Treasure Valley Silver Award – Sponsored by B.O.S.S. Retirement Solutions & Advisors

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by Sophia Doumani

BOISE, Idaho (CBS2 News) — If you’ve ever wanted to learn about Idaho’s vast geological landscape, the Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology offers year-round, educational field trips that are open to the public.

“They’re free or low cost,” said geologic tour guide Steve Schaps. ” They’re always free for children because we want to encourage children to get outside and to learn something about geology and have fun. If you join the museum for $25 a year, you can go on all the field trips for free. You can even come two or three times if you want, and people do.”

Steve Schaps, a retired geophysicist, has been volunteering at the Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology for several years.

“Idaho has a lot of interesting surface geology. We have three of the geologic wonders in the world very close to each other. We have the Shoofly Oolite, we have the Bruneau Fossil Reef, we have the Bruneau Dunes State Park itself, which has the largest single-story sand dune in North America,” said Schaps. “So we have a lot of interesting geology right here, within an hour or two drive of Boise, as well as the Idaho batholith and gold mines.”

Take a Field Trip with Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology (Photo Credit: Steve Schaps)

The next geologic field trip is to Bruneau Fossil Reef is on January 18 from 10 am to 4 pm. The reef is around 80 miles from Boise and has an abundance of fossils, petrified wood, and moqui balls.

“It’s about six million years old and one of the strangest and least studied reefs on earth. There’s still a lot of unknown mysteries as to how these things formed and why they formed,” said Schaps. “In some ways, I feel like I’m more of a geologist now than when I worked as one, because people are asking me questions all day long, and I’m dealing with a lot of different geologic environments and rock types.”

Click here to register for a field trip to Bruneau Fossil Reef!

Take a Field Trip with Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology (Photo Credit: Steve Schaps)

Leading geologic tours is one of many extracurriculars for Schaps, who says he’s stayed very active since retirement.

“I lead a wide variety of group volunteer activities and group social activities for the Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology, the Meridian Gems Meetup Group, the Float Idaho Kayak Group, the Idaho Parks and Recreation, Idaho Fish and Game, and the Hells Canyon Recreation Collaborative,” said Schaps. “I do not get paid for any of these things. It’s 100% volunteer and actually costs me money to do it, but it’s fun.”

Take a Field Trip with Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology (Photo Credit: Steve Schaps)

Congratulations to Steve Schaps for winning the Treasure Valley Silver Awards, sponsored by B.O.S.S. Retirement Solutions.

If there is someone you’d like to nominate, email news@idahonews.com.

Take a Field Trip with Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology (Photo Credit: Steve Schaps)