Beyond the summit, the ridge joins Owen's Ridge and eventually Owen's Peak. The peak overlooks the junction of Highways 14/395 near Ridgecrest and is easily noticed by travelers along the corridor between Southern California and the Eastern Sierra Nevada.
Sierra Nevada
The rocks that form the backbone of the Sierra Nevada are mostly granitic rocks that formed during the Mesozoic Era, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. At that time, an arc-shaped chain of volcanoes, similar to the present-day Cascade volcanic arc, erupted where the Sierra Nevada now stands. Rising through older Paleozoic rock, molten rock erupted at the surface as lava, but most solidified deep within the earth, forming the gray granitic rocks familiar to any Sierra traveler.
Although from a distance the Sierran rock looks quite similar, it is actually made up of many individual rock bodies that formed from repeated intrusions of magma over many millions of years.
Even as they grew, erosion was wearing away these Mesozoic Era volcanoes. By Late Cretaceous time, about 70 million years ago, the once-deep granitic rocks began to be exposed at the Earth's surface. By a few tens of millions of years ago, so much of the upper part had worn away that the surface of the ancient range had a low relief of just a few thousand feet.
It wasn't until quite recently, geologically-speaking, that the Sierra Nevada range as we know it today began to grow. During the Miocene Epoch, less than 20 million years ago, the continental crust east of the Sierra Nevada began to stretch in an east-west direction. The crust broke into a series of north-south-trending valleys and mountain ranges—the beginning of the Basin and Range province.
The entire Sierra Nevada can be thought of as an enormous tilted fault block.
Less than five million years ago, the range that we now know as the Sierra Nevada began to rise along its eastern margin. Through a combination of uplift of the Sierran block and down-dropping of the area to the east, the Sierra rose upward. Rising far more steeply to the east than the west, the entire Sierra Nevada can be thought of as an enormous tilted fault block with a long, gentle slope westward to California's Central Valley and steep eastern slope.
Not long after the Sierra uplift began, the Earth cooled, marking the beginning of the Pleistocene (Ice Age) Epoch. Glaciers grew in the Sierra highlands and made their way down former stream channels, carving U-shaped valleys. The sheer walls and hanging valleys of Yosemite National Park are a product of this chilly past.
http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/olym/index.html
Fun Facts about Five Fingers:
Depending on who you talk to, the “fingers” are referred to as either a spire (a top part of structure that tapers upward, such as a rock formation or steeple) or a pinnacle (a high, pointed piece of rock). These terms appear to be fairly interchangeable.
The tallest pinnacle is designated one of the 276 peaks of the Hundred Peaks Section of the Sierra Club's Angeles Chapter.
Five Fingers is part of the Sierra Nevadan crest. There are three prominent peaks in this part of the crest. These include Owens Peak (8453 ft), Mount Jenkins (7921 ft) and Morris Peak (7215 ft). Owens Peak is the highest point in the southern Sierra Nevada, and Kern County; the crest of the range rarely reaches above 1800 m (6000 ft). The gray, east face of Owens Peak and the precipitous escarpment is a characteristic and prominent feature of the landscape above the Indian Wells Valley. Five Fingers, also known as Aquila Peak, rising to 1577 m (5174 ft) is a series of large finger-like spires extending from the east ridgeline of Owens Peak. The Sierra Nevada crest is primarily composed of granite formed during the Cretaceous and metamorphic rocks from the Paleozoic. Specifically, Owens Peak is composed of largely leucocratic, coarse-grained, equigranular, biotite granite. The ridgeline extending east of Owens Peak, and leading to Five Fingers, is composed of the same granite type.
Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany Volume 25 | Issue 1 Article 2 2008 The Vascular Flora of the Owens Peak Eastern Watershed, Southern Sierra Nevada, California Naomi S. Fraga Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont, California
Interestingly enough, there are more than five “fingers” on this peak. Even ignoring the lower pinnacles that are outside the summit concentration, there are six worthy granite monoliths to ascend during a day-long scramble. The six pinnacles are easily visible from the northern approach but only five can be seen from the south. The fingers are numbered from East to West and two routes to the summit are popular. The steep 35-45% grade sand and scree slopes make the hike up a slog, but the solid rock scrambling and climbing at the top of the short hike up makes it well worth it. Either traverse the fingers to the summit or take a sandy slog following an intermittent trail below and around the lesser fingers also to gain the summit. As far as rock quality, there is a lot of bad with the good, so good route finding and judgement are essential tools for any adventure in this largely ignored area.
http://www.summitpost.org/five-fingers/153481
There are several traditional geocaches located on the hike up to Five Fingers and around Five Fingers. This hike is not recommended during the heat of the summer. This hike should not be undertaken without appropriate hiking equipment and supplies.
To get credit for this earthcache, please include the following:
- Name of the earthcache/GC number
- Number in your party
- Estimate the distance between Finger 1 to Finger 5 based on the height information for the spires provided in the description.
- (Edited 2/5 Hahahahaha, didn't realize that when I created this question, it was from a different spot in the valley than the coords and that you can't see this from the coords. Oops! No wonder everyone has had so much difficulty answering it! So this is now a BONUS question. If you are traveling on the 395, you could stop at the Brown Road off ramp and look towards Five Fingers and answer this question.) Look at Five Fingers. Moving to the right, follow the crest up to the highest granite faced peak. What type of formation do you observe in between Five Fingers and that peak?
- Besides volcanic and tectonic plate movement, what else do you think contributed to the formation of Five Fingers?
- OPTIONAL: Take a picture of yourself and your party with Five Fingers in the background.