Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Last Day of June 2010 - Grand County, Colorado

We decide to head for Silverthorne via Granby and Kremmling...

Just south of Granby, three pronghorns make an appearance. Here are two of them:

A little further and some more wildlife appear:
Pelican and cormorant, Wildlife Viewing Area, Windy Gap.

Two more pelicans.

Entering the Seat of Grand County. 
The little sign says that your tax dollars are stimulating drinking water quality in HSS.
That's gotta be a good thing, doesn't it?


Home of the Riverside Hotel (once owned by Rex's step-grandfather).



And also home of the County Seat's namesake: Hot Sulphur Springs.

Rock time, just down the road from HSS:


In Byers Canyon, Rex points to a leucocratic dike in a rock he's holding.
The rock is on its way to the front-of-home garden in Arvada.

On the other side of the road...


Yup, that's the Colorado River, downstream from the pelicans.

And, what's that a-comin'?


Yes, indeed, it's Amtrack (more of your tax dollars at work).


What is that finger pointing to, and who's digit is it?


Yes, it's our blogger-geologist. 
Further down the road, he's showing us two alkaline mega-dikes, 
just north of Green Mountain Reservoir.
One is immediately above his fingers; the other is to the left (west), 
at the top if the ridge (the same ridge in the previous photo.



Green Mountain Reservoir -- the water level is as high as Rita and Rex remember seeing it.
The mountain at the north end of the reservoir (the dam is to its left) is cored by an igneous intrusion that probably fed the dikes shown in the previous two photos.

Across the road from the reservoir is a cliff of loaded with coal seams and fractures ("cleat") in the coal.


Upper left: three fracture (cleat) surfaces; lower left: two such surfaces. The surfaces are oriented roughly northeast-southwest, but are tilted (dip) at angles ranging from 70 to nearly 90 degrees from the horizontal.

See the next post for more fascinating photos and accompanying narration.

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