Those trees are pointing downslope, in the direction of an avalanche decades ago, that swept across Tioga road. The logs were carried out into the open meadow, where the avalanche terminated.
Yep. It was the mid-'80s, though I can't remember the exact year. '86 or '87?? I remember skiing through there a few days after it happened and being amazed and a teensy bit nervous. I never would have expected a snow avalanche off that slope. About a half dozen had also run across the road from the same storm set on the east side of the pass. Hard to piece memory together, but I think I'd just come out of Crabtree and one had run within 50 feet of the ranger station there. One of those 100 year events... .
Here is another cool/scary video of an avalanche:
http://vimeo.com/6581009 And of course, you're correct on the obsidian. I think there's three sources on the east side for most all of the Native American artifacts found in the Sierra. Heavy trading with the west side Indians. There are trading sites near some of the major passes with thousands of pieces left when the larger blocks were broken of up to make blanks to be later used for points.
Other sites you'll find small flakes when the points were actually being shaped. Each epoch had a particular point style associated with it. You can identify not only the source (Glass Mountain, one just on Hwy. 6 at the Nevada border) but also a rough date from the style. It's not uncommon to find points as much as 6,000 years old. Extremely cool. Some studies have even been able to recover DNA from the points to find what animals were being hunted.
I will reemphasize that you absolutely shouldn't take ANY of these artifacts. Not only are you disturbing a living part of the Sierra history and denying that experience to others who might get the same thrill you do, but it's hugely illegal. Depending on what's disturbed, a felony charge is possible.
George
