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# Nick on the Rocks: Colossal batholiths collide in the Cascades
- URL: https://www.cascadepbs.org/environment/2025/01/nick-rocks-colossal-batholiths-collide-cascades/
- Published: 2025-01-24T05:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-10T16:54:29.000Z
- Description: The massive Golden Horn and Black Peak granite towers near Washington Pass tell a story 50 million years in the making.
- Author: Adam Brown
- Tags: Environment, history, Multimedia, Video, Nick on the Rocks, Geology, batholith, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-04-14 08:10, #Import 2025-05-09 12:31, #article

Drive over Washington Pass on Highway 20 in the North Cascades and you will be treated to views of some of the most dramatic and severe mountains in the entire United States.

The 7,700-foot Liberty Bell looms large over the landscape, and at sunset and sunrise it turns a brilliant gold.

That’s because it’s made of an orange-colored granite and is part of the Golden Horn batholith – a massive granite formation that makes up about half of the skyline at Washington Pass. The other half? The darker Black Peak batholith formation.

Nick Zentner looks for the spot where these two batholiths meet to tell a story 50 million years in the making!

*Support for* Nick on the Rocks *is provided by the Pacific Science Center.*