Pinnacles Provincial Park

Hi Blog! Today is Wednesday, May 11, 2016. The weatherman says it is going to rain this afternoon, so if we want to get out and about it has to be in the morning. Right after breakfast, we took off to visit Pinnacles Provincial Park. The park protects a very unique formation of hoodoos. We love hoodoos! After parking at the trailhead, we walk out on an old forest road toward the lookout point.

These hoodoos began their formation 12 million years ago, when molten lava flowing over the earth’s surface cooled in flat basalt layers over older layers of ash and rock. Here Dave gets up close and personal with some lumpy basalt.

The Ice Age followed, and when the ice mass receded, melt-water streams eroded valleys in the basalt. Below us, Baker Creek was still carving its way through the valley, exposing new layers of ash and rock.

The hoodoos are formed from the effects of this natural erosion and weathering. The basalt is eroded away, revealing the more resistant ash layer, and often producing vivid bands of color as individual basalt layers are removed.  The Pinnacles viewpoint provides an unobstructed view of these impressive geological formations.

The hoodoos at Pinnacles Provincial Park are fragile, since they are still undergoing these forces of erosion and weathering. These "younger" pinnacles still wear a mantle of basalt.

As the ash erodes, more colors are released.

Vivid bands of blue, pink and purple dot the valley walls.  In the more magnified close-up below, you can see Baker Creek digging its way through the canyon:

As we worked our way around the cliff-top trail, we could look back and see that we were hiking on top of a layer of basalt.

This little guy was spotted through the trees. He still wears his basalt cap.

The trail runs so close to the edge of a cliff that the park service installed a chain link fence to keep folks from toppling over the edge.

The Baker Creek area had all been logged off fifty years ago. As the young trees have grown older, finding the hoodoos has become like playing a game of hide and seek. In another few years, they will be hidden in the forest.

The trail along the cliff edge was not clearly marked. We missed an entire section of trail which we caught on our way back. Lucky for us or we would have missed these guys.

Here is a panoramic view of the lookout. Yes, the trail does go over the edge, but there is still more fence below.

We soon found ourselves back in the woods and made our way back to the parking lot. On the way, we were greeted by beautiful little, yellow, daisy-like flowers, and so we leave you with a little bit of spring.