1153 October 4, 2024 Closing The Loop
We got up once during the night. There was no moon and so it was very dark. The stars were so brilliant and we could see the Milky Way.
Tim was up before the sun. I stayed in the tent until I was sure that the fire was started and the coffee was ready. I caught the sunrise as I had my coffee by the fire.
We packed up and drove just a short couple of miles to the next trailhead. We saw two trucks from the campground and there were lots of young people with gear. Tim asked them what they were working on. They were with ACE – American Conservation Experience. This is a nonprofit organization that provides experiences for young adults to work on public lands on environmental projects. This crew was charged with the collection of seeds from the blue grama or bouteloua gracilas plants. The goal is to harvest 10,000 seeds. There was a lot of science that went into figuring out where to harvest. They looked for the plants in areas with a certain soil type and moisture level. There was an abundance of these plants on this plateau. They cannot harvest seeds from more than 20% of the existing plants. The seeds will be used to reseed an area where the plants are not thriving.
Right across from the site where the crews were gathering seeds was the Cathedrals Trail. We climbed a short hill. As we came up over the knoll, we had our first closeup glimpses of the cathedrals.
Then we hiked along the cliff edge gradually climbing as we went along. We could see the huge cathedral monoliths in the bottom.
Toward the end, there was one last small rock formation in the valley.
The last part of the trail was another steep uphill with a wonderful view from the top!
We were on the valley floor and among the giants for our breakfast!
More evidence of volcanic activity. We learned that the magma bubbled up from cracks and fissures in the earth’s surface.
Gypsum sinkhole..
The large black rock formations are hard volcanic rock that is serving as a retaining wall. The lava rock also prevents the softer sedimentary rock from eroding.
The sharp lava fins erupting from the earth in the foreground looked liked the spine of a sleeping dragon.
Similarly, the black bands in this formation are thick lava sills.
We took the spur road to see Glass Mountain. This dome is comprised of selenite or moonstone crystals. This is an unusually large deposit. Geologists are not certain how much more might be beneath the ground. This was very cool!
This is Temple of the Sun.
Temple of the Moon.
Both temples have lost their hard caps and are now eroding quickly.
As we finished the loop, we passed many other different kinds of rocks…lots of rocks!
At the end of the trail was another sign…ROAD IMPASSABLE FOR MOST VEHICLES. We saw maybe 12-15 other vehicles out here. The road was in good condition. There were no rock obstacles or areas that required intense technical driving but crossing the river and then driving through deep sand and steep gullies and washes made it necessary to have the high clearance 4WD vehicle.
We repacked and organized our stuff and took nice long soapy showers. I felt like I had been rolled in red dust and it was good to get clean! This evening, we went into Torrey and found another Mexican food truck for our dinner. It was parked right next to the ice cream shop and so we had dessert.
We had a great time and we are ready for another overnight adventure. Tomorrow morning we will leave to explore the Loop The Fold Trail. We will spend the night out and return on Sunday.