Around Cathedral Rock Jan 10
Starting at the end of Verde Valley School Road, circumnavigating Cathedral counterclockwise
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AROUND CATHEDRAL ROCK
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After starting north on the Baldwin Trail, we fork right up the bluff
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No, this is npt how we go up. We head right from here.
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On top of the bluff overlooking Oak Creek
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Napoleon's Tomb
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The Fort Apache Membr forms the cap rock
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Next to the Tomb ther is a smaller rock that invites climbing
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This rock is a great vantage point over Verde Valley School Road
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Break time at the Tomb
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Looking actoss Oak Creek toward Mingus Mountain
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We edge around the Tomb to the east side
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Verde Valley School and CR Ranch
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Elk scat
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Making our way down the east side of the Tomb complex
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Deer and coyote tracks
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The wash marking the srart of the upslope to the Cathedral
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South side of Cathedral
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Bikers built this section of the trail
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On the Cathedral
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Deer tracks
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Working our way around to the north side of Cathedral
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The Fort Apache is visible again just above our level
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Walking steep ledges
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We climb up past the Fort Apache...
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...Which requires one steep pitch
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Made it!
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Intruding magma once pushed up under Cathedral, splitting it in two at this point...
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...opening a 3-foot crack under our feet, through which magma squuezed like toothpaste. In honor of this, we eat lunch.
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The intrusion dike today
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The softer sandstone weathers faster than the intrusive basalt
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We work our way down through the narrow slot eroded at the dike
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Back on the Templeton Trail, we continue west
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At Oak Creek, we turn south
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Riparian forest at the Creek
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Rock art at one spectacular place high on the Cathedral bank
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A calendar spiral
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Meanwhile, on the Oak Creek bank
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