I grew up in the North Fork Valley and have always loved the beautiful mountains of exposed rock which define the valley. I own the land this Earthcache occurs on and this is one of my favorite spots on the property. Geocachers need not enter the property to claim this cache. Please do not step off the road/ditch area as all of the surrounding land is private property. While the entrance road is a little rough, I've successfully navigated it in low riding cars and a large touring motorcycle. I've provided parking coordinates if you choose to park and walk back to the cache. Otherwise it is the best place to turn around.
Tuscarora Sandstone is a bedrock which occurs in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia.The Tuscarora is a thin- to thick-bedded fine-grained to coarse-grained orthoquartzite. It is a white to medium-gray or gray-green subgraywacke, sandstone, siltstone and shale, cross-stratified and conglomerate in parts, containing a few shale interbeds. The Tuscarora is a lateral equivalent of the Minsi and Weiders members of the Shawangunk Formation in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, and of the Massanutten Formation in Virginia, and the Clinch Sandstone farther south. The Tuscarora and its lateral equivalents are the primary ridge-formers of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians in the eastern United States.
The depositional environment of the Tuscarora has always been interpreted as mostly terrestrial or shallow marine deposits. It is thought to represent a vast sand shoal along the margin of an ancient ocean. Ripple marks are seldom found, but do support interpretation as a shallow marine depositional environment. Very few fossils exist in the Tuscarora, and most of them are trace fossils.
The Tuscarora Formation is commonly exposed on various ridge crests and in many water gaps in the Ridge and Valley Appalachians of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. In West Virginia, the river knobs along the North Fork Valley include dramatic outcrops of nearly vertical Tuscarora sandstone, including this one. Some of the better known of these exposures are within a few miles of this Earthcache including Seneca Rocks, Champe Rocks, Judy Rocks, and Nelson Rocks. These cliffs are clearly visible along U.S. Route 33 and West Virginia Routes 28 and 55. North Fork Mountain, to the east, is a long ridge capped by Tuscarora sandstone. I've noted several of these locations as waypoints and you can see the North Fork Mountain cliffs form many places within the valley. Spruce Knob and Dolly Sods also offer scenic views of the Tuscarora cliffs.
To prove your visit please provide answers to the following questions through geocaching.com messaging: 1. Observe the shear Tuscarora cliffs in this area looking specifically for fossils or ripple marks. How do you believe these the sandstone and cliffs were formed? 2. Find a piece of sandstone from the cliff overhead; it shouldn't be too hard as you're standing at the bottom of a boulder field from this formation. Describe the grain size and structure as well as the color of the stone. 3. Take a picture of yourself or a personal item at ground zero with a Tuscarora feature in the background and post it with your log.
I'd love to see your pictures from other Tuscarora formations around Almost Heaven West Virginia.
Congrats to TheLF on the FTF!