Top Ten Rocks

I’ve been fortunate to have done a bit of traveling, so I thought I would share my top ten rocks, in no special order. 

1-3  I heard that the three largest ‘stand alone’ rocks in the world are the Rock of Gibraltar, Haystack Rock on the Oregon coast, and Beacon Rock on the Washington side of the Columbia River.  I’ve been to each of these locations.  In 1966 we took a ship to Ethiopia, and passed by the Rock of Gibraltar.  In 2007 I made a special birding trip to Haystack Rock, though I had seen it before.  Lifers at the time were the Black oystercatcher, the Harlequin duck, and the Tufted puffin.  In 2002 I drove (paved road and freeway) from St. Louis to Astoria, Oregon, following the Lewis and Clark trail.  They stopped at Beacon Rock.  Last week I visited Beacon Rock again.  There is a path to the top, and someday I will walk that path.

4.  Petra, Jordan.  A fantastic place to visit.  You go through a narrow path between two cliffs of rock, and when you arrive at the main area, you see wonderful buildings carved out of rock.  The visit was also in 1966 on the way to Ethiopia.

5.  Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.  Africa’s tallest mountain, and I climbed to Gilsen’s Peak, 18,595 ft., with my good friend Greg Johnson, in 1983. 

6.  Rift Valley, Kenya.  One of the largest fissures in the earth, stretching from the southern part of Africa all the way up into Israel.  Outside of Nairobi you reach the escarpment, a gorgeous view of the valley.  Then you drive down the escarpment to get to the valley.  Spectacular.

7.  Pompei’s Peak, Montana.  Not a large rock, but famous because William Clark (of Lewis and Clark) carved his name on the rock, and it is still visible two hundred years later.  The sign says that this is the only place along the entire trail where such documentation occurs (and remains).  They stopped lots of places, like Beacon Rock, but only here is the evidence that they were really there.

8.  Big Bend National Park.  Lots of rocks here.  The scenery is fabulous, probably to me because I’ve not spent that much time in this sort of desert.  Wonderful plants all over the park, and great birds too, including the Colima warbler, which took a long walk.

9.  Yosemite.  What is there to say.  You’ve seen the photos.  Beautiful, and John Muir too.

10.  Diamond Peak, Oregon.  I have to put this one down for sentimental reasons.  Robyn and I climbed this mountain when we were engaged, and no, I did not propose when we got there.  We had not gone a mile before Robyn developed blisters, but she gamely kept walking for many more miles.  The mosquitos were terrible.  We were basically in tennis shoes, and no special clothing.  On the way down we met some “real climbers” (with all the trimmings).  I am sure it ticked them off that we got to the peak before they did, that we were just novices, and that we spoiled their pristine adventure.  Loved it!