The Flickr Gneiss Image Generatr

...or possibly schist...wasn't close enougt to see the grain size.

Havøysund, Norway

Looking northeastward at a building on the corner of Main and W. 1st Streets. It stands, not coincidentally, a couple of blocks from the entrance to the Morton Gneiss quarry.

The building has changed hands since this photo was taken, and the marquee is different. But the other exterior materials seen here remain.

The title is my tribute to one of the most though-provoking books I've ever read, Edmund Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757).

First off: I am not being arch or sarcastic or droll in the least when I describe the commercial shoebox-structure above in terms of the concepts Burke discussed. It embodies both to a wonderful degree. Further, I consider it very good architecture. That's probably because I like jarring contrasts and a sense of hauteur in humble places.

But getting back to Burke. He defined the Sublime as that which provokes in us a sense of awe, wonder, personal insignificance in the face of nature, and even terror. Beauty, on the other hand, engenders love and warmhearted appreciation at a nonthreatening, human scale. It's recognizable at once, and requires no analysis or debate.

One example of the latter, I'd submit, is Burke's own prose. I think I take exception to some of the things he says, but am in awe of the beauty of his style. (Wait a minute. Awe? That's a reaction to sublimity. Could I have stumbled onto a complication to his simple scheme?)

But getting back to the building. My favorite hypothesis about how it got to look this way involves a quid-pro-quo between the liquor-store owner and the quarry gang that resulted in a storefront upgrade in exchange for the midnight acquisition of several crates of Wild Turkey. Unfortunately, my hypothesis is just too plausible to be entirely correct.

At any rate, if we use the Burkean approach here, I'd say the store's Morton Gneiss panels represent, in their chaotic patterns produced by untold episodes of tectonic upheaval, the Sublime. And their Archean-eon age, up to 3.5 Ga, is awe-inspiring in itself. Were we able to transport ourselves back to the Earth as it was when that rock first formed, we'd find more than our share of wonder and terror.

But then there's the brickwork, probably original to the building, above all the migmatitic mayhem. It looks as though the town of Morton was once blessed with some pretty fine brickmasons.

Ornamenting the common-bond coursing are an denticulated stringcourse, a band of inverted pyramids, and a coffered roofline. It's lovely at first glance, hence beautiful. No further discussion is necessary.

To see the other photos and descriptions in this set, visit my Magnificent Morton Gneiss album.

From below the west face of Mount Sir Donald. The southwest ridge in photo centre is a classic 4th/low5th rock scramble

A close-up of the same roadcut featured in the five previous posts of this series. It's situated on the southwestern edge of the Morton Outcrops Scientific and Natural Area, and near the northern end of the access drive leading from US Route 71 to the gas station at the corner of 71 and Minnesota 19.

To get an overall view of this outcrop, see Part 12.

The pegmatite component of the Morton Gneiss migmatite is here evident as the pink and very coarse-grained sections. Pegmatites are granitic rocks with crystal sizes that usually equal or exceed 2.5 cm / 1 in. You can judge the size of this pegmatite's big feldspars by using the Swiss-army knife as a scale. It's 9.1 cm = 3.6 in long.
.
The Morton's pegmatitic portion has been described in the literature (e.g., Goldich et al. 1980) as the oldest part of the migmatite's neosome. That means that it's not one of this composite rock's original components, which are instead the tonalitic and granodioritic gneisses dated to 3.52 Ga, along with the also super-ancient amphibolite described in Part 15. These constitute the paleosome.

I have not found definitive dating of the pegmatite, but because it is cited as the most venerable representative of the neosome, I gather its magma was injected into the paleosome around 3.37 Ga.

From an aesthetic standpoint, the pegmatite adds a lot to the Morton's visual appeal by offering dramatic color and textural contrasts to the basic, fine-grained palette of gray, white and black.

The most striking Morton cladding panels I've seen in architectural use, mostly on the bottom floors of Art Deco and Art Moderne skyscrapers, feature a dazzling mixture of the striped gneisses, big chunks of midnight-black amphibolite, and wild swirls of the pegmatite weaving and dancing around them.

To see the other photos and descriptions in this set, visit my Magnificent Morton Gneiss album.

A close-up of the same roadcut featured in the four previous posts of this series. It's situated on the southwestern edge of the Morton Outcrops Scientific and Natural Area, and near the northern end of the access drive leading from US Route 71 to the gas station at the corner of 71 and Minnesota 19.

To get an overall view of this outcrop, see Part 12 of this series.

After intense meditation and self-scrutiny I have decided to reveal an awful truth about myself. I am decidedly maficentric. I know it isn't right, but I have trouble treating felsic igneous rocks (granitoids, etc.) with the same level of respect that I shamelessly lavish upon mafics and ultramafics of all sorts—your gabbros, your basalts, your komatiites and peridotites, and their metamorphic derivatives, the amphibolites.

There. It's out in the open. I'm not proud of it, but it's who I am.
Still, now you can understand why I took this photo. Of course it wasn't all the light-colored granitoid gneiss or pegmatite I wanted to capture. It was that black and weakly foliated amphibolite clast, which at some point in its immensely long existence has been split by a vein of felsic magma during some now long-forgotten bit of crustal compression and mountain-building.

To my knowledge, the amphibolite, unlike the other components of the Paleoarchean-to-Neoarchean Morton Gneiss migmatite, has not been assigned an age (or ages) of origin. Could it be that geochronologists are felsicentrists? Perhaps, but one source, Goldich and Wooden 1980, mentions that the rock contains radiometric markers indicating that "the [already extant] amphibolites were involved in a high-grade metamorphic event approximately 3,000 m.y. ago as well as in the 2,600-m.y. B.P. [before present]"

The implication in that and other papers I've read is that the amphibolite is either somewhat older, the same age, or somewhat younger than the oldest tonalitic gneiss assigned an age of 3,524 ± 9 Ma = 3.524 Ga. Or it may have had more than one origin, and hence more than one age. Accordingly, I just call it "very old."

To see the other photos and descriptions in this set, visit my Magnificent Morton Gneiss album.

The Clava Cairns are about 4,000 years old and were built to house the dead. The cemetery remained a sacred place in the landscape for millennia, and provides many clues to the beliefs of Bronze Age society.
What remains today would have once been part of a larger complex. Two parts of the complex, Balnuaran of Clava and Milton of Clava, are open to the public. The sites contain a range of prehistoric burial monuments and the remains of a medieval chapel.
At Balnuaran of Clava itself there is a group of three Bronze Age cairns which lie close together in a line running north east to south west. The tombs at either end are of the passage grave sub-type. The central cairn is of the ring cairn sub-type, and uniquely has stone paths or causeways forming "rays" radiating out from the platform round the kerbs to three of the standing stones. The cairns incorporate cup and ring mark stones, carved before they were built into the structures. The kerb stones are graded in size and selected for colour, so that the stones are larger and redder to the south west, and smaller and whiter to the north east. All these elements seem to have been constructed as one operation and indicate a complex design rather than ad hoc additions.
The Clava cairn is a type of Bronze Age circular chamber tomb cairn, named after the group of three cairns at Balnuaran of Clava, to the east of Inverness in Scotland. There are about 50 cairns of this type in an area round about Inverness. They fall into two sub-types, one typically consisting of a corbelled passage grave with a single burial chamber linked to the entrance by a short passage and covered with a cairn of stones, with the entrances oriented south west towards midwinter sunset. In the other sub-type an annular ring cairn encloses an apparently unroofed area with no formal means of access from the outside. In both sub-types a stone circle surrounds the whole tomb and a kerb often runs around the cairn. The heights of the standing stones vary in height so that the tallest fringe the entrance (oriented south west) and the shortest are directly opposite it.
References:
www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/clava-c...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clava_cairn
canmore.org.uk/site/14257/balnuaran-of-clava-north-east

This is an official Philosophizing Author Alert. Dangerous and potentially toxic reading conditions exist starting with the third unitalicized paragraph. Take appropriate steps now to ensure your safety.

Regarding the image itself: it is a detail view of the same roadcut featured in the two previous posts of this series. It's situated on the southwestern edge of the Morton Outcrops Scientific and Natural Area, and near the northern end of the access drive leading from US Route 71 to the gas station at the corner of 71 and Minnesota 19.

This stretch of the cut contains quite an assortment of vertical faces with ocher-to-brown weathering crusts. As I noted in Part 12 of this set, these surfaces were most likely exposed to the elements at joints—fractures where no appreciable displacement has occurred—long before the roadcut was excavated.

And while we're closer to the rock than we were previously, its highly contorted, migmatitic texture is by no means screamingly apparent. However, some of its gneissic foliation is perceptible, as are sections of coarse-grained pegmatite. But rest assured that we'll zoom in closer in following shots of this series.

Separately, I have to note that I love this shot of one of my longstanding, veteran tour participants gazing down on the Morton Gneiss roadcut.

It's my policy to not reveal the names of folks I show, but I will say that this gentleman was an outstanding example of an autodidactic naturalist very knowledgeable in both botany and geology. I looked forward to having him on my trips because he always asked particularly good questions and wasn't afraid to pipe up if something we discussed didn't make sense to him. I wish I could have injected his DNA into some of my college students to activate their genes controlling inquisitiveness.

Persons of his sort are sometimes referred to as "citizen scientists"—especially by not-for-profit organizations who rely on their free labor and expertise. I can live with that term. But this human phenotype, now all too rare as my generation has yielded the dance floor to others, always reminds me of one fact often overlooked in our manically overspecialized society.

If, as Georges Clemenceau noted, war is too important to be left to the generals, it's just as true that natural history is much too vital an activity and way of life to be left entirely to a priestly enclave of hyper-degreed researchers or their grad-student acolytes.

Geology, for example, is a grand and glorious human endeavor that should include in its ranks people from as many different backgrounds as possible, and not just those who, fabricated to the standard pattern on the academic factory floor, sniffily check one's curriculum vitae and institutional affiliations before condescending to communicate.

Of course, there are some places where a wholesome interweaving of perspectives and life histories has taken place. But the fact remains that we live in an age when public trust in the academic scientific community is declining, and magical thinking has reached the Mad-Hatter stage.

A large part of that is due to the professional scientists themselves. In too many cases their long years of training have not included effective techniques in talking comprehensibly—I stress comprehensibly—to non-PhDs. And that old human failing, them-versus-us tribalism, still thrives in academe as much as it does anywhere else.

One aspect of that tribalism can be found in the case of science writers who are denigrated as uncomprehending outsiders by academic and state-survey scientists of the sort who couldn't produce one clear and compelling sentence if their lives depended on it. Actually, though, science writers and science journalists came into being to perform an important bridging role between the specialists and the rest of us.

Apropos of that, I can actually remember when some pretty distinguished nabobs of the academic establishment had a kind word or two for the person scribbling this. Alas, that was a long time ago, in distant, less sectarian, and pre-idiocratic days.

To see the other photos and descriptions in this set, visit my Magnificent Morton Gneiss album.

Facing north-northwest. This excavated exposure is located near the northern end of the access drive leading from US Route 71 to the gas station at the corner of 71 and Minnesota 19.

For more than a decade and a half I was the proud owner of the high-performance Chevy Cavalier seen at right. It faithfully carried me over large sections of the United States, took me to work, and lasted 227,000 mi (365,000 km) before it gave up the ghost. Here it provides scale. The rock face is about 10 ft (3.1 m) high at its tallest.

This is an an oblique view of what henceforth will be shown frontally.

It's important to take a hike up to the top of the erosional knob now designated the Morton Outcrops Scientific and Natural Area. There you'll see various masses of weathered Morton Gneiss, as well as the natural potholes and evidence of old quarrying described in Part 10 of this set.

But down here on the knob's periphery you can get a good look at some relatively fresh stone. This is what the rock looks like in its unpolished state. If you'd like to review its appearance when all spiffed up for architectural use, check out Part 4 and Part 7.

Obvious even at this distance is the rock's gneissic texture. The characteristic banding is one indicator that the Morton has been subjected to very high temperatures and pressures in the course of its immense, 3.5-Ga history. And it's typical of high-grade metamorphic rock produced during crustal compression and orogenic (mountain-building) episodes.

The Morton's status as a migmatite, or "mixed rock" containing different generations of metamorphic and igneous types, can be recognized, too, if you know what you're looking at. There is plenty of the oldest dated constituent, grayish and highly contorted gneiss containing chunks of black amphibolite. It's surrounded and sometimes penetrated by somewhat younger pink gneisses.

At this locale, however, I don't recall seeing the Morton's youngest ingredient, narrow and undeformed dikes of aplite (fine-grained granite), though it may be present elsewhere on the hill or in the modern quarry across town. In any event, it's the callow youngster of the lot, just dating to a paltry 2.59 Ga. By that point in the Neoarchean era, this region's crustal block, the Minnesota River Valley Terrane, had finally ceased its wanderings and had been accreted to the Superior Craton of Laurentia (otherwise known as ancestral North America).

To see the other photos and descriptions in this set, visit my Magnificent Morton Gneiss album.

Wrapping up my Southern Arizona Adventure 2024 with a visit to Amerind Foundation and Texas Canyon. This is stage 9 of 9.

travelasker.com/what-is-the-formation-process-of-texas-ca...
Formation and composition of rocks
The rocks in Texas Canyon are primarily composed of granite, gneiss, and schist. These rocks were formed through a process of geological metamorphism, which changed their composition and structure over time. Granite is one of the most common types of rock found in the area and is known for its distinctive pink color. Gneiss and schist are also common and are known for their unique textures and patterns.
Erosion and weathering played a significant role in shaping the landscape of Texas Canyon. Over time, the rocks in the area were subjected to intense weathering, which caused them to break down and form the distinctive boulder formations that are found throughout the canyon. Erosion also played a role in shaping the landscape, as the water that flowed through the area created deep gullies and canyons that are still visible today.

Formation of the unique boulder formations
The unique boulder formations in Texas Canyon were formed through a combination of tectonic forces, erosion, and weathering. The rocks in the area were subjected to immense pressure, which caused them to fracture and crack. Over time, the cracks were widened by the forces of erosion, creating the distinctive boulder formations that are found throughout the canyon.

www.amerind.org/texascanyonnaturepreserve/
Chat GPT
Texas Canyon is a striking natural area located in Cochise County, southeastern Arizona, along Interstate 10 between Benson and Willcox. It is renowned for its dramatic landscape, characterized by massive granite boulders scattered across the desert terrain, creating a rugged and picturesque environment.
The granite boulders in Texas Canyon were formed through millions of years of erosion and weathering. These formations, often precariously balanced, provide a unique and photogenic sight, making the canyon a popular stop for travelers and photographers.

Southern Arizona Adventure 2024

Wrapping up my Southern Arizona Adventure 2024 with a visit to Amerind Foundation and Texas Canyon. This is stage 9 of 9.

travelasker.com/what-is-the-formation-process-of-texas-ca...
Formation and composition of rocks
The rocks in Texas Canyon are primarily composed of granite, gneiss, and schist. These rocks were formed through a process of geological metamorphism, which changed their composition and structure over time. Granite is one of the most common types of rock found in the area and is known for its distinctive pink color. Gneiss and schist are also common and are known for their unique textures and patterns.
Erosion and weathering played a significant role in shaping the landscape of Texas Canyon. Over time, the rocks in the area were subjected to intense weathering, which caused them to break down and form the distinctive boulder formations that are found throughout the canyon. Erosion also played a role in shaping the landscape, as the water that flowed through the area created deep gullies and canyons that are still visible today.

Formation of the unique boulder formations
The unique boulder formations in Texas Canyon were formed through a combination of tectonic forces, erosion, and weathering. The rocks in the area were subjected to immense pressure, which caused them to fracture and crack. Over time, the cracks were widened by the forces of erosion, creating the distinctive boulder formations that are found throughout the canyon.

www.amerind.org/texascanyonnaturepreserve/
Chat GPT
Texas Canyon is a striking natural area located in Cochise County, southeastern Arizona, along Interstate 10 between Benson and Willcox. It is renowned for its dramatic landscape, characterized by massive granite boulders scattered across the desert terrain, creating a rugged and picturesque environment.
The granite boulders in Texas Canyon were formed through millions of years of erosion and weathering. These formations, often precariously balanced, provide a unique and photogenic sight, making the canyon a popular stop for travelers and photographers.
The area is surrounded by the Chiricahua Mountains to the south and other nearby ranges, offering expansive views of the Sonoran Desert with its mix of desert vegetation, including cacti and mesquite trees. The light, especially at sunrise and sunset, enhances the golden hues of the rocks, adding to the area's charm.
Texas Canyon has a rich history tied to the Chiricahua Apache people, who once roamed these lands. Later, it became home to early settlers.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Canyon
Texas Canyon is a valley in Cochise County, Arizona,[1] about 20 miles east of Benson on Interstate 10. Lying between the Little Dragoon Mountains to the north and the Dragoon Mountains to the south and known for its giant granite boulders, the canyon attracts rockhounds and photographers.

www.arizonahighways.com/article/texas-canyon-nature-preserve
The giant granite boulders along Interstate 10 in Southeastern Arizona have been gracing postcards for decades, but that otherworldly landscape was always off-limits to the general public. Not anymore. Thanks to the Amerind Foundation, 6 miles of trails in the brand-new Texas Canyon Nature Preserve are now available to those who want a closer look.

By Suzanne Wright
Zipping past Texas Canyon, an hour southeast of Tucson, it’s impossible not to notice the boulders — giant, eye-catching piles of granite, like something out of The Flintstones. But other than providing scenery along Interstate 10 — particularly at a rest area just down the highway from the kitschy attraction known as The Thing — the area has long been off-limits to curious travelers who wanted to stretch their legs and get a closer look.
There are several private landowners in Texas Canyon, including Triangle T Guest Ranch, which has some trails for its guests. But none had opened its trails to the public until this past October, when the portion of the area owned and managed by the Amerind Foundation had its ribbon-cutting. After a multi-year campaign that raised $250,000, the Texas Canyon Nature Preserve — on land previously closed to the public for 85 years, and where the organization’s founding family raised quarter horses until 1968 — is open to all.
“The idea had been percolating with the Amerind Foundation board and management for years,” says Eric Kaldahl, the president, CEO and chief curator of the foundation. “The response from the surrounding community has been very enthusiastic. We welcomed more visitors last October than we’ve seen for the past 10 years.”
The preserve, located just off I-10 between Benson and Willcox, is part of a 1,900-acre campus that includes the Amerind Museum. More than 6 miles of trails wind past balanced rocks, fantastical shapes and rocky spires in open, sun-warmed high-desert grasslands studded with cactuses, wildflowers and trees. The trail is self-guided, although Kaldahl hopes to offer guided sunrise and sunset hikes in the next year. Visitors can pay a $12 admission fee for just the trails or $20 to visit both the trails and the museum.
Trail designer Sirena Rana knows the landscape can look intimidating, but she purposely designed the trails to be “perfect little morsels.” Rana didn’t grow up hiking, so she aimed to make the trails a comfortable experience for all ages and abilities. There are no steep elevation gains, and dirt, rather than gravel, makes for more stability. And Rana recalls walking for miles and miles over several months to understand the land and ensure the trails were constructed to shed water, limit erosion and provide firebreaks.

“Texas Canyon is one of the most unique landscapes in the Southwest, formed by millions of years of wind and rain weathering the granite,” she says, likening it to Joshua Tree National Park and the Wilderness of Rock on Mount Lemmon. “It’s very unusual that it’s right off a major interstate and just an hour from a major metropolitan area,” she adds. “This is one of the greatest outdoor sculpture gardens in the world designed by Mother Nature. I’m so pleased with how it turned out.”
Elsewhere along the trail, signage reflects the Amerind Museum’s mission of fostering knowledge and understanding of Indigenous peoples. Acknowledging that these are ancestral lands, the signs feature O’odham, English and Spanish text, in that order — and Kaldahl hopes to add Apache, too.
Additionally, Indigenous people have collected basket-weaving materials from these lands for generations, and they remain free to access the grounds.

Haiku Thoughts:
Stone giants whisper,
Texas Canyon's quiet grace,
Time's hand carves the sky.

Southern Arizona Adventure 2024

Wrapping up my Southern Arizona Adventure 2024 with a visit to Amerind Foundation and Texas Canyon. This is stage 9 of 9.

travelasker.com/what-is-the-formation-process-of-texas-ca...
Formation and composition of rocks
The rocks in Texas Canyon are primarily composed of granite, gneiss, and schist. These rocks were formed through a process of geological metamorphism, which changed their composition and structure over time. Granite is one of the most common types of rock found in the area and is known for its distinctive pink color. Gneiss and schist are also common and are known for their unique textures and patterns.
Erosion and weathering played a significant role in shaping the landscape of Texas Canyon. Over time, the rocks in the area were subjected to intense weathering, which caused them to break down and form the distinctive boulder formations that are found throughout the canyon. Erosion also played a role in shaping the landscape, as the water that flowed through the area created deep gullies and canyons that are still visible today.

Formation of the unique boulder formations
The unique boulder formations in Texas Canyon were formed through a combination of tectonic forces, erosion, and weathering. The rocks in the area were subjected to immense pressure, which caused them to fracture and crack. Over time, the cracks were widened by the forces of erosion, creating the distinctive boulder formations that are found throughout the canyon.

www.amerind.org/texascanyonnaturepreserve/
Chat GPT
Texas Canyon is a striking natural area located in Cochise County, southeastern Arizona, along Interstate 10 between Benson and Willcox. It is renowned for its dramatic landscape, characterized by massive granite boulders scattered across the desert terrain, creating a rugged and picturesque environment.
The granite boulders in Texas Canyon were formed through millions of years of erosion and weathering. These formations, often precariously balanced, provide a unique and photogenic sight, making the canyon a popular stop for travelers and photographers.
The area is surrounded by the Chiricahua Mountains to the south and other nearby ranges, offering expansive views of the Sonoran Desert with its mix of desert vegetation, including cacti and mesquite trees. The light, especially at sunrise and sunset, enhances the golden hues of the rocks, adding to the area's charm.
Texas Canyon has a rich history tied to the Chiricahua Apache people, who once roamed these lands. Later, it became home to early settlers.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Canyon
Texas Canyon is a valley in Cochise County, Arizona,[1] about 20 miles east of Benson on Interstate 10. Lying between the Little Dragoon Mountains to the north and the Dragoon Mountains to the south and known for its giant granite boulders, the canyon attracts rockhounds and photographers.

www.arizonahighways.com/article/texas-canyon-nature-preserve
The giant granite boulders along Interstate 10 in Southeastern Arizona have been gracing postcards for decades, but that otherworldly landscape was always off-limits to the general public. Not anymore. Thanks to the Amerind Foundation, 6 miles of trails in the brand-new Texas Canyon Nature Preserve are now available to those who want a closer look.

By Suzanne Wright
Zipping past Texas Canyon, an hour southeast of Tucson, it's impossible not to notice the boulders â giant, eye-catching piles of granite, like something out of The Flintstones. But other than providing scenery along Interstate 10 â particularly at a rest area just down the highway from the kitschy attraction known as The Thing â the area has long been off-limits to curious travelers who wanted to stretch their legs and get a closer look.
There are several private landowners in Texas Canyon, including Triangle T Guest Ranch, which has some trails for its guests. But none had opened its trails to the public until this past October, when the portion of the area owned and managed by the Amerind Foundation had its ribbon-cutting. After a multi-year campaign that raised $250,000, the Texas Canyon Nature Preserve â on land previously closed to the public for 85 years, and where the organization's founding family raised quarter horses until 1968 â is open to all.
The idea had been percolating with the Amerind Foundation board and management for years, says Eric Kaldahl, the president, CEO and chief curator of the foundation. The response from the surrounding community has been very enthusiastic. We welcomed more visitors last October than we've seen for the past 10 years.
The preserve, located just off I-10 between Benson and Willcox, is part of a 1,900-acre campus that includes the Amerind Museum. More than 6 miles of trails wind past balanced rocks, fantastical shapes and rocky spires in open, sun-warmed high-desert grasslands studded with cactuses, wildflowers and trees. The trail is self-guided, although Kaldahl hopes to offer guided sunrise and sunset hikes in the next year. Visitors can pay a $12 admission fee for just the trails or $20 to visit both the trails and the museum.
Trail designer Sirena Rana knows the landscape can look intimidating, but she purposely designed the trails to be perfect little morsels. Rana didn't grow up hiking, so she aimed to make the trails a comfortable experience for all ages and abilities. There are no steep elevation gains, and dirt, rather than gravel, makes for more stability. And Rana recalls walking for miles and miles over several months to understand the land and ensure the trails were constructed to shed water, limit erosion and provide firebreaks.

Texas Canyon is one of the most unique landscapes in the Southwest, formed by millions of years of wind and rain weathering the granite, she says, likening it to Joshua Tree National Park and the Wilderness of Rock on Mount Lemmon. It's very unusual that it's right off a major interstate and just an hour from a major metropolitan area, she adds. This is one of the greatest outdoor sculpture gardens in the world designed by Mother Nature. I'm so pleased with how it turned out.
Elsewhere along the trail, signage reflects the Amerind Museum's mission of fostering knowledge and understanding of Indigenous peoples. Acknowledging that these are ancestral lands, the signs feature O'odham, English and Spanish text, in that order â and Kaldahl hopes to add Apache, too.
Additionally, Indigenous people have collected basket-weaving materials from these lands for generations, and they remain free to access the grounds.

Haiku Thoughts:
Stone giants whisper,
Texas Canyon's quiet grace,
Time's hand carves the sky.

Southern Arizona Adventure 2024

At dawn from partway up Batwing

Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM); Inventory #GEM 9016.

A geologic map of the southeastern Adirondacks (with the general area of Moreau Lake State Park shown) from legendary and iconic Adirondack geologist, (the late) James McLelland of Colgate University, from a 1985 guidebook paper, (McLelland, 1985, "Structure and Rock Fabric Within the Central and Southern Adirondacks," in Field Trip Guidebook, New York State Geological Assoc., 57th Ann. Mtg., Sept. 1985, Skidmore College, p. 186-210). This is a typical geological map of the SE Adirondacks that McLelland used (or a close variation) in his many papers. I was having difficulty reconciling this with the 1971 NYS Geology Map of Rickard and Fisher, plus later iterations after 2000; also with the geology I was seeing on the ground in MLSP and the topographic/LIDAR maps of the same area. MLSP is a popular NYS Park, in a populous area (with educational programs) and I am hoping to get better and more up-to-date geologic mapping of this area. There is some progress on the ground, on this. However, I'm really an "outsider" on this (a "Californian"). (Regrettably, I misspelled Prof. McLelland's name in the Title of this slide)