Upon arriving at Sequoia National Park, we decided to do a bit of touring before the big hike in the following morning. We drove around to some of the park sites, including "Tunnel Tree." We were hoping it was a big tree you could drive through, but this was pretty neat as well.
We took a fantastic hike up four hundred and something steps up carved into the granite to stand on top of this amazing dome. The view would probably have been better if it wasn't raining so much, but it was pretty spectacular anyways.
General Sherman is 83 meters tall and seems like it's nearly as thick!
On the hike in, Loraine and I stopped at this beautiful little stream. Unfortunately, it was running very strong because of the intense rain.
After getting drenched on the hike in, the morning sunshine looking north from camp at Pear Lake illuminates the regional joint set on the north side of the Kaweah River.
The view from the trail approaching Pear Lake. In the center left of the frame is a very clear nearly vertical dike of GPS2-057 and GPS1-69. GPS2-057 was taken right before the steep dropoff near the last point visible in this picture. To its left is a small fault zone trough that cuts through the peak of the knob and runs roughly parallel to the dike. GPS1-70 through 72 and GPS2-58 were taken along this zone and GPS1-071 is also at the top of the steep dropoff about 15 meters from the dike. We recorded about 1 - 2 m of left lateral separation here. To the right is another prominent dike, one of many with similar orientations recorded in points GPS1-66 through 68 and GPS2-51 and 52.
Every night, the clouds would tease us. They would clear in the evening and tempt us about the prospects for the coming day. But, like clockwork, it continued to rain. Loraine took this shot during one of the clear spots of the moon through the troughs above Pear Lake.
Plumose structure on the west side of the ridge on the west side of Emerald Lake. Note the apparent "channeling" of stains. Steve Martel for scale.
Interesting fractures that terminate at the contact between finer grained granitic rock (below) and coarser grained granitic rock above. At GPS2-004.
A spectacular shot of the evening colors above Pear Lake. This is truly one of the most beautiful places on earth.
The mafic dike looking southward up the hill to Alta Peak (at right). We tracked this dike over 1.5 km and nearly 1500 vertical feet of relief!
We found several large pegmatite pockets in close association with the mafic dike. Many were within about 50 m, several were within a few meters, and this one is immediately adjacent to it. Note the closely spaced fractures that are confined to within the mafic dike and rarely propagate into the country rock.
An aplitic dike stained red from weathering/alteration. Note how the fractures rarely extend beyond the boundaries of the dike. When they do, they don't extend very far.
The view looking north across Pear Lake on the first cloudless day of the trip.
Steve Martel points at an aplitic dike on the margin of this fault zone trough with about 3 - 4 m of left lateral separation. On the hillslope above Steve's head, the fault trough is traceable up to the very top where a white dike appears to parallel the fault zone and then bend to meet it.
Tail cracks on a fault strand. Tape open 10 cm and pointing North. GPS2-049
Tail cracks on a fault strand. Note how the cracks curve away from the fault. Tape open 10 cm and pointing North. GPS2-049
Tail cracks on a fault strand at the other end from the previous two pictures. Here, the fault strikes from mid-left to upper-right in the frame and the tail cracks curve off from where Matt is sitting towards the camera. Some tail cracks are up to 5 m long. The cracks cut flow banding throughout the image without any horizontal separation. At GPS1-65.
A pegmatitic dike split down the middle at the boundaries between large grains. Is this where faults nucleate? Tape open 10 cm and pointing north.
An aplitic dike with opening mode fractures confined within the dike boundaries. They are closely spaced (about 5 cm) and oriented similar to the trend of regional joints in the area. Tape open 10 cm and pointing north. Is this what makes dikes weak enough to cause faults to nucleate?
The Kaweah River follows this trough at GPS2-56 despite the fact that there were no offset markers near here. An aplite dike can be seen in the trough wall on the left side of this image. There was also a spectacular waterfall that is shaded in this image :-(
A beautiful pool on the Kaweah River.
Loraine and I, with full packs, prepare for the big hike out.
The steep vertical face on the left side of this image is called "The Watchtower" and plunges about 2000 feet straight down to the valley below. On the hike in, it was so foggy and cloudy that we couldn't see more than about 10 feet in front of us when we stood on the edge of the Watchtower.
This was the view of the tree tops from the highest point on a trail called "The Hump." Needless to say, it was quite a challenging uphill.
We loved all these wonderful ferns.
Loraine pauses close to the end of the trail to stop and smell the flowers in this gorgeous, light filled meadow.
And the flowers were worth the smelling! These orange beauties have the most amazing fragrance of any wildflower I've ever experienced.
After a grueling hike out, we made it!