“Nature's Pothole”

The following photo was taken near Jones Lake (Wahleach Lake), Fraser Valley, B.C., Canada.

An early morning start had me hiking a steep hillside along a creek looking for waterfalls. This particular creek meandered through a large metamorphic bedrock formation. The creek contained house and vehicle sized fallen boulders that had originated from a cliff situated far above on the opposite hillside. As I continued to traverse along the mountain looking for photo worthy compositions I spotted a hole that I was unable to fully discern due to my position far above it. I decided to work my way down to the level of the creek to have a closer look at the hole. I had discovered to my amazement a large pothole. The swirling water combined with sand, found seemingly undisturbed between the large boulders, were the tools to sculpt the largest pothole I had ever seen. With the constant circular movement of sand and water scraping the bedrock, over time the pothole was created as shown in the photo. I photographed myself to give some scale to the hole that reminds me of the movie, “Journey to the Center of the Earth”.

After returning to the vehicle I couldn’t help but wonder if I discovered the “World’s Largest Pothole”.  With a little bit of research I discovered that “my pothole” is not even close to the colossal Archbald Pothole in Pennsylvania, 11.6m (38 feet) deep and an oval diameter of 12.8m (42 feet) by 7.3 m (24 feet).  My find is still truly amazing and I’m proud to have stumbled over this pothole.

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I hope you enjoy the photo.