A view of Laurel Lake. ---- This magnificent pillar of rock rises over South Mountain and provides an exceptional view of Mountain Creek Valley and the surrounding highlands. Pole Steeple is a hard, light-gray quartzite (Montalto Member of the Harpers Formation, Cambrian age). Less resistant rocks in the valley to the north around Laurel Forge Pond are metarhyolite and dolomite. These two rock types were faulted upward against the quartzite, and, because they erode more rapidly than the quartzite, they now occupy a lower topographic position.