Destination 5:
2009 Devils Hole Workshop Field Trip
STOP ONE
This field trip was a celebration of work, almost completed, on finding and mapping the complex of faults the define how water moves under the Ash Meadows area (which we have visited previously for other purposes, such as looking at springs and streams, creating oases in the desert).
This is the map we were working from, note the "stops" for this field trip in green, 2, 3 and 4 are shown, 1 ia not. I made it to 1 and 2 and with family waiting for me I left before 3 and 4. So sorry!
The first stop was just off the road up from Death Valley Junction, California. This is looking southeast toward Mount Charleston from that stop:
What was to be seen here was a valley shaped by faulting rather than by water action, with little fault- splays pulling material away from the walls (the particular fault associated with this little valley was just below the bush in the foreground):
In the distance where those rock masses pop up is where the main (watery) part of Ash Meadows is.
The reason I did not make it to stops 3 or 4 was because the party was large and took much more time to reach destinations.
It helped, perhaps, that there was this reminder that straggling has its risks:
The walk from the destination points to the cars was rather long, especially for stop 1 (cars are in the distance):
The rise in the above photo descends again at Stewart Valley. I used to believe that the Pahrump Fault, which does seem to conduct water from the Pahrump Valley into Stewart Valley, also delivered it into the Ash Meadows area.
The gentlemen whose research was the objective of this field trip disagreed, however. They say they have found some impermeable limestone beds between here and the Stewart Valley, and there is little, if any, throughflow.
So there you have it! I was wrong.
Stop 1 was not without its flowers:
But it is time to move on to stop 2 where there were more flowers.
IF you followed these destinations in the order I gave them, you are done. Of course you are always welcome to revisit any of these five destinations. Here are links to go back to the other four:
1. We took a walk on a salt flat just for fun.
2. We took a drive through Titus Canyon just for fun, but I was the only one having any fun.
3. We visited Ubehebe Crater, a 2,000 year old volcano, the most recent one in the region!
4. Then we visited Scotties' Castle.
Go Back to ThoughtsandPlaces.Org Home Page
Go to Stop Two