Field Trip Stop 2: Keane Wonder Springs
Part 3: Following the Spring's Water
As we move downstream away from those primitive (and very rare!) life forms, the water flows downhill: no surprise, but it looks nice with many different rock types and a bit of vegetation giving its flow path a colorful setting:
Note that the flow path seems to disappear after the cliff:
A few paces back upstream, the flow path had split (again, but the photo of the bifurcation was taken by a shaky photographer and could not be corrected). The southernmost branch of the tiny stream approaches another location on the same cliff, one more readily accessible:
Note the stromatolites in the above photo, once again, but also note the grasslands below the cliff. We will take a look at the waterfall (Use your imagination to see the thin trickles of water falling):
And when we turn around and look downstream again we see that apparently the water chemistry has moderated after this fall, since now it supports other types of vegetation (the same vegetation type already seen on a previous page for yet another branch of the spring's outflow):
I would love to have gone downstream to catch the second small waterfall down the next lower terrace of this cliff system, but I looked up and saw I was all alone: the group was moving back to the cars, way in the distance already. So no more photos, hustle out after them!
Of course for me 'no more photos' is a bit hard to achieve, and I loved this feisty flowery plant (Jimson weed?) in one of the drainages I used as a shortcut (it wasn't)
And I really really couldn't resist this cactus, and couldn't resist the little creature happily buzzing around inside its flower:
But that is it for this second stop, really!
Go to THIRD STOP: Monarch Canyon and Springs (in 3 parts)
Go to FOURTH STOP: Some interesting volcanic rocks near Scotty's Castle
Go back to 2006 Yearbook page (Item 13 has other Death Valley photo pages)
Go back to ThoughtsandPlaces.org home page
Go back to STOP ONE