Paris Mountain in Greenville, South Carolina is not the tallest peak in the state, But it has many beautiful views of Greenville county. It also graces one of the states most beautiful parks: Paris Mountain State Park. This park sits on 1275 acres with many hiking/biking trails, a swimming lake, numerous shelters, baseball field and a natural amphitheater. Paris Mountain is one of several monadnocks located in the upstate.
A monadnock is an isolated hill of bedrock rising conspicuously above the general level of the surrounding area. Monadnocks are "lone mountains", left as erosional remnants of mountain chains because of their more resistant rock composition (usually quartzite or less jointed massive volcanic rocks like granite).
When the less resistant rock is eroded away to form a plain, the more resistant rock is left behind to create a monadnock which are formed in humid, temperate regions. They take their name from Mt. Monadnock, in Monadnock State Park in New Hampshire.
Paris Mountain is located in the Piedmont Region .This region is called a plateau by some geologic experts. Plateaus are relatively flat, raised areas of land. They are usually horizontal rises of rock, which were raised by forces of Earth. Piedmont literally means "foot of the mountain". In South Carolina the Piedmont region comprises one third of the area of SC and is typically hilly country containing many monadnocks. The Piedmont is underlain by metamorphic rocks of various origins that were folded during the Paleozoic as the North American and African plates converged. Later, in the Mesozoic, it was affected by rifting as Pangaea broke apart and the Atlantic Ocean formed.
This earth cache is located at Paris Mountain state park with an admission fee of $2.00 for adults, children are free, a reduced rate for senior citizens and $5.00 for out of state adults. Park hours are from 8 am until 5 pm.
To claim this cache, upload a photo (optional) of yourself at the listed coordinates to the cache page and send an email telling me the elevation of this monadnock.
