Trail Access Hours
October – March: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
April – September: 7:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Trails are open but the Learning Center is closed on Mondays.
The trek, out and back, is .8 of a mile with a difficulty of 2. Completing the entire Highlands Trail loop is 1.5 miles with a higher difficulty. I recommend hiking the entire loop. Entry into the Center is free and donations are appreciated.
Site #13. Stretch Pebble Conglomerate
Conglomerates are formed from pieces of older rocks (clasts) and various minerals. This process of change is called Lithification. As deposition occurs, weight increases, removing water and compaction begins. Cementation starts when dissolved minerals fill the now vacant gaps. Quartz, as a gluing agent, is quite common in nature and tends to make the hardest rocks. The heat that comes along with this compression softens the layers and the clasts held within, without liquefying them. The conglomerate layers are then stretched, flattened, elongated, bent or folded over onto themselves (deformation). Folding varies in size from microscopic wrinkles to mountain-sized folds. The clasts held within the layers can be stretched or flattened minutely, or at an extreme, into paper thin layers. This rock formation was originally deposited in horizontal layers and has since been altered. The darker layers in this outcrop consist of Jasper which is an iron-rich variety of Chert. The lighter layers consist mainly of the mineral Quartz. These layers were more than likely deposited here by exhalations from volcanic seafloor vents more than 1.7 billion years ago.
1. Are clasts visible within the outcrop?
2. Are folds visible within the outcrop?
3. What is the major visible component of this outcrop? Quartz.....or Jasper?
4. In your opinion.....is this a sedimentary, igneous or metamorphic type rock outcrop?
5. Explain your reasoning behind your answer to question #4.
Email your answers to the questions, to me, by clicking on my name above. If your answers are not received by me, your log will be deleted. Photos are accepted and appreciated as long as the answers are not pictured. You do not have to wait for confirmation from me before logging this cache as completed. Most of all……learn……and enjoy the view.
