northwest geology field trips
- Field trip to the Wells Creek volcanics, North Fork Nooksack River (nwgeology.wordpress.com)
The Wells Creek Volcanic Member of the Nooksack Formation (Tabor and others, 2003; see refs below) is found in the vicinity of Nooksack Falls, east of Glacier, Washington. These Middle Jurassic island arc rocks form steep yellowish cliffs along the Mount Baker Highway (Route 542) just east of the Excelsior Pass trailhead, where they crowd the highway against the deep gorge of the North Fork Nooksack River…
- Washington State Route 542 (Wikipedia)
State Route 542 (SR 542) is a 57.24-mile-long (92.12 km) state highway in the U.S. state of Washington, serving Mount Baker in Whatcom County. SR 542 travels east as the Mount Baker Highway from an interchange with Interstate 5 (I-5) in Bellingham through the Nooksack River valley to the Mt. Baker Ski Area at Austin Pass. It serves as the main highway to Mount Baker and the communities of Deming, Kendall, and Maple Falls along the Nooksack River. The highway was constructed in 1893 by Whatcom County as a wagon road between Bellingham and Maple Falls and was added to the state highway system as a branch of State Road 1 in 1925. The branch was transferred to Primary State Highway 1 (PSH 1) during its creation in 1937 and became SR 542 during the 1964 highway renumbering.
