Long before rock climbers appropriated this term for their climbing aids, nature placed its own chockstones by gravity's effect on weathering rock. The highly weathered granite in Arizona provides a wealth of chockstones, some intricately pieced together like giant puzzles. Almost every crevice and crack in the rocks contain chockstones both large and small. Similar rounded rocks stretch diagonally across the state from the southeast corner towards the northwest. In almost any trip traveling from the south to the north along Arizona's highways and roads, you can spot this band of similar looking rocks. The outcrops are not always granite, some are dacite and other types of rocks of volcanic origin, but the weathering processes are the same and the formations appear similar.
Some of the parts of the band of rocks are pretty spectacular, such as those in Queen Creek Canyon just north of the mining town of Superior, Arizona. At least one of the areas in southeast Arizona has been made a national Monument, Chiricahua National Monument.
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