North Cascades Highway Geology w/ Stacia Gordon and Bob Miller 

Bob Miller has such a memory to recall the geologic history of the North Cascades that I can not believe that anyone can recall all of the details of each study and map that has been done in the area for thirty years as though it happened yesterday. Totally impressive.

Thanks again, Nick for a terrific journey. The interview with Ruddie was a huge suprise. I am going into a bit of withdrawal, but I will do my best. Rocks rock.

VERY COOL!! SO GLAD you can share this exciting excursion with us!! Next yr. bring a drone. By then you'll be so hot at it!!

Wow, I love the way Stacia & Bob ask the opinion of the other. I missed most of the Washington Pass discussion because of the scenery. Keep 'em comin'!

That was awesome! What a treat to have those two experts share their knowledge observations, and incredible outcrops.

So great to see 2/3rds of the “Dream Team” together again! All of Nick’s videos are superb, but his ability to get experts to talk, particularly while in the field, are most informative……Dr. Gordon and Dr. Miller are so impressive with regards to the expertise and experience. Super informative. Cool to see them collaborate. Thank you Nick!

Thank you Nick, Stacia and Bob for sharing your time, knowledge and experiences with us, you are sooooo appreciated! 🙏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

I can watch this for hours and hours. So interesting. Thanks guys

Thank you Nick. I love the long form video. I live in an ancient flat desert. Red and brown is what I see. What a wondrous part of the world of the world you live in. I feel lucky that you share these wonders and your appreciation for them, with us at a price I can afford.

Wow long one .well have not posted in a while so I am more than ready

You're right, a lot of good information, views and interesting rocks (and terminology). Hearing about temperature, pressure, and elevators, helps me better understand metamorphic changes. Your last views at Washington Pass are perfectly stunning. Thank you Bob and Stacia, for allowing us to hear your discussions, and Nick your questions. ( In late July I boated up Lake Ross to camp, and BC Gary clued me in about Jack Mtn and Skagit Gneiss.) 👍🏼

I Was Glued to the Screen, Nick, BEST work yet!! Thanks for the Journey!! What a DAY!! Thanks to the 2/3 of the Team for their Knowledge and Comprehension!! of a TOUGH Study!!

So good. Bob & Stacia are superstars. Thank you Nick for making this science so accessible. I’m grateful.

Wow, that was a super wow, so much information in this video! Thank you team!!!

Makes my day seeing a new video or podcast notification come through!

Only can say... wow! I have lived in Washington more than 50 years, have traveled the same routes and this is the best academic geology discussion ever... thank you Nick, Bob and Stacia for your enlightenments... I look forward to the rest of the Dream Team joining for more content...

This has so much information I’ve watched it in segments. Now I really am looking forward to the Baja-BC lectures

Dr. Gordon and Dr. Miller - what an incredible amount of academic expertise flowing in these two hours. Most of the technical aspects of your videos are well above me, but this is stratospheric.

Hopefully the Washington Tourism is considering sponsoring Nick. Now I need to make ANOTHER trip to Washington....and take some Vinmann's up there.

I was the sourdough mountain lookout the summer of 1969. I watched them carve the highway through the park for a couple of months from my perch. Matter of fact I once called in a slash burn as a fire. Relieved to find out it was controlled.

Some of the best scenery videos online, because not only do we get to enjoy the wonderful scenery, but get to learn how it got here, and why it looks as it does. Such a gem you are Nick. Beyond geology, your superpower is getting folks to share their information (as protocol allows, of course,) so all of us can join in like "flies on the wall." So much about this collection to enjoy, that it's hard to pick a favorite spot. Just this video alone should be enough to get more folks to enroll at CWU.

Come on Nick, don't be shy in front of Bob and Stacia, you know you love us! Great video, it just makes me want to go to Washington real bad. Thanks

This video is a gift for the geology God's lol. I just love the cool outcrops that i never seen before. Thank all three of you.

Always had an appreciation for the beauty of these areas. The story behind the visual takes it to another level. Thank you for the training.

Thank you Bob, Stacia, and Nick.... Bravissimo.

💖💖💖 Thanks Bob! Thanks Stacia! Thanks Nick ❣️

I am taking my first vacation in 3 years up in the Methow valley, heading there in 2 days. Its been years since I have been able to spend time with my partner in the wild. Gonna spend a day doing this.

Thank you so much for this!!! As a new resident of Skagit county I so appreciate this gift

Thanks once again for the dynamite video and all three of you for taking a DAY and teaching us out here in video land! You all ROCK! Cheers from Minnesota

I keep hearing about this Cascade "crystalline core" not knowing what that meant. Appreciate hearing from the Experts and Nick combined with visually showing the examples.

I really appreciate Stacia Gordon and Bob Miller. Brilliance.

Wonderful, dear professor nick, and group!! Have to resee, again, i enjoy just the feeling, of being included, as we watch from afar.. it feels like WE are there, too! it is so easy, and natural.. god bless, love, and prayers..🤗🙏

WOW Professor Nick you have really out done yourself with this video. Very interesting, Washington is an amazing state! Many thanks to Bob and Stacia for sharing their wealth of information with us. PS Noraly is gasping for air at over 12,000 feet once again. I haven't heard her struggling like that since the Alta Plano of Bolivia.

Everything Bob had to say was informative, intriguing, and thought provoking...! But in the future, it would be great to hear more from Dr. Gordon!

2 hours of Nick! Yay!

Wow. I've had to take this in bites because, zoom over my head. And when Bob Miller states "I'm not sure I understand it" when it comes to a difficult concept, I know I don't stand a chance. But, damn those are beautiful rocks. And once again, Nick, you make me appreciate my home.

WOW! A full length “feature” film. Thank you to all for this prehistoric journey. Geologic time is vast…. And very busy. 🥰

A two hour geology video from Professor Zentner. You gotta love it!

The rocks are way more dynamic then I thought. Drive the roads several times a year. Have to stop next time we go over

Stellar minds and production Nick, Bob & Stacia. I haven't been up in that area for many years, but in my youth spent many spring summer & fall days up in Diablo Lake, Ross Lake, Ruby Creek, & more. My family was fortunate to have had a Dad who was a true outdoorsman. In his youth he grew up on Chuckanut Bay and Chuckanut Mountain & was in the forest service & worked in that whole area, fought several forest fires up there. We walked/ hiked many miles through that area taking in the breathtaking geologic uniqueness of the North Cascades well prior to the opening of Highway 20. It was always so striking to see the beautiful striations & makeup of the rocks, the myriad & mixtures of obviously different events that made them occur. Also, eating the small & sweetest wild strawberries along the trails around Ruby Creek. Thanks for the Geologic Tour & timing of when, what, and where over that area.

Thank you Nick, Bob, and Stacia for the field trip across the cascades! For those of us that are far away it's always amazing to see the wonderful sights of WA. I especially liked the Diablo Lake overlook. Amazing color to the water. A second look at the Washington Pass was great as well even though it triggers my fear of height when you get close to the railing. :)

For those who don't know, upon traveling highway 20 east as you reach marblemount the road travels around a left hand corner with this road ( cascade river road ) more of a straight at that corner. I lived on that road years ago.

Super cool. Thanks to Bob and Stacia for taking the time to explain these incredible features. I've driven the N.C. Loop a few times and it's absolutely like driving through a postcard.

Awesome to see a new video. North Cascades is an amazing area. I was going to propose to a very special woman up there since it is so majestic.

Incredible video! I don't know how all that technical data is memorized and recalled so easily. These video interviews allow me to experience people and be exposed to knowledge that would otherwise be out of my grasp. Thank you so much Stacia Gordon and Bob Miller for your time and incredible knowledge and thank you Nick for your time with them, editing and putting this out here for all of us.

I was looking for you last night and here you are today...never disappoint

Quite an informative video. Beautiful countryside.

This was really incredible. I have so many thoughts and questions, it probably wouldn’t be practical for me to write them here, I will keep it to one topic only. I found it useful to follow along with Bob’s and Stacia’s 2016 paper “Linking deep and shallow crustal processes during regional transtension in an exhumed continental arc, North Cascades, northwestern Cordillera (USA)”. So many beautiful sites, scenes, and stones. One question that keeps coming up for me, that I haven’t been able to resolve is: what do rocks of the Methow ocean represent exactly-ie, which ocean are we talking about when we say “Methow Ocean”? During the Jurassic, you have the lobster-claw closure of the Intermontane “string bean” (although another interpretation has the “string bean” being cut in two by a right-lateral transform fault with originally southern Stikinia moving north, outboard of Quesnelia, with a Cache Creek ocean in between), and the oceanic rocks that are caught up between the two sides (outboard Stikinia and inboard Quesnelia) are the Bridge River/Hozameen/Cache Creek rocks, which can be correlated with the Baker Terrane of the Blue Mountains, Eastern Hayfork of the Klamaths, and Calaveras Complex/Feather River Peridotite Belt of the N. Sierra. Stikinia then appears to be Cadwallader Terrane in BC, Cascade River Schist/Marblemount/Magic River Gneiss in the N. Cascades, Wallowa Terrane/Seven Devils Arc of the Blue Mtns., Rouge/Chetco/Rattlesnake Creek Arc terranes in the Klamaths, and the unnamed “Jura-Triassic Arc” Foothills terrane of the Northern Sierra (Smartville Complex). The outboard Stikinia arc was split by an intra-arc rift basin (probably several small basins, forming an archipelago) which closed in on and was stacked upon itself during the Nevadan collision of the IMS, resulting in the obduction of a variety of intra-arc/suprasubduction zone ophiolite sequences that include the Fidalgo, Ingalls, Josephine, and Smartville/Jarbo Gap and Great Valley tectonic complexes/ophiolites. (Why is there no Josephine/Ingalls equivalent in the Blue Mountains?) The Quesnelia arc in BC and eastern Washington is represented by the Olds Ferry Terrane/Huntington Arc of the Blue Mountains, the Eastern Klamath Terrane, and then the Shoo Fly Complex of the Northern Sierra. These Quesnelian terranes were rifted off of North America in the Paleozoic, making them parautochthonous, and the ocean basin which formed behind Quesnelia is the Slide Mountain (in Canada)/Havallah (in Nevada) back-arc basin. Now my question with the Methow Ocean concerns what occurred after collision of the IMS as described above. There was an interval of time where the IMS had collided with North America, and Wrangelia/Alexander/Guerrero/Insular Superterrane was still offshore. In between the accreted IMS and the offshore INS was an intervening ocean basin that was not the Pacific, and was not floored by the Pacfic or Farallon plates. This oceanic basin between the INS and IMS is what Sigloch et al. refer to as the “Angayucham-Mezcalara Ocean”, with “Angayucham” referring to the accreted oceanic terrane of the same name in central northern Alaska, which was once a tectonic plate between the two superterranes, and “Mezcalara” referring to a second oceanic plate to the south of the Angayucham, perhaps separated by the California-Coahuila Transform fault. Yet there is no record, as far as I know, of this Angayucham-Mezcalara ocean, in the way of obducted ophiolites or mélanges. The Cretaceous subduction complex and accretionary ridge complexes such as the Franciscan of California and Oregon, the Mélange Belts of Washington’s Cascades, and the Chugach in Alaska, along with related foreacrc basin sediments of California’s Great Valley Group, the Galice Formation of the Klamaths, and the Nanaimo Group of NW Washington and Vancouver Island are associated with reestablished subduction of the Andean-style Cretaceous continental arc, after Wrangellia/Alexander/Guerrero/Insular Superterrane was already accreted. None of these rocks represent the Angayucham-Mezcalara oceanic lithosphere, seafloor, or oceanic sediments. The remains of such an oceanic basin should be large and widespread, considering the size of both the IMS and INS. The latest age of the seafloor should be something like 130-100 Ma, unlike the older Jurassic Ingalls/Josephine/Smartville Ophiolites, which formed within the IMS archipelago. So the missing Angayucham-Mezcalara Ocean rocks makes me wonder, if the Hozameen terrane is Cache Creek Affinity, and the Methow is different (and younger), could the Methow represent the Angayucham-Mezcalara Ocean? The problem is, its position east of IMS rocks such as the Cascade River Schist/Marblemount Pluton/Magic River Gneiss, as well as east of the Hozameen terrane. The A-M ocean would have been west of the IMS, Quesnelia and Cache Creek rocks. However, Baja BC translation could have re-positioned such rocks outboard of A-M ocean remains, and the Ross Lake Fault that bounds the Methow Domain is supposedly related to Baja BC translation. Anyway this is a big mystery to me-put simply, which ancient ocean basin does the Methow domain represent? Where are the remnants of the oceanic basin between the IMS and INS, the Angayucham-Mezcalara Ocean? And do the Methow domain rocks represent the A-M oceanic basin, the Cache Creek oceanic basin, or something else, entirely? Maybe someone can help illuminate me on this. Thanks for this awesome, long video filled with great stuff, Nick.

I'm watching this again with more awareness of the area, having camped on Ross Lake last summer, and readying to camp again in July. (We will be below Jack Mtn.) Thanks to Bob, Stacia and you!

Amazing thanks ya all for facts.

Geologists have the utter best visualization skills.

Boy what a beautiful place. Interesting talk and great video. I'll be listening to the talk again

WOW!! Great content. Beautiful country! Really nice, smart people. Thanks Nick.

Wow those are some tight folds! Cool how the Park loans samples and gives you numbers for them so they can use your discoveries as well. Maybe someday they will be in a sealed table display in a visitor center describing the cool stuff you all covered in your research! Thanks again, Nick, Stacia and Bob for another mega informative geohike! Makes me glad I took so many of Nick's online classes!

Excellent marathon of geology…Thank you all…

o great He's back with friends and rocksl

the North Cascades are a must see for ALL thank you stay safe

We were at this very spot above Diablo Lake and canoe camping a couple weeks ago.

We used to Camp at Colonial Creek and walk up the road as it was being constructed in the 70s too. We also camped at Early winters from the other side during construction. It was a big deal when they connected it all. Love to learn about what is underneath all that beautiful scenery.

Wow! That was splendid! Had to watch it over two days after work. Gonna take a while to absorb all that was talked about. Very interesting though. Got me thinking!

Thank you very much for the eye and brain candy proffessor. Hope we can enjoy more of this long videos with the dream team. Cheers from México.

Any other past students of Bob in the comments section? I've been watching Nick's videos for years and its such a cool thing to see Bob collaborate with him and other great Geologists of our time.

Great to hear you all are using the metric system, makes it a bit easier for me to follow the distances. Awesome videos and thanks for sharing.

I did this drive TWICE this past weekend, it is truly stunning. I can’t wait to go back next year after the rains. It’s worth it in bad weather though. I’m sad I didn’t discover this video beforehand, but gives me something to look forward to.

Surprised you only visited the best part in washington recently! But very happy for you that you made it there! Many never do.

These rocks sound very similar to East Bay SF Calif Bay hills rocks.. Interesting. Thanks for the great outing, andgeology talk with These experts and video.

Sharing with my nieces in Twisp and Winthrop. Thanks!

Thank you Professor Zentner

Awesome nature. Such nice persons. So much deduction backed by knowledge. Living by devotion.

What a treat! Bob lost me there a few times mostly because he is a genius and I’m not. The work that he, Stacia and Mike are doing is fascinating. I’ve got to read up on more of Stacia’s work.

Your right, Long!, took me a while to find time. Of you watch Icelands volcano the last week, being reactivated, you can see how the new flow intersects and folds into the rock deposits of months ago. So I can see how if it reactivated 2ma spacing it would be folded together. Thanks to everyone!

I have only made the trip across once, W to E. A long-ish drive back in the seventies. Very nice video. Informative and Beautiful Landscape. Now keep it a secret or they will have to make a 4 lane freeway thru there.

I’m ending 5 weeks home here in Oregon tomorrow. Knowing there is more to come helps. As does this: three geologists, wise and still wondering and willingly sharing with us.

As long as you're traveling a ways from home! Check out Shores Acres State Park, that's another area with interesting geology that instantly made me think of you Nick!

Before finding professor Nicks vlogs I could of never imagined watching three people talking about nothing but rocks for two hours, I will never look at them the same again, thank you.

I love Washington Pass and Liberty Bell!!! I try to make that trip every year just for fun, but sadly the last time I was up there in 2019. IMHO it's one of the best places in the natural places in the world.

Really enjoyed eavesdropping on a geologic tour. The scenery is amazing and the information puts it in perspective. Been a fan since 2020. David in Milwaukee WI

Thanks to your guest professors for showing some of the fantastic granitic and sedimentary rock formations in the North Cascades.

💜 Fantastic! Nick… you make the field of geology so very interesting to the general public. Keep up your wonderful work! Very Best Wishes Always. Robert Conley- An old quantitative igneous & metamorphic petrographer 💜

I would easily pay for everyone's gas if I could be a fly on the wall on a trip like this, but until an opportunity like that comes along, I'll continue to enjoy these videos, thanks.

Love the Dream Team…Granophyre,Phonolite,and a layered intrusion.Many in flood Basalt. Can I borrow Bob Miller for a day or two? Wonderful video 🏆

Nick!... Took me two days to launch into this one! and I can't believe I did it ALL in one sitting... Again... I was up there the day after you... Meeting PCT hikers at Rainy Pass. And yesterday, I made the long haul all the way to Harts Pass... some awesome geology up there as well! and history. Was surprised by Bob's comment on Jack Kerouac... but Jack's Lookout was not on Hozomeen... but the mountain to the south, Desolation Peak, which gave him an awesome view of Hozomeen in all 'her' moods, thus inspiring poetry and prose. Not sure, but I believe the Desolation Lookout is still being manned in the summer. Really enjoyed the vid!!! Thanks!

I looooove your videos, they're informative, intelligent, and fun...I love rocks and all aspects of geology. I'm inspired. Thank you.

I appreciate Bob and Stacia doing this. Sometimes I forget about the human part and get distracted by the puzzle.

Hi! I just wanted to make a couple small correction: locally, Eldorado is known as the "Queen of the Skagit", not Jack. Jack might be more locally known as a terrifying choss pile. Also, Kerouac wrote "Desolation Angels" in the lookout, not Dharma Bums. These are minor errors but given how many viewers there are, I just wanted to make the corrections on behalf of the Skagit community and history. :) Thank you for the content and I can't say enough how pleasant Bob and Stacia are! So incredibly clear and concise in their explanations - wish I had them as structural instructora.

The scenery is spectacular and one thinks of the violent processes in the earths crust in this part of the world in the last 200 million years it is just amazing. There would have been constant changes in the elevation of the landscape and local climate conditions which would have led to rapid evolution of vertebrate, invertebrate and plant and fungal life to cope with the constantly changing conditions which would have given many more species in the fossil record (where it exists and has not been melted) than in a quiet tranquil environment.

I spent several weeks on the Hwy survey team as a teenager. I was basically a 'Chain Boy'. My stepdad was a Washington State Hwy. engineer. I would have loved to have spent more time on that great adventure, but as the oldest son I had farm duties and responsibilities so my time was limited. There were no roads or even trails to access a lot of the surveyed route. Very rough and sometimes dangerous going. To this day, I have never driven over the highway.

Hey Prof Zentner, Animator Ben here, (previously of LA now Portland) you had mentioned in your Portland video that you'd had no idea the CRB formation came as far South as Portland. Well, I very highly recommend that you take a day to hike the "Trail of Ten Falls" loop, down near Salem, OR. Yes, it went that far South, and the geology there will knock your socks off. ERRATA: Sorry Prof, you'd mentioned you were surprised the CRB had traveled this far WEST, not south. (because Ben, Multnomah Falls among other formations on the Columbia River shoreline, duh) So sorry there. But yes: Trail Of Ten Falls definitely deserves a chapter in the CRB book. (btw: the full loop is described as "intermediate" difficulty but it did wear down my old knees. One option would be to start at South Falls, walk CW, and have a getaway car ready at the North Falls pking lot)

Another hit video!!Thank you Nick!

@2:26 Here are a few handy phone apps that don't require cell service: Compass Navigation, with degrees, Long./Lat., nearest landmark and elevation.; MyGPSCoordinates, Long./Lat. within 16 feet; Altimeter, accurate within one foot.

Thank You! Excellent Presentation. Thank you for teaching about the geology of Washington State. I grew up in New York. I remember geology like ultra-mafic rocks with the colored streaks near Cold Springs, Upstate NY. There is a place called "Ice-Caves Mtn" where that is what is there. Caves of ice, on a ridge where the north american plate rises and forms a ridge south to north in the Catskill Mtns.

Interesting to hear how the local region responds to the exotic terranes as they roll in and old faults are re-activated etc.

Thanks alot to ponder will need a second time through

Saw that Bob will be retiring from teaching this year, which is a shame but well deserved. This brings back memories from his structural geology field trips. The saying "he will forget more 'x' than I will ever learn" I can't imagine applies to Bob. He forgets very little.

Fantastic, Thank you.

some amazing scenery.

Thanks y'all! Nice scenery! 😎✌️

I had to watch in two parts and I did watch every minute. You keep referring to Mike, Bob, and Stacia as “the Dream Team” but remember they asked you to accompany them on the journey. You will be presenting the subject to us, the audience, and we are not insignificant in number. It would be difficult for them to disseminate and hold the interest of the number and diversity of people who follow you. So count yourself as a member of “the Dream Team”.

Oh sorry..we are talking about rocks....I was distracted with the views of the mountains. :)

We were on vacation from CA on the north cascades highway just a couple weeks ago. We kept an eye out for Nick, but he remained elusive. Figures that we missed him by just a bit. I'm surprised he didn't include a shot of Gorge falls. They're impressive. The Washington Pass Overlook was where I got to see my first glacial polish and striations. There it was...no signage, off to side of the of the trail away from the view, just something that caught my eye.