The Rock of Ages cache is a kid friendly educational cache located at Pyramid Mountain Natural Historic Area which has many human and wildlife neighbors around its 1,500 acres of protected land.
Please remember to stay on the marked trails as you navigate to the cache. You are in sensitive wildlife habitat! Maps are available in the Visitors Center or at the parking lot kiosk.
Pyramid Mountain Natural Historic Area is in the Highlands where the bedrock is a metamorphic rock called gneiss (pronounced “nice”). This bedrock was formed 1 billion years ago and the banding or striping, called foliation, that you can see on it, was caused when two of the Earth’s continental plates collided. These rocks were originally about 13 miles underground, but over time, softer layers of rock on top have been worn away to expose the gneiss. When you look at a sample of gneiss, the light colored minerals are quartz and feldspar, and dark minerals are biotite mica and hornblende. Look around for another common rock that is purplish and contains smaller white stones.
What is it called and how did it get here? To find out, look inside the cache.
The Morris County Park Commission maintains approximately 1,500 acres in Montville, Kinnelon, and Boonton Township as the Pyramid Mountain Natural Historic Area. The Pyramid Mountain Visitors Center offers year-round nature programs for all ages as well as 25 miles of nature trails open to the public from dawn to dusk. The Visitors Center is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.morrisparks.net or call 973-334-3130.
This cache is placed in partnership between The Morris County Park Commission and The Northern New Jersey cachers, (NNJC). This cache is part of the Pyramid Mountain education geocaching program.