Stop at the base of the steps in the (typically) dry creek bed. The granite here is cut by a series of fractures. These are small faults which have only small offsets. They are part of a fault zone that runs NNE through ERSNA. The fine black rock along some of the fractures is called gouge. Fault gouge consists of small pieces of rock ground up when the fault moved. These faults and fractures make the granite look especially cruddy at this point.