Gold Belt Tour
Phantom Canyon Road Part 2

Gendarmes, pillars: the rock formations get wilder yet. Mind you, this is evidence of a harder finger of granite surviving the millenia while the softer materials around it eroded away. For a moment here, the steepness of the surrounding hillsides takes a bit of a rest. It almost feels like you're reaching the top of the canyon, but you aren't. There's still a couple miles to go yet.

Some boulderers like practicing their craft on formations like this. Others will be a bit nervous in regards to how crumbly the rock may be. Either way, I'm pretty sure this rock is much harder and more stable than that more recently formed stuff over in the San Juan Mountains (which tends to be of volcanic origin and between 10 and 65 million years old, as opposed to this 1.8 billion-year-old stuff).