April 9, 2009
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Notch Peak for NP, part 2
I finally did it!
After a relaxing weekend with my Googles, I went out to the field and did a hike almost 2 years in the making, and now, I am more convinced than ever that the House Range needs to be a national park, or at least, a state park or National Monument. This place deserves to be noticed and noted.
One of my favorite parts of the range is Tatow Knob, a nipple-ish looking bump in the northern part of the range. It is so square and prominent that you can see it and recognize it for many miles in every direction.
One of the big attractions of the national park, besides the nation’s second tallest vertical cliff, fossil lagerstatten (Trilobite and Burgess-shale type), and beautiful desert climate would be the extensive wild horse population. On Monday, I saw a group of maybe two dozen, with all ages included.
On Tuesday, I did the hike up the canyon leading to Notch Peak. It was, in a word, awesome.
When you hike in, the canyon walls are so big and impressive (only a measly 1000′ or so), that it’s hard to see the notch itself, much like trying to see the Coconino sandstone rim of the Grand Canyon once you are in the inner (Precambrian) gorge.
Does this not look a little familiar? A big, narrow, steeply-walled canyon leading to a big cliff?
I think it is no stretch to compare this canyon to Yosemite valley. Yes, the scale is smaller, but not much smaller. The hike up that drainage was impressive, and unlike Yosemite, you have more geologic variation: rounded granite boulders transitioning into Cambrian carbonate and siliciclastic cliffs, leading to Notch Peak. This was probably the fourth greatest hike I’ve ever done, to 1) crater of Mt. St. Helens 2) North Rim, Grand Canyon 3) top of Mt. St. Helens.
The contact metamorphism is impressive, like this dike-sill complex. All up and down the valley, you could find fine garnet (Grossular), along with local epidote and a brown bladed mineral that might be Andalucite. No fossils though… too metamorphosed. You have to go to the eastern side of the range for that!
On the way out, besides this view, I met up with some people… I never expected to see anyone out there, but an outdoor education class through Chico State was there! I offered up my geology knowledge, and gave an hour lecture about the local geology on the spot! It was really great, and it made me feel good to give my geology information out to others.
In conclusion, the last two blogs have shown why this place needs to be protected and yet promoted, so any federal officials that find this blog, won’t you consider this as the next national park? If it were, it would help out the locals AND Great Basin NP because of their proximity. For climbers, this has to be #2 on your list of places to climb in the US. I mean, you have multiple rock types to climb, very steep walls, and the second tallest cliff in the US. What more could you want? For geologists, it has lots of cool rocks and fossils. And if you can’t tell from my pictures how breathtaking this place is, then I must be a terrible photographer.
On an aside, two pieces of good news for the Snake Valley locals and defenders of water rights everywhere: 1) The federal side, which initially was going to not put up an individual protest to the pipeline and water withdrawal, has decided to reverse that and stipulate in the EIS! 2) SNWA has asked for a year postponement on the water hearing in Snake Valley, which means we’ll have more time to get the data together.
Next on the list: A hike to the top of Notch Peak. Interested?
Comments (11)
Mmmm…so square and so prominent!
Devil’s advocate:
1. If it’s a national park then you cannot collect fossils.
2. If it’s a national park then you cannot stick your climbing gear all over the whole place.
It does look awesome. I’m happy I was there for your three favorite hikes!! Mt. St. Helen’s crater and back side get spots #1 and #2 on my favorite hikes ever list but #3 is Buckskin Gulch. Somewhere in the top ten we have North Rim, the Subway, the Narrows, a couple of favorite Sierra hikes, the Lost Coast and, if you’ll let me count it as a “hike”, lying down on slick granite with giant K-spar phenocrysts on the side of the road in Yosemite. Man, I love me some giant K-spar.
@sheilster -
Well, there is commercial fossil mining now, so they would have to have an exception for that. And what about JTree? Their was a swarm of climbers there. And it’s not like Yosemite doesn’t get climbers…
@rooney -
For sure. I just hear climbers aren’t much into following rules and such.
just you and the dog? i’d worry about safety in that case, but i’m not the outdoorsman you are …
you make some very compelling arguements
Wow, it’s gorgeous! Beautiful pics!
matt,
this looks amazing! so are you still employed??? you get to keep your beautiful office?
@musings2008 -
Yup, things are OK with the state, and that cube is all mine….
hey hey hey… some climbers do follow the rules. Also… I’m not really down with the whole commercial fossil biz., so I guess I would rather it be regulated.
@paleojabba -
Yeah, I feel you on that… but digging Trilobites would be a huge draw in the park, and I’d hate to get those people to lose their business.
Notch Peak is part of a BLM Wilderness Study Area and is part of the Americas Red Rock Wilderness Act now in congress. If you would like to help protect it for everyone, contact your congressman and senators and ask them to support Americas Red Rock Wilderness Act. Oh, by the way, the trilobite beds are in an area that is on state school land so it is regulated differently.