I just love waterfalls, and this one — Deep Creek Falls — was fascinating simply for it's unexpected appearance and basalt-column goodness.
So we turned around, pulled into a small pullout on the north side of the road, climbed over the guard rail on the other side, and I took a few pictures as the light moved across the landscape.
Stop here to see the falls (and some interesting polygonal cracks in columnar basalt on the side of the road).
The basalt columns in at the falls don't seem to show the polygonal cracking seen in exposures on the side of the road — they are either eroded and somewhat subdued if caused by water during basalt cooling, or they are not present because they haven't yet had the chance to be exposed to the forces that create spheroidal weathering. You Choose! (I would have to back and do some mapping and maybe some detailed whole rock sampling or petrography to decide.)Trip report to be continued...
4 comments:
Nice pictures! In spite of not being a fan of basalt, I find columnar basalt to be pretty neat. In the Gorge, the columns get pretty massive. Even cooler are some of the entablature basalts that seem to rotate 360 degrees. If I had a picture of it, I'd post it.
Yes, the entablature basalts are cool. I think there are some at Multnomah Falls. One of my photos from there show a bit of that, but it was a foggy day...
Beautiful photos. You are tempting me to post a columnar basalt waterfall picture or two from western Oregon.
Yes! Do it! I'm sure you have some great ones. :)
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