Balanced Rock

Along with The Window and Santa Elena Canyon, Balanced Rock is one of the iconic scenes in Big Bend National Park. I have posted images of it before in my photo stream.

 

My brother had never seen it, however, so I saved this delightful little hike for one of the dusks during our visit.

 

A viewer also asked about the leading lines that form nice compositional elements in a previous photograph that I posted and I wanted to take a closer look at these features on this trip.

 

I backed up a little so they would be more visible in this photograph. These lines are an example of "onion skin weathering" or exfoliation weathering. This weathering is common in laccoliths that cool and solidify deeper in the earth under pressure. When erosion removes the overlying rock and the pressure is released, these rocks tend to spall off in layers that resemble the thin layers of an onion.

 

Many geologists have wondered if the Grapevine HIlls (Balanced Rock is located in The Grapevine Hills) are a sill or a laccolith. Based on the exfoliation phenomena and the other near-by laccoliths, I would favor the laccolith explanation.

 

Whatever the explanation, they make an interesting compositional element.

 

The Chisos Mountains bask in the winter sunset visible through the Balanced Rock Gap.

 

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Done