This is a spot in Catskill Park, NY. The creek branch here is at 1800 feet and runs down into the East Branch Delaware River. Coming up from the creek, I didn't see much, until I got up to around 1900 feet. Then I started to see faint traces of rock arrangements on boulders:
A possible split wedge:
Stacked stones (the two small ones at the left tip added by hikers, evidence being the snow sled marks on the lower rock):
And a see through niche on top of a boulder that was on top of a small runoff spring. The mountainside here seemed to be filled with little springs here and there:
This is of the rock that forms the "roof" of the see through niche. The matching ends of that rock exhibit that the rock was probably split and the left side slid away and propped on the supporting stone, forming the niche:
This is looking at the boulder and the niche together. Notice the space under the boulder resembles the see through niche on top? I'm not sure if this is deliberate or not, but I found it interesting because the space under the boulder seems to be an entryway to where the water flows under the boulder.
That's as far up the mountain as I got, about 2100 feet in elevation. I headed back down, now following the trail instead of the stonework that lead up to the niche. At a bend in the trail, I perused this structure for a long time before saying out loud "What is that?"
...to be continued.
5 comments :
What is that? It looks like a heck of a big old rock pile. Worth trying to imagine if this might be the horizon as viewed from somewhere else. Alaternatively, what can you see from this spot?
It's definitely a spot I will be going back to. It was hard to see anything through the tree canopy, so I'll be back there when the leaves are off the trees in the fall to have a better look around. The see through niche is close enough to have some connection, but I'm not sure what that might be.
What is that stone pile? Maybe a burial mound. I don't know how large it is, but I saw one on a small spur of a mountain in Vermont that was 20 or so feet across and was comprised mainly of quartz. Four small standing stones were placed nearby. Your mound does not seem to have any quartz in it, but if you get a chance to return to the spot, you might find some other stonework nearby that could suggest a burial site.
When is a small pedestaled boulder a niche and vice versa? I'm thinking of a pedestaled boulder 40feet down in an Ontario lake, supported by two large cobbles, and another small pedestaled boulder in Foxboro State Forest in MA. The latter, however, is supported at three points.
I am going by James and Mary Gage's website, Stone Structures of Northeastern United States. Click here for the link on niches. It's the 5th picture that I think resembles this niche.
I have some more pictures that I'm going to try to post tomorrow morning. This is a huge structure.
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