Yes, but not just scale - the delicacy of the trees at the top replicates and accentuates the delicacy of the water - a nice counterpoint to the sheer force and
strong graphic twist in the fall. A very nice shot!
Could be limestone, could be dolomite. Dolomite is not a metamorphic rock, in the traditional, geologic sense (i.e., via extreme heat and pressure), and it can look like limestone, especially if far away, as in the photo. Maybe you meant to say marble, regarding the metamorphism?
The much higher amount of magnesium in dolomite than in limestone is what characterizes dolomite, which forms in a Mg-rich sea, and would otherwise become limestone. The depth and turbidity of the water, and the source of calcium has more to do with either limestone or dolomite's texture and structure than the additional Mg. Some formations of Ls and/or dolomite have inter-bedded shales, and that makes them look even more different, and less-apt to form cliffs. Sometimes, vegetation can reflect the higher amounts of Mg, but I don't think this is a consistently reliable clue. Lately, I have been spending a lot of time in Paleozoic marine sediments, and it can be hard to tell them apart by just looking at them. The acid test helps.
Just got back from a three night hike in the Yolla Bollys with one of my boys...it was sort of on the way to the Berkeley Forestry Camp where he needed to be yesterday (Sunday, 6/17). Man, am I getting slow on the uphills, granted, steep is another word for the Yolla Bollys. But I showed Bryce part of where his old man worked for all of the non-winter months of the 1980s. We hiked out via the top of Solomon Peak (7571") with a nice view of Mt Shasta 100 miles to the north, Mt Lassen 85 miles to the east and The Kings Range on the coast 65 miles to the west. The tallest in the wilderness in South Yolla Bolly Peak at 8084' and up in the north, North Yolla Bolly Peak at 7811'.
Mixed emotions about the trail conditions. I spent ten seasons bringing the 150 miles of trail in my district's part of the wilderness up to our standards, as the trails were in bad shape in the late 1970s. The trails are now in worse shape than when I had started on the trail crew in 1981. Little or poorly done maintenance in the last 25+ years. Several fires crossing the trails makes pathfinding difficult -- blazed trees gone, large patches of whitethorn overgrowing the burn areas, criss-crossed tree trunks, and not enough foot or horse traffic to keep the trail visible (the Hikers Log at the trailhead had 5 or 6 entries from last season to so far this season...including my entry. The two stripped vehicles on the lower portion of the road were not encouraging. The Forest Service dirt road has been minimally maintained and challenged my Eurovan...no wonder there are few Log entries. There are easier access points in the other parts of the wilderness.
Frankly, the place seems more like a wilderness now and I kinda of like that. Camps can be found where both water and flat space can be found together. Not many, and except where it was a hunter's camp (with stock), usually small. One needs to have good map and trail-finding skills. Even with 10 seasons of working on those trails, while I did not get lost, I was a bit confused for awhile here or there. But it can be a long distance and/or time between water sources, especially late in the summer, and spending a lot of time tracking down the trail for the tenth time of the day can be time-consuming and frustrating. Navigating large patches of whitethorn where fires have swept through are not fun. Not all the springs are on the maps. Most creeks dry up, but some are dependable all summer as are the rivers. I love the place.
I just took the Rollei and a small digital -- made about 20 shots on each. Two digital images of my son Bryce, one on a far mountain top, and another on a boulder -- both from our last camp site of the trip. For fun, I added a third -- a 500x view of Bryce on the mountain top.
"Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China
This is my sentiment too, a little north in Washington state.
Over the past 10 years, and especially the last 5 years, the national forests and nat'l parks (outside Seattle) have seen an astonishing growth in hiking visits – more than can be explained by population growth. I like to think it's due to rising interest in the outdoors, generally a good thing; but I sure do miss the days when I could follow a well-maintained trail into a lonely, wild area and never hear "What kind of camera is that?" while composing. ;^)
Which is why I keep gravitating toward trails neglected by maintenance, or others being re-claimed by the wild – or best, going off trail with map and compass, my favorite way of letting LF images and solitude find me. A sort of Natty Bumppo strategy that I've been relying on more and more…
I love bushwhacking. But my problem with "neglected trails" this time of year here on the coast is ticks. I can handle the nettles and poison oak, but don't
want to risk bringing disease-carrying nasty little ticks home. I'll save my off-trail urges for the high country.
mmerig - We don't have a lot of marble down here, but where we do, it often shows gradations of metamorphism into mostly dolomite, and then at times to
a semi-metamorphic state where fossil presence is recognizable, but too messed up to call it limestone per se. The respective sandwiched layers were tilted
on edge during the granitic Sierra uplift, and presumably "cooked" at that time. It can get extremely complex, with lot of diorite seams bursting through both
the granite and metamorphic layers. But one actual marble seam runs north/south at a right angle right through the deepest canyons on the continent in
the southern Sierra. It's generally less than a hundred yards wide, but contains numerous caves. "pretty marble" shows up in only a few locations; most of
it is rather gritty and quasi-dolomite. The different chemical content can easily be explained by differences in marine plankton either at different depths or
more likely, somewhat different deposition eras. So marble getting tangled up with dolomite isn't unusual.
Sure, and a handy place to see a dolomite-marble sequence is in Mosaic Canyon in Death Valley NP, where I'll bet many people on this forum have been. But the dolomite versus limestone distinction has nothing to do with marble, except they both can be heated and re-crystallized into marble. So I'm a little confused about how you jumped into marble, unless that is what you meant in post #290; and "marble getting tangled up with dolomite" is not surprising.
View in the Diablo Range Above Fremont/Milipitas
Toyo 45cf, Rodenstock 150mm Apo-Sirona-S, Fuji RVP.
Thomas
Taken while hiking somewhere along Oak Creek in Sedona, AZ:
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