The Camp Davis Rocky Mountain Field Station is an off-campus residential field station devoted to undergraduate education in the natural sciences and humanities. The location of Camp Davis, on 120 acres in a rural valley about 20 miles from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, makes it one of the premier university-owned and operated field stations in the country. The Camp property sits astride the Hoback National Wild and Scenic River, and abuts the Bridger Teton National Forest, the third largest National Forest outside of Alaska. Camp is less than one hour from Grand Teton National Park, and the geologic marvels of Yellowstone, the world’s oldest National Park, are less than two hours away. Fossil Butte National Monument in the nearby Green River Basin contains a world-class paleontological record of pre-historic life in Wyoming, and the stunning landscape of Craters of the Moon National Monument is a short drive away.
Geologically, Camp Davis sits in a Miocene extensional basin filled with the aptly named Camp Davis Formation. To the south of camp, Mesozoic strata in the Wyoming Range were deformed by thin-skinned deformation during Cretaceous-Paleocene orogenesis, while to the north, the Precambrian basement of the Wyoming craton was uplifted at a similar time to form the Gros Ventre Range. Combined with active Basin and Range extension in the adjacent Star Valley, and the proximity of the Snake River Plain and Yellowstone hotspot track, the diversity of geology in the vicinity of Camp Davis is truly world-class.
Ecologically, Camp Davis is within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of the largest, intact temperate ecosystems left on Earth. Ecological zones range from high desert to mixed forests to alpine landscapes, with regional topographic relief in excess of 2500 meters. The Snake River Headwaters Wild and Scenic River program protects many small to medium sized rivers in the vicinity of Camp Davis. Extraction of natural resources, control of rivers for irrigation, and use of public lands for tourism and agriculture highlight some of the challenges that face northwest Wyoming in balancing preservation of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem with increased human impacts.
A view from Mt. Ann in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, a short hike from Camp Davis.