SW Colorado & SE Utah - June 2019

[Bosque Bill]

There is a new adventure posted on Bosque Bill's Backroads travel & camping blog.

SW Colorado and SE Utah - Each part links to the next.

Dolores Canyon, Dolores River, River Road, Colorado
https://bosquebill.blogspot.com/2019/06/sw-colorado-se-utah-june-2019-part-1.html

Buckeye Lake, Colorado; La Sal Mountains; Fisher Towers, Utah
https://bosquebill.blogspot.com/2019/06/sw-colorado-se-utah-june-2019-part-2.html

Abajo Mountains, Causeway Road, Utah
https://bosquebill.blogspot.com/2019/06/sw-colorado-se-utah-june-2019-part-3.html

North Cottonwood, Gooseberry, Elk Mountain Roads, The Notch, Cottonwood Road, UT
https://bosquebill.blogspot.com/2019/06/sw-colorado-se-utah-june-2019-part-4.html

Remember, click on any photo for a larger version.

 

[Cayuse]

Thanks for sharing! Looks like a great trip.

There are so many roads criss-crossing the Abajos and that area it's hard to keep them all straight.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Thanks Bill.Nice trip ans photos.Were the "balls"on the rock Goose berries?
Thanks for sharing.
Frank

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Bill, a wonderful report in a spectacular area. We’ve been in part of it once, and want to return. Thanks for sharing!

 

[takesiteasy]

Thanks for another fine report and photos. I especially liked the photo of the singing vireo.

 

[Elken]

Thanks for the trip report and great photos... another area to add to my trip wish list.

 

[Bosque Bill]

Thanks Bill.Nice trip ans photos.Were the "balls"on the rock Goose berries?
Thanks for sharing.
Frank

Ha, ha, good one, Frank. Thanks.

 

[Smokecreek1]

Wow Bill, another well written, photographed and produced TR-they seem to get better each time. For those of us who probably will never have a chance to visit these places, thanks for taking us along !

Smoke

 

[longhorn1]

Bill, another great report. Beautiful country and photos. Enjoyed the ride along. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Foy]

Very nice and totally enjoyable, as always. Thanks for the time and effort to post your TR.

Along the way, you discovered that the La Sals and Abajos are laccoliths--intrusions of igneous rock which were emplaced in a particular fashion in between beds of sedimentary rock, with the added effect of causing an area above the intrusion to bulge upward. The La Sals are in fact "textbook" laccoliths as presented in the igneous petrology textbook we used for the junior-level geology major class back in the mid 1970s.

Foy

 

[Bosque Bill]

Thanks, Longhorn, glad you like it.

Smoke, I hope you do get to visit these places some day.

Foy, "laccoliths", thanks, I'll try to remember the scientific term. "The word laccolith derived in 1875—1880, from Greek, lákko(s), meaning pond, plus -lith, meaning stone." - wikipedia. So, lake stone, now with a mnemonic I'll have a better chance of remembering. ;-)

 

[Batman]

Wow! What a great trip report and photos. So much useful information I can put to good use within a few hours of home.

 

[Foy]

Foy, "laccoliths", thanks, I'll try to remember the scientific term. "The word laccolith derived in 1875—1880, from Greek, lákko(s), meaning pond, plus -lith, meaning stone." - wikipedia. So, lake stone, now with a mnemonic I'll have a better chance of remembering. ;-)

And thanks to you, Bill, for translating the Greek, which I'd never done (aside from the understanding that -lith means stone or rock). I think "pond stone" is apropos given what the outcrop pattern of a breached (eroded) laccolith looks like from above (plan view). As the sign board showed, the classic laccolith has intruded flat- or nearly flat lying sedimentary rocks and did so in a fashion of the intrusion forcing its way between the beds of sedimentary rock. In general terms, the areal extent of the intrusion is not extensive relative to the widespread area of the country rock, and in all cases the intrusion bulges upward rather than the magma remaining in a more widespread sheet with little or no bulge upward, in which case the intrusion would be called a sill. When the overlying rocks erode to expose the intrusive rock at the surface, looking at it in plan view the intrusion will be an irregularly-shaped oval/oblong body much like a pond looks like from above. So, pond stone it is.

Foy

 

[Bosque Bill]

When the overlying rocks erode to expose the intrusive rock at the surface, looking at it in plan view the intrusion will be an irregularly-shaped oval/oblong body much like a pond looks like from above. So, pond stone it is.

There are many examples of these "ponds" along Gooseberry Road - it's really quite striking. Although again I failed my readers by not taking a photo of even one. Well... next time

 

[Bosque Bill]

Wow! What a great trip report and photos. So much useful information I can put to good use within a few hours of home.

Thanks. Yes, those of us in the SW are lucky to have such wonders nearby.

 

[outdoornate65]

Great TR and blog. I like the "wandering" format. So much to see in that area.....it's overwhelming.

Thanks,

Nate

 

[Bosque Bill]

Great TR and blog. I like the "wandering" format. So much to see in that area.....it's overwhelming.

Thanks, Nate. Yes, there seems to always be more places to explore - isn't that great?!

 

[ski3pin]

It is always so much fun to take time and enjoy your excellent posts. Thanks Bosque Bill!