This view of Alpine from the north (the Fort Davis road) shows Hancock Hill (4,925 feet) which rises about 500 feet above the flat in front of the camera. Some suspect that the hill has an intrusive core but no evidence has shown up in water wells drilled around the hill. It is most likely a Crossen volcanic fault block – Crossen trachyte and tuff outcrop in road cuts going up the hill. A fault running along the right side of the hill has a displacement of about 1,250 feet down to the right.
The triangular Mount Ord (6,700 feet) on the skyline behind Hancock Hill Mount Ord (6,700 feet) is the highest point in the Del Norte Mountains. The mountains form a 35-mile long ridge from Highway 90 south to the Santiago Mountains. The ridge is tilted up with its west face dipping the west at an angle of 10°.
The dip of the west face is at nearly the same angle as a bed of Crossen lava, 265 feet thick at the Mount Ord summit. In places the lava has been eroded away, exposing underlying soft Pruett tuff.
The lava breaks off at the crest of the ridge, creating a steep escarpment on the east, 600 feet high at Mount Ord. For more see River Road Vistas.
