The holidays are not complete for me without spending time with family and that entails 

a road trip across West Texas by way of I10 or Hwy. 90. The trip is more pleasurable when it is complemented with Roadside Geology of Texas by Darwin Spearing.  This book provides insightful geological information from the perspective of the road. It is awesome to look at formations that began billions of years ago while traveling in the convenience of a car. 

Franklin Mountains outside of El Paso, TX.

This year I was fortunate to be able to climb the Mandy Gap Trail of the Franklin Mountains, which are located just south of El Paso. Precambrian rocks which began as fine sediment in an ancient sea were squeezed and heated either by a collision with another continent or a plate tectonics event. This collision resulted in the Franklin Mountains as well as the metamorphic schist and gneiss and the molten magnas that cooled to form granite. Wow! What a difference between human and geological time!  The New Year is naturally a wonderful  time to reflect and to put into perspective our goals and desires to make a difference in not only our personal lives but out time on this planet. I look forward to seeing how the year reveals who we are and how our lives are intertwined. 

"Keep on trying, till you reach your highest ground"( Paraphrased from Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground)