Geology, Part 2

Another example of the billion+ years old mountains, also at Logan Pass so the elevation here is close to 7000 ft. One of the things I really loved about Glacier National Park is the rainbow of colored rocks visible not only in these old mountains but also in the younger ones underneath. And all the pebbles around the park and in nearby towns reminded me of Easter eggs! When I come back to this park again I would really like to do a ranger-guided geology tour to learn more about these amazing rocks!

And on a completely unrelated photography topic, I did not bring my polarizer on the hike, and look how blue the sky is here! The sun came out midway through the hike, and this particular photo was taken with the sun almost exactly 90 degrees to my left. I know that this is the prime angle for polarizer use, so I guess it also works without a polarizer. When I was living in California I was advised to leave the polarizer at home when photographing up at Lake Tahoe (also 7000 ft.) because the sky will come out a deep shade of blue just from the elevation, although I'm not sure what the physics behind that is.

Multnomah Falls

This is the classic view of the falls, mentioned in my post yesterday.  And yesterday's photo was taken from the bridge pictured here.  You can see part of the boulder sitting in the opening under the bridge.  The trail heads up and across the bridge, then continues up to the top of the falls.  The bridge was build in 1914, and a beautiful stone lodge sitting at the base of the falls looks to have been built about the same time.  It currently houses a restaurant, gift shop, and small museum.  In the museum I learned a little of the geology of these falls.  The Columbia River Gorge was formed at the end of the ice age.  According to signs in the museum, the river flooded to carry six times the water in rivers worldwide.  I could have this statistic slightly wrong, but I will say that it was an unfathomable statistic for me.  This massive flood carved through the volcanic rock of the Cascade Range, and the gorge extends the entire 80 mile width of the range. Little tributaries like the Multnomah Creek were left high above the river.  Multnomah Falls is one of 53 falls along the Columbia River Gorge.