Saturday, November 14 was our last full day in the park. We
had driven on all the paved roads except those to the south and west so headed
west to Castolon. We had already decided to avoid most dirt roads (the one we
took was pretty bad).
The road to Castolon is called Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive
after an early park manager and it truly was scenic. It was raining lightly off
and on, but that didn’t prevent us from stopping at all the overlooks and
reading all the exhibit signs. This is the area where you can see the most
evidence of the volcanic activity that formed the park. There were dikes, which
are raised ridges where lava had flowed underground, solidified, and the
surrounding dirt eroded away. There were light patches of rock which was
solidified ash, called tuff, that has been exposed by erosion. We learned about a pouroff
which is a name for the end of a box canyon where there is a large overflow of
water during a heavy rain (I guess it doesn’t qualify to be called a
waterfall). The mountains and hills showed all the layering associated with
several lava flows and consequent erosion and faulting. We saw all colors –
red, does that mean iron?; yellow – does that mean quicksilver?; black –
probably lava flow, white – the ash turned to rock, and many shades in between.
We walked to the edge of Tuff Canyon and looked down into a deep wash formed
when water rushed down and washed away all the dirt between walls of harder
volcanic rock. The shapes and colors were beautiful.
We ended up in Castolon which is really just a collection of historic buildings. It was originally established as an Army post and then a trading post. The barracks have been turned into the Park Visitor Center and a store. Cottonwood Campground is just past there, so we went to get a camping spot. We were surprised to find it almost full (so was the Ranger - he said it only got full on holidays). So, we picked a spot and settled in to spend the rest of a rainy day relaxing in our camper.
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