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The New Idria area is home to rare minerals and unusual plants, but items of geologic interest also pop up around every bend. This is an example of tafoni, the sort of honeycomb rock that results from formation of salt crystals due to evaporation (more here). Up the road a bit is a whole hillside of asbestos, the tailings pile from an old mine. I collected a piece. And down the road a bit is a gaping abandoned mine mouth, its steel door painted with a skull-and-bones warning.
All photos (c) 2003 Andrew Alden, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Cavernous weathering creates these tafoni along the road down to New Idria.
