GC13E27 Canyon Granite
Type: Earth | Size: Not chosen | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: G&Jcaching @ | Hide Date: 06/05/2007 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N40° 00.883 W105° 18.697 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 40

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Plenty of room to park and take a short walk to this site.

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Millions of years ago, deep in the Earth, molten rock moved into this area. Here it cooled and solidified into the rock type that geologists call granite. This site is a great location to see some granite up close and personal!

The granite at this location contains many of the very common rock forming minerals - quartz (grey glassy mineral), feldspar (white and pink minerals) and mica (flakey black). If you look at a freshly broken piece of granite, you should be able to identify these minerals.

As this granite cooled, it also incorportaed some chunks of the surrounding country rock into the melt. These pieces are 'cooked' up, but did not melt, and form dark blobs of rock material within the granite. Geologists call these dark blobs Xenoliths.

From this point you can also see some historical remnants of the railroad that ran up this canyon to service the mines higher up. Can you find the remains of the railroad bridge? The pylons are not made of this granite, but of a hard sandstone found close by.

To log this EarthCache you have to find the largest Xenolith you can see from this point. Estimate its largest dimension (length and width) and email your enswer to us. Then log a picture of you at the site, including the number of people in your group in the log.

Logs without a confirmation email will be deleted.

06/22/2019 By herndonrd
Mrs. Herndonrd had a horse thing between Longmont and Boulder so I spent a couple of days getting some virtuals, earthcaches, and assorted others up in the area. FeartheFish tagged along for part of it. Due to construction they have closed all the parking so we made a quick stop, took a quick look and couple of pictures and then back into the car. TFTC!

04/08/2019 By AbvAvg
Nice day for a drive to the location despite the gusty wind. Two of us were there at this interesting location. Neat to see the bike trail. Thanks for the earth cache.

01/04/2019 By chihuahuajill
Fun Earthcache, I really enjoyed the area! Emailed answers to CO. Thanks for placing this cache for me to find. TFTC.

10/07/2018 By White Spirit Bears
TFTC. Interesting stop on a foggy day. Nice trails. Two of us were there.

10/07/2018 By ffmfmartin
WOW!!! This place is BEAUTIFUL!!! Thank you for the awesome EarthCache! Answer being sent to the CO now. TFTC!!!

08/14/2018 By LostinDenver
Emailing the picture and info. Busy little spot here! Tftc!

07/21/2018 By nclyga
We made it to this EC despite the crazy traffic and people. I once went down Boulder Creek when it was super high without a helmet. Loads of fun! Thank you for bringing us to this gorgeous place. Sent answer prior to logging.
Gearless and Fearless the Second

07/16/2018 By Foosprints
I'm enjoying my drive up boulder canyon.
GC13E27

06/30/2018 By zanna
Out from Atlanta exploring Colorado with FLtravelers for a few days. He was able to finish all his counties, while I made more progress on the state. Lots of fun caches were found along the way, including this one.

Great spot for an earthcache.

TFTC

06/30/2018 By FLtravelers
Flew out to Denver with zanna to grab a cache in the smattering of counties I had left in Colorado. Along the route we stopped for highly favorited caches, virtuals, earthcaches, webcams, Colorado's oldest, and whatever else that looked interesting. This was certainly one of these. Great spot. TFTEC.
GC13E27

05/28/2018 By benj59
I’m up here in Boulder playing taxi driver for my dad and a friend of his who are running the Bolder Boulder. He’s almost 70 and still going strong! I am NOT a runner so I took the opportunity to get some targeted geocaches.

I ended up with a total of 10 finds on the day. One Virtual. Four EarthCaches and five Traditionals.

This was the last of the four EarthCaches. I'm trying to build up my EarthCaches (this is number 29 for me) for a challenge, and because I just generally enjoy them. Geology was my choice in college when I had to take a science class with a lab. It's amazing what you can observe when you, well, just stop and observe what's around you!

I don't think I've ever driven up Boulder Canyon before so this was really fun. Unfortunately I didn't have time to drive further but I was glad to have a reason to stop here at least. The creek is running high and it was a beautiful day out.

I took some pictures and got the information I needed. I enjoy these types of EarthCaches.

Thanks for the hide G&Jcaching. I appreciate you keeping this cache active for everyone to enjoy.

Find number 1842

Found Canyon Granite with Cachly app for iOS

Found at 9:32 AM

Photo

03/15/2018 By CaseysPeeps
Two Cheeseheads from Wisconsin enjoying a few days in Colorado! Really enjoyed trudging back in to see the amazing granite up close and personal! Thanks to the cache owner for setting up this Earthcache! March 15, 2018, 9:39 AM.

Checking out the old mining equipment

01/29/2018 By J.S.26514
Out with Saddlebug - Thank you!

01/29/2018 By SaddleBug
TFTC caching with JS from OKC. Signing SDB and JS
Photo

01/21/2018 By Prize_In_A_Box
Got it