May-June, 2023
Another gorgeous day on this camping trip. And another adventure. 🙂
As blog reader SteveW mentioned, the Peshastin Pinnacles just south of Leavenworth aren’t huge, but they are amazing.
The Peshastin Pinnacles were formed from sediment mostly from tectonic and gravity and river action. The sediment settled in troughs or the river bottoms, then the sediment hardened and gained more levels of sediment, and then gained even more and more layers of different types of rock/sediment, and then it all hardened together, and then entire huge slabs of that hardened sand/rock/quartz/etc were lifted and turned on their sides at about a 60-degree angle (think about THAT earth-shifting experience!). And that’s what Peshastin Pinnacles are.
Oh, and, another small detail here … they are 45 MILLION years old.
I’ll share a few of my photos from our visit here. Then at the end of this blog post I share a 9-minute video I found online where a geology professor, Shawn Willsey, shares all manner of geologic information about the Pinnacles, explaining why this relatively small group of “rocks” is unique and so fascinating, having been created millions of years before humans were here.
There is a native/local tribe here, the Wenatchi-P’squosa. I thought they might have history and beliefs about the Pinnacles too, stories of how those “rocks” came to be, but I couldn’t find much online. I did find a website that says the Wenatchi-P’squosa have lived in this area for 12,000 years or so. That’s impressive. The Pinnacles were here 45 million years ago, long before humans were ever on this planet. But still, I’d bet there are “stories” from 12,000 years ago and I’d sure like to know them.
Here are my photos from the day I was here. We didn’t hike up into the Pinnacles, but we happily wandered around their feet and appreciated them. I’d love to learn about the people who were here those thousands of years ago and learn their stories. But in the meantime, I like that the State of Washington set aside this land in order to preserve it. There were major electrical power lines running through the property, right next to one of the largest pinnacles … the state made the power company take those stanchions and lines down and move all of it off the property. Power lines do show in my first photo of the pinnacles below, but these are the ones that were installed outside/around the Pinnacles, not through the Pinnacles.
Feel free to jump ahead and watch the video below about the geology of this area, then come back and see the photos. Or enjoy the photos first. Either way works for me. 🙂
What I saw first off, in the view above, was a person … lying on her/his back, the face is at the top of the hill and is looking up at the sky. Her/his right hand on its outstretched right arm has its gloved fingers pointing to the sky, too.
Or maybe that “right hand” is an Orca leaping out of the water trying to catch a salmon, although Orca mostly catch salmon underwater, it’s easier.
And then, off to the right (below), was this rock formation … this person lying on its back … having a chat with a bird on its chest?
Or maybe that’s this person’s hand, and this person is making an extrememly important declarative statement … ONE reason, ONE concern, ONE option we should be pursuing.
You know that saying that some people speak out of both sides of their mouth, and that’s not a good thing. But THIS person seems to have an upper mouth and a lower mouth instead. So maybe it’s only one message, just delivered differently so more people can understand the message.
Here’s the video from Shawn Willsey, geology professor.
Peshastin Pinnacles is a Washington State Park. No camping is available onsite, but the land is protected and cared for. Here’s the link to the state park website … https://parks.wa.gov/find-parks/state-parks/peshastin-pinnacles-state-park.
Amazing … 45 million years old!!