Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (Fodor's) - Fodor's [69]
Sea Stacks: Perched offshore, from San Francisco to Vancouver, sea stacks are rock headlands and pinnacles. They are composed of basalt and other volcanic material and have been separated from the mainland by the Pacific’s erosive force. Some West Coast sea stacks rise more than 100 feet above the surf, and with breakers surging onto and around them, they are highly photogenic. Some of the best are found from Eureka, CA, to Port Orford, OR; and from Queets to Neah Bay, WA. Sea caves and arches are rarer types of marine rock formations.
Sierra Nevada: The Sierra Nevada mountain range is marked by a gentle rise on the west side and a sharp drop-off on the east side. The land east of the crest sank dramatically by several thousand feet, resulting in the eastern escarpment having no foothills. Moisture from the Pacific cools as the air rises up the mountains, eventually condensing and falling as rain or snow. So little water is left in the air by the time it crosses the range that the giant valleys and deserts to the east remain dry much of the year. Gaps in the crest, like Donner Pass on I–80 near Lake Tahoe, hint that large rivers once flowed westward to the ocean. The Pacific Crest Trail, which travels from Mexico to Canada, follows the line of the Sierra crest.
Spheroidal Weathering: The desert’s boulder gardens, such as Joshua Tree National Park’s Wonderland of Rocks, as well as the dome monoliths like Yosemite’s Half Dome, originated when molten rock seeped up from beneath the Earth’s crust and into the fissures or joints of other types of rock. When the magma cooled and hardened, its expansion caused the rock around it to split apart. The rounded, stacked, and blocky boulders were then shaped by wind and rain into near-spheres.
Spire: As a butte erodes, it may become one or more spires. There are many buttes and spires in Utah’s national park.
Syncline: A syncline is a trough-like, downward-curving fold in the rock layers of the earth’s crust, with its sides dipping in toward the axis. You can see synclines and anticlines as you drive throughout the Colorado Plateau.
Volcanoes: The volcanoes of the Sierra Madres, such as Mount Rainier, Crater Lake, Mount Hood, and Mount Baker, are not, as commonly believed, dormant. Instead, most are described as "episodically active," as Mount St. Helens was in 1980. At one time, the Sierra was a much lower mountain range, with peaks of only about 3,000 feet. When volcanic activity began, the flow of lava thrust the mountains upward and spilled out over the surface, hardening into new top layers of igneous rock. Evidence of the region’s volcanic history is most visible in the area around Mount Lassen, where you can see recent manifestations of the geological forces of volcanism.
Window: One of the more intriguing landforms you will encounter while touring canyon country are large openings in solid rock walls. These are known as arches or bridges, depending on what created the opening. Together, the two types of forms are called windows.
FODOR’S YOSEMITE, SEQUOIA & KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARKS
Editors: Debbie Harmsen, Michael Nalepa
Editorial Contributor: Reed Parsell
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1st Edition
ISBN 978-1-4000-0560-4
Excerpted from Fodor's Complete Guide to the National Parks of the West (ISBN 978-1-4000-0826-1).
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