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CAUTION, clifts abound in the area! You can drive to about a 1/4 mile from the cache. Park at the gated area and continue up the service road until you see the informational sign. The hike starts at about 9600 feet, so bring lots of water and watch for altitude sickness. There is no physical cache container, just an informational sign.
Steens Mountain is a large fault-block mountain in the southeastern part of the State of Oregon. Located in Harney County, it stretches some 50 miles (80 km) and rises from an elevation of about 4,200 feet (1,300 m) above the Alvord Desert to its peak at 9,733 feet (2,967 m). It is sometimes confused with a mountain range, but is properly a single mountain. One big mountain.
During the Ice Age, glaciers formed in the major stream channels on the mountain. These glaciers dug trenches about one-half mile deep, through layers of hard basalt. The result was four immense U-shaped gorges – Kiger, Little Blitzen, Big Indian, and Wildhorse. The famous notch in the east ridge of Kiger Gorge formed during a later glaciation when a small glacier in Mann Creek Canyon eroded through the ridge top. Massive internal pressures forced the east edge of the Steens upward. The result was a 30-mile-long fault-block mountain with a spectacular and rugged east face that rises one vertical mile above the Alvord Desert. Steens Mountain is the largest fault-block mountain in the northern Great Basin. But more about this will be noted in other Earth Caches
It was called the "Snowy Mountains" by John Work, the fur traders who were the first Europeans in the area, but in 1860 was renamed for United States Army Major, Enoch Steen, who fought and drove members of the Paiute tribe off the mountain.
The east face of Steens Mountain is made up almost entirely of basalts stacked one upon another. Staggering amounts of magma, with several flows hundreds of feet deep, inundated the region between 14 and 17 million years ago.
Steens Mountain is an example of a fault-block mountain, formed when massive internal pressure forced the east edge upward along a fault line. Four distinct notches in the Mountain- including oft-photographed Kiger Gorge- were formed when glaciers punched through the ridgetops. You can see hundreds of miles from the rooftops, and view the massive, "U" shaped Kiger Gorge.
The upper west slope of Steens Mountain receives around 25 inches of precipitation each year, while the Alvord Desert to the East receives less than six inches. Heavy snows in the winter of 2010-2011 kept the usually dry Alvord lake filled with water through the summer of 2011.
Before glaciation, mountain valleys have a characteristic "V" shape, produced by downward erosion by water. However, during glaciation, these valleys widen and deepen, forming a "U"-shaped glacial valley due to the massive pressure created by the ice sheets that grind the rocks beneith them. Besides the deepening and widening of the valley, the glacier also smooths the valley due to erosion. In this way, it eliminates the spurs of earth that extend across the valley. Because of this interaction, triangular cliffs called truncated spurs are formed.
Many glaciers deepen their valleys more than their smaller tributaries. Therefore, when the glaciers recede from the region, the valleys of the tributary glaciers remain above the main glacier's depression, and these are called hanging valleys.
In parts of the soil that were affected by abrasion and plucking, the depressions left can be filled by lakes, called paternoster lakes.
At the 'start' of a classic valley glacier is the cirque, which has a bowl shape with escarped walls on three sides, but open on the side that descends into the valley. In the cirque, an accumulation of ice is formed. These begin as irregularities on the side of the mountain, which are later augmented in size by the coining of the ice. Once the glacier melts, these corries are usually occupied by small mountain lakes called tarns.
Below you is an example of such a tarn, Wildhorse Lake.
To log this cache you must email the answers to the following questions to me. The answers can be found on the informational sign nearby No email, no find. Do not post your answers in your online log. Unconfirmed finds will be deleted:
1. Between what years was the pummice layer deposited in the lake? (range measured by the number of years ago)
2. How many years of climatic history is recorded by the lake?
3. Esimate how high you are above the lake. (if you hiked down, how far below the coordinates do you think you are)
It would be nice for you to post pictures of you with the lake in the back ground, and your adventures on Steens Mountain, but this is not a requirement. Travelling so far to get here, pictures really capture the memories.
Bonus points for the adventurous people who hike to the lake, a nice trail heads down to the shore, but beware, the high altitude takes a toll on the body. Drink plenty of water.
Watch the weather, Steens can have some wild weather that sneaks up on you.
Please take our your trash with you. Take pictures and leave only footprints. There is no need to bushwhack, leave a trail or climb over rocks to the cache location.
Excerpts were taken from the BLM, Travel Oregon and Wikipedia, respectively.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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