| |
| |
|
Hiking | 5.77 Miles |
740 AEG |
| Hiking | 5.77 Miles | | | |
740 ft AEG | | | | |
|
|
| |
Partners |
|
[ show ]
| partners | | Date hike! Got a babysitter so we could hike faster to do the whole trail before sunset but while in the shade. Got to trailhead 5:10pm and finished 7:00. Went past barbed wire fence up the landslide edge -- amazing views. Not a person in sight for miles and miles. Spooky quiet with scenery like a science-fiction movie from the 1960's. Unbelievable the size of some of the boulders that fell in the rock avalanche. Many have names - I only know the submarine rock one. You can easily see the breakaway scar edge below East End peak if you know what you're looking for. Hard to photograph the dimensionality of the edge and scar with a sea of boulders!
I am fascinated that so many geologists missed this very large landslide in previous accounts of the area (1946, 1978, 1983, 1996, and 2000). A description of why the area is tricky and proof of landslide can be found in the paper by Douglass, Dorn, and Gootee (Geomorphology Vol 65. pages 321-336). It's available full text free online. I'm not a geomorphologist, but now I want to be one when I grow up!
We took the spur to Rock Knob (added a little more than a mile) to see another view of landslide and sunset. Thought trail would take us higher but it stays low to the Knob. Climbing routes get you up higher but we didn't have time or skill for that.
Temperature at 7:00pm was 78 degrees! (back at our house on other side of McDowells near Bell/104th trailhead at 8:30pm was 85 degrees). Went to dinner straight from hike at Greasewood Flats. Our sweaty dirty attire blended in just fine! Those hamburgers are something else - and good prices too. |
| _____________________
| | |
|
|
|
|
| |