The road was followed back to Campo, and from there the Laguna Mountains were climbed. The road ascends a long, narrow cañon on the southern slope. At the entrance to the cañon, 4 miles southeast of Buckman’s Springs, the mountains are high and rocky, being formed of thin-bedded gneisses, which, in many places, blend into mica schists. They strike parallel to the mountain axis, a little west of north; dip 70° northeast. Three miles up the cañon the gneiss becomes thick-bedded and is finally replaced by mica diorite, which forms the hills on both sides. Granitic dikes outcrop near the junction and sometimes apparently in the diorite. There is often a blending between the two, as if the intrusion of both took place nearly at the same time. The region east of the southern end of the mountains is formed of coarse granite, decomposed to a considerable depth. The mica diorite extends northward, forming the whole central and western part of the mountains. On the east it is bordered by a slightly higher ridge, forming the crest of the mountains. This rock does not decompose as easily as the granite and gneisses on the west, and there consequently remains a mountain plateau having an elevation of about 5,500 feet. There is a considerable amount of pine timber and open meadows. The dark diorite forms one of the highest peaks of the Laguna Mountains, rising 6,250 feet. The highest portion of the mountains lies to the northeast, and is formed chiefly of a quartzose mica schist. From the eastern crest of the range a most magnificent view of the desert is obtained. The strata on the crest strike north 15° west, dip 70° northeast. The descent of 4,000 feet to Vallecitos is very abrupt. Near the crest it is almost as steep as the dip of the rocks. The mica schists in places approach gneiss in composition, but all of this series of rocks forming the crest and eastern slope very probably belong to the Metamorphic Series. South of this point the Laguna Mountains do not terminate so abruptly, but extend out in long, gradually descending ridges for many miles. The mica diorite extends north of the Laguna about a mile, when the schists on both east and west sides unite and extend north toward Banner. They are intruded by granite and diorite in many places. The body of diorite forming the Laguna plateau is about 8 miles long and 1½ to 2 miles wide. The highest peak is not over 200 feet lower than the Cuyamaca, rising 6,300 feet. The diorite seems to have been intruded in the middle of a considerable area of mica schists, for this rock outcrops on all sides. On the west, toward Pine Valley, they carry the gold veins of the Pine Valley district. The descent is very abrupt to Pine Valley and Buckman’s Springs. The schists and gneisses extend about 3 miles south of the main portion of the mountains, when they are replaced by coarse hornblendic granite.
Buckman’s Springs has an elevation of 3,400 feet. Here are some very excellent soda springs, the only ones I know of in this section of the State. A coarse, dark diabase outcrops in the edge of the mountains just north of Buckman’s and also a little farther south, on the west side of the valley.
A narrow cañon leads up to the divide which separates the valley of the upper Cottonwood from Pine Valley. The western prolongation of the diorite of the Laguna Mountains appears near the road on the divide. The prevailing rock is, however, of a granitoid nature and filled with many large bunches of massive white quartz. Pine Valley has an elevation of 3,800 feet. Gneisses and hornblendic and micaceous schists outcrop between the valley and the divide east of Descanso. The strike is north and south. One mile southeast of Descanso there is another outcrop of the coarse diabase or gabbro which forms so much of the Cuyamaca peaks. Descanso has an elevation of 3,400 feet. The rock which outcrops for a number of miles along the road to Stonewall is a coarse, easily decomposed granite, rising in rounded knobs over a rolling, brush-covered country.
The Pine Valley district lies in a belt of gneissose, mica schist, and quartzose rocks, which extend in a direction a little west of north. They begin about 2 miles south of Pine Creek and extend, probably unbroken, through to Banner and Julian. It is 4 miles north to the Deer Park district. The metamorphic schists widen as this district is approached. They extend from the desert slope to Deer Park, where a body of diorite has been intruded, and from there westward 2 miles to the Cuyamaca grant. A half mile west of the camp the slaty mica schists and quartzites are well defined. A vein of gold-bearing quartz has been traced for several miles in these rocks, and a number of locations have been made on it. The strike is north and south, dip 80° to the east. A body of white crystalline limestone lies in this formation, about 1½ miles southwest of Deer Park. The body of micaceous diorite which extends through this camp is about a mile long, and is quite gneissoid in places. Near its southern end it incloses narrow bands of hornblendic and feldspathic rock, containing garnets. The veins are numerous in this diorite, and extend in every conceivable direction. The diorite has been greatly crushed at some time, with fissures in every direction; hence, the irregularity of the quartz veins. The veins are generally bunchy, and not often very large. They seem simply to follow the exceedingly irregular fracturing of the diorite, which is decomposed to a considerable depth. The work thus far in this district has been confined to the surface, so that nothing can be said in regard to the permanency of the veins. The elevation of the camp is 4,600 feet.
Two miles northward an outcrop of coarse biotite muscovite granite was met. It is about 2 miles long and 1 mile wide, having schists on all sides of it. This is the only example of typical granite (according to Rosenbusch) that was seen in Southern California. A broad valley, occupied by Mr. Harper’s ranch, has been eroded in the center of this granitic mass.
Northward, along the crest of the range overlooking the desert, mica slates appear. They are so little metamorphosed as to closely resemble argillaceous slate. They strike a little west of north, dip 70° to 80° east, and maintain the same character north to Banner and Julian.
The road from Julian to Stonewall crosses mica schist and gneisses for about half the distance. Then we met outcrops of a dark basic rock, ranging from fine to very coarse texture. It extends southward and covers a large extent of country. The three Cuyamaca peaks, the highest in the southern part of the county, are formed of this rock. This rock was again met about half a mile west of the Stonewall Mine. It extends westward across the mountains for at least 2 miles, and some miles south of the main peak. In places it has a schistose structure. Near the outlet of the Cuyamaca reservoirs it is filled with vein-like aggregates of coarse hornblende crystals, which are probably the result of secondary crystallization in fissures or cracks of the almost consolidated magma.
The formation in the vicinity of the Stonewall Mine is biotite gneiss. Toward the east it is not sharply defined from the mica schists. On the west it is generally more granitoid, though at one spot near the lake there are finely laminated schists, dipping 70° southwest. Southward, also, the gneisses become more massive and coarse. At the northeastern base of the main peak a body of coarse granite is partly inclosed in the norite. This norite assumes a dioritic habitus near the granite, with the development of biotite mica.
The valley of the Cottonwood was followed down several miles, when it was left and the Morena Valley traversed to its head. The mountains south of the valley are formed of a dark syenite. North and northwest the higher mountains consist of granite, with a great development of mica and hornblende schists along the slope facing the valley. Many granite dikes have been intruded into the schists. North of Mr. Candler’s there is a great dike of pegmatite, carrying small garnets, tourmaline, mica, and large masses of quartz. This pegmatite dike cuts across the cañon, forming a precipice on its lower side. On the upper side the soil has been retained, forming a small but fertile valley. The strike of the mica schists on the north is quite unusual, being north 75° west, dip nearly vertical. Dark syenite lies on the west of this little valley. Morena Valley has an elevation of 3,400 feet. A rough road leads over the mountains west to McClain’s ranch, a distance of 10 miles; the highest point reached having an elevation of 4,000 feet. Near the summit there outcrops a body of coarse eruptive rock, probably a diorite. It consists of coarse hornblendic aggregates in a light-colored feldspathic matrix. This is followed by syenite, and that by coarse white granite as far as McClain’s. The granite about the valley is coarse, with dark, fine crystalline inclusions. It has every character of a truly eruptive rock, even to the minute spaces between the components, left at the time of crystallization. The road now descends to a branch of the Cottonwood, and from the creek there is a long, gradual ascent to the pass north of Lyon’s Peak. The north side of the pass is formed of another high and rugged granite range. This section is one of the wildest to be found in San Diego County. The mountains are bare granite, often precipitous; the valleys small and covered with brush. Crystalline limestone is reported to have been found in the granite 5 or 6 miles northeast of Renney’s Pass. A very interesting eruptive rock outcrops east of the pass, on the north side of the road. In places it resembles the norite from Cuyamaca peaks. The rock consists largely of large, dark, cleavable crystals filled with small granular crystals of a green color, probably olivine. A large portion of the dark crystals are undoubtedly pyroxene, though there are some showing hornblende cleavage. This is one of the most peculiar and interesting rocks seen in the county, but, from lack of any opportunity to make a microscopic examination, no more definite definition can be given.
Coarse granite extends some distance west of the pass. It is decomposed to such a depth that no specimens could be obtained. A mile west of the pass a fine granite, apparently metamorphic, replaces the other. It contains much quartz, little mica, and yellowish feldspar. Some distance down the new grade a large body of diorite outcrops. It is one of the southern arms of a great mass of coarse, dark rock which forms the high mountains about Dehesa Post Office, on the Sweetwater. A large portion of this rock very closely resembles that forming the Cuyamaca, and is probably a gabbro.