I “discovered” Palouse Falls by seeing a very cool photo in the lobby of my hotel in Clarkston WA. The person behind the front desk told me it was about 90 minutes away, so I made a beeline there. Pretty fantastic location! You’re likely to see people down in the canyon at the base of the falls but please obey the sign saying the trail is closed.
In the really cool waterfall category I recommend Silver Falls State Park in Oregon. The main falls (South & North) have National Park-level trails that take you into the large alcoves behind the falls.
Yeah, really. Just looking at those dry falls and ancient canyons, you can almost feel the power of the flood and the probable terror of the local tribes as it came hurtling toward them. "Hey, Running Bear, get out of bed, it’s a beautiful. . .what’s that noise?
One of the crown jewels of the desert southwest is The Wave. I went there back in 1996 when a friend scored a coveted day use permit. We camped at the trailhead overnight and had the place to ourselves for a couple of hours.
I’ve never been able to get another permit for The Wave, but I have hiked a couple of miles into Buckskin Gulch that shares the same trailhead.
Pictures of The Wave are awesome. I’ve never been but that’s been on my radar for a long time.
The best hike I ever did was to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite, via the Mist Trail from Happy Isles. I have an extreme fear of heights* so climbing the cables on its steep face was a challenge for me, and then at the top of Half Dome I didn’t go anywhere near the edge. But in climbing the cables, and on the descent, I just focused on the cable and my footsteps directly in front of me and I avoided looking down the steep face.
/* — in the Marines I did the confidence course in boot camp (the large obstacle course [40 foot high obstacles]), and then when I was in an ANGLICO company I didn’t go to jump school but I did rappel out of helicopters frequently. And I have parachuted. For these events I focused carefully on the instructors’ guidance and then when doing the events I focused on the equipment and techniques and that helped to keep my feet in check. But my fear of heights can be really severe!
Nice! I knew that Ellenville Fault Caves were nearby but hadn’t heard of the Labyrinth. Google AI confirms my guess that it was partly formed due to tectonics, like the Ellenville fault cave, but also shares a quartz conglomerate geology with the ones in Western NY which I hadn’t guessed.
Ausable Chasm near Plattsburgh is another place influenced by tectonics. An anomalous experience there, for me at least, was an old mini-fault that was parallel to the main chasm. You could walk entirely through it from one side to the other, (as opposed to a stream carved channel which would end at high ground or another channel), and the ground is boggy throughout since erosion hasn’t had time to work its magic yet.
This summer I plan to go to a place but it’s not quite anomalous because it’s big and famous, but frankly, out here near San Francisco (and also having grown up back east and still connected with many friends there), in many years I haven’t heard much (if any at all) of any friends or family or acquaintances visiting this place —
Matȟó Thípila (the Lakota name for Devils Tower).
So, maybe it is somewhat anomalous.
Mato Tipila is about 900 feet high from its base to summit, and about 1 mile around the base. At the summit it’s about 1½ acres up there.
It is located in northeastern Wyoming, close to South Dakota. I’ve never been before and am really looking forward to it!
I recently re-watched the 1977 Steven Spielberg movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, because it figures prominently in it.
Mato Tipila or Matȟó Thípila in the Lakota language, meaning Bear’s Lodge — I’m trying to remember and use its Lakota name.
Who’s been? What do you recommend doing there? Any good tours or particular things to do?
From my father’s birthhouse you could see Montserrat:
We used to go there often, it is a culturally important mountain in Catalonia. And it is weird and septacular. There is an abbey up there under rocks so big that only people with a lot of faith would build something to live there. So far it has worked!
It seems all the pictures I took were from before the digital age, can’t find them in my hard disk. This “showing my age” episodes are happening more and more often.
But I found some pictures of la Ciudad Encantada in Cuenca::
The usual wind erosion formations. Nice to see, in the middle of nowhere, at the end of the road.
My wife and I have been, and it is pretty awesome, especially up close. We hiked the trail around the bottom and saw a lot of Native American prayer offerings (ribbons, feathers, and suchlike) hanging in the trees along the way. It also seems to be popular with rock climbers, but I believe rock climbing is only allowed at certain times and requires a permit. There are several other trails and picnic areas in the area and I believe it has a small campground within the park boundaries.
Devil’s Tower is one of my favorite places. There’s a certain vibe there for me that I don’t get anywhere else. Camping in the park is a cool experience but I almost prefer staying in a cabin at the KOA just outside the main gate. The cabins have A/C and there is a pool which is a big plus in the summer/early fall. An added bonus of the KOA is they show Close Encounters on big screen every night. And of course waking up in the morning and seeing that big lump of igneous rock looming over you is a special treat.
Avoid showing up in the middle of the day because the visitor parking lot will be full and there’s a chance they’ll be metering traffic on the road up there. Crowds thin out in the late afternoon, that’s also a great time to take the short drive up to Joyner Ridge Trailhead. You don’t have to do the whole trail to appreciate the view, it’s wonderful in the golden hour.
The best time to hike the trail around the tower is first thing in the morning…go as early as you can. The views right after sunrise looking south are fantastic.The peace and quiet with birds singing and the sound of the wind is really magical.
The village of Hulett nearby is worth a quick stop to walk the main drag and check out the collection of western art and artifacts in the Rogue’s Gallery.
How’d it go? We were there in late July and thought it was very cool.
As geological oddities go, one of the biggest ones I’ve seen is the lava flows and cinder cones at Craters of the Moon National Monument. Roughly 2000 year old volcanic activity on the Snake River plain in Idaho. Straight up Hawaii-style a’a flows and the like. Only real difference is that sagebrush grows instead of the tropical plants in Hawaii. There’s even a little bit that abuts the interstate a bit south of Idaho Falls, which was a source of bafflement as I drove by ("That looks like lava?!)
I highly recommend it, especially if you haven’t seen that sort of thing in Hawaii. Its a bit remote, being 2 hours plus from Idaho Falls, and Arco (the nearest town) is a tiny place.
Following the OP’s lead… a giant rock formation, Tsodilo Hills, Botswana.
It is set in perfectly flat plains for miles around, but is a set of four huge granite domes, somehat fractured, most notable for at least 4500 pieces of incredible rock art stretching back as far as 45 000 years (twice as old as Lascaux).
(Saw a black mamba there, too - a fairly rare sight in the wild)
We’ve been to Giant Springs in Giant Springs State Park (Montana). The spring is a big spring and is the headwaters of the Roe River, the shortest river in the world. The Roe flows all of about 200 feet to the Missouri River in Great Falls.
The third photo in your album, the one of the giant bear of legend scratching the grooves in the tower…I have that poster on display in my living room.
