Читать книгу Hiking & Backpacking Big Sur. Your complete guide to the trails of Big Sur, Ventana Wilderness, and Silver Peak Wilderness онлайн

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Serpentine, California’s state rock, forms in layers that solidify above molten rock. These layers are scraped off and jumbled near the surface, where they react with groundwater to form this slippery green stone. You’ll find dramatic serpentine outcrops in the Silver Peak Wilderness amid the Salmon Creek and San Carpoforo drainages.

Other younger rocks formed in the vicinity of the Santa Lucia Range before a single peak rose above the surface. A few million years ago, this area was a drainage basin that collected sediments in the form of sand, silt, and boulders. In time these solidified into sandstone, siltstone, and conglomerate. Conglomerate is least common, although at Point Lobos it is the dominant sedimentary rock and forms dramatic outcrops and cobblestone promontories.

While these theories may explain how the rocks formed, they don’t explain how the rocks traveled hundreds of miles and rose to form the Santa Lucia Range. That story begins along the San Andreas Fault system some 30 million years ago. Once again, tectonic forces brought oceanic and continental plates together. This time, the North American plate and the Pacific plate met and began to grind past one another, marking the San Andreas Fault boundary.