Canyon Granite EarthCache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(not chosen)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Plenty of room to park and take a short walk to this site.
Millions of years ago, deep in the Earth, molten rock moved into this area. Here it cooled and solidified into the rock type that geologists call granite. This site is a great location to see some granite up close and personal!
The granite at this location contains many of the very common rock forming minerals - quartz (grey glassy mineral), feldspar (white and pink minerals) and mica (flakey black). If you look at a freshly broken piece of granite, you should be able to identify these minerals.
As this granite cooled, it also incorportaed some chunks of the surrounding country rock into the melt. These pieces are 'cooked' up, but did not melt, and form dark blobs of rock material within the granite. Geologists call these dark blobs Xenoliths.
From this point you can also see some historical remnants of the railroad that ran up this canyon to service the mines higher up. Can you find the remains of the railroad bridge? The pylons are not made of this granite, but of a hard sandstone found close by.
To log this EarthCache you have to find the largest Xenolith you can see from this point. Estimate its largest dimension (length and width) and email your enswer to us. Then log a picture of you at the site, including the number of people in your group in the log.
Logs without a confirmation email will be deleted.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)