Columns in Yellowstone NP

[Bluegreen kayak]

I had a great time in Yellowstone with my granddaughter, saw the usual interesting wildlife and amazing thermal features. However, going on the road from Canyon Village up north to Tower Falls over Dunraven Pass for the first time, I immediately noticed these volcanic columnar formations on both sides of the road. Just fascinating! And beautiful.

[MojaveGeek]

Those are cool.  I did not notice them when I drove by but I have not been in that part of Yellowstone in a decade - even though I spend much of a month in Bozeman each July, the national park is too crowded for my taste by then.  There's a lot of volcanic features around, and tons of petrified wood north and west of the park in the national forest.  And did you go up Specimen Ridge, where there are a few standing petrified trees?  Blew me away.

[Bluegreen kayak]

Those are cool.  I did not notice them when I drove by but I have not been in that part of Yellowstone in a decade - even though I spend much of a month in Bozeman each July, the national park is too crowded for my taste by then.  There's a lot of volcanic features around, and tons of petrified wood north and west of the park in the national forest.  And did you go up Specimen Ridge, where there are a few standing petrified trees?  Blew me away.

Is that what's up there? Darn, no I didn't, but it'll be on my list for another time.

[MojaveGeek]

Oh yes, and there's more. A huge redwood (?) stump that is not nearly so high, lots of logs on the ground, and if you continue on up the ridge you quickly notice that a significant portion of the gravel beneath your feet is actually petrified wood. Probably was much more decades ago. There are whole sections in the Gallatin Range - look for "Gallatin Petrified Forest" on the topos - with similar layers of ash and tree hunks being slowly eroded out. Once I even got a permit to carry home a handful each!

[Daymoth]

Oh i was in yellowstone ages ago and remember driving by those basalt columns and thinking they where super cool because i had studied them in my highschool geology class.

[MojaveGeek]

I'm sure GowerGulch would have a lot more to say about columnar faulted basalt / andesite, but once you get an eye for it, it can be found in many places.  Much along the roadsides of SW Washington state, on the east side of the Cascades (around Yakima, but really all over the place).    I have seen some great stuff on Rainier.  Devil's Postpile is classic (near Mammoth, CA).  There is also a "Little Devils Postpile" in the Sierra near Tuolomne Meadows that I hope to walk to this summer - I was very close last year, climbing a nameless dome, but I did not know about the formation at the time.  I've also seen some nice samples in SW Utah.   Photo from Mt. Rainier, en route to Emerald Ridge.

[GowerGulch42]

Latourell Falls, alcove of columns by Andrew Dunning, on Flickr

Latourell Falls in the Columbia Gorge is the prime local example, though as much for the setting as for the columns. Doing off-trail field work, I've come across some really amazing columns up to 3 m across and 8 m tall!