Alpine Tor EarthCache
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Rocky Mountain National Park is located west of Estes Park and north and east of Grand Lake. This is a fee area of the National Park Service, and costs $30 per vehicle. This fee is covered in the Rocky Mountain National Park Annual Pass, the Rocky Mountain National Park/Arapaho National Recreation Area Annual Pass, and the America the Beautiful Pass. Please see the following website (visit link) for the entire fee schedule. The park is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Road and Trail Conditions and Closures can be found at: (visit link) Recorded information for the condition of Trail Ridge Road can be found by calling (970) 586-1222. Please remember that all geologic features within the borders of Rocky Mountain National Park are protected by law, as are all natural and historic features. Please do not disturb, damage, or remove any rocks, plants, or animals.
This EarthCache is accessed via the Tundra Communities Trail, which begins at the Rock Cut Parking Area on Trail Ridge Road. The trail traverses a Tundra Protection Area; please remain on the trail during the hike, as damage to the fragile tundra community can take hundreds of years to repair. The round-trip hike will be a little over a mile, with a gain in elevation of about 200 feet. You will start your hike at about 12,100 feet, so take it slow and don’t forget the sunscreen.
The mushroom-shaped rocks at this location are examples of tors, which are isolated rock towers rising above flat terrain. Several tors are found nearby, but the subject of this EarthCache will be the one next to the asphalt trail.
These tors are composed of schist and granite. The schist was originally formed from material at the bottom of a sea. Magma pushed up from within the earth and cooled into the lighter colored granite. After both the schist and granite were exposed, differential weathering and erosion caused the mushroom shapes to be formed when the granite stems eroded more quickly than the schist caprock.
To log this EarthCache, send me an email with the answers to these questions:
1. Estimate the height of the tor.
2. What were the materials that originally made up the schist?
3. Do you think the glaciers were at this location? Why or why not.
Please consider posting photos of yourself, or the local geology, when you log this EarthCache. Photos can be an additional rewarding part of your journey, but posting them is not a requirement for logging this EarthCache, and is strictly optional.
The above information was compiled from the following sources:
2004. Rocky Mountain National Park. In Harris, A.G. et al., editors. Geology of National Parks, Sixth Ed. P. 337-356. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.
Cole, J.C., and Braddock, W.A. 2009. Geologic map of the Estes Park 30’ x 60’ quadrangle, north-central Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3039, 1 sheet, scale 1:100,000, 1 pamphlet, 56 p.
Colorado Geological Survey. 2003. Messages in Stone. Matthews et al., editors. Denver, Colorado.
KellererLynn, K. 2004. Rocky Mountain National Park. Geologic Resource Evaluation Report. NPS D307, September 2004. Online at: (visit link)
Informational signage near the site.
Rocky Mountain National Park. Online at: (visit link)
Rocky Mountain National Park was most helpful in the background discussion, aid in the choosing of sites, and review of this EarthCache. My thanks to the Park for allowing the placement of this EarthCache!
Additional Hints
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