We came upon this fabulous place while camping in the campground across the street. We overlooked it when we rode in and then again when we headed out for the day, set on visiting Dinosaur Valley Park just down the way. But after our hot and eventful afternoon, we returned to our campsite to regroup and relax and when we looked across the street we'd realized we'd missed something totally neat right in front of our faces! After a bit of exploring and cooling down in the river on a much-needed 100°-Texas summer day, we got to wondering why on earth no one had placed a cache here yet. Eventually we decided it was because the world was obviously waiting on us to do it! Lol. So here it is!
As with every Earthcache, cachers are meant to get a full learning experience when visiting this site. One of the main questions people ask when viewing the Big Rocks is, how were they formed? No need to do a ton a research on this one, because we are going to tell you the answer here!
Rocks as we know them usually fall into three main categories depending on their formation process: sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. The Big Rocks are considered sedimentary rocks. Sedimentary rocks are classified as such because they were formed by the accumulation of sediment that occurs over a large expanse of time. Over the past hundreds, thousands, or even millions of years wind and water have been eroding (or breaking down/wearing away) small pieces of the earth's crust. These little tiny pieces of earth, called sediment, can be comprised of dead animal or plant-life, bone/fossils, and other various minerals and tend to settle in the bottom of the rivers, lakes, and oceans, or any place where water has once accumulated over a long period of time. As layer after layer of sediment settle on top of each other the sediments get buried and become compacted and harden, slowly forming rock through a process is known as lithification. Sedimentary rocks are often found on ocean shores, in riverbeds, lakes, ponds, and near other bodies of water and are identifiable by their density, visibility of multiple components (such as evidence of shells, fossils, and/or plants within the stone), and evidence of physical erosion.
Now, no one really knows why the Big Rocks have formed as they have--with obvious signs of erosion along the riverbed that have worn down certain areas to nearly flat while leaving various other areas (such as the Big Rocks) smooth and rounded, yet considerably larger in size. And lucky for you, we aren't asking you to explain their formation to us in order to claim this cache! What we are requesting is this:
To claim this cache you must send an email explaining *why* you think the Big Rocks is categorized as sedimentary rock **with specific mention of something you saw at the GZ that led you to this conclusion.** This is not a difficult "buried treasure/hide-and-seek" kind of earthcache; trust me, there is plenty of evidence covering those rocks to prove it is sedimentary rock...the point is for YOU to find that evidence by taking a closer look at the rocks themselves while you're already there having a little climbing fun. Feel free to include a picture of your specific "evidence" used to support your conclusion. DO NOT POST ANSWERS IN YOUR LOG!!!
As with all earthcaches, the point is not only to get you out there to experience something great but to drop a little knowledge on you at the same time, so please take the time to actually think about and appreciate how these rocks formed here and came to be what they are today.
As with any geocache log, as the cache owner I reserve the right to delete any log posted that has not met the requirements for fulfilling this cache.
