed-toe shoes. ​

Ride the rails on the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s Missionary Ridge Local in a vintage passenger car along a section of former Southern Railway right-of way.  The train will pass through a 980-foot-long tunnel under Missionary Ridge that was constructed before the Civil War!  This was one of the first railroad tunnels constructed in Tennessee; excavation utilized hand drills and black powder.  TVRM will stop the train and allow attendees to disembark and walk through the tunnel.  After re-boarding, TVRM will demonstrate their turntable at the East Chattanooga Depot to turn the locomotive around for the return trip. 

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Saturday, September 15, 2026

9:30am-4:00pm

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Fee: $115 per person ($140 after 8/1/26)

Minimum Number of Attendees to run the course: 19

Maximum Number of Attendees: 38

Activity Level: Low to moderate, some walking

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This course will visit two local brownfield redevelopments:

• Erlanger Park - the new home for the Chattanooga Lookouts baseball team.  Located on the former Wheland Foundry and U.S. Pipe and Foundry Company site, environmental challenges included spent foundry sand contaminated with heavy metals. 

• The Volkswagen Assembly Plant.   Located east of Chattanooga, it sits on a portion of the former Volunteer Army Ammunition Plant that has been redeveloped into the 6,000-acre Enterprise South Industrial Park. 

Saturday, September 15, 2026

6:30am-6:30pm

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Fee: $115 per person ($140 after 8/1/26)

Minimum Number of Attendees to run the course: 25

Maximum Number of Attendees: 48

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Nyrstar has graciously offered to provide a tour of the Young Mine and mill near Strawberry Plains (northeast of Knoxville).  After arrival and a safety briefing, we will spend about 3.5 hours touring the underground mine.  Over lunch there will be a question-and-answer session before a 90-minute tour of the mill facilities.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Saturday, September 19, 2026

8:00am-5:00pm

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Fee: $185 per person ($210 after 8/1/26)

Minimum Number of Attendees to run the course: 19

Maximum Number of Attendees: 38

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This is a great opportunity for both geologists and spouses/partners to visit four of Chattanooga’s tourist highlights and learn about local geology in the process.  Stops/activities will include:

• Riding the Incline Railway - a funicular railway with a maximum grade of 72.7% - from St. Elmo to the top of Lookout Mountain.

• Visiting Point Park - site of the “Battle Above the Clouds” during the Civil War.  Located at the north end of Lookout Mountain, the Park offers dramatic vies of Moccasin Bend and downtown Chattanooga. 

• Seeing Rock City, where a walking path lined with gardens winds through natural rock formations associated with erosion-enlarged joints in the Warren Point Sandstone.  The path includes a suspension bridge, goes past a 140-foot-tall man-made waterfall, and offers outstanding views of the valley below. 

• Touring Ruby Falls Cave.  After descending 260 feet in a glass elevator, we will explore the historic cave and see the famous 63-foot-tall underground waterfall.

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Saturday, September 19, 2026

7:00am-6:00pm

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Fee: $170 per person ($195 after 8/1/26)

Minimum Number of Attendees to run the course: 20

Maximum Number of Attendees: 50 (combined 5A and 5B)

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Requirements: Bathing suits (or athletic shorts), t-shirt (not a tank top), and strap-on sandals, water shoes, or tennis shoes - all of which will get wet! - plus a dry change of clothes for the ride home.

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We almost named this field course “everything but the kitchen sink” because it includes a little bit of everything.  After crossing the Great Smoky Fault that forms the boundary between the Valley and Ridge and Blue Ridge Physiographic Provinces, we will traverse a classic Barrovian metamorphic sequence as we travel up the Ocoee River Gorge.  Along the way we will pass two of the oldest hydroelectric facilities in Tennessee (Ocoee No. 1 and Ocoee No. 2) and see the historic timber flume that supplies water to the Ocoee No. 2 powerhouse.  Stops will include the site of a rockslide that closed the highway for 5 months in 2009, the Ocoee Whitewater Center (which was used during the 1996 Olympics), and the Ducktown and the Copper Basin Mining District (where we plan to visit the Ducktown Basin Museum and also get a “behind the scenes” tour of some of the ongoing acid mine remediation). 

After lunch, those who select the rafting option will get to experience world-class whitewater (including Class III and IV rapids) on a 90-minute ride down the Middle Section of the Ocoee River (which is not the Olympic course). 

Saturday, September 19, 2026

7:00am-6:00pm

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Fee: $150 per person ($175 after 8/1/26)

Minimum Number of Attendees to run the course: 20

Maximum Number of Attendees: 50 (combined 5A and 5B)

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The first part of this field course is identical to 5A.  However, instead of rafting we spend about 2 hours at Mercier Orchards in Blue Ridge, Georgia where we plan not offer a tractor-drawn wagon tour and the opportunity to pick your own apples.  Attendees can also choose to purchase and enjoy apple pie, apple slushies, hard cider, or fruit wine.

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Saturday, September 12, 2026 (Depart at 9:00am) to Monday, September 14, 2026 (Return at 6:00pm)

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Fee: $775 per person (Double Occupancy), Single Occupancy is an additional $200

Minimum Number of Attendees to run the course: 7

Maximum Number of Attendees: 12

Requirements: Sturdy shoes and rain gear

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This multi-day field trip will explore Great Smoky Mountains National Park and some of the areas impacted by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina and East Tennessee.  Starting and ending in Chattanooga, the itinerary as currently envisioned includes overnights in Asheville, NC and Sevierville, TN with visits to the following:

• Pigeon River Gorge to see ongoing repairs to Interstate 40;

• Various sites near Asheville to see Helene impacts and damage;

• TVA’s Nolichucky Dam (which passed more water than Niagara Falls during the peak of the flood) and where scour exposed a bedrock section along the riverbanks downstream;

• Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with stops at areas of scenic and geologic interest along Highway 441;

• The Townsend and Weis Valley Windows (just to the north of the National Park); and

• The Cherohala Skyway between Robbinsville, North Carolina and Tellico Plains, Tennessee, which offers magnificent views of the Unicoi Mountains (time and weather permitting).