Indian Heaven, land of fire and ice - 10/27/19
Posted: October 27th, 2019, 8:46 pm
In Which We Make An Amazing Geologic Discovery
Headed for Red Mountain Lookout from FR 60, I convinced my friend that road walking is boring, so we meandered uphill through the forest, eventually popping out south of the lookout.
The wind was ferocious and sub-freezing, but it was a VanMarmot-worthy bluebird day.
On the way down the trail on the north side, we came across an entire hillside made of ice needles.
Down at the Racetrack junction.
The Racetrack trail is currently a lake. A frozen lake.
All of this standing water is frozen over.
More natural art.
Leaving the trail at Green Lake, we headed east until we hit FR 240, which has signs of recent glaciation.
Photographic proof of the the heretofore undiscovered Indian Heaven Glacier.
The glacier's lateral moraine.
And the glacier's terminus.
After documenting our findings for an upcoming National Geographic special, we regained FR 60 and crossed it into the Big Lava Bed, whereupon I took some pictures of jumbled lava in mixed lighting that didn't make the final cut for this TR.
Our trip into the lava bed ended in tedium, as accessing the Big Lava Crater would be much easier a little farther south on the road, so we retreated to review our scientific findings at Backwoods Brewing.
Postscript: Oh right, there was supposed to be fire? We did come across some used fire rings...
Headed for Red Mountain Lookout from FR 60, I convinced my friend that road walking is boring, so we meandered uphill through the forest, eventually popping out south of the lookout.
The wind was ferocious and sub-freezing, but it was a VanMarmot-worthy bluebird day.
On the way down the trail on the north side, we came across an entire hillside made of ice needles.
Down at the Racetrack junction.
The Racetrack trail is currently a lake. A frozen lake.
All of this standing water is frozen over.
More natural art.
Leaving the trail at Green Lake, we headed east until we hit FR 240, which has signs of recent glaciation.
Photographic proof of the the heretofore undiscovered Indian Heaven Glacier.
The glacier's lateral moraine.
And the glacier's terminus.
After documenting our findings for an upcoming National Geographic special, we regained FR 60 and crossed it into the Big Lava Bed, whereupon I took some pictures of jumbled lava in mixed lighting that didn't make the final cut for this TR.
Our trip into the lava bed ended in tedium, as accessing the Big Lava Crater would be much easier a little farther south on the road, so we retreated to review our scientific findings at Backwoods Brewing.
Postscript: Oh right, there was supposed to be fire? We did come across some used fire rings...