Anacortes Ice Sheet w/ Backcountry Gary Paull 

Nick and Gary is always peak RU-vid.

Just watched this for the second time. Any video with both Nick and Gary is priceless.

Having called Anacortes home for a number of years, what a delight to see Nick and his team at Cap Sante... one of the best views in the area, and a place one can go with their thoughts to reflect.

OMG, Glacier grooves in the bedrock right off the start! Backcountry Gary with Nick on the rocks.... I'm in heaven for the next 40 minutes. This deserves an IPA. Thanks Nick & Gary.

I'm an economic geologist and from my experience, that is dunite/peridotite that you are standing on at Green Point. I grew up in Vancouver and spent the summers at my parent's cottage on Fidalgo. This is where I developed my love for geology. Such diversity in this area! I was fortunate to work for geologist Chuck Fipke in the 80's (Canada's Diamond Man) and he had an interest in developing an olivine (almost pure dunite) deposit on Cypress Island (in the background of your video on Green Point, just across the strait). Olivine has historic economic importance and is emerging as a possible resource to sequester CO2 as it weathers very quickly. Thanks for taking me back. Great videos. Cheers from Northern BC

I am part of the Anacortes Friends of the forest naturalist club and we did a geology field trip just a couple days ago in many of these spots and it's so fun to see you here in our home base.

'Never go to the ocean With a notion Of what you'll find.' - Mason Williams

Oh, dang, this is JOY. 👏🏻🤩 You two are so fun. Anacortes has been a favorite of our family for decades, plus access to the ferry. Marine ecology and birds were my interests ; now look at all that cool geology! You're opening new windows, and it's so exciting! Thank you so much.

Here's an angle for you. Burl Ives lived on the little road you took up to Cap Sante Park. Big Rock Candy Mountain? Rosie James of Anacortes can tell the indigenous story of Guemes and Cayue Channel. Her native family lived here.

Cup-O-Caffeine and boom... Nick & Gary. T Y Gentlemen.

Welcome to Anacortes! There is so much geologic storytelling to cover here!

Happy to scout with Nick and Gary from the comfort of my computer.

In Ireland you can find rocks or stones, like Granite, that are not native to Ireland, but are to Scotland, and it is determined that they came down from Scotland on Ice sheets and were deposited in Ireland when the Ice melted. And just to add, though it has nothing to do with geology, that all Polar Bears found in the North Pole are related to Irish Grizzly bear, which of course are now extinct in Ireland . But tests done on fossil remains found in Caves and tests done on Polar Bears found a direct link. This happened during the ice age when Polar Bears were able to cross the ice fields to Ireland and they mated with Irish Grizzly bears. It's interesting history.

Thanks for taking us with you on your pre-filming hike!

Flank steak and Munster...You Gotta Love It!

That place is excellent for the series Nick on the Rocks, beauty of the place, the many stories that happen there, the best Nick on the Rocks✌️Great Gary and Nick 💪🌟

I know more about the geology of the US Nth West than I do about the geology of my own country thanks to Nick. It's become a must see on my next US visit. Love his output and wish I'd had teachers of his quality on any subject when I went thru my education.

Nick and Gary in the morning. Nice treat to start the day!

How I wish I'd known you were here today, Nick! I live next to Washington Park and am a great fan of your videos! I have been applying what I've learned from you (and some library resources) to learn about the deep history of Fidalgo Island. I would have loved to show you around! There is HUGE erratic near one of trails in WA Park (among many, but definitely the largest I've seen here). I hope you make a video about this gorgeous island! Thanks!

This field trip was great fun! Thanks for taking us along. I really enjoyed this, scenery and a great geology story!

You two make quite the Geologist Comedy Team. The Abbot and Costello of The Quaternary! lol

At 13:08 that is a great geological money shot. The colors are amazing there. 5 different types of rock. Plus erratics. Good before and after ice age story to tell here. Thanks gents for a possible Nick on the Rocks preview as it was quite interesting.

Thanks for pointing out Mount Erie. Bearings straight now. Looks like a giant bear made of ice and rock clawed one way, then another. Beautiful and stark. Thanks yall.

The first thing I noticed was the rocks. Super cool to see.

I get up early my last day in Oregon before I get to Washington and.....boom it's Nick on some rocks! Nice

fun fact about the madronas - theyre closely related to blueberries and huckleberries! their berries are red-orange and pretty good for jams and pickles! pretty common around the sound, the way their bark peels is enigmatic but super pretty. one of my favourite trees, and props to gary for saying it right! lots of people say "madrone"

Hi Nick I have made many trips to Anacortes while visiting family. I'm a retired geologist and I think this park would make a great subject for one of your videos ie, "Nick and Gary on the Road". I would like to see you to about the rocks on the beach, which are located about a mile or so down the road. So, go West young many. Sorry I don't have a map. The rocks there are about the size of potatoes and not grapes. I'm amazed at the variety of rock types there. I believe they are from an out wash of gravels from the sheet glacier that is the reason the size and variety of the beach gravels in that area. Good Luck and I love your work.

Love it, thank you, Nick and Gary! When I lived on southern Vancouver Island I had a girlfreind in Seattle and Anacortes was our favorite ferry route. Brings back many memories! We call the madrone "arbutus" up here, the only Canadian evergreen deciduous tree, they don't shed their leaves each fall.

Visited and walked there often during the 30 years I lived in Western Washington.

The two stories at one location is very interesting, and easy for people to access to see for themselves!

NO BROKEN BONES, got to love it. thank you ALL. nice job. The striation and the big Granit erratic got me excited too. Stay safe!

You guys make a great team- appreciate Gary’s modest and calm demeanor 🌄

Wonderful site. I'm not a geologist but I loved the various rock shapes . And to see the sea magical . Thank you

Make sure you pick a favorable tide when you come back. I laughed when you first started at Washington Park. I said (out loud to myself) “Keep walking! the best stuff is down at the point near the stairs!”

Thanks for this excellent tour! Perfect weather and great company!

Another episode suggestion: it would require getting on a plane, but on a day hiking trail in Anchorage Alaska, you can see almost the entirety of a subduction zone complex, the accretion wedge, forarc basin, and volcanic range. Pretty cool geology up here!

If you had fallen it would have been ;..........................................wait for it.......................................................Nick on the Rocks!

We are geology freaks living in Anacortes. We could show you SO many interesting outcrops here. There's a spot in Washington Park not far from the beach where there's large wall clearly carved by glacial ice. I'll send a photo to your email.

Great little walk about this morning to wake up to! Thanks Nick and Gary for this prequel to an upcoming episode. We live in such a beautiful and diverse landscape, with so many stories to tell.

It is 9:00 central standard time I should be working but I saw this uploaded

The white over red boat would be the Pilot Boat (for the tankers from the March Point refineries).

there's little beats a walk along the coast with two excitable youngsters, they'll sleep well tonight: ah he...

The (Siletz Terrane exhumation) greenstone, gabbro and peridotite “Ocean floor story” is repeated South of that Terrane as well off-shore North of Bandon, OR. on Agate and Sacchi beaches. There is also storm-surge transported Green and blue schist rocks on the next beach to the South, Merchant beach. The Anacortes and Bandon locations are so similar, could they be part of a bigger story; is this a hint of the Columbia Embayment under the German Chocolate Cake? Thank you Nick and Gary for sharing this ophiolite accretion, and thank you Anacortes ice sheet for exposing it.

Gary Paull is such an interesting fellow. Very intelligent and down to earth. love his talks with Nick.

All that field recon atop & among the "pizza boxes" and not a single mention. Surprising... =)

First of a six part series. Nick and Gary on the Rocks (near Till)

I love the creative process on display here. Thanks!

As someone who grew up in Anacortes in the 60s & 70s and still run around the islands, I've put footsteps all over that island and the surrounding ones. I'm very excited to see you and Gary looking around here. This is were my I started looking at the landscape and my imagination kicked in asking questions (as a young child,) "How did these islands form, why are there rocks here that don't look like the others etc.?" I might suggest you also visit Mt Erie and some of the 8 natural lakes this island has. One of which has it's own Island. I was told years ago that Campbell lake Island it the only natural Island on an Island. Or take a run over to Guemas and see what you see over there, it's not all rocky like the others and for the most part is flat again not like so many others. What's under there and why isn't it as "Basalt" Thanks to your videos I've watch over the years and lectures you've aired I have a much better understand and confirmed a lot of my thoughts. I'll be keeping an eye out for your episode on Anacortes Ice sheet.

Maybe an Ice Age show, Starting at Cap Sante showing the striations then go south to Double Bluff beach and then to Possession Point . The different glaciation time periods would be interesting. The layers at Double Bluff are especially interesting and even strange.

In all the time I lived on Whidbey Island I never got a chance to explore the coastlines of either Fidalgo or Whidbey. Too wrapped up in work and deployments to get the time. Would still like to get up on Mt Erie, inasmuch as it'll give you a 360° view of the San Juans _and_ Whidbey Is., and _beyond_ on a good day.

And we wonder how hunter gatherers followed the edge of an ice sheet across the Bering Strait? Follow the game and follow the endless sense of wonder of exploring new territory. A kayak or boat would help a lot.

This is such a different, interesting, mind catching episode. Maybe just do more random episodes like this. So exciting. "Glacier road side cuts"

I lived in Anacortes for a couple of years. Anacortes and Fidalgo was known to the natives as the hole in the sky because the clouds mostly parted in the area. That was a great park to visit. I lived quite near Washington Park. Took thousands of pictures, mostly sunsets all around Anacortes. This was before I found Nick. I always wondered about what shaped and scraped those rocks. I loved hiking at green point beach. I love learning about what I used to see when I was there. Thanks Nick and Gary.

You’re such a Foodie!!! I love following you around Nick!

I expected the conversation to focus on "nappes/pizzaboxes and exotic terranes'. This is my favorite place on earth, the San Juan Islands. thx kirk fairfield

Washington Park is one of my favorite places for photo ops! I love looking at the glacier scratches!

Nice job, you two. Our state sure has a lot of beauty and tremendous variety. I wonder whether J H Bretz regretted settling in Illinois. There was never a doubt in my mind...

A pretty day at Green Point Beach in Anacortes!😃✨💚Thank you, Nick and Gary, for taking us along to your scouting trip for 'Nick on the Rocks'!! I'm excited for the new season...✨💗

Absolutely fantastic!

Thanks for this on aa early Monday morning!

It may be a dark and dreary rainy day here in Ohio, but I'm happy to get some PCW sunshine! Thanks, guys!

Never have been in a bad mood in Anacortes!

At 13:49...... I really like green rocks that I can't spell. ( No...I do not mean Basalt ). At 18:18...Nick...I'm sorry... but I .... I put that Granitic Erratic there last night.

Perfect! fun adventure Mexico to Canada ending with lunch. Yum. Im hungry must get breakfast.

If someone has a problem with sharing this video and its information because of a "permit" or special "authorization" tell them to come see me.

Glad I got to come to your Saturday talk!

Love it. Thanks for sharing this, Nick.

I had my hands on the keyboard to type "You had better check the afternoon tides" and Gary said the very same thing 35:34. I had to chuckle about it.

What a beautiful location!

Plenty of examples of till on bedrock over here in the Southern Gulf Islands (North of the San Juans) Lots of beach agates and really big erratics too.

You found great content for your video with all the glacial till, erratics, and striae. Please don’t neglect what Gary commented on at about 16:51 in the video. He made a terrific observation when he said that he was “ holding a piece of the upper mantle”. I know it doesn’t fit the glacial theme, but it is amazing nevertheless. The two of you do make a great team!

oh my, the toes of my home. look at the bluff behind you on Guemes at 22min. into this vid. it's called 'Yellow Bluff' on the marine charts. Walking west from the Guemes Ferry you will find a wetland formed by beach grown from tidal action, and as you reach the s.west tip of the island the sandy banks appear. A bog can be seen as a black layer about 2m above the beach; and the bank below is sand, but above the sand is more red and has lots of pebbles. Large rocks lay around towards the water where sand was washed east to entrap that wetland. Looking at Blakely in 15:03 in the vid, i see a bluff with the same horizontal line. on guemes the black layer falls in big chunks and can be found laying about some years almost to the ferry.Get a tide app on your phone. i have walked there and back between ferries many times. a road will get you near. Goose Rock on the S.E. end of Deception Pass Bridge also has marred surfaces on top. and Bowman Bay has similar roots to cap sante. Rosario Beach has different strata and beautiful black pebbles. These beaches all have mixes of small and larger very hard rocks from elsewhere mixed with local chunks. the water leaves the hard ones longer. Every time i check for calsites in white bands and stones... nope; but quartzites likely. and real green stones, or dark purple - brown/olive. a lot of different granite related, and many diverse structures trapped in others. feel free to get in touch. a marine chart may help too.

Beware the tides! Make sure you aren't wading the beach if you come later in the day!!

Fascinating! Loving the unconformity. Baja BC meet Cordillera Ice Sheet. Choice spot!

My sailboat is at Cap Sante Marina, I really enjoy driving up Cap Sante with a Latte and taking in the view.

Great stumbled upon topic for Nick on the rocks. Keep on keeping on.

Thank you for the outing. Lovely and fascinating 🎉❤

Anacortes is is an awesome little port city with lots to do and see. The rock formations and types where you’re at are cool to explore. There are many amazing restaurants there too.

Hey there Nick, good to see you doing well. I had a thought for a little show about a geological phenomenon in your neck of the woods, Have you heard of Mel’s hole? It’s supposed to be to the north west of Ellensberg in the area of Monastash Ridge. Seems like a geological big foot or chupacabra

Ah, the retired life...

Howd i miss this. Was up since 3 am. Thanks again nick!

excellent will you please place and film a compass next too the striations perhaps? you are excellent

Nick and Gary, thank you for your rock climbing today. As an Australian I had to Google Map to discover your location. It would be interesting to discover the depth of the surrounding sea channels, perchance to indicate the depth of the ice lob which created the area. I will look forward to your forthcoming program.

Fun adventure to find mantle rocks, glacier striations with till & beach gravel with agates.

I read that there is both dunite and peridodtite at Green Point. It might be in either the Tucker or the Miller books you showed at the beginning. All our books are packed for moving right now or I would read up on this. I visited Green Point to do an Earthcache exercise where we were directed to find these two ultramafic rock types. The Earthcache did not include a site specific reference but the page did mention both. One of the waypoints was around the corner a 100 to 200 feet from Green Point proper and just below a short parking pulloff. Maybe you guys were on it. I remember the two locations had different colored rocks. This post is not very helpful but maybe Dave or Marlie mention the dunite.

Did you see the Glacial Tube farther around the Loop? There are more outcroppings of these rocks at Rosario Head. I believe there are two erratics from two different mountains in Canada sitting together on San Juan Island in the Sculpture Park behind Roche Harbor.

Madrone trees grow in Bandera County Texas. Love the video.

Very interesting to see you two spitballing ideas for the show. Hoka Speedgoats are awesome. :)

❤❤❤ lucky guys! Thank you so much!

Missed, this one, too!! Going to see it!!❤❤❤🎉

Ohhh are we doing a new Ice sheet series? You know I will watch all the videos!

My understanding is that the most recent study found the ophiolite suite to be more of an ophiolite melange than a neat sequence, but they're still fascinating rocks.

Always like Backwoods Gary. Thanks to all.

Thanks for the ride.

Granite erratics are all over Fidalgo Island. They have been sources to particular areas of Canada.

Samish Island's beach has public access near the island's neck. Kd bedrock with Esperance sand and other glacial stuff in the bluffs. May need to walk the beach at lower tide.

Nick, great to see you on the west side. My wife and I always visit Cap Sante Park when in Anacortes. I have often wondered what happened here in geologic time?

It does matter: you will never get pine trees in rainy Everett. Anacortes is in the blessed Blue Hole, rather than Snohomish's accursed PSCZ.

Very cool!! There are some places in the high Sierra’s with glacier polished striations in the granite just like that.

This is spectacular!!