GC230EB Alpine Tor
Type: Earth | Size: Other | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Me & Bucky @ | Hide Date: 01/15/2010 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N40° 24.811 W105° 43.630 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0

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Rocky Mountain National Park is located west of Estes Park and north and east of Grand Lake. This is a fee area of the National Park Service, and costs $30 per vehicle. This fee is covered in the Rocky Mountain National Park Annual Pass, the Rocky Mountain National Park/Arapaho National Recreation Area Annual Pass, and the America the Beautiful Pass. Please see the following website http://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/feesandreservations.htm for the entire fee schedule. The park is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Road and Trail Conditions and Closures can be found at: http://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/road_conditions.htm. Recorded information for the condition of Trail Ridge Road can be found by calling (970) 586-1222. Please remember that all geologic features within the borders of Rocky Mountain National Park are protected by law, as are all natural and historic features. Please do not disturb, damage, or remove any rocks, plants, or animals.

This EarthCache is accessed via the Tundra Communities Trail, which begins at the Rock Cut Parking Area on Trail Ridge Road. The trail traverses a Tundra Protection Area; please remain on the trail during the hike, as damage to the fragile tundra community can take hundreds of years to repair. The round-trip hike will be a little over a mile, with a gain in elevation of about 200 feet. You will start your hike at about 12,100 feet, so take it slow and don’t forget the sunscreen.

The mushroom-shaped rocks at this location are examples of tors, which are isolated rock towers rising above flat terrain. Several tors are found nearby, but the subject of this EarthCache will be the one next to the asphalt trail.

These tors are composed of schist and granite. The schist was originally formed from material at the bottom of a sea. Magma pushed up from within the earth and cooled into the lighter colored granite. After both the schist and granite were exposed, differential weathering and erosion caused the mushroom shapes to be formed when the granite stems eroded more quickly than the schist caprock.


To log this EarthCache, send me an email with the answers to these questions:

1. Estimate the height of the tor.

2. What were the materials that originally made up the schist?

3. Do you think the glaciers were at this location? Why or why not.

Please consider posting photos of yourself, or the local geology, when you log this EarthCache. Photos can be an additional rewarding part of your journey, but posting them is not a requirement for logging this EarthCache, and is strictly optional.


The above information was compiled from the following sources:

2004. Rocky Mountain National Park. In Harris, A.G. et al., editors. Geology of National Parks, Sixth Ed. P. 337-356. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.

Cole, J.C., and Braddock, W.A. 2009. Geologic map of the Estes Park 30’ x 60’ quadrangle, north-central Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3039, 1 sheet, scale 1:100,000, 1 pamphlet, 56 p.

Colorado Geological Survey. 2003. Messages in Stone. Matthews et al., editors. Denver, Colorado.

KellererLynn, K. 2004. Rocky Mountain National Park. Geologic Resource Evaluation Report. NPS D307, September 2004. Online at: http://www.nps.gov/romo/parkmgmt/upload/romo_geo_overview.pdf

Informational signage near the site.

Rocky Mountain National Park. Online at: http://www.nps.gov/romo


Rocky Mountain National Park was most helpful in the background discussion, aid in the choosing of sites, and review of this EarthCache. My thanks to the Park for allowing the placement of this EarthCache!

07/05/2019 By TrackerJacker65
Stopped here while visiting the park from Houston, TX. The weather is great and the views are amazing. Thanks for the geography lesson!

06/06/2019 By Boschert_Family
It was quite cold a windy today. Ridge Road opened yesterday for the first time this year. Thanks a very interesting place and read.

09/23/2018 By ludo394
Found during my trip in USA.

Today, it's my first day of my trip.

My travel today will be The Rocky Mountains.

I begin this morning by doing the hiking from Bear Lake to Hallett Peak summit.
It was not an easy hike but the weather was great. A little cold on the top with the wind.
It was nice hike with great views.

This afternoon, I decided to do the famous road of the trail ridge road.
Wow amazing this road at this high altitude.
It was a nice drive.
I stopped here for the view and the cache.
I've done the little trail it was very cold here, a lot of wind too.


I send the answer for the earth cache to the owner.

It's my 5th cache of my trip.

Thanks for this earth cache.
Thanks for discovering this place !
Greetings from Belgium !

09/21/2018 By robuster91
sent answers via geocaching messager thanks for the earth cache on to the next very cool looking rock

09/17/2018 By GrayFinders2
found during visit to RMNP. Got caught in hail at the far rock. Answers on the way.

09/12/2018 By Trea
RMNP is fantastic. September is the perfect time to visit; the kids are back in school and the trees are putting on their fall colors.

09/07/2018 By deniseflygirl
Yay! I enjoyed my day at RMNP. There was a constant flow of folks making their way up/down the hill at this location to enjoy the views. TFTEC! :-)

09/06/2018 By natep26
End of summer road trip to RMNP. Enjoying our time hiking, viewing, caching, etc. We especially enjoyed the geological index at the end of the trail. That was a neat find. Tftc!

08/25/2018 By wasillian
2:27 PM: Find 3 of 16 total finds for this 2-day outing with my wife while visiting from Alaska. Beautiful day for our first visit to the park. Once we reached the Tors at GZ, hail started falling and we could hear thunder in the distance so we didn't spend too much time up there. Answer messaged to the CO. TFTC #3337

08/23/2018 By FresnoDancingFool
One of my goals for this long summer trip – It started on June 5 – was to obtain a number of finds at high altitudes over 10,000 feet high, something I'd never done before; it is interesting to note that this, my first such find, was at an elevation of 12,257 feet according to my GPSr. It was quite a hike to GZ; beautiful, but cold and very windy. I found the formations very interesting and took a number of photos, including some of three yellow-bellied marmots on a rock about 50 feet away. I'll also note that down at the beginning of the trail there was a coyote just resting slightly down the slope on the other side of the road. The is a great cache and it deserves an FDF favorite point for the scenery if for no other reason (and there are other reasons); TFTH! Note: My answers will be along shortly.

Notes on the photos: The first shows the coyote just left of center. The second shows the three marmots; two were almost on top of each other. The third shows a windblown me squinting into the bright sun; my hat had blown off at an earlier viewpoint and sailed over the rock wall and well down the mountain slope.

08/13/2018 By fiercetara
Seen

08/10/2018 By Libertarian Lad
I didn't think a 'hoodoo' could form out of such solid rocks. Granite weathers faster than schist? I thought both weathered rather slowly. Anyhow, terrific spot, really, been coming to RMNP for years and had never been here. Dragged my son up to this spot, but my granddaughter was tuckered out from an earlier hike up Marmot Point. The tors were striking. And the views too! TFTEC.

08/07/2018 By Team Peterson
Thought I logged this one the other day but my internet was acting up. We loved our day at RMNP and the bonus of smileys along the way added to our fun. Thanks for bringing us here. Being from Michigan made the trek a challenge but we took it slow and steady and eventually made it. Each sign along the way was a stopping point to catch our breath. What a beautiful spot! We saw many critters along the way. will send our answers and post pictures soon.

Team Peterson
Grand Rapids, MI

08/02/2018 By StamperCraig
Found it today, nice hike, driven by countless times but hadn’t ever done this trail for some reason. Answers sent. Thanks!