STEWART VALLEY and BACK TO PAHRUMP

The mountains that define the Pahrump Valley's western boundary separate it from the Amargosa Valley (where Ash Meadows is) and also the Stewart Valley, where there are some homes (it is becoming a Pahrump suburb, perhaps).  The homes are in the ash and mesquite of the eastern boundary of the valley where a fault splay from the Pahrump Valley Fault brings water to the surface which then feeds vegetation and a large playa which dominates the western portion of the valley.

From the highway between Death Valley Junction and Pahrump (that you also take to get to Ash Meadows from Pahrump), this is what the valley looks like-- a sizable dry lake with a rind of vegetation at its eastern boundary:

We will now go back and take the road into the valley, entering it on the right in the above pictures:

Moving a little farther into this valley, and looking again at the rather colorful mountain on the east boundary in the above photo, we see an upturned chunk of limestone that, over 300-million years ago, was laid down in horizontal layers in a shallow sea.

Turning to the right, southwestward, we see the ring of trees and the dry lake again.  This area experiences near-surface seepage on a broader scale than what in Ash Meadows occurs in a series of very localized springs and seeps.  Seems somewhat consistent with the idea that a minor extension of the fault underlying this seepage area, just a few miles to the north of this area, feeds the Ash Meadows springs and seeps.

From here, since the sun is setting, we are heading home!  Home for me is on the other side of the Spring Range which divides the Las Vegas Valley from the Pahrump Valley.  This picture reminds us of the trip we have just taken, from the heights of the flanks of Mount Charleston to the depths of the Devils Hole!

The town in the foreground is Pahrump, a huge, sprawling place that covers quite a bit of one portion of the valley as this rather poor photo shows looking southeast.  The road to Las Vegas crosses the mountains at the low point to the right, going over a pass at just over 5,400 feet elevation.

That's all for this field trip.

1.    Carpenter Canyon, lower portion

2.    Carpenter Canyon, middle portion

3.    Carpenter Canyon, upper portion

4.    Devils Hole

5.    Ash Meadows, Crystal Springs and Lakes

6.    Ash Meadows, Point of Rocks

7.    Stewart Valley and back to Pahrump Valley (this page)


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