Cake but no frosting EarthCache
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West of Walsenburg, Colorado, two towering peaks dominate the skyline. Designated as a National Natural Landmark, this portion of the San Isabel National Forest has been the source of myths and legends for hundreds of years. Native Americans called the twin peaks The Huajatolla, meaning the Breasts of the Earth. Most often they are called the Spanish Peaks; East Spanish Peak (12,683 ft.) and West Spanish Peak (13,626 ft.). They ascended directly from the mantle.
The West Spanish Peak made its appearance about 22 Million years ago as a stock. Not as in cattle or sheep, but as a big bubble of magma rising upward from the mantle. Sometimes when the huge magma bubble makes it to the surface a volcano is formed. Occasionally the rising magma bubble stops a moderate distance from the surface most often by existing rock layers and is named a stock or batholith. A magma bubble that is less than 60 cubic miles is called a stock. A magma bubble larger than 60 cubic miles is called a batholith. For those of you who are familiar with Pikes Peak, it is a huge batholith of over 1000 cubic miles. Now you know why it takes a long time to walk to the summit of Pikes Peak and wished to have taken the train. Look closely at The West Spanish Peak and you can see small horizontal striations that the West Peak picked up on its journey upward. These layers are the meat of this EarthCache.
Access to the route to the cache is from Forest Service Road 46/County Road 364 which is a spur off Colorado Highway 12, the Highway of Legends, a designated Colorado Scenic Byway. The gravel Road 46 is not plowed during the winter and is typically closed by snow or other weather situations from November to early June. The geocache attributes shows that Road 46 is accessed by skis and snowmobiles. There is parking at Cordova Pass summit (11,248 ft.). At the pass summit there is a recreational area with a small campground, picnic tables, outhouse, and the trailhead for the West Spanish Peak. A parking and facility use fee is required and a self-service pay station in on site for your convenience. The recreation fee area east boundary is about 50 yards east of the trailhead and fence. There is no parking charge on the edge of the road outside the recreation area, but safe pull-outs are limited beyond there.
From the Cordova Pass summit on Forest Road 46 you’ll notice an old, now closed, forest road heading north. Walk several hundred yards down the road to the Spanish Peaks Wilderness entrance sign. Motorized equipment and bicycles are prohibited, and please use leave-no-trace principles to protect this congressional designated Wilderness Area. Preserve your earth caching privileges by assisting Forest Rangers keep Wilderness wild, make no trail improvements and pack out all trash. Once in the meadow you will see a short very old fence.
When you look at the west face of the West Spanish Peak you can see thin and thick horizontal lines and cliffs. Think of them as cake layers. These are remnants of metamorphosed Tertiary sedimentary sandstone, silt and clay. As the stock rose the magma forced the Tertiary layers upward metamorphosing the layers as they and the stock and continued upward spreading out to eventually cover the sedimentary layers that had been metamorphosed. Weathering and erosion exposed the metamorphosed the stock and Tertiary layers that we see today. Think of how many thousands of people have seen these Tertiary layers and most likely did not realize what an exceptional geological creation they had seen.
Many people have seen the Tertiary layers not knowing or caring what they are. Very little is written about these layers in unscientific books. Many photographs only show the west face of the West Spanish Peak that has the metamorphosed layers. The west face has the greatest concentration of the layers and the south face and north face have several moderate exposures of the layers. There are very few obvious layers on the East Spanish Peak.
There are other mountains in Colorado that came from igneous stocks or batholiths, but no others pushed up through the Tertiary or other layers as did the West Spanish Peak grabbing hold of several Tertiary layers to give people a neat geological experience. Yes, we do have wondrous igneous mountains in Huerfano County.
To log this EarthCache please email to me the answers for the following questions.
1 The West Spanish Peak has many of the metamorphosed Tertiary layers exposed to view. There are ten igneous mountains almost is a straight 25 mile long line in Huerfano County. Sheep Mt., Little Sheep Mt., North White Mt., Middle White Mt., and South White Mt. are five or the ten igneous mountains that have very little if any of the metamorphosed Tertiary Layers. Why happened that did not allow them to have the metamorphose Tertiary Layers?
2 The East Spanish Peak has very little of the metamorphosed Tertiary layers. The Spanish Peaks are rather close together, and some of their respective east and west ridges parallel one another for one to two miles. What caused the East Spanish Peak to have very little of the metamorphosed Tertiary layers?
Hints/Spoiler Info – While on the ridge enjoying the West Spanish Peak layers turn around to look a the high peak mountains of the Sangre de Cristo and the Blanca massive. Did you know that those peaks are a billion plus years older that the Spanish Peaks? Feel free to photographs these mountains and use them when you login your find.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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