lambertiana
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2000
- Messages
- 9,475
Friday we took our scouts on a campout at Pinnacles National Monument. Pinnacles is in the coast range south of Monterey. We are getting some of the scouts started on the Geology merit badge, and Pinnacles is a great place to do that. It was orginally a volcano that erupted 23 MYa right on the San Andreas Fault, with half of the volcano on the North American plate and half on the Pacific plate. In the intervening years, the two halves have moved 195 miles apart due to the movement of the San Andreas fault.
There is also an active population of California Condors there, and we saw (through a spotting scope) a mother sitting on a nest with the first chick hatched in that area in 100 years.
We spent yesterday going on a hike over the top of the most popular area, followed by a foray through a cave that was formed by truck-sized boulders wedging into a narrow canyon (you go along the streambed below the boulders). The scouts all had a great time and I, of course, enjoyed the trip as well.
Here is typical lower slope, what you see all over this part of California:
Heading up we could see the breccia that was originally the material that accumulated through repeated eruptions, frequently violent (pyroclastic flows):
More views of the rock formations:
There is also an active population of California Condors there, and we saw (through a spotting scope) a mother sitting on a nest with the first chick hatched in that area in 100 years.
We spent yesterday going on a hike over the top of the most popular area, followed by a foray through a cave that was formed by truck-sized boulders wedging into a narrow canyon (you go along the streambed below the boulders). The scouts all had a great time and I, of course, enjoyed the trip as well.
Here is typical lower slope, what you see all over this part of California:
Heading up we could see the breccia that was originally the material that accumulated through repeated eruptions, frequently violent (pyroclastic flows):
More views of the rock formations:
