I’ve always enjoyed natural landscapes and the details of the elements that mesh to create them. Having grown up on the Canadian prairies, I had little first-hand experience with mountains and even less with volcanic features until I had finished medical school and began to travel.
One feature I’ve come to enjoy are lava columns. When the conditions are right, as basaltic lava cools it produces jointing resulting in long columns in a honeycomb pattern. I find these to be aesthetically pleasing. They usually are six-sided but can vary from 3 to 8 sides. Such columns are not rare — they’re found in places as varied as Devil’s Tower in Wyoming to the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.
While rafting on the Snake River, I noticed the extensive column depositions along some portions of the river. The entire valley seemed to be composed of them — rather remarkable.
Impressive!
Thank you for a most interesting post and photographs; it makes me want to visit Southern Idaho.
The most impressive basalt columns I have ever seen are on the island of Staffa, close to the Isle of Mull in Western Scotland. It includes Fingal’s Cave, which inspired Felix Mendelssohn to write his famous Hebrides Overture, also known as Fingal’s Cave (opus 26). I attach 2 pictures from a visit on a characteristically windy and rainy day in 2016.