A corner carved out of the NF; it is just a pile of rocks, but oh so cool. Slowly cooled lava created perfectly ordered columnar basalt.  The octagonal stone pillars are tightly organized and have been cut through by ages of glaciers and water.  It is much like the huge formation at Devils Tower in Wyoming but here a trail runs close enough to see the bundles of ends that look like honey comb and to walk on exposed ends that look like octagonal tiles.  Columns are straight and some bent.  What a great place for a geology (and thermodynamics) lesson.   An American Dipper made an appearance in San Joaquin River that runs along the trail.

Down river we checked out Rainbow falls. Even in this dry season it was beautiful as the flow crossed faceted rock face and fell some 100 feet.  The river creates a surprising oasis among the bare rock and sand.  The trail to the falls passes through an eerie landscape of rock and the skeletons of thousands of tree trunks snapped off at maybe 20 feet above the ground.   A huge blow-down with winds greater than 150 mph tore through this river valley in 2011 and took down everything in front of it.  They are still working to clear campgrounds and trails.

We trekked into the Ansel Adams Wilderness a bit and crossed the Pacific Crest and John Muir Trails. This would be some pretty challenging back country hiking.