The woodcutter's usual sidekick is taking a geology class this semester at the U. When out on field trips, he marks interesting places on the GPS. So on this beautiful Easter afternoon, we went back to this sedimentary environment.
Park at N 32° 13.985' W 111° 08.785'. This is a paved parking area off Kinney Road. Take the small trail through the yellow gate from the northeast corner of the parking area. Follow trail to wash and enter wash at N 32° 14.018' W 111° 08.738'. These coordinates are very useful for your return trip.
Please stay in the wash as much as possible to do the least damage to the environment. While you are walking in the wash, notice the rock outcroppings. The sediments were all laid down horizontally with the ground surface. Notice the outcrops are now uplifted, twisted and folded. You'll see an outcrop going in 1 direction and then the next one going in another.
The listed coordinates will take you to a rock hillside. You are looking for a small green M&M tube. In it are the coordinates for the final cache. Across the wash from this site is a rock outcropping that contains small petroglyphs. Just in case you don't see them, they are at N 32° 14.238' W 111° 08.670'.
As you continue down the wash to the final site you will walk over some giant slabs of sandstone/shale. What is the difference? Size of the individual grains. Sandstone weathers down to form what else? Sand. Shale weathers down to form silt, a much finer soil particle. You will walk over jointed slabs and slabs with ripple marks. The ripple marks were formed from water flowing over at the time the sands were deposited. They are not modern watermarks. The jointed marks come from freezing and thawing action and this is much more geologically modern. An interesting sight is at N 32° 14.302' W 111° 08.676'. This is wall of rock with a low angle fault running through it. Can you see the crushed rock on either side of the fault? At your feet, you are standing on one of the best examples of ripple marks in the sandstone. The next rock wall along your journey is an example of a small anticline. A line of rocks was uplifted in the middle. On this wall, the anticline is pretty complete. The jointed sandstone you are now walking over is quite impressive.
Now on to the actual Geocache. You are looking for a clear plastic container with a screw-top red lid. Please leave cache containers as well hidden as my side-kick left them. Walk back to your car through the wash not overland.
On the way back through the wash, you'll notice the main branching of the wash was on the left. Walk down that piece of wash and stay in its right branch (it is really not this confusing) a couple hundred feet until you see a rock wall (kind of looks like a rock island) with the wash going around it and a tree seeming to grow out of it. Now look back the way you just came. You are looking for an outcropping that seems to match the rock dam. This is a piece of a syncline. This is where a layer of rock had the ends uplifted. In this case the middle is still underground. If you could see the entire layer, it would form a smile. Obviously, this was an extremely active geologic area with lots of movement.
If you notice the deep purple rocks in the floor of the wash and wonder about the color, it is due to manganese.
I hoped you enjoyed this Geocache.