Geography School Trip To Los Angeles and Las Vegas

Take a guided tour of the San Andreas Fault Zone in the area around Palm Springs. Learn more about the geology of this area where the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate meet and the fauna and flora of the Californian desert. Underground fissures caused by faults create desert oases with hot mineral springs. Stand over the fault line at 1000 Palms Canyon in the Coachella Valley Preserve.

Take a private guided tour of the most interesting sights your destination has to offer. View and discuss significant buildings and trace the city’s development through its architecture. Explore unmissable attractions as your guide entertains and informs with colourful details that bring them to life. It’s a great way to gain a deeper understanding of the city.

Learn about the renaissance of the Down Town area where the population is growing rapidly and new businesses are being established. The Staples Centre, Gehry’s Disney Concert Hall and the Broad Art Museum together with traditional museums have cemented Down Town as an arts and culture hub. New transport links have helped the area develop and gentrify. The Bunker Hill Project has created new high-rise housing developments.

Enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of the walkable town of Santa Monica north of Los Angeles. Attractions include the sandy beach and famous pier, the Pacific Park amusement park, Looff Hippodrome Carousel and Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. The original muscle beach is located next to the pier.

This is an active Ice Age dig site and museum right within the city. Animals such as the American mastodon, sabre-toothed cats, wolves, ground sloth and ancient bison became trapped in the tar here and preserved. Many fossils are on display in the museum and recently excavated fossils can be seen in the fossil Lab. Discover the Lake Pit and the Observation Pit where fossils are still embedded and the live dig site.

This vast national preserve has diverse physical features and soil types. Three major deserts meet here: the Mojave, Great Basin and Sonoran and oases exist in the arid areas. Features include canyons, mountains, mesas, sand dunes, cinders cones, domes and lava flows. The plant life is varied with scrubland, cactus gardens, conifer and areas of Joshua tree. Relics of the Westward expansion era also remain.

The entertainment never stops at Las Vegas. Its themed hotels compete to offer the most eye-popping spectacles and experiences from the fountain display at the Bellagio to the permanent big top at Circus Circus, and the 30-story black glass pyramid at the Luxor. Students can enjoy spectacles, shows and the challenge of the all-you-can-eat buffet.

One of the USA’S most important hydroelectric power facilities and a National Monument the awe-inspiring Hoover Dam is in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River on the Nevada/ Arizona border. Construction of the concrete arch-gravity Dam started in 1931 and was completed in less than 5 years. Standing 725 feet above the Colorado river the Dam contains 17 generators which produce 4 billion kw of electricity a year.

The Colorado River has created one of the most well -known natural formations in the world, the Grand Canyon. The massive rift in the Colorado Plateau exposes uplifted Proterozoic and Paleozoic strata and is of particular significance to student groups because of the thick sequence of ancient rocks that are beautifully preserved and exposed within its walls.