Cathedral Gorge State Park, Nevada

Cathedral Gorge State Park is located about 200 miles north of Las Vegas near Pioche, NV. This small park is noted for it's fantastically shaped rocks and caves. The rocks, similar in look to the badlands of South Dakota, do remind one of cathedrals.

The texture of the rock varies from smooth to very roughly eroded and weathered. Some of the rock was as hard as, well, rock, and some was soft and crumbly, almost the consistency of dried mud. As you can see here, and in the following picture, the erosion, caused by water in this case, sometimes comes from within the rock creating hollows, caves, and narrow canyons.
 

The only wildlife we saw was Jack Rabbits, which are actually Hares.

I have no idea what the difference is between a rabbit and a hare, If anyone knows, post me a comment and I'll share it with everyone in the next letter.

We only stayed here one night, but were impressed by the place and spent about 5 or 6 hours hiking and exploring the various features of the park.

We took a hike starting at this old water tower built in the 1930s by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp). The CCC was a program to put young men to work during the depression while improving the facilities at national, regional, and state parks. The CCC parks are all around the country and you can usually tell when you are in a CCC built park by the quality of the workmanship and the well thought out layout of the campgrounds and trails.

Note the debris paths below these spires. In this picture the debris is chips and pieces of rock probably due to freeze cycle weathering. In others you will see sand or mud trails from wind or water erosion. Nature never seems to want to stop tearing down what it has built up.

  

The caves were sometimes 100 to 150 feet deep, 80 to 100 feet high, and barely wide enough to squeeze through. They were like miniature slot canyons. We often had to leave our packs on the trail outside the cave in order to fit.

 

 

Some caves were open to the sky at the top, some like this one were closed off by a thin cap of more erosion resistant rock.

You can see a band of more erosion resistant (harder) rock running through this group below and you can see caprocks of the same material on top of some of the spires. The caps are formed when the softer rock underneath erodes away. Eventually the caps will fall.

  

Next we will head SouthEast to the Paria River Area.