It turns out there are quite a number of places in the Western United States (and even more worldwide) with names that designate them as “the Devil’s (fill in the blank).” Have you ever heard of Devil’s Slide in San Mateo County? Or Devil’s Canyon and Devil’s Punchbowl, both in the Angeles National Forest? How about Devil’s Playground in Arizona? And don’t forget about my favorite, the Devil’s Golf Course in Death Valley.

In this episode of California’s Gold, originally aired in 1999, Huell visits yet another of these sites — the Devil’s Postpile near Mammoth in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Besides some truly amazing scenery, he enjoys chatting with other visitors and learning about the formation of the basalt structure (similar columnar basalt structures can be found in Iceland, Mexico, New Zealand, and several other places around the world).

Surreal, awesome, unbelievable, weird? These are just some of the words that come out of your mouth when you view the Devils Postpile. Located in the Eastern Sierras, this formation is one of nature’s true masterpieces.

Towering 60 feet over the San Joaquin River the postpile looks like a huge cathedral pipe organ built entirely of stone. The postpile is actually composed of thousands of columns of fine-grained, black – colored basalt. 100,000 years ago cooling molten rock contracted, creating perfect cracks. As gravity pulled on the face it created thousands of columns and the postpile was born. Join Huell as he tours this fine example of nature’s “California’s Gold”.

(Click on the linked image below to see the video.)