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canyonwalkerWhew, here it is a week later and I'm still catching up on my blog about hiking at Mt. Diablo last Saturday. But with this entry I'm done! ...Done with last Saturday, anyway. There's still hiking on Sunday to write about.... And more will get added to the backlog if/when I go hiking later today. 😅
After hiking a contour trail just below the peak and then scrambling up the last bit to the observation tower at the top we returned to our car and started the drive back down Mt. Diablo. Rather than head home, though, we stopped at Rock City about halfway down the mountain.
Rock City is an area where there are numerous short trails to exposed sandstone formations. The one above is part of the Wind Caves. The erosive action of wind and rain scallop out these odd caves in the soft rock. Geologically the process is similar to how the Tafoni Monolith, aka SKULL ROCK, was carved. Here they're still not so metal as to actually name it Skull Rock, but at least unlike Tafoni, which is in the very wealthy town of Woodside, California (hint: Steve Jobs lived there), they didn't name it like it's some Euro-style café that sells espresso and gelato.
One cool thing about Rock City as compared to the Tafoni Monolith is that visitors are allowed to climb on the rocks here. It's like these rocks are the soft and fluffy kind that are safe for kids. ...But seriously, Tafoni is steep and unstable. Here you can kill or at least badly injure yourself if you're stupid, but there are also a bunch of rocks people without technical gear can scramble atop. Plus there are technical climbs. I saw a Search And Rescue team practicing on one of the steep rocks.
After hiking a contour trail just below the peak and then scrambling up the last bit to the observation tower at the top we returned to our car and started the drive back down Mt. Diablo. Rather than head home, though, we stopped at Rock City about halfway down the mountain.
Rock City is an area where there are numerous short trails to exposed sandstone formations. The one above is part of the Wind Caves. The erosive action of wind and rain scallop out these odd caves in the soft rock. Geologically the process is similar to how the Tafoni Monolith, aka SKULL ROCK, was carved. Here they're still not so metal as to actually name it Skull Rock, but at least unlike Tafoni, which is in the very wealthy town of Woodside, California (hint: Steve Jobs lived there), they didn't name it like it's some Euro-style café that sells espresso and gelato.
One cool thing about Rock City as compared to the Tafoni Monolith is that visitors are allowed to climb on the rocks here. It's like these rocks are the soft and fluffy kind that are safe for kids. ...But seriously, Tafoni is steep and unstable. Here you can kill or at least badly injure yourself if you're stupid, but there are also a bunch of rocks people without technical gear can scramble atop. Plus there are technical climbs. I saw a Search And Rescue team practicing on one of the steep rocks.
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Date: 2022-02-26 08:36 pm (UTC)