Gold Belt Tour Scenic Byway
Phantom Canyon Road Part 1

Notice that the veins and cracks in the rock run in all different directions. Part of that is in how the granite was formed, part of it is a product of breaks along the cleavage faces. This has to do with the actual atomic structure of the minerals contained in the rock. Feldspar, which is what makes this granite red, has an atomic structure that forms crystals with a specific number of faces with each face at a specific angle from connecting faces. What a thought: all this rock is just part of one huge, broken down crystallization of metallic elements...