Cathedral Gorge’s beauty began with explosive volcanic activity that, with each eruption, deposited layers of ash hundreds of feet thick. About five million years after the eruptions ceased, block faulting, a fracture in the bedrock that allows the two sides to move opposite each other, shaped the mountains and valleys prevalent in Nevada today. This faulting formed a depression, now known as Meadow Valley. Over time the depression filled with water creating a freshwater lake. Continual rains eroded the exposed ash and pumice left from the volcanic activity, and the streams carried the eroded sediment into the newly formed lake. Water then drained from the lake exposing the volcanic ash sediments to the wind and rain, causing erosion of the soft material called bentonite clay.
We did some slot canyon exploring and then hiked around the gorge to see more. The slot canyons aren’t very long and some are pretty narrow. To access Moon Cave I had to crawl through a hole and tunnel that barely fit me but then opened into a little cove that had a rope to climb up for views. Derek did not accompany me so no action pic there.
After exploring several of the canyons we struck out on a bigger hike to Miller Point and then around Juniper Draw. All of this was less than 5 miles but afforded us the opportunity to see a lot. The formations are just incredible!
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