Devil's Postpile

Yesterday we went up to Devil's Postpile. The area, which once was a part of Yosemite but now is in a separate national park, is a formation of basaltic columns. The Mammoth area is a place with lots of volcanic activity. As you drive up to the pick up location (the Park Service requires visitors to take a bus into the trail head) you see a turnoff to see an earthquake fault.

Basalt is an igneous rock. Columns like the postpile happen when the rock is extruded during volcanic activity. The slower the rock cools the larger the columns. (About the only science I was ever really interested in was Geology.) The area is stunning for its beauty.

Around the time of President Taft there was a proposal to blast the formation away to build a hydro-electric dam. Taft and a number of prominent Californians were able to stop the proposal. The river, like a lot of its counterparts in this area of the state is crystal clear. The decision seems to have been a correct one but there are always tradeoffs in these kinds of decisions.

A good part of the Western Sierra is dotted with hydro-electric power facilities that also collect water for urban use. At one point I did a tour of the Southern California Edison system, which was originally surveyed around the same time that the Postpile was being saved, by a guy on a mule. The most interesting thing about that story is that about twenty years ago SCE did a study using satellite mapping and found that his crude methods figured out almost precisely the best place for all of the catch basins. PG&E also has a series of hyrdo-lakes especially near Tahoe.

Devil's Postpile, if you are in the area, is well worth the trip.