How does Owl's Head in White Mountains look like an actual owl's head?

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alxga

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Hi, all

I've been trying to figure it out for a long time. I've been to the Owl's Head summit and even did a loop around it (the Pemi loop) to view the mountain from different angles. I cannot understand how the mountain resembles an owl's head. I'd be happy to learn what features make it look like the said head :)
 

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The Owl's Head is a rock outcropping on the Southeast side of the mountain. I perceived it as an owl's head only in winter, when snow fills in part of the rock, and the light is just so. Here's my pic from this past March, on a winter morning, taken at the Black Pond. From here, it's like you're looking into the face of the owl, perhaps a fierce owl:

Owls Head from Black Pond March 2023.jpg

The summit is to the left and out of the frame. The coordinates of this rocky point are: 44.12939, -71.59364.

I was once told that from the Franconia Ridge, the entire ridge line of Owl's Head looks like the head of an owl. It's an exaggerated stretched-out depiction of an owl, and some imagination helps to see it—I see it! This may not be the best angle, but I think you can make out a long curved head with two pointy ears at each far end. My photo from this August on Mt Lafayette:

Owls Head from Lafayette August 2023.jpg
 
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I would tend to support that the Owls Head Cliff on the south end at one time reminded someone of an Owls Head from some vantage point. JE Henry moved into the area to log it from the East Branch from the south so expect if it was not named previously, it would have gotten a name as the cliff and presumable profile would be very apparent. Keep in mind, slides, slide so it may have changed over the years. The OJI slides at BSP at one point soon after the slides formed distinctly looked like the letters OJI (from old photos) but subsequent slides, obscured the letters.
 
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I can definitely see it in the winter photo of the cliff at the south end, but I fail to see it in any of the photos showing the whole mountain. All good photos though.
 
The Arrow Slide on North Hancock is another that is fading into obscurity
 
Thanks, all! Yes, I think the first photo does resemble an owl's head lol. That's an interesting angle. I'm assuming this would be the area in the red circle in my photo but maybe I'm wrong. Looks like it takes a lot of zoom as well to actually see it. The photo is taken from 44.106185, -71.581803.

20230604_140528.jpg

As for the ridge pic, it takes too much imagination for me to see it there. It only has the two raised points on each edge for ears - I can see those but not anything else to make it an owl :)
 
Thanks, all! Yes, I think the first photo does resemble an owl's head lol. That's an interesting angle. I'm assuming this would be the area in the red circle in my photo but maybe I'm wrong. Looks like it takes a lot of zoom as well to actually see it. The photo is taken from 44.106185, -71.581803.

View attachment 7250

As for the ridge pic, it takes too much imagination for me to see it there. It only has the two raised points on each edge for o ears - I can see those but not anything else to make it an owl :)
I for one really have to strain to pretend there's an Owl in there somewhere. All I know is that when I'm at Black Pond and look north I know that some refer to that cliff area as Owls Head.
 
Thanks, all! Yes, I think the first photo does resemble an owl's head lol. That's an interesting angle. I'm assuming this would be the area in the red circle in my photo but maybe I'm wrong. Looks like it takes a lot of zoom as well to actually see it. The photo is taken from 44.106185, -71.581803.

....

That's it, in your red circle. I also have some photos that have the owls head in the trees like that. So, my pic where you can see the cliff is from a slightly different spot.
 
I can just make it out, the outline of the top of an owl's head, in the summit ridge:

owls head with line.jpg

It's like a cartoon drawing:
collection-of-owl-cartoon-character-vector.jpg

Kind of like seeing characters in the cliffs, or the clouds.

Actually, I do feel that the owl is really in the rock outcropping (as shown in my other photo above, in post #2).
 
I can just make it out, the outline of the top of an owl's head, in the summit ridge:

View attachment 7253

It's like a cartoon drawing:
View attachment 7252

Kind of like seeing characters in the cliffs, or the clouds.

Actually, I do feel that the owl is really in the rock outcropping (as shown in my other photo above, in post #2).
Thx for the crayola 64. In all seriousness, I didn’t see it until your drawing. That said, seems like a tremendous stretch to me!
 
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