Rockin' the Canyon Red EarthCache
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Welcome to Red Rock Canyon Park. This Earthcache will take you through the park on a great adventure! I have created some devious terrain caches in the past, but this park is beautiful and I made this one family and handicap accessible.
To help paperless Geocachers the logging requirements are placed at the beginning of the cache description:
1. At the original coordinates, answer the following:
A. Across the road from the parking area you are in, you see a bluff. How high do you estimate the bluff is from the ground to the top?
B. What is the elevation at this point?
2. At N 35 27.150 W 098 21.214, answer the following questions:
A. Do you see any holes in the cliffs?
B. How high is the cliff from the lake to the top?
C. What is the elevation at this point?
D. Do you see evidence of cross bedding?
E. Do you see any other colors on the rock face?
NOTE: While it is NOT mandatory, I request you post a picture of yourself or your GPS at these coordinates with the lake and rock face behind you so others can enjoy your adventure.
3. At the following coordinates, N 35 27.393 W 098 21.463 what is the elevation at this point?
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HISTORY OF THE PARK:
Red Rock Canyon is one of the most beautiful examples of nature’s artwork in Oklahoma. Wind and water have shaped 260 million-year-old deposits from the Permian geological period into the natural sculpture you see today. A spring-fed creek still flows year-round in the canyon and large trees provide the right kind of scene for a park.
Before the mid-1800’s, Plains Indians used Red Rock Canyon as a winter camp. It was an escape from the cold prairie winds. Game was abundant and the water was pure and clean.
Red Rock Canyon became a landmark on the California Road, the pioneer trail that led westward from Ft. Smith, Arkansas to Santa Fe, New Mexico. During the 1849 California Gold Rush, it was a haven for weary travelers. The canyon provided fresh water, grazing for livestock and a place to rest and repair their wagons.
View Source: (visit link)
LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY OF THE CANYON:
Red Rock Canyon State Park (cover photograph) is located along U.S. Highway 281 just south of Hinton, in northeastern Caddo County, Oklahoma (Fig. 1). The park is dissected by a south-flowing tributary of Sugar Creek, which in turn flows south-southeast into the Washita River. The elevation ofthe highest point in the park is about 1,650 feet above sea level; that ofthe lowest point is about 1,450 feet above sea level. Red Rock Canyon itself is about 150 feet deep; locally, the vertical canyon walls and overhanging cliffs are as much as 60 feet high, but generally they are about 45 to 50 feet high.
Red Rock Canyon is only one of several beautiful canyons in northeastern Caddo County and extreme southwestern Canadian County. Some of the streams that have formed these canyons drain south into the Washita River, or into Sugar Creek, which also drains into the Washita; others drain northeast into the Canadian River.
BEDROCK GEOLOGY:
Most geologists think that the sediment was red when deposited: the red color, salt, and gypsum in Permian-age sediments throughout the world is evidence for wide spread arid conditions, and supports the theory that these sediments were oxidized (red-colored) before they were deposited. The red color extends back behind the canyon walls, and this formation is red throughout western Oklahoma.
A feature of the Rush Springs Sandstone, which can be seen in the park as well as in other locations, is that the red rocks appear to be stained with vertical stripes of darker material. Most of these stripes are surface coatings of manganese dioxide (Mn02), which form as a result of weathering. Some ofthe dark stripes in the can- yon walls are encrustations of lichen (a plant composed of an alga and a fungus that rely on each other to live). The manganese stain and lichen tend to occur where water has seeped out of the sandstone and trickled down the canyon wall. Over time, the lichen breaks down the sandstone into sand, contributing to the erosion of the canyon walls.
Cross- bedding is another conspicuous feature of some of the sandstone beds in the Rush Springs Sandstone. The cross-bedding is particularly evident in layers that are 3-10 feet thick and about 20-30 feet above the canyon floor. This feature resulted from wind transport and deposition of sand grains when the Rush Springs Sandstone was being deposited in this part of Oklahoma.
REGIONAL GEOLOGY OF THE CANYON
Most of the surface rocks in this part of Oklahoma are Permian in age. As you travel east, the rocks generally are progressively older; for example, the rocks near Oklahoma City, which are part of the Hennessey Group and the Garber Sandstone, are Early Permian in age.
CANYON CUTTING:
Geologists know that the present-day small stream in the canyon bottom is not capable of cutting such a large canyon; clearly, the stream must have been much larger at one time. This suggests that Oklahoma had a wetter climate at some time in the past. Most likely, this time period was the Pleistocene Epoch (the Ice Age). The continental glaciers that once covered much of North America never extended into Oklahoma; they came only as close as the northeast corner of Kan- sas. However, the climate in the Rock Red Canyon area undoubtedly reflected the glacial periods. The average temperature was cooler, summers were shorter, and the amount of precipitation was greater than today.
Geologists agree that the canyon was cut by a process known as headward ero- sion. During the Pleistocene, streams (larger than those today) cut channels as they flowed down the south-sloping Rush Springs Sandstone. When water flowed over softer rocks, like the underlying Marlow Formation or shales within the Rush Springs, it eroded them more quickly and the stream channels steepened. A "knickpoint" formed where, during storms or other periods of high rainfall, water would rush over the southern edge of outcrops of sandstone in the Rush Springs. At first, the knickpoint probably was a short series of rapids. Over time, the relatively soft shale at the foot of the rapids eroded and the rapids developed into a waterfall. Subsequent floods continued to erode the shale at the base of the waterfall; under- cutting resulted and large sections of sandstone collapsed, broke down, and even- tually were carried downstream as individual sand grains. Then, the whole cycle of erosion, undercutting, and collapse started over. In this way, the waterfall migrated upstream, a process known as headward erosion. The site of the waterfall is called a box-head.
View Source: (visit link)
I hope you all enjoy the area as much as I have. Please take time to cache the other caches as well.
KillrB14 is an
EarthCaching Master
Platinum.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Trg bhg gurer naq rawbl guvf cnex!
Treasures
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