The Coordinates will take you to an overlook (viewpoint) off of Hiway 20. Plenty of parking for Rv's also. This Hiway closes in the winter. In spring after the Hiway opens the 1/2 mile side road may still have the gate closed. Depending on the snow condition one can still walk in. From the parking area there is a well marked sign to the overlook (viewpoint) which is just 400 feet down this paved trail that passes through sub alpine forest to a spectacular view of Liberty Bell and Early Winter Spires and is wheelchair accessible. The coordinates will take you to the information plaque at the viewpoint.
This Earthcache will hopefully provide an educational experience about our planet and how the ice age and glaciers shaped our mountains and valleys. There is no physical container.
Topographic anomalies near Washington Pass attest that a former glacier at the head of Early Winters Valley, a Methow Valley tributary, captured the former head of State Valley, a Chelan Valley tributary.
At Washington Pass, where the North Cascades Hiway crosses the divide between the Methow and Chelan drainage basins a well developed glacial-erosional landscape not only displays a peculiar intersection of alpine valleys and other aberrant landforms but also displays drift, including striated erratics.
The distinctive pinnacled ridges owe their look to joints or cracks in the rock. Granite batholiths cool and crystallize under considerable pressure within the earth. Upon reaching the surface through uplift and erosion they expand and cause cracks for form. Joints in granite rocks are commonly at right angles and where vertical joints predominate, weathering produces serrated peaks and ridges.
Some of the more prominent notches such as those separating Liberty Bell, Early Winter Spires and other pinnacles are not joints, but small faults, as indicated by broken and ground up granite along them. The blocks of rock on either side have moved at least a little, and erosion has worn away the broken rock. The same faults may be seen cutting the granite in the towers of Kangaroo Ridge and the Wine Spires on the north ridge of Silver Star Mountain, to the east.
Five to ten million years ago these mountains were more rounded than they are today. Early Winters Creek on the left started downstream from where you are standing. State Creek started in Cooper Basin and flowed off the the right (west) in a smooth curve around Liberty Bell Mountain. A million years ago ice began to fill the valleys and slowly erode away the mountain flanks. The glacier in Early Winters Creek Valley chewed its way into the divide that separated it from State Creek while a large volcano began forming in the distance.
At the climax of the glacial period is when the Early Winters glaciers broke through the ridge and captured the head of State Creek glacier. As the combined glacier moved slowly in the new direction, around the sharp bend of Early Winters Creek, it gouged deeper into the valley floor, leaving a new ridge separating the two glaciers. The low ridge is now called Washington Pass. Early Winters Creek still flows around this sharp bend and has its start where State Creek used to be. The mountains are sharper and steeper now, and Liberty Bell stands out distinctly.
Earthcache Requirements
To demonstrate the educational value of this cache, please answer the following questions by messaging me through my profile page either a message or my email. Do not post your answers in your log. Anyone who logs the cache without answering questions within a week of logging will have their logs deleted.
You will be able to find the infomation at the overlook's display plaques and by estimation.
****Please include your geocaching name in your email with the answers****
1. What type of rock do you think you are standing on at the overlook?
2. If you look across Early Winters Valley, you will see a rock outcrop like the one you are standing on. These were once joined together before they were separated by glacial activity. Estimate the distance between that rock outcrop and the one you are standing on.
3. Does Liberty Bell show signs of weathering? Yes or no and why do you think this?
4. (Photos are optional but, appreciated and encouraged.) Be sure not to reveal any answers to the questions in your photographs.
Information for this cache page was obtained from the informational plaques at the cache site as well as from Geology of the North Cascades: A Mountain Mosaic by R. Tabor and R. Haugerrud, of the USGS. And from grossi, previous earthcache owner of this location.