GC24A41 Monument Rock
Type: Earth | Size: Not chosen | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Buzz Lightyear I @ | Hide Date: 02/24/2010 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N39° 05.227 W104° 54.261 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
         

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How many times have you passed Monument Rock, glanced up at its looming Face and continued along your way? Monument Rock may share the same name as our town, but how much do we know about the longtime resident?

Monument is part of the Palmer Divide --there are very similar rocks like this from Colorado Springs to Castle Rock and beyond indicates that the Divide didn't exist back then. (The Castle Rock Rhyolite is another indication that neither the Rampart Range nor the Palmer Divide provided any real barrier
to volcanic material from the Sawatch range.)

Much of Monument Rock contains conglomerate, which are granules larger than sand indicating a certain event, possibly a flood. Picking up a handful of the loose gravel on the ground surrounding the rock, one can see mostly rounded white quartz and feldspar which is pink in color. There is far more quartz because once the feldspar hydrates with water, it becomes clay and dissolves away.

Monument Rock is in the upper part of the Dawson Formation. Why is it there? Good question. It might be an erosional remnant, a chunk that is relatively free of fractures and thus didn't get eroded as quickly as the surround material. Or maybe there's another reason. Although Monument Rock is battling natural weathering and erosion, we are still experiencing lifting at a rate of 1 foot/100 years, which may eventually prolong the Rock’s prominence along the front range.

To log this earth cache take a picture of yourself in front of the rock. Also email me an estimate on the height of the rock (no need to climb to the top) and the diameter of the rock. Thank you JP66 for help putting this together

Enjoy

Other References

http://fomp.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/fompnewsletter12_06.pdf
http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/ngm-bin/ILView.pl?sid=q100_9754_us_c.sid&vtype=b
http://fomp.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/fompnewsletter1_08b.pdf

07/06/2019 By kenyansherpa
I was out for a hike today an picked up a couple of geocaches. Thanks to Buzz Lightyear I for creating this excellent Earthcachel I have sent my answers and photo to the cache owner. Thanks for an interesting earthcache!

06/21/2019 By Strudelnudel
It was a nice morning hike.

05/15/2019 By SKYWX2GO
Here's our pictures

05/15/2019 By SKYWX2GO
Trying to get to the South side of the Rock and the road got us to the north side and it was steep down hill from there just remembering we have to go back up. Wonderful day until we were right at the Rock when it started to sprinkle and a strong down rush wind caught us by surprise.

03/16/2019 By TigerFinder
Wonderful area! Thanks for the earthcache. Email sent! TFTC!

09/08/2018 By mikeandcris
Nice hike for us new residents to Colorado. Thank you for the idea.

07/30/2018 By Rockclimbingman
TFTC! Just moved to Monument. Had to see the rock.

07/22/2018 By Trea
Drove around a bit before I found the right spot. Answers have been sent. Thanks so much for the EC.

07/14/2018 By dlbisblest
Sent info. Walking with a hiking club and discovered and shared this with some folks that I was with. TFTEC.

06/12/2018 By mondou2
Enjoyed the hunt for this earth cache. Sent email and uploading photo. Thanks for the fun!

06/07/2018 By chihuahuajill
Decided to make the hike out to this Earthcache finally. It was a beautiful afternoon! I’ve sent my answers to the CO and will post my picture with my log. I really enjoyed getting up close to this rock that I’ve seen hundreds of times from afar. TFTEC.