Devils Postpile National Monument
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Rainbow Falls Devils Postpile National Monument |
August 9, 2009
Two $7 tickets enable my bride and me to board the shuttle bus at Mammoth
Mountain Ski Resort for a trip down the one-lane mountain road to Reds
Meadow. We disembark at the appropriate stop for the half-mile
walk to Devils Postpile.
Trailhead information ⇔
100,000 years ago, this 60-foot-high basalt lava flow cooled at a very slow rate, contracting and cracking into vertical columns, more than half of which are hexagonal in shape. In fact, the columns invariably have five, six, or seven sides, and modern science cannot fully explain that.
Devils Postpile
A closer view
A trail loops to the top of the monument, revealing the glacial action which sheared off the tops of the columns some 80,000 years ago. To my knowledge, this is the only place where one can readily view such a thing.
The glacial striations are plainly evident, showing the direction of ice
flow. In fact, the surface remains so smooth that I slip and fall while
walking on it — an act for which I am promptly admonished by my
spouse for being "too close to the edge".
Glacial action atop the postpile. Watch your footing here!
Although a trail continues southward to Rainbow Falls, we opt to hop the shuttle to another stop, cutting a mile off the walk. When Barbara elects to wait at the trailhead, I continue alone, hopping and jogging down the trail. At one point, a park ranger asks whether I am running for pleasure or because I am in trouble.
The trail itself is unexciting, as the principal view is of a forest recovering from a fire. I reach the falls within fifteen minutes.
The not-so-great trail scenery
Stairway to the falls overlook
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The falls themselves are quite beautiful! I can just barely make out a rainbow in the lower left corner of the photo.
Rainbow Falls, 101'
A long set of stairs, partially done in concrete, enables a descent to river level for a closer view of the falls. A man and two children have taken advantage of this by wading out into the water, making my photographic efforts difficult.
Stairway up from the river
This is the highest waterfall on the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin
River. A final shot from the overlook captures a somewhat
better-looking rainbow.
§: The beauty of the falls more than compensates for the
uninteresting trail.
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| Solitude |  |
