Mark P Betts
Follow the Yellow Brick Road
I have taken some liberties with the title (the color is more golden than yellow and the road is asphalt not bricks) but it captures my feeling when I drive down one of my favorite roads.
This is US Highway 385 between Marathon, Texas and the North Entrance to Big Bend National Park.
It is particularly handsome in the late afternoon with warm golden, light. The low clouds from a clearing storm add drama to an already interesting scene. This road passes through some intriguing geology even before you enter the Park. It is almost as if it is trying to prepare you for the wonders that await you inside the Park.
The low hills on the left of the road are folded and thrusted sediments of the Caballos Novaculite formation. These same rocks out crop in Arkansas but then dive below the surface and tunnel around the old Pre-Cambrian rocks of the Llano region only to pop back out near Marathon. They appear once more in the Big Bend Ranch State Park in the center of the Solitario Dome.
The flat-topped mountain to the right is Santiago Peak, an extinct Tertiary Volcano. It is hundreds of millions years younger than the rocks on the left but forms a prominent landmark visible throughout the Big Bend region.
The lower mountains to the left and right of Santiago Peak are the topographic marker of the Laramide Thrust System that extends all the way north to the Front Range of The Rockies.
Finally, Big Bend National Park with its beautiful vistas lies just down this road like Oz beckoning us onward on our journey
S0A1689-1
Follow the Yellow Brick Road
I have taken some liberties with the title (the color is more golden than yellow and the road is asphalt not bricks) but it captures my feeling when I drive down one of my favorite roads.
This is US Highway 385 between Marathon, Texas and the North Entrance to Big Bend National Park.
It is particularly handsome in the late afternoon with warm golden, light. The low clouds from a clearing storm add drama to an already interesting scene. This road passes through some intriguing geology even before you enter the Park. It is almost as if it is trying to prepare you for the wonders that await you inside the Park.
The low hills on the left of the road are folded and thrusted sediments of the Caballos Novaculite formation. These same rocks out crop in Arkansas but then dive below the surface and tunnel around the old Pre-Cambrian rocks of the Llano region only to pop back out near Marathon. They appear once more in the Big Bend Ranch State Park in the center of the Solitario Dome.
The flat-topped mountain to the right is Santiago Peak, an extinct Tertiary Volcano. It is hundreds of millions years younger than the rocks on the left but forms a prominent landmark visible throughout the Big Bend region.
The lower mountains to the left and right of Santiago Peak are the topographic marker of the Laramide Thrust System that extends all the way north to the Front Range of The Rockies.
Finally, Big Bend National Park with its beautiful vistas lies just down this road like Oz beckoning us onward on our journey
S0A1689-1