Post Your Hiking Photos - Any Format

[Drew Wiley]

What did I forget... Oh, that pink plagioclase feldspars frequently get extruded into large veins in the Sierra, often in the vicinity of wide milk quartz veins. More
color film fodder, exp in the rain. And this pattern is the identifying feature of certain dramatic landmarks like Striped Peak. The more tangled things get, the more
miners were attracted to the locale, primarily for gold and tungsten; but platinum and palladium were also extracted by the biggest mines. If someone wants a
dramatic geological "mess" within dayhiking distance, with caves n' karst thrown in to boot, the Mineral King area offers it all.

[mmerig]

[QUOTE=Drew Wiley;1351377]Well as you probably already know, MMERIG, "granite" is the blanket term for the primary plutonic material of the Sierras per se, and the most common type is quartz black n' white salt n' pepper quartz monzonite.

Regarding a "blanket term", I say as much in my previous message about the casual term "granite". Of course it's fine to call the predominant rock in the Sierra's granite, but when getting more specific about minerals and rock types, as you did, we should try to be accurate, even if most LFPF readers may be interested in just pictures and photography. But maybe some LFPF folks are especially interested in natural features in the pictures, and a separate forum to cover them could be appropriate -- just a thought.

This is all I am going to say about it.

[Henrim]

Fabulous

What time of day was this ?

Martin

Thanks! That was taken at the evening, can't recall the exact time. The sun is pretty low allthough it never sets that time of the year at that latitude.

[Martin Aislabie]

Thanks! That was taken at the evening, can't recall the exact time. The sun is pretty low allthough it never sets that time of the year at that latitude.

Thanks

Martin

[Drew Wiley]

Yes, guilty as charged. I'm using layman's language, generic "granite". Even pegmatite is a blanket term for slow-cooled big crystals and not a specific mineralogical identification. I had an amazing contrast of flavors even in my front yard - incredibly hard purple-brown diorite boulders in long parallel dikes, typically about a quarter mile apart, with salt n' pepper granite in between, but overlayed with Pliocene river terrace deposits containing all kinds of rocks. Huge Pliocene basalt flows were in the vicinity, plus earlier Pliocene fossiliferous sandstone layers below that. My parents ashes are buried below their favorite garden rock, a diorite "book" with bronze plaques symmetrically mounted, just like adjacent pages to an open book. The tops of the rocks contain many Indian acorn grinding holes. I eventually had to sell the property just due to the sheer amount of constant maintenance, especially the constant brush and weed control in forest fire country. Then you've got all these countertop dealers around here, with all kinds of flavors of big crystal granite that don't resemble anything we in'
the Sierra called granite. My wife picked out a slab of Iranian granite that is almost jade colored. ... one more remodel project I haven't completed yet.

[Drew Wiley]

Oh, added to that topic.... One evening on my last trip we were camped right at the edge of a vista overlooking three different forks of the Merced, and could see in a single sweep both where the specific glaciers once was which John Muir's advocacy of the glacial origin of Yosemite Valley, and where we could see the distinct vertical differences on the main canyon wall which gave Matthes the clue to the possible number of major glaciations themselves. Highest up, the granite has been long oxidized and is subtly yet distinctly reddish, while furthest down and youngest, you still have bright whitish salt n' pepper granite, along with intact patches of striated glacial polish. Otherwise, all the same kind of predominant granite. Of course, there are all kinds of glacial erratics laying around - basaltic, metamorphic, dark andesites, etc - another distinct clue to major glacial activity. Whitney denied the whole premise.

[tgtaylor]

These snaps were taken while hiking Crete's Samaria Gorge on a bicyle trip through Crete and mainland Greece:

The Gates



The sides of the gorge rise to just under 1000' and narrow to a mere 4 meters apart.

Abandoned Castle or Village of Samaria



Just inside the gorge which was inhabited until 1962 when it became a national park.

Village of Agia Roumeli



This is the terminus of the hike on the Libyan Sea where you catch the ferry back to Chania - a picturesque 1 hour boat ride. The hike is about 10 miles in length and I would rate it a moderate if you're in decent shape. All photos were taken with a Pentax K1000. For more info on the Gorge, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samari%C3%A1_Gorge

Thomas

[Corran]

Thomas that gorge is a neat location. Never heard of it before but looks like a great place to shoot.

From a couple of days ago, more of the same - Appalachian Trail, 15mm, etc.:

[tgtaylor]

If you find yourself in Crete and have the time, I highly recommend it. I took the overnight ferry to Heraklion and bicycled Crete clockwise following the coast where possible. When I got to Chania I rented a room and took this trip. Here are a few more snaps from the hike:

You start out high in the White Mountains and head downhill downhill to Agia Roumeli on the coast:







At Agia Roumeli you catch the ferry back. Here is a view of a scenic Libyan Sea coastal village you pass by on the return:



Thomas

[tgtaylor]

Egad, Taboose? !! But your previouspic, Thomas, looks a lot more like the vicinity of Chocolate Peak, looking east on the way up to Bishop Pass, and not along the Muir Trail. Am I right?

It took me about 2 weeks to figure out your post Drew - "previouspic" was throwing me. I didn't know if you were talking about the Taboose Pass image or what. I got it figure out now: The "previouspic" was taken looking back to the north on the climb out of Evolution Basin while heading south. It's a terrific view and justifies humping a large camera up there for a mural-size print.

The Pacific Crest Trail is America's preeminent hiking trail, The JMT is the best part of the PCT.

Thomas