Starting just out of Peck, you will take Peck Ridge Rd to Central Ridge Rd. This road will bring you out onto Highway 62. If you turn right, you will end up in Craigmont (Hwy 95) and if you turn Left, you can go over to highway 7 to Nezperce or going the other way to Orofino. Many choices!
This road from Peck to Mohler is not for the faint of heart. It has some beautiful views but it is a gravel road with a huge drop off on one side with no railing. I would not recommend doing this route when there is snow on the road. There is also a sign up and when they hang a flag out, you might encounter some farmer truck traffic or semi trucks. So make sure that you pull off the road and close your car door when retrieving these caches. Once you are on top, you will have open views of farmland.
Now for the earthcache info that you will to do this earthcache:
Basalt columns are rocks formed by the cooling of hot lava. Sometimes the cooling process takes awhile and the temperature of the cooling lava will vary. It makes sense to think that the rock forming on top will be cooler than the bottom. Because hot lava takes up more room than the exposed cool top, it contracts. When it contracts, it will cause fractures or cracks. You have probably seen this when a mud puddle dries up and the dirt cracks forming polygon shapes in the ground. The fractured pattern that forms at the surface will also continue down the lava as it cools. This forms the long geometric columns. Basalt rock columns are found anywhere from 3 to 8 sides with hexagon (6-sided) being the most common. The 6-sided ones form when the cooling process is at ideal condition. They also vary in size from a few inches to several feet across. The width of a column is dependant upon the cooling rate. When lava is cooled real fast, it forms narrow columns. The slower it cools, the larger the columns. What about the direction of the columns? There are several different formations common, the most common being vertical columns. But you can also see: fan shaped, chevron, rosette, basin or horizontal columns.
The chevron pattern: The lava has more than one cooling surface and joints come from each surface.
The rosette pattern: The lava spouted from a point has a domed cooling surface.
The fan pattern: The lava flowed into a valley.
The basin pattern: Isotherms curves attributed to the topography under the lava.
The Horizontal or vertical pattern: The sides of the column form parallel to the direction of heat loss.
Thick lava flows can have several layers of joints. There is usually a well jointed lower zone (lower colonnade), the middle section in the flow can have a thin columns that seem to go in all directions (the entablature) and can also have a thinner less developed upper colonnade. The upper and lower colonnades show normal heat loss to the surface and the ground. In the middle of the flow, the entablature's more chaotic pattern suggests that the heat loss direction was not well defined and varied to the direction it came from. See the picture below for an example:
The site that you see here at this earthcache reflects some of these formations but they are not the typical ones that you usually see nor or they layed out in the manner that is common.
Please use the cache page description and what you see at the posted coords to answer your questions. There is no information sign at the posted coords. Submit the answers to me. Do Not post your answers on the cache page.
Questions to Answer:
- How many sides do most of the horizontal columns have at the cache site?
- Name the different layers that you see. How many are there?
- Estimate the depth of each layer:
- Why do you think some of the columns lie in a horizontal pattern?
- Posting a picture is not required but would be greatly appreciated.