Dragon Cone | |
Elevation M: | 1830 |
Location: | British Columbia, Canada |
Range: | Cariboo Mountains |
Coordinates: | 52.25°N -120.05°W |
Type: | Cinder cone |
Age: | Holocene |
Volcanic Arc/Belt: | Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field |
Last Eruption: | 7560 BP |
Dragon Cone is a monogenetic cinder cone located in Wells Gray Provincial Park in east-central British Columbia. It is the source of a 150NaN0 long lava flow, called Dragon's Tongue. This lava covered the floor of narrow Falls Creek Valley and terminated at the Clearwater River, damming it to a height of 30NaN0 and raising the level of existing Clearwater Lake upstream. Geologists have recovered some peat buried by the lava and radiocarbon dating produced an age of 7560 years plus or minus 100 years.[1] Flows from nearby Flourmill Cone, Kostal Cone and Spanish Lake Cones rest on glaciated bedrock without an intervening paleosol, suggesting an early Holocene age.
Visits to Dragon Cone are very rare due to difficult access. The nearest trail is the overgrown Kostal Lake Trail, over 51NaN1 to the south. Falls Creek is impassable for boats. The cone is best viewed from the air, but float plane landings on nearby Ray Lake are not permitted.[2]