Washington Pass Overlook Granite inspires At Washington Pass, turn north into the visitor center parking lot and walk a short distance out to the overlook for spectacular views of peaks and spires carved from granite of the Golden Horn batholith. The distinctive pinnacled ridges owe their look to joints in the rock.
Joints are geologist jargon for cracks.
Plain and simple. But the processes that produce cracks are many. View south from Washington Pass overlook at peaks carved mostly from granite of Golden Horn batholith. Granitic batholiths cool and crystallize under considerable pressure within the Earth. Upon reaching the surface, through uplift and erosion, they expand, causing many cracks to form, sometimes in a pattern reflecting the shape of the batholith.