High Bluff Overlook - California
Posted by: Volcanoguy
N 41° 30.563 W 124° 04.763
10T E 409924 N 4595868
High Bluff Overlook on the Coastal Drive in Redwoods National Park.
Waymark Code: WMK57C
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 02/14/2014
Views: 4
The High Bluff Overlook is located along the 8-mile long Coastal Drive in Redwoods National Park. From the parking lot a short paved trail leads south to the main viewpoint which looks south along the coast. Text of sign at viewpoint:
Fractured Coastline
Evidence of dramatic earth movement is visible all around you: split rocks, steep cliffs, and even cracks in the asphalt. The rocks are ocean floor sediments deposited over 150 million years ago, which have been shoved up along the coastline. Off the coast looms the Cascadia Subduction Zone, where tow tectonic plates are in a head-on collision.
The sea floor (Gorda Plate) is slowly moving inland like a large conveyor belt, pulled down by gravity under the edge of the North American Plate. The edge of the continent acts like a bulldozer blade and scrapes off slivers of ocean floor to form rocks that are folded and faulted, then thrust up to become sea cliffs. This geologic setting—the offshore areas of the parks—produces the strongest earthquakes on earth.
There is also an unpaved trail which goes north to a second viewpoint on the floor of an old quarry.
Describe - Highway or Road number: Coastal Drive
Closest town or city: Orick, CA
Number of parking spots available: 10
Winter View: yes
Summer View: yes
Year around access ?: yes
Comfort station on site: no
Is a photo of an "Information Sign"included?: Yes
Name if a website describes this location.: Not listed
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