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wmpe2000: sun setting as we made our way down the mountain
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wmpe2000: muscavite (mica) cleaved into a semitranslucent layer
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wmpe2000:
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wmpe2000: looking north across the Gila Indian Reservation, South Mountain and Phoenix beyond - a good example of the basin and range complex throughout much of the southwest
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wmpe2000: 360°
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wmpe2000: lunch on the cool to touch quartz at 4052 ft
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wmpe2000: jasmine green tea at the top
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wmpe2000: the peak up ahead - class 2+ climb - scramble with use of hands
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wmpe2000: beautiful muscovite layering
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wmpe2000: view of the pegamite peak and lower dikes
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wmpe2000:
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wmpe2000: destination - massive milky white quartz (pegmatite) peak seen beyond the cliff of Montezuma granite
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wmpe2000: granular granitoid boulder with muscovite
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wmpe2000: foliated pelitic schist outcropping
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wmpe2000: folded gneiss - Sierra Estrella Mountains
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wmpe2000: upslope - Fouquieria splendens - Ocotillo in full leaf
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wmpe2000: packrat den in a rocky crevice lined with Cylindropuntia fulgida joints
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wmpe2000: Cylindropuntia fulgida - Chain Fruit Cholla
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wmpe2000: view south toward Seven Mile Mountain, Rainbow Valley and Sonoran National Monument
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wmpe2000: Quartz Peak Trail, Sierra Estrella Mountains
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wmpe2000: Quartz Peak trail in the Sierra Estrella mountains