Dakota Hogback

[intheflow]

So, yes, it was I who submitted the shot of the Dakota Hogback.



Yes, it is the same range as Red Rocks. The range stretches from New Mexico to Wyoming so there's a lot of variety in the geology. This is slightly north of I-70 but not as far north as the Boulder Flat Irons.

Here are a couple other shots I took while on the same hike that I considered submitting.





About that allegations about it being too green: we've had a lot of rain and even some wet snow in the foothills as recently as three weeks ago. Colorado is a mountain-desert climate so the landscape is pretty dry and brown most of the year. But in the spring we get really, really green. It was still spring when this shot was taken about a week ago. Here are some of the wildflowers that were blooming along the trail that day.







Hope that answers all the questions! :hi:

[handmade34]

1. wonderful example of geological formation

http://library.ndsu.edu/exhibits/text/greatplains/text.html


"Hogback ridges along the Front Range west of Denver, Colo. South Platte River emerges from the mountains and cuts through hogbacks in middle distance...
The Colorado Piedmont lies at the eastern foot of the Rockies, (fig. 1) largely between the South Platte River and the Arkansas River. The South Platte on the north and the Arkansas River on the south, after leaving the mountains, have excavated deeply into the Tertiary (65- to 2-million-year-old) sedimentary rock layers of the Great Plains in Colorado and removed great volumes of sediment. At Denver, the South Platte River has cut downward 1,500 to 2,000 feet to its present level. Three well-formed terrace levels flank the river's floodplain, and remnants of a number of well-formed higher land surfaces are preserved between the river and the mountains. Along the western margin of the Colorado Piedmont, the layers of older sedimentary rock have been sharply upturned by the rise of the mountains. The eroded edges of these upturned layers have been eroded differentially, so that the hard sandstone and limestone layers form conspicuous and continuous hogback ridges. North of the South Platte River, near the Wyoming border, a scarp that has been cut on the rocks of the High Plains marks the northern boundary of the Colorado Piedmont. Pawnee Buttes are two of many butte outliers of the High Plains rocks near that scarp, separated from the High Plains by erosion as is Scotts Bluff, farther north in Nebraska. To the east, about 10 miles northwest of Limon, Colo., Cedar Point forms a west-jutting prow of the High Plains..."



Would love to take another Physical Geography class

[Mira]

2. So varied and so lovely. America the Beautiful so well presented. I am

especially taken with the third photo. It's spectacular, reminiscent of some artists' work.
Thanks for following up on the question and showing us more.

[intheflow]

3. Here are some other photos from different spots along the ridge:

Horsetooth Reservoir, Fort Collins:

Roxborough State Park, Littleton:

The Mesa Trail, Boulder:

It really is quite, quite varied geography, especially for so relatively short a distance!

[Mira]

5. There is so much to learn and so much to see and for the first one I did a very

audible suck in of breath. To me it spells Perfection.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. These are really nice, Intheflow.

Very geological. :)

[Celebration]

6. very nice tour

I enjoyed it!