This photograph of Chinati Peak (7,330 feet), taken from the Marfa Lights Viewing Center at dawn and one of my favorites from River Road Vistas, has just been made into a postcard.
The mountain is built up of many trachyte and rhyolite lava flows of the Chinati Mountain Group, erupted from the Chinati Volcano 31.9 +/-0.7 million years ago, and more than 3,500 feet thick. The lavas are similar in composition to those of the Paisano Volcano between Marfa and Alpine although 2.8 million years younger.
