Geo 730: October 15, Day 653: The View for a Twofer

I figured there must be a spot like this somewhere, and there are probably others as well. But I found a place right next to the parking lot on the top of Marys Peak where you can see from the Cascade Arc all the way out to the subduction zone, simply by turning around. Above, you should easily be able to pick out Mount Jefferson on the horizon above the right end of the sign.

And in this one, the glint off the Pacific Ocean is partly swamped by the glare from the setting sun, but is most noticeable on the right horizon next to the bathroom, and in the center through the low point in the tree foliage. The horizon line can be shown trigonometrically to be about 75 miles away, which is roughly where the Juan de Fuca plate subducts below the North American Plate. There is something both exhilarating and gut-wrenching to understand that you are standing on what I describe as a single piston of the solid earth's engine.

There is a gated access road up to the telecommunications facilities on the peak itself; this spot is just behind the gate, on the side away from the parking area. Tomorrow, I'll return to our July coast trip, but for today and the previous two days, I wanted to provide a sneak peak at the geogalavanting we did last week.

Photo unmodified. October 8, 2014. FlashEarth Location.