Bench Lake Ranger Station area, Kings Canyon NP

(Shift moves in; Command on Mac zooms out. Might need to click on image first. On iDevice, can move device around to pan).

Hide... From the bluff north of the second lake above the Bench Lake Ranger Station, which is visible at the meadow edge below the brown-topped peak of Cardinal Mountain. Taboose Pass is hidden from view near the base of Cardinal Mountain. Farther left, we look north over Upper Basin to Mather Pass (prominent low point), beyond which the Middle Palisade Group rises. Farther left, Vennacher Needle is on the skyline above the leftmost visible edge of Upper Basin's forest. The prominent peak to the northwest is Mt. Ruskin; farther left peaks on the Cirque Crest define the north side of the untrailed South Fork's canyon. To the left of the canyon, Arrow Peak is prominent, rising above unseen Bench Lake. Turning to the southeast, peaks surrounding Lake Marjorie are in view; the north ridge of Mt. Pinchot is probably the dark peak to the left of the saddle (where Pinchot Pass is hiding).

Geology to the north is dominated by the Lamarck Granodiorite and the Cartridge Pass pluton, with the latter making up peaks left of Mather Pass and the former peaks to the right. Metasedimentary rocks stripe the higher peaks in this area such as Cardinal Mountain and Mt. Pinchot; these predate the granites in the Sierra and this is one of the most extensive outcrops along the Muir Trail. To the south, these metamorphic rocks are intruded by older granites; the combination produces some complex geology that is mostly out of view. Unlike many areas, it is hard to identify glacial trim lines from this point; the glacial ice in Upper Basin overtopped Mather Pass and Taboose Pass; the relation of deposits in the foreground to the glaciers here is unclear but probably is a terminal moraine and outwash deposit partially dammed by lateral moraines of the main South Fork glacier down below.