Saddle Lake Tafoni EarthCache

The Saddle Lake Recreation Area was one of four that was associated with flood control lakes built along the Middle Fork of the Anderson River. Saddle Lake once had a fully developed recreation area but now has only a primitive campground, a boat ramp for the lake and hiking trail. This scenic, somewhat remote lake is an excellent place to get away from crowds and you will often have the place to yourself!

At the posted coordinates up the hill, across from the Parking Coordinates, you will see some massive rocks pretruding out of the ground. You will need to climb to the top to see this. 

Tafoni are small cave-like features found in granular rock such as sandstone, granite, and sandy-limestone with rounded entrances and smooth concave walls, often connected, adjacent, and/or networked. They often occur in groups that can riddle a hillside, cliff, or other rock formation. Tafone is the name for one of the cavities, and tafoni is the plural.

The tafoni found at the posted coordinates are also called cavernous weathering, stone lattice, or tafoni weathering. This type of weathering could occur from wind erosion, frost shattering, or cold air blowing on sun-heated rocks.They can also be formed from groundwater - either the groundwater dissolving the cement that holds the rocks together, or groundwater evaporating at the surface leaving behind dissolved minerals. Did I mention this area once was covered by an ancient sea.

They can be found in all climate types, but are most abundant in intertidal areas and semi-arid and arid deserts. Explanations of their formation include salt weathering, differential cementation, structural variation in permeability, wetting-drying, and freezing-thawing cycles. Tafoni have also been called fretting, stonelace, stone lattice, honeycomb weathering, and alveolar weathering.

Tafoni which starts along subhorizontal joints and grows upward is called basal tafoni. This sort of formation can lead to skylights. Tafoni that begin along vertical or near vertical joints are called sidewall tafoni. Fin shaped spires can eventually be undermined to produce windows and arches in such a process.

In order to log this earthcache, please email or message me the answers to the following questions:

1. Estimate the height of the rock formation at the posted coordinates.
2. Would you describe this as a basal or sidewall tafoni or both?
3. What are the approximate dimensions (width, height, and depth) of the largest tafone that you see? Are there smaller tafoni inside it?
4. Take a picture of yourself standing in front of the fin and post it in your log.