Fall 2026SWAAG Annual Meeting

Lubbock Regeneration & Tornado Memorial

Caprock Canyon – Geomorphology and Geology – includes packed lunch

Exploring the Canyon Lakes of Lubbock

Lubbock Lake Landmark sits in a bend of the Yellow House Draw and is centered around a watering hole that preserves evidence for over 12,000 years of near-continuous inhabitance. The now ephemeral natural spring fed a stream system that flowed southwesterly across the caprock eventually merging with the Brazos River just north of where Lake Alan Henry was constructed to serve as a water resource for the city of Lubbock.

This fieldtrip will start at the Lubbock Lake Landmark archeological site and will follow the stream across space and time, charting its ancient history, and how the water-way was integrated into the pre-, early- and modern-history of Lubbock. The trip will include McKenzie and its surrounding parkland, which was a Texas State Park from 1935 to the early 1990’s. The other lakes of the canyon system and their surrounding lands were constructed in the 1970’s to provide an open-space for recreation. The project uses reclaimed water from the city and has a series of six lakes inside city limits, and two large lakes outside the City.

The field trip will depart from the front of the Science Building on the Texas Tech campus at 9:00 and return to the same place at midday.

Exploring the “Fermented Landscapes” of the Texas High Plains

This field trip will tour the Texas High Plains by van with tour guide services from Texas State University Department of Geography and Environmental Studies’ resident “scholar-somm”, Dr Colleen Myles. You will travel from Lubbock, TX to Brownfield, TX and back again, with tours, field lectures, and tastings at two different Texas vineyards and wineries. Feel free to bring a packed lunch, or lunch may be purchased at the midday stop. The van(s) will depart from the campus on the morning of Saturday, 3 October (~9 AM) and return in the late afternoon (~4 PM). More details will be shared as the conference approaches.

View Trip Itenerary