Field Trip Stop 2:  Keane Wonder Springs

Part 1: Getting to the Spring

There are a number of springs near the Keane Wonder Mine.  But the one we visited was special from a geolocal as well as a biological perpective.  It was also the main spring, tapped for use by the Keane Wonder Mine.

The history of the Keane Wonder Mine is charmingly and quickly told on this website (click to go there), the gist of which is that it produced over a million dollars' worth of gold in the early twentieth century, but went through several owners and overseers before actually turning productive, and the vein was mined out rapidly.  A cable tram brough ore down and water up, and the water (the lack of supply of which limited operations in summer) came from the Keane Wonder Spring by pipeline.

We will follow that pipeline to the spring, where some interesting geochemistry and biology is to be found.

But first we need to get our bearings and look at a map and see that the springs are from a location where a mountain meets the debris slope on its flank (bajada):

So here is the mine's cable tram system, what remains of it, that brought ore to the mill and water to the ore, a water tank is also shown:

As we start out to follow the pipeline, we see some volcanic mountains in the distance that have allegedly broken free from their roots and migrated downhill (detachment faults underlie them, obviously, and they were moved over unimaginably long times by seismic forces moving and shaking the area):

We follow the pipeline to the spring:

We follow the pipeline by following that nice trail shown in the above photo:

Did you see that cactus in the lower right corner of the above photo?  Here, have a better look:

While following the trail that follows the pipeline, we also looked right and left at other features, of course.  Here we look southwest and see a drainage pathway in the foreground and Telescope Peak with its snow, part of the Panamint Range, in the background:

The pipe keeps on moving up and over in this colorful rock domain:

We dip into and out of several flow channels with significant calcite deposition:

This flow channel also deserved a second look for its rock contrasts:

This channel seemed to be draining a greater area, perhaps, with more frequent flows, perhaps.  Here calcite/caliche deposits were absent, quite curious and different. We are looking west, the Death Valley sand dunes are just barely visible above medium-distance ridge directly up from the yellow rock:

To get to the spring takes a wee bit of climbing (my policy is: no identifiable people in my pictures, I think these fellow tour-ists are about as unidentifiable as they come):

Finally, once over that high point in the above photo, the spring is where that clump of vegetation sits:

                                Go to Part 2 of this SECOND STOP  (Archean life forms!)

                                Go to Part 3 of this SECOND STOP  (cactus flowers and a tiny waterfall)

            Go to THIRD STOP: Monarch Canyon and Spring (in 3 parts)

            Go to FOURTH STOP: Some interesting volcanic rocks near Scotty's Castle

             Go back to stop 1

            Go back to 2006 Yearbook page (Item 13 has other Death Valley photo pages)

          Go back to ThoughtsandPlaces.org home page